How Wehrmacht and SS soldiers became famous Soviet actors
Some had to go through the camps first; others managed to hide their murky past.
People’s Artist of the Estonian SSR
Kaljo Kiisk in 'Death under sail'.
Ada Neretniece/Riga Film Studio, 1976
In 1944, 19-year-old Estonian Kaljo Kiisk was mobilized into the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian). After completing three months of training at the SS Heidelager military training base in Poland, he was sent to the Tannenberg defensive line in eastern Estonia, where that summer saw a series of bloody battles against the advancing Red Army.