Nordic American Voices Nordic Heritage Museum Interview of Pirkko Borland October 25, 2014 Seattle, Washington Interviewers: Gordon Strand; Marjorie Graf Gordon Strand: [0:01] Today is October 25, 2014. We are at the Nordic Heritage Museum, and we will be interviewing Pirkko Borland. My name is Gordon Strand, and I am assisted here by Marjorie Graf. Marjorie Graf: [0:16] Marjorie Graf. Gordon: [0:17] And… Welcome, Pirkko. Pirkko Borland: [0:20] Thank you. Gordon: [0:21] And would you start by giving us your name, date of birth, where you were born, and then give us your life story. Pirkko: [0:29] Okay, well that’s a tall order. Gordon: [0:31] Yeah. Pirkko: [0:31] I’m… Gordon: [0:32] Hold on. Marjorie: [0:33] I’m not sure that microphone is on. Nordic American Voices Page 1 of 24 Gordon: [0:38] We were having… Talk. Pirkko: [0:41] Okay. My name is Pirkko Borland. I was born June 10, 1944 in Joutsa, Finland. Marjorie: [0:49] I don’t think it’s going in there. Gordon: [0:51] Okay. Pirkko: [0:53] Do you want me to start all over again? Gordon: [0:55] Yeah. Pirkko: [0:56] Okay. Well, my name is Pirkko Borland. I was born June 10, 1944 in Joutsa, Finland. Actually, the timing of my birth was at the worst time of the Finnish war history. By ’44… The Continuation War had lasted from 1941, the summer, and Russia, despite all of its attempts had not been able to conquer Finland. In June of ’44, Stalin made his last attempt to get Finland before he had to rush to Berlin and to join the other Allies after the D-Day. [1:44] The attack was very one-sided from the very beginning. It started on the ninth of June, and there were about six Russian soldiers to one Finnish soldier. And the force was such that Finns just could not resist, and the border of the front collapsed very fast, and absolute pandemonium reigned on the Karelian Isthmus where the attack started. [2:16] My mother was in labor on the ninth, and on the tenth I was born. The very disastrous situation on the front continued for most of the month of June. And the Finnish troops were retreating very, very fast. At the same time, the people living in that area were all just trying to get west, whichever way they had. Gordon: [2:51] So they were vacating their homes. Pirkko: [2:54] They were vacating their homes, and they had to do it very fast, because the biggest city in the Karelian area, Viipuri, collapsed in a matter of days. So all the people from those cities Nordic American Voices Page 2 of 24 were going west- bicycling, walking, trains- if they could arrange those- somewhere where it would be a little bit safer. [3:17] So my mother gave birth to me on the tenth, and at the same time, all these evacuees are already headed somewhere west. And a little while later two Karelian families were settled on the farm. There already were war prisoners- Russian war prisoners- doing farm labor, because all the able-bodied men were at war. [3:44] In that very chaotic period, communications between the home front and the war front got disrupted, of course. And when there is no real communication, rumors start flowing. And then my mother got the rumor that my father had perished in that attack, and she had to go through several weeks… Gordon: [4:12] So he’s on the war front? He’s in the Karelian area, correct? Pirkko: [4:16] He’s in the Karelian Isthmus, and there’s no communication from him, which is understandable afterwards when you look at how chaotic the situation was. But then eventually the word came back that at least he was alive. Finally, as the situation on the front calmed down in July, after Finns had received some help from Germany, and getting more air support and more arms, plans were made for my father to get a leave in early August and come home for my baptism. [5:03] And my mother knew the day he was supposed to come, and he was supposed to take a train to as close as a train gets to my little hometown, and then take a bus from there. But the connections did not meet. The train was delayed, so my father ended up about thirty-five miles from home with no bus to take him to his farm. [5:32] But fortunately my aunt lived in that town, and my father went there, called home, saying, “I’m here. I’m starting to pedal.” He borrowed a bike and started pedaling, which is not an easy task- thirty-five miles- anytime, but those were unpaved roads, and obviously not maintained very well during the war years. [5:54] So the old pastor and his wife, who had come to the farm earlier in the day to perform the Nordic American Voices Page 3 of 24 baptism were there, and my mother had to go and say, “I’m sorry, but the child’s father will not be here for many, many hours because of the situation.” And the old pastor says, “We’re not going to baptize the child until the father gets here. We will wait.” [6:20] And they waited, and eventually my father came, and I was baptized. And I’m not one hundred percent sure, but it seems like I have heard that after that, my father did not go back to war. Things were calmer on the front, and if it was at all possible, they tried to give farmers some time to help with the harvest and make sure the country had some food. But I’m not one hundred percent sure of that. But in any case, then, of course, in September there was a separate peace treaty with the… Gordon: [6:56] In September. Pirkko: [6:57] In September. So by that time, the president who had made the plea that gave us some German support, and given his promise that he or his cabinet would not sign a separate peace treaty. Risto Ryti- he had already resigned, because he knew that that’s what he had to do in order for Finns to proceed with the peace treaty. [7:25] And little by little, things started getting more normal. The two Karelian families who were on the farm soon after my birth, found places where they were then settled. With one of those families, my parents actually became friends, and I remember them visiting this family who had stayed on the farm years later in the place where they then were living. [8:02] The people from the farm who had been at war came back. One of the hired men on the farm came back blind in one eye and with a limp. And eventually he found other work because farm work was not very easy for him anymore. [8:23] In addition to manpower, the farm had also given up a car. It was unusual that we had a car, but the brothers who had then owned the farm did have a car. The car came back presumably in one piece, although from my father’s letters to my mother in the fall of ’42, we know that they had first given up the tires, and then they came back to get the rest of the car. [Laughter] But it presumably came back in one piece. Nordic American Voices Page 4 of 24 [8:55] There was also a workhorse that was given to the war effort- Yellow. I still remember Yellow. And my father one day gets a call saying that the horses are now being returned, and Yellow is in town. So that time, too, he got on his bike and pedaled to town. It’s about seven miles. And he led Yellow to the place where to the road to the farm branches off the main road. [9:32] At that point, my father let the horse loose and said, “Yellow, I think you know the way home now.” And of course the horse just took off like he was shot by a cannon. My father followed, and by the time he got to the farm, Yellow was standing in front of the horse barn door. The door was closed so he couldn’t get any closer. So my father opens the door. Yellow walks in and goes into the stall that was his stall before the war. [10:02] Unfortunately during the war a younger horse had been moved to that stall, but that didn’t keep Yellow from going in. And my father follows and says to the other horse- he says, “I’m sorry, but I have to move you. Yellow has come back from the war. He deserves his own stall back.” [10:24] So little by little, things started getting normal. I don’t have personal recollections of any of these. These are stories that I have heard from my parents and other people who lived on the farm at that time. I personally remember the fact that there was nothing as far as material goods. I mean, obviously we had food because we were on a farm, so we didn’t go hungry. But as far as clothing, or shoes, or anything like that, that was very hard to come by.