Alfred Käärmann

Alfred Käärmann (September 14, 1922 in Hargla – February 4, 2010) was an Estonian resistance fighter, also known as a forest brother, as the Estonians call their guerrillas, and author. In 2007 he was decorated with a military honour in recognition of his service. According to The New York Times, Alfred Käärmann's life is "a monument to man's astounding ability to endure the unbearable."

Life Alfred Käärmann wrote many books about his life as a resistance fighter. Udumäe kodutütar (The Girl Guide of Udumäe) is about his relationship with his beloved Kleina.

In 1941 he enrolled in a local technical school, where he met and fell in love with a girl named Kleina. Volunteering to fight in the Waffen-SS for the Nazis in February 1944, Käärmann was among those who fought the Red Army until Estonia was occupied by the Soviets seven months later. At the end of the war, the Soviets conducted extensive sweeps to arrest and deport the many Estonians who had served in the German Waffen-ss. Wanting to avoid the fate of his brother, who was arrested and sent to Russia's most dreaded Arctic prison camp near Vorkuta, Käärmann returned home to his family farm on October 4, 1944.