Jaak Rakfeldt

The Mass Flight: Trauma, Coping, and Resilience

This video clip is an English-language version of a speech that the Connecticut

Estonian Society (CES) Chairman Jaak Rakfeldt, Ph.D., gave on September 19 th at the

Estonian Parliament in Tallinn. Through the lens of his own family’s experience, Dr.

Rakfeldt describes the trauma, coping, and resilience of those forced to flee Estonia.

He strongly urged the members of Parliament to create a day of remembrance for the

80,000 Estonians who fled from the brutal Soviet onslaught and occupation in the fall of

1944.