WEBVTT

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(lively percussion music)

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- We saw planes flying low and

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tanks blowing up at the distance.

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(intense brass music)

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I do remember that stream of refugees.

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There were Russians.

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There were Ukrainians.

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There were Belarusians.

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They were fleeing from Stalin's regime.

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^Well, we left Latvia three days

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^before the Red Army marched in on October 10, 1944.

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(sentimental piano music)

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It was a very difficult decision because we had

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no idea what was going on in the world.

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My Dad had been trying to listen to BBC, the broadcasts.

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In fact, his life was in danger if he was caught doing that,

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and trying to get a sense of what

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was happening worldwide because, of course,

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on the radio here, it was all German propaganda.

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To Siberia or beyond.

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I know several people who traveled for a month

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and were taken to the far north

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and the far east of the Soviet Union.

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Men particularly were taken beyond the Polish circle,

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where they did not survive for long.

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They were taken to either gold mines

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or salt mines or coal mines, again,

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mostly in the very far north and given starvation rations.

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But anybody who had been linked to government

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or anybody who had been an army officer

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and who had been arrested, they all got shot in 1942.

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(dramatic orchestral music)

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Canada sounded attractive, but Canada did

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not take families with small children.

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Canada only wanted strong, single men

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for either lumber industry in the north,

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for mines or for weeding beet fields in Saskatchewan,

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and women who would be able to

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work as housekeepers or maids.

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It changed later, but at that time

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in '49, we wanted to come to Canada.

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We wound up in Morocco instead.

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(regal orchestral music)

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And somebody says, "Hello, is this Dr. Freiberga?"

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"Yes."

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"This is the Prime Minister of Latvia calling."

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"Oh, how do you do?"

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"We have just had a cabinet meeting

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"in which we have decided to found

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"a Latvian institute and we need a person

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"with the knowledge of Western mentality."

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(contemplative percussion and synth music)

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(helicopter whirring)

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For me, personally, it was a big thrill

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that it was Canada of all the other possibilities

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who was taking the responsibility.

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It underlines that NATO is a transatlantic alliance.

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I love that aspect of it.

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We are not arming for a war.

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We are hoping there will never be a war

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and it won't be necessary, but it is sending a signal

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because we have seen the invasion of sovereign countries

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by the armed troops already in Georgia and in Ukraine.

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There are two precedents, not just one,

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and we would not like this trend to continue.

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Does anybody in Russia seriously feel threatened

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and encircled by armies of the size of that of Estonia,

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with its 1.5 million inhabitants, and Latvia,

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with barely two million at the moment in country.

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I mean, does it make any kind of sense

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to pull out that sort of rhetoric

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when you on the other side have your best paratroopers,

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the latest equipment and hundreds

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of thousands of troops massed.

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Who is encircling whom?

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I'd like to know.

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(sentimental piano music)

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This building was the center for the

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secret police at the time of the first occupation in 1940.

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It was called the House on a Corner,

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and so many people who were simply taken.

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People sometimes were picked off

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the street and just brought here.

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I mean, you didn't always get a notice

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saying you are asked to present yourself at this building.

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More often than not, either they were woken up

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in the middle of the night or picked off the street

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and just brought here, tortured in the basements,

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and also there's a place for executions.

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(dramatic orchestral music)

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Well, he says, "I told my friends

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"at school that my name is Bob,"

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because his second name is Robert.

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He says, "I am Bob, not Karlis, but Bob."

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And one day, he hears his mother answer the telephone

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and saying, "Whom would you like to speak to, Bob?

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"There's no Bob here." (laughs)

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And then he had to decide and he decided

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he would stay Karlis after all.