Eduard was forced to join 30,000+ other Estonian males in the illegal mobilization of Estonian men by the Soviet Union. Instead of being sent to fight at the front, the men were transported to distant Soviet labout camps. Over 1/3 of these men died in the camps. Eduard survived and escaped across the front lines and rejoined his family in 1943. He and his family arrived in Sweden as refugees in 1944 and later immigrated to Canada. He is the subject of a documentary film: GULAG 113.