KP. How did you come across the idea to make The Story of The Baltic University?
HM. My father died at a young age— he had just become 41. When my mother passed away I inherited his papers. Among these was his little study book of the Baltic University. I had never heard about this institute and wondered what kind of institute this had been. I asked around. I corresponded with Estonians of my father’s generation and one of them sent me a text written by Robert Riggle. Mr. Riggle worked for UNRRA in 1945, in Hamburg, in the British zone. Mr. Riggle was truly amazed, if not to say perhaps shocked, that refugees who had lost everything, were not only thinking of creating a university, but actually were doing this. One of the Estonian former students I was in contact with, Reinhold Martin, to whom I had mentioned I was doing something with this subject, encouraged me to look for other students. And I just thought: why not? I placed advertisements in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian newspapers and to my own surprise I received very enthusiastic responses. That made me decide that one way or another I would make a documentary about the Baltic University.
KP. How does this film figure into your biography as a storyteller and documentary maker? How have you evolved as a filmmaker?
HM. As with the other documentaries I made I wanted to tell and show a story which was not really known to a wider audience and a story which is in my view important to tell. The story of the Baltic University is a sad one, as it is about refugees who lost everything, but it is optimistic as it shows what can be done, what goals can be reached in difficult circumstances if you work together. If you think about this idea, of starting a university in a totally ruined city, you would say: it was not possible. But the academics of the Baltic countries made the impossible possible. The refugee camps were depressing and for young people there was little chance to get a place at a German university. For a lot of the students of the Baltic countries the Baltic University was their only chance to start or continue their studies. It gave students a future.
KP. Do you see a connection between how other European countries respond to the Baltic states?
HM. There was the Atlantic Charter of 1941. Great principles were written down, one of them being: “territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned” and “all people have a right to self-determination.” You would think by reading this that the United Kingdom and the United States, which had made drafts for these statements, would fight for the independence of the Baltic countries. The Baltic University was in the end dependent on individuals willing to fight for their cause. Countries had a moral obligation to give support but were later unwilling to help any more. Winston Churchill was afraid for the safety of Great Britain and decided that the Baltic countries were a different case. The declaration was not to be applied to the Baltic
