The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/406282
48 Fall 2014 news from HIGGINS HOUSE C annons were fring on all sides as Lembit (Hans) Laasberg and his wife, Irene, fed their native Esto- nia in 1943 in a small boat at night during World War II. Estonia was frst occupied in 1940 and illegally annexed by the Soviet Union as a result of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Russia and Germany. When World War II broke out and the Russians were defeated, this small Baltic country was soon occupied by Nazi Germany, and it was then that Laasberg and his wife found themselves in a boat, caught in the crossfre as the two sides fought a sea battle that lit up the night. For a short time in 1941, while still under the frst Russian occupation before the Ger- mans arrived, Laasberg had been part of a resistance movement against the Russians called the "Forest Brothers." He had just completed his frst year in agriculture and biology at the University of Tartu. Now to es- cape, the couple deliberately steered the boat into the shallows, which was flled with landmines that the keel of their boat was too short to detonate. With that strategy, they evaded the larger ships from both A Worcester Patriot