Journal Of the

American Historical Society of Germans From Russia

Vol. 7, No. 3 Fall 1984

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REDACTIONS: THE EDITOR'S PAGE ....................................………………………………….......... i

THE RETURN Timothy J. Kloberdanz ................................................…………………………………………..... ii

LAST GLIMPSES OF HOME: A TRIP TO THE FORMER VOLGA GERMAN VILLAGE

Rosalinda A. Kloberdam .......................................……………………………………………............... 1

THE FATE OF THE VOLGA GERMANS IN BRAZIL Matthias Hagin, translated by Adam Giesinger ........................……………………………........... 9

A WALL PLAQUE WITH A HISTORY Esther Hiebert Ebel ...............................................………………………………………….......... 14

FOLKLORE FORUM: MENNONITE TRADITIONS FROM KANSAS: MEDICAL AND DENTAL SERVICES; COURTING AND WEDDINGS

Solomon L. Loewen .................................................…………………………………………........ 15

WE SING OUR HISTORY Lawrence A. Weigel .................................................………………………………………………....... 24

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PETER SINNER Translated by Adam Giesinger .................................…………………………………………............. 26

IN THE WAKE OF THE GERMAN ARMY ON THE EASTERN FRONT 1941-1942

Reports by Karl Stumpp, translated by Adam Giesinger .......……………………………................. 33

BOOK REVIEW: ABRAM J. LOEWEN, . IMMER WEITER NACH OSTEN

Reviewed by Harry Loewen .............................……………………………………………................... 38

On the cover: Catholic churchgoers emerging from their meeting-house in Frank, Volga region, after a religious service in July 1983. (Photo courtesy of Frau Theresia Daehn of Hofgeismar, West Germany, obtained for AHSGR by Timothy and Rosalinda Kloberdanz).

Published by

American Historical Society of Germans form Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199

Editor: Adam Giesinger © Copyright 1984 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved.

REDACTIONS: THE EDITOR'S PAGE

Those of our readers who attended the AHSGR convention in Regina this summer will remember the very interesting slide presentation given by Rosalinda Kloberdanz during the program of Ancestral Village Night. It described a 1983 visit to the Volga region, after a 52-year absence, by Frau Theresia Daehn, a former resident of the Catholic village of Rothammel now living in Germany. Frau Daehn visited the former German villages of Frank, Rothammel and Hussenbach, and found many Germans again living there, among them some of her own relatives. She took many pictures, some of which we are publishing in this issue, with an introduction by Mrs. Kloberdanz. The complete set, in slide form, is available for chapter use from AHSGR headquarters.

Another Volga German living in Germany, Dr. Matthias Hagin, a native of Dehler on the Wiesenseite, known to many of us through his visits among us, travelled to Brazil last year to visit the old Volga German settlements founded there in the 1870s. Unlike most of the other Volga German immigrants who came to the Americas, those who went to Brazil did not prosper. Dr. Hagin describes the present condition of their old settlements in "The Fate of the Volga Germans in Brazil".

Peter Sinner, in the last part of his "Autobiography", which appears in this issue, describes his life as a University student and then as a teacher in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) from 1906 to 1919. His experiences during the war and the revolution are especially interesting. Drafted into the Red army in 1919 he had himself transferred to the Volga army, fighting against Denikin, and brought his family to Saratov, away from the famine-wracked capital city. Discharged from the army in 1920, he settled down to teaching and newspaper writing in Saratov, where he remained till 1927, when he returned to Leningrad. He had some harrowing personal experiences during the Volga famine of 1921, while working in an official capacity in the relief efforts. Throughout the period 1906 to 1927, in spite of all obstacles, he did much historical research and wrote many articles for newspapers and periodicals in Russia, Germany and the United States. His own list of these is given following his autobiography. Some of them are available to us in our AHSGR library and elsewhere.

Dr. Stumpp's reports in this issue deal with his visit in September-October 1941 to the Kronau and Zagradovka colonies on the Inguletz river and to the Beresan, Liebental, Kutschurgan and Gluckstal colonies in the province of Odessa. There is much interesting information about the situation in these villages as it was immediately after the German occupation of this part of Russia.

An old friend of ours, Solomon Loewen of Hillsboro, Kansas, takes us back to the 1870s and 1880s, the early years of the Mennonites in Kansas, and describes two interesting aspects of their pioneer life: their folk medicine and their wedding customs. In an era when trained physicians were few and far between, the Mennonites relied on practitioners of folk medicine, who had little or no medical training but possessed surprising natural skills and an extensive knowledge of traditional practices in the healing arts. The careers of some of these, including Solomon's own father, are described in some detail. In a second article, on wedding customs, Mr. Loewen describes events connected with the weddings of his parents and siblings.

A number of other, briefer items fill out this issue of the Journal.

[signed] Adam Giesinger i

THE RETURN Timothy J, Kloberdanz

The old ones bom in Russia called Theresia a dreamer for vowing she would visit her Volga Heimatdorf.

Even if she could stand upon the colony's black soil again they claimed there would be only the sky and steppe to see.

Yet what if Theresia spotted a curled shoe amid the ruins, might so simple a thing evoke the boxcars rumbling east?

And what if she heard singing where once the church had been, would she be frightened or say it was just the way of the wind?

In late summer a letter came saying Theresia had returned! The old ones pondered it and fell silent as they read.

"Da stehen nur nock drei Haeuser, sonst ist alles kaputt, Es wachst nur nock Unkraut ueberall. Es ist sehr traurig aber wahr."

(Only three houses still stand, everything else is gone. Weeds are growing everywhere. It is very sad but true.)

Was it fate or coincidence that of the three structures remaining in the village one was Theresia's own?

At the boarded-up house that was her place of birth, the visitor blinked hard and kissed the weathered wood.

Flanked by kerchiefed women, she lingered there at length. Theresia, who dreamt of home, had found the Wailing Wall.

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"LAST GLIMPSES OF HOME": A TRIP TO THE FORMER VOLGA GERMAN VILLAGES, 1983*

Rosalinda A. Kloberdanz In July, 1983, the dream of a lifetime came true for one Volga German woman. After fifty-two

years, she was able to return briefly to her birthplace in Russia, to visit relatives and old friends, and even to set eyes upon the home in which she had been born. Frau Theresia Appelhans Daehn was born in the Volga German Catholic colony of Rothammel, Russia. In 1930, she and her family were deported to Siberia. Eventually, she went to Minsk, Russia, and presently lives in Hofgeismar, West Germany, with her second husband (her first husband died) and family.

While living in Germany, Frau Daehn dreamt many times that she had returned to her home on the Volga. Then she awoke and found that it wasn't true. So she decided to make her dream a reality. In March of 1983, she sent the necessary information to relatives who were living in the Volga area of Russia. They took steps to obtain a visa for Frau Daehn and her husband and son. Despite much red tape and many difficulties, the Daehns finally received their visas on June 30, 1983. On July 3rd they departed for their trip to the Volga Bergseite region where she took many slides and photographs.

Until only recently, this region of the Soviet Union was closed to all outsiders and, thus, the Daehns were among the first West German citizens to be permitted to make this particular trip into Russia. In all cases, it is necessary for relatives living in the Volga region of Russia to obtain the visa to travel; people from the West cannot obtain a visa on their own. Also, the travel to this region is very expensive and time-consuming. The Daehns spent a total of 150 hours in travel time alone making this arduous journey.

The accompanying pictures are only a few from a set of 55 slides which have been documented and reproduced by AHSGR. Although these slides may not be representative of all of the former German colonies on the Volga, they are extremely valuable in that they give us some idea of what remains in this little-known region of the U.S.S.R. Included are pictures of the three former Volga German colonies that the Daehns visited: Rothammel, Frank, and Hussenbach, Russia. Photographs of relatives, houses, and the countryside were taken. Highlighting the journey was Frau Daehn's return to the home of her birth, which is still standing, although it is no longer occupied. It is one of only three of the original 350 houses that remain in her native village of Rothammel. Frau Daehn wrote:

I had always hoped to return once more to the place where my cradle stood. Now when I think of my home, my heart gets heavy. I hadn't imagined it would be this way. My aunt from Siberia went back to this same area twelve years ago. Then there were many more houses standing in the village. However, the people who were brought to the Volga and put into these homes had no fuel with which to heat. Thus, they started using wood from the very homes in which they were living in order to stay warm. As they began to dismantle the last room, they would simply leave and go to another home and do the same there. Literally, the houses were burned away from under their feet. No wonder then that entire German villages disappeared from the face of the earth. The colonies of Seewald and Kautz, for example, no longer exist. There is nothing left. And, this village (Rothammel) is next in line to be done away with. The Soviet officials are finding it too expensive to maintain. As early as the fall of 1984, the people may be relocated to what was once Dietel. Today, the German villagers on the Volga get land from the collective. They are allowed to own 1-4

cows, as well as a few pigs and smaller animals. They have electric lights, radio, and television and they cook and heat with gas—a great stride forward for the villagers. Bread is plentiful, but fodder is expensive and hard to come by, thus the animals are fed mostly bread. Basic necessities are not always available, but the people are incredibly patient and uncomplaining. According to Frau Daehn, to be in their old Volga homeland is enough for them. They don't ask for more. -------------------------------- • This article is a much condensed version of a slide presentation given by Mrs. Kloberdanz during "Ancestral Village

Night" at the recent AHSGR convention in Regina, Saskatchewan. The slides that were shown are now available for chapter use from AHSGR. A detailed written description of the scenes accompanies the slide set. Frau Theresia Daehn generously allowed AHSGR to make reproductions of all the slides and color photographs that she took during her stay on the Volga.

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Frau Daehn greeting relatives in the former village of Frank. After fifty-two years of separation, the happiness was overwhelming.

Enjoying a meal with relatives in Frank . The champagne flowed freely and the table was laden with food, including Grebbel, the ever popular Volga German pastry.

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The old schoolhouse in Frank as it looks today. It no serves a clothing factory. A new and larger schoolhouse has been built.

A modern Volga German house in Frank. On the right are the living quarters and on the left is the bake house – or summer kitchen. All the people in this area have a summer kitchen with attached banya (sauna).

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The house in Rothammel in which FrauDaehn was born. Upon her arrival shekissed every wall of the dwelling. Thehouse is falling apart and will probablysoon disappear. She took apiece of carveddecoration from it and also a handful ofsoil from the old homesite

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The old cemetery in .Rothammel, in which there are only two recent graves. Here Frau Daehn and her relatives gathered to pray.

Frau Daehn with husband and relatives in front of the former priest's house in Rothammel.

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Frau Daehn’s son is standing on the former site of the home of Martin Appelhans, Frau Daehn's deceased first husband. There is nothing left of the structure.

The house pictured here, the former home of Johannes Wohn, is the only one of the original 350 in Rothammel still occupied today. The curtains on the windows are faintly discernible. Note that the house has a TV antenna. Televisions are fairly widespread among the people.

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The Daehns with relatives in Hussenbach, Volga region.

A store in Hussenbach. The shelves are stocked with candy (Bonbons) and cookies, but also with vegetables and bread. An abacus can be seen on the counter at the far right.

A view of the Medveditza River near Hussenbach.

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A view of a modem Volga German bedroom. The runners and carpets are all handmade, as are the trunk and the dresser. The wall hanging is popular among both Germans and Russians.

A colorful "Herrgottseck" ("God's Corner"). Such a display of religious pictures and objects is a German Catholic folk custom and is still found in many Volga German homes today.

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THE FATE OF THE VOLGA GERMANS IN BRAZIL Matthias Hagin*

Translated by Adam Giesinger There is scarcely a country in North and South America in which there are no descendants of the

Germans who left Russia in the seventies of the nineteenth century to migrate to the New World. Their forebears, who came predominantly from Hesse, had left Germany in the middle sixties of the eighteenth century, responding to the call and invitation of the Empress Catherine II of Russia (manifesto of 22 July 1763), and had been settled on both sides of the lower Volga. There only the generation born on this stream succeeded in adjusting to the ice-cold winters and hot summers and bringing the dry steppe into subjection. By the seventies of the nineteenth century they had 192 important villages on the Volga and felt at home there.

Then the Russian government proceeded to abrogate the documented privileges of the manifesto of Catherine II. Especially disturbing for the colonists was the ending of the freedom from military service, the restriction of local government privileges, and the forced russification measures imposed on the German settlements. The manifesto had stated that "the foreigners who come to settle in Russia, during the whole period of their stay here, will not, apart from ordinary labor services, be drafted against their will into either the military or civil service.” That and much else was now no longer valid. Colonist sons were made subject to military service in 1874 and the first ones drafted in the fall of 1875. When several crop failures then followed one after the other, thousands of Russian Germans decided to leave the country. Russian chauvinists did not put any obstacles in the way of the emigration. "Away to America!" became the slogan and the village youth sang:

Jetzt ist die Zeit und Stunde da, The time and hour is now here Wir ziehen nach Amerika. When we depart for America. Der Wagen steht schon vor der Tuer. The wagon stands before our door. Mit Frau und Kindern ziehen wir. With wife and children we shall go. The destinations of the emigrants were: the U.S.A., Canada, Brazil and Argentina. All the Volga

Germans who left Russia at that time were farmers and wanted to remain farmers in the New World. They looked for soil suitable for wheat-growing, for wheat had been their main crop on the Volga. Such soil, they were told again and again, existed in abundance in Brazil. As a result there began in 1877 a mass emigration to Brazil, the land in which they were to be most bitterly disappointed.

In the year 1876 four scouts (usually only three are mentioned), under the leadership of Carl Hartmann, travelled to Rio de Janeiro on the Hamburg-Amerika line and were guests of the Brazilian government during their stay. Emperior Pedro II (1840-1889), whose mother was the Austrian Archduchess Leopoldine, daughter of the Emperor Francis I, showed great interest in the settlement of Volga German farmers who knew how to grow wheat. This grain was at that time still little known in Brazil. The scouts chose the land of the Kamp in the open highlands of the Brazilian federal state of Parana (in South Brazil), in spite of the fact that the emperor's officials who accompanied them recommended virgin forest land for settlement. The farmers from the Russian steppes had no experience in coping with forested land. That the soil in the highlands was acid and low in fertility and that only sorrel grasses and ferns thrived on it, they did not realize. With the promise that they would be permitted to settle on a high plateau then still largely unpopulated, and a number of other concessions by the imperial government of Brazil (above all the granting of the land as communal property as on the Volga, the founding of closed settlements separated according to religious faith, financial help for the building of houses and the acquisition of farm equipment, livestock and seed), the scouts returned to the Volga early in the year 1877. After their reports the enthusiasm for Brazil could hardly be exceeded.

The first large group of emigrants [going to Brazil] left Saratov on the Volga in August 1877 and arrived in the harbor of Paranagua in the Brazilian federal state of Parana on 22 September 1877. The stream of emigration that followed these lasted until 1879. At the same time Argentina also began to show an interest in immigrants. Argentine agents began to recruit away Volga emigrants who had already chosen Brazil and through "treachery" and "cunning" abducted whole groups of emigrants during the crossing of the ocean. The abduction to Argentina of the emigrants travelling -------------------------------------- *In Kulturpolitische Korrespondenz, 15 Mai 1984. Ostdeutscher Kulturrat, Bonn.

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The church in the Protestant Volga German settlement Quero Quero near Palmeira.

The church in the Catholic Volga German settlement The church in the former Catholic Volga Lago near Palmeira. German settlement Johannisdorf near Lapa.

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on the ships "Montevideo" and "Salier" in particular, provoked great excitement. The "Montevideo" left Hamburg on 6 December 1877 with 211 emigrants and traveled directly to Argentina, where it arrived in Buenos Aires on 7 January 1878; of the passengers, it has been authenticated, 76 wanted to go to Paranagua in Brazil. The "Salier" left Bremen on 8 December 1877 and arrived in Buenos Aires on 10 January 1878; on board were 835 emigrants, all of whom wanted to go to Brazil. The passengers on both ships had to stay in Argentina.

In spite of the recruiting away and the abduction, a large number of the Volga emigrants reached Brazil and founded more than 20 settlements in the region of the towns Palmeira, Ponta Grossa, and Lapa. When it was discovered, however, that the crops were poor here every year and that the soil was not suitable for wheat-growing — they had wanted land to grow wheat, but it grew only beans — they left Brazil again. The on-migration — the majority had arrived only in 1878 — began in small groups in 1879 and eventually became a general flight. The evangelical pastor, P, Hasenack, installed by the Brazilian government to serve the Volga Germans, reported in the periodical, "Der Deutsche Auswanderer" (The German Emigrant), that on his very first trip into the Volga German colonies he had seen in the Palmeira region two emigrant expeditions on the way out of Brazil. "They were sad processions, poverty and misery everywhere, many sick, both adults and children." Most of such groups went on to Argentina, a few to North America, some even back to the Volga. When Emperor Pedro II, in a journey through the federal state of Parana in 1880, visited the Volga German settlements, he found them in a state of dissolution. The imperial government's plan to settle a large area in that region with Volga German farmers had failed.

After Brazil was declared a republic in 1889, an additional misfortune struck the colonists still remaining in the settlements. They lost the communal land that had been granted to them by the imperial government. The Volga Germans considered this land a gift from the crown and the majority of them refused to buy it when the new government gave them the option of doing so. Thus many of the farmers became landless; all that was left to them was their house, farmyard and garden. Emigration from the colonies now began again. This time, however, they did not go abroad, but remained in Brazil. A large number of them moved into the forests of Impituva, Faxinal and Reboucas and turned to raising mate tea. In the course of time rich mate forests became the property of Volga Germans. Many others went to the cities, Palmeira, Ponta Grossa, Lapa, etc. There one finds today industrialists, hotel owners, academics and high officials among them.

In the colonies only those remained behind who were very attached to them or lacked the courage to seek their fortune elsewhere. On the land still remaining to them, they raised beans, corn, manioc and later also rye. (Profitable grain-growing was established only 75 years later by the Russian German Mennonites in the settlement of Witmarsum near Palmeira and by the Danube Swabians in the settlement of Entre Rios near Guarapuava, with the help of modern agricultural methods.) As the income, which the colonists then received from their meager landholdings, was very modest, many of them began to occupy themselves with transport work. Some of them also had to make their living as woodcutters or roadworkers outside of the settlements.

Today — 106 years after the immigration — of the 20 settlements originally established, only the following are still inhabited: Mariental (cath). near Lapa, Papagaios Novos (evang.) and Lago (cath.) near Palmeira. In Lago there live, to be sure, not only Volga Germans but also people belonging to other ethnic groups. In the village Johannisdorf, near Lapa, founded by Volga German Catholics, there live now only three Volga German families, and in Pugaz, near Palmeira, also founded by Volga German Catholics, there are now only two such families. There were more Volga Germans in 1983 in Moema (Dona Gertrudes), near Ponta Grossa, founded by immigrants from the Volga, but here too the majority of the population now belongs to other ethnic groups, mainly Poles and Italians. Many more Volga Germans than in these rural settlements now live in the cities Palmeira, Ponta Grossa, Lapa, Curitiba, etc.

There are no statistics available regarding the number of Volga Germans in Brazil. In 1926 the clergy then serving in these colonies, Friedrich Wilhelm Brepohl and Wilhelm Fugmann, estimated the number of Volga Germans then, Protestant and Catholic, as totalling 5000 to 6000. In Palmeira we were told that 2000 Volga Germans now live in that city; in the settlement Mariental there are said to be 1000. The evangelical pastor in Impituva told us that about 500 Protestant Volga Germans live in his parish. Altogether the number of Volga Germans in Brazil today must be at least 17,000 to 18,000. As a result of the disagreeable experiences they had during the second world war and for a long time thereafter — prohibition of the German language in the schools and humiliations of various kinds — many Volga Germans in the cities deny their origin. But in the cities particularly

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The church in the Catholic Volga German settlement Mariental near Lapa.

The parish priest in the Catholic Volga German settlement Mariental, Edwin Kaufmann, with Dr. and Mrs. Hagin.

The Hagins with Wilhelm Schmidt, 86 years old, of Lago, whose family came to Brazil from Graf on the Volga. He recalled many facts about the pioneer days of the Volga Germans in Brazil.

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Volga Germans often occupy important positions. We shall here rely on data supplied by the evangelical pastor of Impituva and give a few examples. A Scheldt and a Neuwirth are mayors; a female teacher named Hilgenberger is official inspector of all the schools in the city of Impituva;

Daniel Albach Tavares is Rector of the University of Ponta Grossa; a Stadtler is state secretary in the ministry of agriculture.

In the villages not all the young people speak German any more, but all the adults still do; in the cities also most of the adults still speak German, but very few of the youth do. If you address the people [in German], you receive no answer or they reply in the language of the country. It always takes a little while before they answer in their Volga German dialect. This dialect originated more than two hundred years ago in the Volga settlements founded by their forebears. The founders of such a settlement did not all come from a particular region of Germany, but from several regions, even from France, Holland and England. Thus there arose there a High German mixed dialect, a dialect therefore that is not spoken anywhere in Germany. Language researchers have shown, however, that the Volga German dialect resembles most the Hessian dialect. The Volga Germans overseas rarely have much mastery of Standard German.

Until the second world war the small Volga German ethnic group in Brazil had its own German schools. Although these were modest in their endeavors, they served to keep the German language alive and to pass on the cultural heritage of their fathers.

After the second world war — the prohibition of the German language had been too long — this group was not able to restore again German language instruction in their schools. They had become too weak economically. Their situation had been similar after the first world war, but they then received help from public and private sources in Germany, especially from the church, to enable them to maintain the German schools. Such help did not come after 1945 and has not come to this day.

Who does not, involuntarily, think about the not insignificant expenditure of the [German] federal republic for development aid and the advancement of the German language in many countries of the world? Strangely, the diplomatic service of the federal republic pays very little attention to the Volga Germans in Brazil. The reason for this we learned from the representative of the German foreign office in the Brazilian state of Parana, with whom we discussed the situation of this German ethnic group. He said it clearly and distinctly: "The Volga Germans in Brazil are assimilated." That they were faithful to German language and culture during more than two hundred years in foreign countries, that they still speak German, and finally that they still feel an attachment to Germany, the land of their forebears, is no longer of interest. The Volga Germans had become Brazilians by the end of the first world war and yet Germany helped them to re-introduce German instruction in their schools and German services in their churches. Judging by its present condition, this island of German speech will soon no longer exist.

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A WALL PLAQUE WITH A HISTORY

Esther Hiebert Ebel A German Bible verse composed of nine short words hangs in my apartment living room. The 12" x

16" wooden frame with carved beading appears as old as the brownish paper under those scroll decorated words. This meaningful work of art appears very comfortable hanging a few inches below the Head of Christ by Sallman.

From 1890, when my parents, John K. Hiebert and Sara Eitzen, were married, they lived with our Eitzen grandparents in the Abraham Eitzen three-story house, until 1917 when the last grandparent died. The bible verse hung in a prominent place in the groate stoave, the living room, of that house.

Recently at an Eitzen reunion, cousin Dan Eitzen asked me to repeat the story of it, as the pieces have been fitted together.

The story is about Abraham Eitzen and Susana Isaac, who were married on August 30, 1856 and settled in her parental village Blumstein, Molotschna, South Russia. In the early years of their married life, they and some others became deeply aware of the superficiality of the spiritual lives of many Mennonites of that time, who considered attendance at Sunday morning services as the fulfillment of their entire Christian obligation, which had little relation to their everyday activities. Heavy drinking was a popular pastime. One relative of the couple even operated a local tavern.

This group of seekers, through Bible study and prayer and the help of an evangelist, found new life in Christ Jesus. They became very fervent in their newly found faith. The church looked upon them as fanatics. Father Isaac was clearly out of sympathy with this new movement. He offered the couple the best farm in the village if they would abandon this "brethren" group. Should they stay with them, then the kinship between Father and Mother Isaac and their only daughter Susana and her husband would cease to exist.

No one knows how difficult it was for the young couple to make their decision. They remained firm. Their convictions would not be sold for a farm. They chose to remain with the Brethren. This was the group that formed the Mennonite Brethren Church in 1860.

The story has been passed down that Joshua 24:15; "Ich aber und mem Haus wollen dem Herrn dienen" (But I and my house will serve the Lord) became their religious motto then and remained so for the rest of their lives,

It is not known where or when this wall plaque was purchased, but the nine German words on it have been a major influence in the lives of all Abraham Eitzen descendants.

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FOLKLORE FORUM MENNONITE TRADITIONS FROM KANSAS

Solomon L. Loewen Introduction by Timothy J. Kloberdanz (AHSGR Folklore Chairman):

One of the richest areas of German-Russian folklore in the United States is the large Mennonite enclave around Hillsboro, Kansas. This issue's "Folklore Forum " is devoted to the traditions of folk medicine and of early-day weddings among this interesting group of central Kansas Mennonites . Both of the following contributions were sent in by AHSGR member, Solomon L. Loewen, of Hillsboro.

Dr. Loewen was born in 1898 near Hillsboro, Kansas. He taught biological science for fifty years at Sterling College and Tabor College, Kansas. -Recently he authored The History and Genealogy of the Jacob Loewen Family (1983).

Readers who wish to send in additional information or details about related beliefs and practices among other Germans from Russia are encouraged to do so.

MEDICAL AND DENTAL SERVICES IN EARLY MENNONITE COMMUNITIES The problems of health and survival were of utmost concern to the German colonists in Russia.

Medically trained personnel were rare and far between and often unavailable when needed by the burgeoning families in the far flung villages. Many "home remedies" came into use and self-made nurses, midwives and medical practitioners came into being. Epidemics of children's diseases would spread through the crowded homes and villages, decimating the colonies. Families generally were large, and often half or more of the children in a family would die from such diseases as whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever, diptheria, smallpox and other epidemic diseases. In my father's family of fourteen children, eight died in infancy or early childhood. This seemed to be almost a norm in the families at that time.

When the Germans came to America from Russia in the 1870s and 80s, this concern for the health of the families came with them. Vaccines were still not available at that time, although the one for smallpox came into use towards the end of that century. During the winter of 1880-1881 "twenty-four children died of diphtheria in Liberty township", which included the Ebenfeld and Gnadenau Mennonite settlements a few miles south of Hillsboro, Kansas.1 This included three of my cousins who died within one week (October, 1880) and were buried in one grave.2 A very severe epidemic of smallpox spread through the Hillsboro area in the winter of 1898-1899 when thirteen families were affected and quarantined. Forty persons contracted the disease which caused five deaths. The death rate could have been much higher but for the vaccination of all school children. All families with a case of smallpox were quarantined, schools were closed, church services were suspended and all public gatherings were prohibited.3

In addition to epidemics there were other health needs constantly present in the new American settlements. Accidents happened on farms, causing bruised bodies and broken bones that needed attention. Professionally trained doctors and dentists were not available in those early days. The first medical doctor in the city of Hillsboro, which was founded in 1879, was Dr. C. A. Flippins and his wife, who apparently was also a doctor. They were a black couple who had won a pauper practice for Risley township, one in which the city of Hillsboro is located. The county paid him $75 for his services which started in 1883. In 1887 Drs. C. A. and M. Belle Flippins and Owen Loveless, all of Hillsboro, Dr. J. P. Black of Peabody and Dr. J. J. Entz of Moundrige, Kansas, "filed a charter for the College of Midwifery". In 1888 the county reduced the pay to Dr. Flippins to $25; he then left and was replaced by Dr. C. E. Fulton. Dr. J. J. Entz, an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist, a German-Mennonite born in Russia, first settled in Moundridge, Kansas. In 1897 he came to Hillsboro and practiced until 1932. He was also a "manufacturing pharmacist", made "Dew Drop Tablets, a 'pleasant physic', antiheadache tablets and ointments”. He also made Blackberry Balsam, a cure for "stomach pains, cholera, diarrhea and summer complaint".4 The first dentist to practice in Hillsboro was Dr. L W. Dills who came in 1892 after graduating from Kansas City College of Dentistry.5 He was my first dentist.

Before these medical and dental practitioners settled in Hillsboro, as well as during their early tenure, several noted persons of the community who had some natural and learned expertise in health matters served the people of the community. Some of these persons will be discussed in this paper.

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Sara Block Eitzen (1840-1917) Helena Bekker Eitzen (1870-1961)

Cornelius C. Funk (1851-1947) (Picture taken in 1944) Jacob A. Wiebe (1836-1921) and Mrs. Wiebe

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Sara Block Eitzen (1840-1917) was one of these. In Russia she was apprenticed to a physician to learn midwifery and medicine. She, however, gave up the profession to marry a widower, Abraham Eitzen, with four young children. The family came to America in 1876 and settled on a farm between the Gnadenau and Ebenfeld schools. Shortly after arriving a certain Mrs. Fast in the neighborhood was expecting; fearing childbirth unattended she prevailed on Mrs. Eitzen's services. Soon others called on her, and before long her midwifery services became widely known and respected in the entire community. By the time she retired from this ministry she had delivered over 1800 babies. When a delivery was difficult she would stay with the patient as long as necessary. Her charges were $2.50 per baby. Many a time she would be picked up by an anxious father-to-be in a horse and buggy or sled, during day or night, winter or summer, hoping that they would be on time. She was a woman of slender build, erect, with a heart of tender love and compassion. She was known and loved by many people. She was also versed in physiotherapy and homeopathy, getting her medicines from a Dr. Puscheck in Chicago.6

Sara Block Eitzen later trained her daughter-in-law, Helena Bekker Eitzen (1870-1961), in midwifery. Helen, Mrs. D. A. Eitzen, who lived close to the Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethern Church, ministered to many families in need. She had a deep feeling and concern for people who were hurting physically and emotionally. Besides serving the larger community as midwife, she would also set broken bones, massage sore and aching muscles and extract decaying and hurting teeth. Her courage and faith helped many who were in need of her ministry.6

Another person who "had acquired the art of setting broken bones and sprains" was Jacob A. Wiebe (1836-1921), the leader of the new Gnadenau settlement (1874).7 He was born in Margenau village, Molotschna colony, South Russia. His father died when he was 17 years old, and so he had to look out for his own welfare. After an accident he was treated by a local chiropractor, Dietrich Wiebe. Here he saw physical suffering of many people, which no doubt initiated in him the desire to help others. One day he heard Dr. Wiebe say about a serious case that the person could be helped with hedgehog fat. Jacob went out, caught an animal, butchered it, prepared the fat and brought it to Dr. Wiebe, for which he was well paid.8 This was probably the first personal income he had had, and the experience also played an important role in his later life. After he was married and later settled in the Crimea, he became the leader of a new church group, who called themselves the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren Church. He was the Moses who led the entire congregation of 35 families to America, where they settled in Marion County, two miles southeast of present-day Hillsboro. Not only was he their spiritual and administrative leader, but he also helped them when they were in physical pain. Diseases and accidents were common occurrences in the new settlement. Rev. Wiebe also played the role of Knochenarts, bone doctor, helping and comforting those with bruised, broken and ailing bodies. Many people in the community were helped by his massaging of sore muscles and setting of broken bones.

Cornelius C. Funk (1851-1947) was another Mennonite farmer with medical knowledge, settled on a farm southwest of Hillsboro. While in his late forties he attended the Kansas City Medical School for a few years, but did not graduate. This additional knowledge to what he already knew before enabled him to give better service. Later he moved to Hillsboro where he continued his practice. He could not charge because he had no medical degree and diploma, but when asked what the charges were, he would say "If you can spare 50 cents, if that is not too much."9

Jacob J. C. Friesen (1859-1927) located on a farm northwest of Lehigh when he came to America. He was a big man, over six feet tall, and so he was known as the "big Friesen" (gro'te Friese), but also as the "massaging Friesen" (schtri’kja Friese). He moved to Hillsboro in 1911 where he devoted full time to his chiropractic services. He did a lot of massaging and setting of broken bones in the community. He enjoyed quite a clientele.10

My father, Jacob Loewen (1855-1941), was another medical and dental practitioner among the early Mennonite settlers in Kansas. The family came from Friedensfeld, South Russia in 1874 and settled in Marion County on a farm a mile east and a half south of Gnadenau village, newly established by Jacob A. Wiebe and his followers. Father had been a lad of 18 when they immigrated. He had shown some aptitude toward the healing arts already in Russia. His grandmother had taught him the art of bloodletting in the old country.11 Here he became a successful farmer with a large family of fourteen children. With so many children around, bruises, broken bones and children's diseases was a common thing in the family. Either there was no doctor available or it was hard to get one when needed. One day one of the small boys had a bad fall and he soon developed a curvature of the spine. The parents took him to a chiropractor in Oklahoma for treatment. The doctor showed

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father how to massage the boy's back; after a week they returned home where father continued the massaging until his back was properly healed.12 Father soon developed a keen sense of touch enabling him to detect muscle tenseness and spasmatic knots the patient often was unaware of. One of the boys in the family fell off the high chair and broke his arm. Father splinted and taped it; in due time the break mended and became as good as new. A person came to father with a sore shoulder that had kept him awake at nights for weeks. Doctors had taken X-ray pictures but found nothing; they told him that it would be well in a few weeks. Father immediately detected a dislocated shoulder. An osteopathic doctor friend of father's anesthetized the patient and the dislocated shoulder was promptly put in place; that night the patient had slept for the first time in a long while, and without pain. A neighbor's small boy hurt his neck and soon started to stammer. After a few massaging treatments the soreness as well as the stammering was gone. Many other examples could be given of what these "country doctors" — farmers, if you please — accomplished with their medical know how. They played a very important role in the health of the community in the early days here in America.

In father's own household were many teeth that demanded attention quite often. As noted earlier, the first dentist came to Hillsboro in the early 1890s. By that time father had acquired the necessary dental tools to take care of the family needs, unless fillings were required. Father did not go into that kind of dental service. He became quite proficient with extractions, and the neighbors soon heard about it and came to get relief from their aching teeth. At first he did not use any anesthetics, but later the local pharmacist/doctor supplied him with cocaine and novocaine. He was called to other Mennonite settlements in Kansas and Oklahoma occasionally for his medical and dental services. One day a fellow came to father with a terrible toothache. Father was on the binder cutting wheat; he did not want to take time out to get the extracting tongs from home, so he reached into the toolbox, took the pliers, pulled the tooth, and the man went home happy. When he extracted teeth father would have mother or one of the girls steady the person's head by cupping their hands over the person's ears and press firmly.

Whenever the folks would travel, even to California or Canada, to visit relatives and friends, father would not dare to leave his black satchel with its medical and dental supplies at home. Father did not charge for his services, for he did not have licenses as a doctor or dentist. When asked what his charges were, he would say, "What is it worth to you?" From what some people paid, or didn't pay, it must have been worth very little to some, for father's record shows that ten, fifteen and twenty-five cents was quite common for extractions, or even a massage. A few had paid three and four dollars, which probably meant multiple extractions. For 1903, the year he kept complete record of his income, he listed 75 names of people he extracted teeth from, who paid him an average of 75 cents each. Pyorrhea was a fairly common gum infection which caused a loosening of the teeth. Quite frequently father had to pull all teeth of a patient, either in one or two sittings. Tooth brushes were unheard of in those days, and so there was very little of oral hygiene.

In 1903 father took in $145.03 for his chiropractic work. He lists in one of his books the persons who did not pay him anything, which included fixing an elbow that had been out of joint, for a massage treatment, for extraction of teeth, etc. This was also the year he was provided a small office in the newly remodeled Schaefflers Merchantile and Grocery store. People had to come into the store to get to his office. I do not think that father ever paid a cent of rent for that small room which he used only one day a week. With the large family the folks had and the business father brought to the store because of the location of his office, the Schaefflers profited well. Rain or shine, father drove the seven miles with horse and top buggy every Friday to spend all day at the office. He unhitched his horse at the Duerksen livery barn where it was well taken care of, only a block from the store. Many people stopped in for some health service while at the same time did shopping in the store. It was in 1908 when father bought his first Ford Model-T touring car, the first farmer in Marion County to own a car, which he drove to town whenever the roads were passable. In 1916 the parents retired to Hillsboro where father provided an office in the new two-story house he had built. He used the office in Schaeffler's store for over thirteen years. Wednesdays he would be at home where people could find him in his office on the farm. Other days of the week he kept free for himself and the family.

Father's greatest service probably was in his chiropractic and orthopedic and medicinal work. His ability as a masseur of sore muscles and sprained tendons, setting broken bones and placing dislocated joints back into place was greatly appreciated by a large clientele. For immobilizing broken bones he at first used home made wooden splints, but later aluminum forms fitting the arm, elbow

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or knee became available. He used plaster casts but seldom. With his keen sense of touch he knew when the two ends of a broken bone were in juxtaposition and would heal straight. People developed a high degree of confidence in him.

Homeopathy and other medicinal applications were also very familiar to father. His medicine cabinet held a variety of homeopathic medicines for "whatever ails you", besides home-made concoctions. He ordered various medicines from different supply houses, or bought them in the local drug store after one came to town. There was something for colds, sore throat, ear ache, constipation, diarrhea, stomach cramps, fevers, consumption (TB of the lungs), and other illnesses. It is not that they always helped; all medicines do not always help. It is like a noted doctor once said about cold medicines, "We give these medications and the patient gets well," not "therefore he gets well". Some homemade remedies had been in the family for years; some were brought over from Russia. Father recorded many medical recipes in books which I have in my collection. I remember as a boy collecting earthworms for father whenever I dug in the garden. When the jar was full, it would be set in the sun for a few days; the oil collected on top from fermentation was decanted and used in a liniment used in massaging sore muscles. The oil made the skin moist and smooth and was claimed to have a healing effect. Mustard plasters, poultices, ointments and liniments were used extensively for chest pains, inflammations and open sores, sore muscles and sprains. Herbs, such as sassafras, camomile, peppermint and others were used for teas and poultices, and boiled beet leaves were applied to inflammations and infections, and with good results. I well remember as a small boy how one evening an itinerant American Indian, who had stopped by for the night, watched mother bandage her sore leg before bedtime. He told her that he would send her some leaves which she should boil, drink the tea and apply a poultice from the leaves on the sore. In about a week the package of leaves arrived. She followed the directions the Indian gave her, and the sore, which doctors had been unable to cure, healed promptly.13 The use and efficacy of herbs in the healing arts has been written up in a book that appeared quite recently.14 Somebody has said that bees make honey from herbs and it is good for the whole body. Father used honey a lot, especially with children who did not like to take bitter medicine. Aconite on a spoonful of honey, or on a sugar cube, was a favorite for colds and a sore throat.

I might mention a few recipes father listed in his books. One for a splitting headache or bodily pain, mix one teaspoon each of vinegar, alcohol, arnica, turpentine, mustard, horse radish, white sulfur and red pepper. I suppose that it was supposed to be taken internally. For a liniment to be used externally: alcohol, 4 oz., camphor gum and gum of myrrh, each 1/2 oz., oil of turpentine, oil of sassafras and chloroform, each 1 oz., oil of origanum [i.e. marjoram] and aqua ammonia, 2 oz. each. Mix well. A good medicine for colic, influenza, colds, coughs, etc. is the following: 1 pint raw linseed oil, 1/4 oz. each of sassafras oil, hemlock oil, origanum oil and peppermint oil, and 1/2 oz. of camphor oil. Mix well and then take 3 to 15 drops on a piece of sugar. It is also a good liniment for burns. In 1897 father paid one dollar for a bottle of Alpenkrauter.

Diagram of Sweating Chamber.

To break a high fever a patient was placed into a sweat chamber (See diagram). A patient in a night shirt (pajamas were unheard of in those days) would sit on a chair in the chamber and a small alcohol lamp was lit and placed under the chair. In a short time the heat would cause profuse sweating. After half an hour or so the patient was dried off and placed into a bed. If the fever persisted or would return, another treatment would be given the next day. Many fevers would be gone with one treatment.

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It was not only the living that father served, but also the dead. He prepared many bodies for burial at a time when undertakers were not available. There was no embalming. The problem was to prevent the body from deteriorating too rapidly before the funeral. This was especially difficult during the hot summer days. Usually the body was wrapped in a sheet and laid in a temporary trench in a shed or other shady place and then covered with cool wet sand. In winter it was not so much a problem, or after 100-lb cakes of ice became available, which was crushed and placed around the body until burial. The coffins were at first homemade. In 1900 father paid $15 for a small casket for my two-year old sister, twin to my older brother Dan, who died that year.

Father was also called to serve as a veterinarian. When a horse had cut itself on a barbwire fence he would stop the bleeding by applyng cobwebs to the wound. Cobwebs were generally available in barns and sheds; this accelerated the clotting process. Horses would bleed to death when the cut was deep and larger blood vessels were cut. Fistulas would develop on the shoulders of horses from ill-fitting collars. These he would treat with a liniment prepared for that purpose. Sometimes a horse's tooth would grow too long or out of line, which he would file down with a file made for that purpose, or it would have to be extracted or knocked out. In case of a difficult birth of a farm animal, father was called on to serve as "midwife". Cattle would occasionally get into a field of luscious green fodder and gorge themselves, and get bloated. The quickest way to deflate them was with a pocket knife, puncturing a hole in the stomach, which would usually heal in a short time. He would also administer internal medicine to help the calf or cow to get through the crisis of over indulgence.

I trust that this will help us see more clearly the tremendously important role the midwives and "country doctors" played in maintaining the health and well being of the new colonists in this strange land. They came from a well established culture in Russia to a land where everything was new or completely absent. They had to mold a culture and life-style in a new environment, besides learning a new language. They bridged a gap that lasted almost two generations; from the 1870s till about the First World War. The death rate among these new settlers would have been much higher if it had not been for the men and women who, with some native ability and interest, gave themselves unflinchingly wherever needed. This is part of the great heritage we have received from our forebears.

Notes

1. Sandra Van Meter, Marion County Kansas Past and Present, 1972. M. B. Publishing House, Hillsboro, Kansas, p. 187. 2. Solomon L. Loewen, The Descendants of Isaak Loewen, 1961. Self Publication, p 17 of Section 115. 3. Sandra Van Meter, ibid, p. 187. 4. Sandra Van Meter, ibid, p. 186. 5. Sandra Van Meter, ibid, p. 187. 6. Esther Ebel, personal interview. Mrs. Ebel is the granddaughter of Sara Block Eitzen and remembers her grandmother

well. 7. Joel A. Wiebe, Vernon R. Wiebe and Raymond F. Wiebe, The Groening/Wiebe Family, 1768-1974, Second Edition,

1974. Self Publication, p. 52. 8. Peter A. Wiebe, Kurze Biographie des Bruders Jakob A. Wiebe, 1924. 9. Orison V. Funk in an unpublished genealogy on the Funk family.

10. Susie Friesen Bartel, a daughter. Personal Interview. 11. Solomon L. Loewen, "The Art of Bloodletting; As Practiced by My Father", Journal of the American Historical Society

of Germans from Russia, 1980. Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 13-17. 12. Solomon L. Loewen, History and Genealogy of the Jacob Loewen Family, 1983. Self Publication, 13. Solomon L. Loewen, ibid, p. 36. 14. Lonnelle Aikman, Nature's Healing Arts, From Folk Medicine to Modem Drugs, 1977. National Geographic Society.

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COURTING AND WEDDINGS AMONG THE EARLY SETTLERS IN THE EBENFELD COMMUNITY

My father, Jacob Loewen, was almost 19 years old when his family came to America in 1874. They

settled on a farm a mile east and a half south of the Gnadenau village which was settled a few weeks earlier. My mother, Justina Leppke, came with her family a year later. She was nearly 18 years old. The two families came from different colonies in Russia, and as far as I know never met before. Here in America the Heinrich Leppke family settled on an 80 acre farm a mile and a half south of the Jacob Loewen, Sr. farm. No doubt the Loewen and Leppke families soon met, in church if not otherwise. Both families were among the first Mennonite Brethren that came to America. Here they met first in homes for worship, but shortly they began to meet in the East Gnadenau School which stood on the northeast comer of the Ebenfeld and Gnadenau crossroads. The Ebenfeld M. B. church was organized in 1876, the first M. B. church in North America, and met in the East Gnadenau school until 1883, when they built their own sanctuary two and a half miles to the south, the present location of the church.

It was a little more than two years later, on 15 December, 1878, when my folks got married. They were the seventh couple that got married in the newly organized congregation. How did this come about? Not many details are available. It apparently was in the summer of 1878 that my mother found employment as a maid in the Jacob Loewen, Sr. home, my grandparents. The Loewen boys, Jacob and John in particular, had good opportunity to observe this young hired maid first hand; they soon took note of her ability as a good cook and proficient housekeeper. Besides she was good looking and a girl of cheerful disposition. Oh, there were times when things did not go according to her liking and she would become cross and disgruntled, but who wouldn't? However, when she got hold of herself she would become calm and amiable again. How much conversation and "kidding" the boys did with her is not recorded for history. I have wondered why the Loewens had to hire a maid, for the boys had a younger teen-aged sister who no doubt was able to do many of the household duties. But summer was always a busy season on the farm, even in those early pioneering days, that extra help was necessary. And grandmother was not always very well herself and had to have extra attention.

But that was the occasion for a match-making. One day Jacob remarked to his younger brother John that he should marry this good cook and lovely lady. "No," he said, "you marry her, for I have a girl friend." This was what Jacob wanted to hear, I think, for it was not long after this that a wedding date was set. I am surprised that Jacob gave his younger brother first chance, for he could have claimed priority, for he was older. But that was father's nature, he was very generous and thinking of others first. Anyway, the parents met somewhere, privately, and talked things over and agreed that it was God's leading. Their parents soon met and made arrangements for the wedding, solemnizing the union. There was not much courting nor long engagements in those days.

The wedding had been a very simple affair, but a very meaningful commitment. They had gone to church as usual on 15 December, 1878. At the close of the sermon, Elder Peter Eckert had announced that there was a young couple that wanted to get married and asked them to come forward. Jacob Loewen, Jr., came from the men's side while Justina Leppke came from the women's side. The bride wore a beautiful black sateen dress while the groom was dressed in a white starched shirt and dark trousers, modest but probably somewhat embarrassed as young couples usually are. The usual wedding vows were exchanged before the minister, in German, of course, who then prayed God's rich blessings on the young couple with thanksgiving and then sent them back to their respective pews. Justina, now a married woman, covered her head with a scarf before she sat down, for from now on she was not to appear in church without a head covering for the rest of her life. This was according to the Apostle Paul's scriptural command. Later in life our parents often referred to God's rich blessings He had bestowed upon them and their family as a fulfillment of Rev. Eckert's prayer. It is likely that the families of the wedding party shared a simple, but delightful noon meal after the services, but such minor item has not been recorded for us. Our parents shared many things with us, but they were not written down and by now are long forgotten by us. There were no honeymoons in those days; the early settlers did not have time nor money for such "foolishness". The young people had to settle down, get busy and establish a home and family.

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Weddings a Generation Later

Weddings a generation later had become more involved and elaborate. Families in the community had become more well-to-do, facilities had improved and the church had grown in numbers. The solemnity of the occasion was still maintained, however, and the meaning of the vows was strongly emphasized. They thoroughly believed that what God had united, let no man put asunder.

Since I was the youngest in a family of fourteen, I had opportunity to observe the "making of a wedding" first hand more than once. I do not remember anything about my oldest sister's wedding in 1900 as I was less than two years old. I do recall, however, those of the other ten siblings that got married, besides ours. I clearly recall when the parents of the groom who married my second sister came over and visited with my folks in the parlor. That room was used only for special occasions, and this was special. I would run in and out and interrupt their conversation, I know. After a while they called my sister in and asked her some questions. I knew what they were talking about. Whether it was the next Sunday or shortly later, an announcement was made by the minister that Katherina Loewen and John S. Penner were bride and bridegroom. We all knew that the wedding would be on Thursday afternoon after next Sunday. That was the custom, and the whole church would be invited for the occasion, and that included a meal after the ceremony. John brought the bride home from church, after they had been presented as the bridal couple, in a new top buggy and a fine team of sprightly horses. John prided himself on having one of the finest driving teams in the community. They were slick and fast when they pranced along the dirt road. He was heartily welcomed into the family, being an astute Christian gentleman. The Sunday before the wedding the young couple would be entertained at the Penner home.

The question of where did the young people get to know each other comes up. Open public dating and courting was frowned upon by the church. One father of that era told his daughter and suitor when he brought her home from choir practice, and he met them at the front gate, "If you want each other, get married. This 'dragging around' we do not have at our place. And I will give you a sack of flour." What a dowry! At least they could get started with love and zwieback.

Some couples got started in the country school. The Ebenfeld school records of the 1880s and 90s show that some of the registered pupils were in the 18 to 21 year age bracket, old enough to look for a life partner. In winter there was not too much work on the farm, besides doing the chores, and they would always learn something in school. No one had ever graduated from the eighth grade in the Ebenfeld school until I came along, with one exception. We were four in my class that took the eighth grade county examination. This was in 1915. Then there were church choir practices, Christian Endeavor (Jugendverein) programs for and by the young people on Sunday evenings, and the social hour after weddings where the young people would wait on tables and do the dishes, boys and girls alike. Also at special church meetings, such as Harvest Thanksgiving and Mission Sundays, Music and Sunday School festivals, which lasted at times two days, and District and General Conferences, which met annually at one of the churches. These were events where a large tent was often set up on the church grounds to take care of the many outside guests that would come to attend the services. A meal, or several might be served, and again the young people would be the ones who would be asked to wait on the tables and do the dishes. This was a time many of the young people looked forward to as an opportunity where they could meet members of the opposite sex. They would scrutinize each other carefully on those occasions, which might lead to some private meeting where the right proposition would be made sooner or later. I know that my older three sisters give the choir practices as the place that brought them together with their spouses. My youngest sister found her boy friend in a young man who ran the water truck supplying the water for the steam engine of my brother's threshing outfit. He worked on this job for two summers, but that gave him enough time to decide who was to be his bride. He came from another church and so could not blame the church functions for them finding each other.

As mentioned before, a meal of coffee and sugar cubes, zwieback, cheese and cold meat was served in the church after the wedding ceremony. To supply sufficient zwieback for the hundreds of guests the mother of the bride would prepare ample dough the day before the wedding. One of the boys would then deliver with horse and buggy a batch of dough to neighbors, friends or relatives who would volunteer to do the baking. The baked zwieback would then be gathered the next morning and taken to the church for the afternoon luncheon. This was a big help, for the mother had to plan for a meal for the family in the evening after the wedding, or, more commonly prepare refreshments of drink and cake or cookies, with home-made ice cream for the informal reception in the evening.

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Usually there would be a short program of special music, talks, well-wishes, etc. for the gala occasion. The home became jam-packed for such an occasion. I well remember the first time I had home-made ice cream was at my sister's wedding; I ate too much and got sick.

At times the baser element of the community, usually not invited for the social evening, would come in the dark to charivari the couple while the program was going on inside. They would come with all sorts of noise-makers. They would announce their presence by putting the stock of a shotgun on the outdoor window sill and blast into the air. This would shake the windows, alerting those on the inside that they had some severe competition outdoors. The father of the bride would go out and try to get the uninvited guests to leave, but usually without success. The host had much better response by inviting these fellows in for refreshments; this is what they really wanted in the first place, I think. Then they could all enjoy a more quiet evening of fellowship. Later this mode of charivari became old hat. The young people would tip off the newly-weds that they would be coming some evening in a week or two to do their charivariing. The young couple would then be ready with refreshments, invite the noisy group in and all would have an enjoyable evening.

As a dowry my father gave each of the girls a cow. He probably also gave some honey, for he had lots of bees all the time. This way they could start life together with "milk and honey" and love. What a sweet beginning! The boys would pick a horse to their liking out of father's barn. I know how one picked a new born colt a few years before he got married. It was a beautiful bay mare with a white face and a white spot on the side. It was about three years old when my brother got married, and he was proud of this fine working bay mare. A few years later he was saddened when this mare died of heat exhaustion during a very hot harvest day. I was driving the team on the binder that afternoon when this horse began to sway. We unhitched the horses immediately, but she died of heat stroke later that night. That was a sad day!

Jacob J. C. Friesen (1859-1927) and Mrs. Friesen

Jacob Loewen (1855-1941) and Justina Leppke Loewen (Parents of Solomon L. Loewen).

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WE SING OUR HISTORY Lawrence A. Weigel

Over 200 years have passed since Germans by the thousands accepted the invitation of Catherine the Great, and migrated to a wild, un-inhabited steppe which lay on both sides of the mighty Volga River in Russia. That was back in the 1760s. These Germans brought with them their traditions, their faith, their customs and their culture.

Certainly singing was one of their greatest cultural interests. No matter what the occasion, whether it be religious or otherwise, a wedding or a funeral, they expressed their feelings in their songs.

In Russia, they suffered one disaster after another, and yet they survived. Joseph S. Height wrote the following: "singing sustained their spirits and uplifted their hearts in good times and bad, and in serene moments of happiness and in dark hours of sorrow, in keeping with the motto Und habe ich wieder gesungen und alles werd wieder gut.

It is no wonder then, that today, 221 years after the migration began, we still sing the songs of our forefathers. These songs can be found everywhere in the world where Germans from Russia live, be it in Russia, South America, the United States or Canada.

In Macklin, Saskatchewan lives a man who can sing 300 or more songs relating to "Unser Lait", our people. His name is Wendelin Stang. Our own noted researcher and folklorist, Timothy Kloberdanz, discovered that this man can sing hundreds of songs and ballads which our forefathers sang. In July of 1979 Tim recorded 34 of these songs in the home of Mr, Stang.

Mr. and Mrs. Wendelin Stang helping themselves to a meal of "Kartoffel und Klees” at their home, Macklin, Saskatchewan. Photo by: Tim Kloberdanz. Special thanks go to Tim Kloberdanz for his help with this article.

Wendelin Stang was born in the Bergseite colony of Vollmer in Russia, in Feb. of 1907. Earlier, in 1897, before Wendelin was bom, his parents migrated from Russia to South America. They farmed there for 8 years and in 1905 returned to Russia. When Wendelin was 2 years old in 1909, the family left Vollmer and migrated to Canada. They arrived in Macklin, Sask. in August of that year. Mr. Stang's wife Eugenia was born in Grosswerder, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1910. They were married in 1930 and raised 12 children. Tim Kloberdanz told me that Mr. Stang is a perfectionist, and that he is able to sing most of his songs im Kopf (from memory) without referring to notes. He has a beautiful voice and sings with much feeling. In addition to singing, Mr. Stang has written a book entitled "The Memories of a Prairie Pioneer — Lest We Forget". This book is available in the AHSGR archives.

Some of the songs Mr. Stang sang on tape for Tim Kloberdanz include: 1. Wie die Bluemlein draussen zittern. 11. Sehnsucht. 2. Das arme Dorfschulmeisterlein. 12. Heideroeslein. 3. Soldaten Abschied. 13. Soldaten Mantel. 4. Muede kehrt ein Wandersmann zurueck. 14. Der Franzoesische Krieg 5. O Strassburg. 15. Liebster Bruder, ich bin angeschossen. 6. Es ging bei hellem Mondenschein. 16. Lebens Schicksal. 7. Es ist warlig zum erbarmen. 17. Freund ich bin zufrieden. 8. Die heilige Katharine. 18. Der arme Weisebub. 9. Ich als junge Bauers Knabe. 19. Der kleine Sperling. 10.Der Wanderer. 20. Unser Fandrich zog in Kriege.

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1. Ein Straeusschen am Hute, den Stab in der Hand, Muss ziehen der Wandrer von Lande zu Land. Er sieht so manch Staedtchen, er sieht manchen Ort Doch fort muss er wieder, muss weiter fort.

2. So liebliche Blumen am Wege auch stehen, Der Wandrer muss eilend, vorueber doch gehen. Sie bluehen so herrlich, sie winken ihm hin, Doch fort muss er wieder, muss weiter ziehn.

3. Wohl sieht er ein Haeuschen am Wege dort stehen, Umkraenzet von Blumen und Trauben so schoen. Da koemits ihm gefallen, da sehnt er sich hin Doch fort muss er wieder, muss weiter ziehn.

4. Da gruesst ihn ein Maedchen so lieblich und fein, Die Zuege wie edel, die Blicke wie rein. "Ach waerst du mein eigen, bei dir blieb ich gern." Aber fort muss er wieder, hinaus in die Fern.

English Translation 1. A wreath around his hat, a staff in his hand,

The wanderer must move from land to land. He sees many towns, he sees many a place, But he must leave, go further away.

2. Lovely flowers are growing along the way, The wanderer must hasten by and cannot stay. The flowers bloom so splendidly, and then they wink, But he must leave, go further away.

3. Then he sees a little house standing there, Surrounded by flowers and grapes so fine. This place pleases him, here he could stay, But he must leave, go further away.

4. He is greeted by a girl so lovely and fine, How noble the features, how pure the glances. If only you were my own, gladly I would remain, But, he must leave, go further away.

Der Wandrar

Translation by: L. A. Weigel

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THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PETER SINNER

Translated by Adam Giesinger

This is the third and final instalment of the interesting autobiography of the well-known Volga German teacher and journalist, who wrote extensively on the history and folklore of his people.

******

8. My Years of University Study

In the late summer of 1906 the police began to harass me. I was followed by spies wherever I went. My situation was critical. I did not hesitate long, but fled from Saratov back into the Ukraine. Fortunately I had matriculated the previous year at the University of Kiev. I inquired and found out to my pleasant surprise that I was still recognized as a student there. Our newspaper sent me 50 rubles a month and I began my studies in the newly opened German department as its first student. Among the professors I found an influential protector, the famous bacteriologist Visskovich, an uncle of P.A. Stolypin, who interceded for me and had my rights as a teacher, which had been taken from me for political unreliability, restored to me. As a result of this, I was able to resume, at the beginning of the year 1907, my activity as a teacher at a private secondary school (a school of commerce) and as a University lecturer. Thus I was in a position to give up quite soon the support I was receiving from the newspaper, since I could make a living as a teacher and study at the same time. I still dreamt of transferring to the medical faculty as soon as places were open there, but gradually realized that this was impossible in my situation, as medical studies would not leave me any free time to earn my living. Eventually, therefore, I had to bury this dream. For German language studies I had done much preparatory work. That helped me a great deal and my faculty advisor, N. P. Dashkevich, held up to me the prospect of a scholarly career. Unfortunately this highly talented man died in the middle of the second year of my studies, at the beginning of 1908, and I had to think again of moving on. In the fall of 1908 I obtained a teaching position in Petersburg and had myself transferred to the University in this city. Here I finished my studies in 1911 under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Theodor Braun, now in Leipzig.

9. My Teaching Career in Petersburg Since 1908 I had been working here as a teacher of German in a secondary school. In 1910 I married

Kamilla Riedel from Posen. After the completion of my studies I devoted myself completely to my work as teacher. In the course of 11 years, I taught at six different Petersburg secondary schools, among them those with such good reputations as the Tenishev School, founded by Prince Tenishev in collaboration with the famous pedagogue A, J. Ostrogorsky, and the city Gymnasium directed by Professor S. A. Petrov. Work with young people gave me great satisfaction and my former students and colleagues have remained my loyal friends to this day. My house was always open for former as well as my current students. On Saturday evenings I belonged completely to them. Those were hours set aside for receiving young people and they made plentiful use of them. Those evenings were always happy ones, in the best sense of the word. Some came with a heart full of distress and poured out their troubles to me. But joyful and happy faces also lit up our evenings and brightened them. Many problems of the day, literary, philosophical and political were discussed and argued out and there was much music and singing till late into the night.

During the vacations, I made long journeys through Russia visiting the different regions in which German colonies existed. I described my travel impressions in the press, now exclusively in the German-language papers: Odessaer Zeitung, Deutsche Rundschau (Odessa), and Saratower Deutsche Volkszeitung. I did the most work for the Odessaer Zeitung, to which I contributed regularly a political weekly review. In addition to that I did research in the Archives and over the next 11 years published many an article on the history of the German settlements in Russia.

The German-baiting that began with the outbreak of war in 1914 was very painful to me. To be just, I must emphasize that my colleagues and my students always behaved correctly towards me. But the fact that I could not exchange a German word with my children on the street, and was constantly vulgarly insulted for it, oppressed me and grieved me deeply. In all the years of my teaching, I had carried on educational work among the youth and rendered services in adult schools on Sun-

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days for factory workers. This work had always given me special joy and afforded me great satisfaction. I believed that in this way I could repay a part of the debt that I owed to my noble teachers in Sunday adult schools. Now I had to give up this work also. When I thought of the fact that our fine German boys were treated like prisoners at the war fronts, that they were not permitted to write home in their mother tongue, I wanted to hear nothing about politics or debt repayment. I dropped my many years' association with adult education. I also withdrew from political activity. Only when trains loaded with persecuted and hunted German farmers from Poland or Volhynia arrived here, I travelled many kilometers out to the freight yards and tried to ameliorate the lot of these unfortunates. And I often succeeded, for not all people had lost their reason. had to do much running around also to ease the situation of our brothers on the Volga, who were threatened with expulsion from their native region. I shall never forget such noble philanthropists as Academician S. F. Koni (then a member of the Imperial Council) and S. F. Meyendorf (member of the Imperial Duma). I often had to bother these two men and I always found them ready to do more than they could. The writer W. G. Korolenko also and, through him, Dr. S. Yelpatyevsky, at my urging, repeatedly interceded with humane influential words for our oppressed people. The fact that the aged Professor K. Lindemann, as well as others, also fought for the deliverance of our people and could do much more than I could, does not belong to my story. Those difficult years will remain unforgettable to me and that I was able to help a little gives me consolation.

10. The Height of the Storm Tired as I was of politics, when the revolutionary storms howled into Petersburg, I could not stay at

home. Although I was not able to participate actively, I was insanely happy about it. I ran like a madman right through the rain of bullets. How it happened that a stray bullet did not stretch me out on the ground, is still a mystery to me today. But the intoxication of the February days vanished and the misery had been only half overcome. The deportation laws had not been abrogated, only postponed. The prohibition of the German language in the army was renewed by the quartermaster general of the Kerensky period. A thunderstorm had to strike, and it came in October and swept away the weakling, as a gust of wind carries away a piece of waste paper. But with the October uprising, famine conditions came to Petersburg.

Early in the winter of 1917-18, food shortages, especially shortage of bread, grew from day to day. By 1918-19 bread was becoming quite rare. Fortunately I had biscuits sent to me from the Volga or otherwise my children would perhaps also have perished, as did so many others around us. When the post office no longer accepted food parcels, I had to travel to the Volga myself to get bread. In addition to that I had to go on foot to the local German colonies to obtain potatoes, cabbage and vegetables from friends and to carry these home on my back, two or three poods at a time, a distance of 5 to 7 kilometers. In the year 1918 you very often found on the streets in the morning the residues of dogs and cats butchered during the night. And when a horse collapsed on the street and died, it was immediately chopped up by hungering people, who rushed up and carried away pieces of it into their homes. In 1919 conditions grew still worse. You now received a bread ration of only 1/8 or 1/16 kilo, sometimes oats instead, and often nothing at all for weeks. What a variety of things were then eaten! Castor oil was a treat as a lard substitute. Horse meat was a delicacy.

To add to our misfortunes, there began the advance of Yudenich, who aimed to capture Petersburg. All men capable of bearing arms were now drafted and sent to the barracks. This fate overtook even me, a 40-year-old, who had never served in the army. The barracks teemed with lice and spotted fever raged more and more with each passing day. Under those conditions you were bound to get sick. A shameful situation. My family without bread, weakened by hunger, sick. The four persons eked out their lives only from my soldier's ration, which I took away from my own mouth. That was a drop of water on a red-hot stone.

Finally, after several weeks' suffering, I was able to get leave and took my family to Saratov. I was supposed to come back here immediately, but succeeded in having myself enrolled in Saratov. I was put into the Volga army and took part in the battle against Denikin. At least there I did not have to suffer hunger. But all four kinds of typhus raged, as well as cholera. For me the danger of contagion now became all the greater. I directed the educational work of the army staff and had to give lectures in all the hospitals about the various kinds of diseases. But here too I moved under a lucky star. My colleagues around me became sick one after the other, but I was spared. I spent a year at the front in this way. It was a difficult time, but I am happy now that I also had this experience. I learned a great deal.

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11. Teacher in Institutions of Higher Learning (Famine in the Volga Region)

At the beginning of 1920 I returned from the front. My family was then living in Schilling. In the fall of that year we moved to Saratov and I resumed my teaching career. I became lecturer in the German language at the Saratov Institute of Economics (a school of commerce), then also lecturer in German literature and language for the advanced language courses at the College of Pedagogy, and somewhat later lecturer in germanistic courses in the German department at the University. The Central Archives administation also appointed me director of the colonial archives. Finally, we founded a German secondary school, in which I had to teach history. I was therefore burdened in many ways. The work was interesting but difficult.

In addition to this, there began in the winter of 1920-21 the terrible mass requisitioning by the bands of Tula, which ruined our people completely. Besides, the crop had been poor that year. When all the stored grain was now taken away, there began in January 1921 the great famine in the colonies. Everything was sold to save nothing more than a bare existence. When nothing was left to sell, many fled in panic in all directions. When spring came the banks of the Volga at Saratov were covered with Germans fleeing from hunger. Now cholera and spotted fever began to rage among them. We organized a Famine Aid Committee and helped the people as much as we could. In May I travelled to Moscow to ask for regulation of the movement of the refugees and to squeeze out the means of support for children's homes. Both requests were granted, but it cost much exertion and took up six weeks of my time. After returning from Moscow, I continued to work with the Aid Committee. Dining halls, hospitals, and children's homes had to be established for the refugee Volga Germans. I had to see personally to the evacuation of the emigrants (from Saratov) and to the establishment of children's homes. The food shortages in the colonies became more desperate, for in 1921 we had a complete crop failure. I therefore had to travel to Moscow again in August to solicit from the foreign missions there as many food units as possible for the Volga Republic. I had left my family in the most extreme need. But the government of the German Volga Republic had promised to care for them. Moreover, the trip was to take no more than 11/2 weeks. I accomplished much more in Moscow than the most presumptuous imagination could have dreamt up, but I had to spend 11/2 months there. Before I left Moscow, the representatives of the Volga Republic wanted my special services recognized by having my name inscribed on the red register of the Central Executive Committee (so great had been the success of my mission), but I did not agree to that. When I returned to Saratov, I found my house empty: my wife and all my children were lying in hospitals swollen with hunger. That was one of the most horrible moments of my life. I almost went out of my mind. Throwing down my luggage, I ran to see my family. They looked frightful. When I left the hospital, I screamed in grief. After days and weeks I began to carry home my children in my arms, one after the other. It took great effort on my part to win them back to life.

In the meantime the organization for famine relief proceeded. The A.R.A., the Nansen relief effort, the Student Aid, and the D.R.K. came. In the villages the starving people died like flies in the fall. It took much work to save a portion of the afflicted from death by hunger. In addition to my school and service work, I had to help along with this also, so far as human strength permitted. I functioned as honorary (unpaid) representative of the Volga Republic, which then still had its government seat in Marxstadt, as intermediary between it and the foreign representatives, as well as between Marxstadt and Moscow.

The years 1921-24 were frightfully difficult years for the Volga Republic. They will be encircled with a mourning band for all time: a third of the population perished during those years. But even this terrible time eventually ended. In carrying out my work in connection with the famine aid, some difficult blows of fate, which nearly destroyed me, struck me personally in 1923. But that too passed by.

When the worst was over, the Volga Republic went eagerly back to reconstruction work. I helped along, in addition to my teaching, wherever I could, as much as my modest energies permitted, mainly in the press. I helped to build up "Unsere Wirtschaft”, "Die Maistube", and "Das Wolgadeutsche Schulblatt”. In the fall of 1927, for the sake of my scholarly work and the education of my children, I moved back again to Leningrad. Here I worked at the research institute of the University, in the Economics Institute and at two German secondary schools.

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12. Retrospect and Outlook When I now look back on my thirty-year period of modest public work, I must say that it was raw,

rough preparatory work that I was permitted to carry out during this period. But it has not remained without results. That shows particularly in the existence of substantial numbers of male and female students, who are scattered not only over the whole Volga Republic but also over the whole country and who preserve a loyal friendship for their former teacher. My preference would have been to devote myself to researching the history of my homeland. But I had to attend to more urgent tasks, primarily because I had to worry about my daily bread but also because it was essential to carry out before anything else some minor cultural tasks. Thus, about thirty years ago, I had to become one of our first newspaper writers. That had to be. A large number of my newspaper articles on various topics of the day, but particularly on the history and life of my home, appear scattered through the following publications: Nedelia (Moscow): Saratovskii Dnevnik; Saratovskii Listok; Samarskaia Gazeta; Cour’er (Moscow); Russkie Vedomosti (Moscow); Friedensbote (Talovka); Odessaer Zeitung; Deutsche Rundschau (Odessa); Schulblatt (Halbstadt, Tauria); Kievskie Otkliki; Poltavshchina; Nasha Zhizn' (Petersburg); Tovarishch (ibid.); Syn Otechestva (ibid.); Nashi Dni (ibid.); Novaia Zhizn’ (ibid.); Kaukasische Post; Unsere Zeit (Kamyshin); Saratower Deutsche Zeitung; Saratower Deutsche Volkszeitung; Privolzhskii Krai (Saratov); Golos Derevni (Saratov); Robochaia Zhizn' (Saratov); Petersburger Zeitung; Nachrichten (Kosakenstadt); Bauermeitung (Marxstadt); Dakota Freie Presse (America); California Post (ibid.); California Vorwaerts (ibid.); Die Welt Post (ibid.); Der Wolgadeutsche (Berlin). The contributions to the press organs of the last years, mainly in the periodicals, are given in the appended list.

May those who followed us and will follow us in the future spin the thread further! May it be granted to them to be permitted to accomplish more important work. Leningrad, 1 February 1928.

A List of a Portion of my works, which appeared in various periodicals or as special editions, as well as reviews of my works:

1. P. Sinner. "Durch das Terekgebiet. Reisebilder." Odessaer Zeitung 243, 246,249,252, 255, 261. 1904. 2. P. Sinner. "Die Kolonisten und die Leibeigenschaft." Od. Ztg. 40, 41. 1911. 3. P. Sinner. "M. W. Lomonossow." Od. Ztg. 256, 262, 268. 1911. 4. J. E(rbes) und P. S(inner). Volkslieder und Kinderreime aus den Wolgakolonien. xxviii, 256 pp. Saratov

1914. 5. P. Sinner. "Aus alter Zeit." Unsere Wirtschaft No. 11, 322-326. Marxstadt 1922. 6. P. S. '*Sind Russenhuehner vorteilhafter fuer uns und wie sind sie zu halten?" Unsere Wirtschaft Np. 12,

383-384. Marxstadt 1922. 7. (Review) "Das deutsche Lied in den deutschen Wolgakolonien." Wolgadeutsche Monatshefte No. 2, 25-29.

Berlin 1922. 8. P. Sinner. "Wiederaufbaufragen." Wolgadeutsche Monatschefte No. 3, 48-50. 1922. 9. P. Sinner. "Das deutsche Schulwesen in Saratow." Wolgad. Monatsh, No. 3, 63-65. 1922.

10. P. Sinner. "Das Verhaeltnis der Wolgakolonisten zur Natur." Wolgad. Monatsh. No. 5,122-124. 1922.

11. P. Sinner "Ein untergehendes Volkstum," Wolgad. Monatsh. No. 6, 136-138. 1922. 12. (P. Sinner). "Notschrei eines Wolgadeutschen." Wolgad. Monatsh. No. 6, 144-145. 1922. 13. P. Sinner. "Ein gemuetlicher Abend." Dakota Freie Presse, 25 Juli 1922, 3. 14. P. Sinner. "Die Wolgasteppe" (Gedicht). Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 1, 27. Marxstadt 1923. 15. P. Sinner. "Unsere Wolgadeutschen in Amerika." Unsere Wirtschaft. No. 1, 30-31. Marxstadt

1923. 16. P. Sinner. "Der Lenz ist da" (Sonett). Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 7, 219. 1923. 17. P. Sinner. "Dav. Oelberg." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 7, 223-224. 1923. 18. P. Sinner. "Der Naturforscher A. Becker." Unsere Wirtschaft, No, 10, 1-2. 1923. 19. P. Sinner. "Eine Baerengeschichte." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 17, 21-23. 1923. 20. P. Sinner. "Das Elentier." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 17, 23-24. 1923. 21. P. Sinner. "Die Maeuseplagen in unseren Obstgaerten." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 18, 535-536.1923.

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22. P. Sinner. "Die Stumpfschwaenzige." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 18, 27-28. 1923. 23. P. Sinner. Kurzgefasste Geschichte der deutschen Wolgakolonien (Beitrage). 28 pp. Pokrovsk 1923. 24. P. Sinner. "Ein Traum." Wolgadeutsche Monatshefte, No. 1/2, 5-6. Berlin 1923. 25. Hans Hefs (P. Sinner). "Eine Autofahrt durch die Wolgakolonien." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2, 13-14; No.

3/4, 47-51. Berlin 1923. 26. P. Sinner. "Ein ethnographisches Konzert." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2, 16-18. 1923. 27. P. Sinner. "Joh. Baptista Cattaneo." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2, 23-25. 1923.

28. P. Sinner. "D'r Sunntag Marged." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2, 31. 1923, 29. P. Sinner. "Der erste Schnee." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2, 34. 1923. 30. P. Sinner. "Orts- und Flumamen in unseren Wolgakolonien." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 7/8,114-115.

1923. 31. P. Sinner. "Stenjka Rasin und die Fuerstentochter." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 7/8, 116. 1923. 32. P. Sinner. "Im Lande der Vaeter." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 9/10, 141. 1923. 33. P. Sinner. "Zum Ableben eines Pioneers auf dem Gebiete des Obstbaues und der Bienenzucht in unseren

Wolgakolonien." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 11/12, 159-160. 1923. 34. Hans Hefs (P.S.). "Wo ist Rettung?" Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 13/14, 182-183. 1923. 35. P. Sinner. "Der Naturforscher A. Becker." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 13/14, 189-190. 1923. 36. (P. Sinner). "Die diesjaehrige Maifeier in Saratow." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 15/16, 214-215.1923. 37. P. Sinner. "Die Wolgasteppe." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 23/24, 316-317. 1923. 38. P. Sinner. "Lehrer Heinrich Wilhelmi." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 23/24, 319-320. 1923. 39. P. Sinner. "Das Volkslied" (Gedicht). Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 23/24, 326. 1923. 40. P. Sinner. "Das Murmeltier." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 3, 9-10. Marxstadt 1924. 41. P. Sinner. "Laily." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 23, 24, 83-84, 85-86. 1924. 42. Ein alter Wolgadeutscher (P. Sinner). "Zur Lage der Wolgadeutschen." Wolgad. Monatsh; No. 1/2, 9-10.

Berlin 1924. 43. (P. Sinner). "Der Kulturzustand in den Ufa'schen Kolonien." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 1/2,10.1924. 44. P. Sinner. "Vorfruehling" (Gedicht). Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 5/6, 64. 1924. 45. (Review): Schleuning. "Beitrage zur Heimatkunde." Wolgad. Monatsh; No. 5/6, 68-69. 1924. 46. (P. Sinner). "Brief aus Schilling" (Tod des Vaters). Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 9/10,117-118.1924. 47. P. Sinner. "Die Wolgasteppe." (Gedicht). Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 11/12, 134. 1924. 48. A. L. (P.S.). "Die Emteaussichten im Wolgagebiet." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 11/12,136-137.1924. 49. P. S. "Weiteres liber die Ufa'schen deutschen Kolonien." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 13/14,143-144.

1924. 50. P. Sinner. "Die Trappe. Naturbild." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 13/14, 149-150. 1914. 51. H. H. (P. S.), "Zur Auswandemng der Mennoniten nach Amerika” Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 13/14, 15/16,

153, 180-181. 1924. 52. J. P. (S.). "Herbststimmung." Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 19/20. 93. 1924. 53. J. P. S. "Ferdinand v. Wahlberg. Zum 25-jaehrigen Jubilaeum. Wolgad. Monatsh., No. 21-22, 115-116.

1924. 54. P. S. "Die Ufa'schen deutschen Kolonien." Die Arbeit, No. 8, 819-820. Moskau. 55. P. S. "Zwei leicht zu bekampfende Krankheiten an Obstbaeumen." Die Arbeit, No. 9, 842. 56. P. S. "Wieder eine Missemte an der Wolga." Die Arbeit, No. 9, 842-843. 57. P. S. "Wolfsnot an der Wolga." Die Arbeit, No. 9, 852. 58. (Review). "Beitrage zur Heimatkunde des deutschen Wolgagebiets." Die Arbeit, No. 11,915-916. 59. J. P.S. "An der Wolga. Witterung und Aussaat." Die Arbeit, No. 13, 983. 60. P. S. "Baschkirien. Aus den Ufa'schen Kolonien." Die Arbeit, No. 13, 985-986. 61. P. Sinner. "Mundart oder Schriftsprache." Die Arbeit, No. 14, 1008-1009. 62. P. Sinner. "Die Wolgasteppe." Die Arbeit, No. 16, 1074-1076. 63. P. S. "Zur Missemte an der unteren Wolga." Die Arbeit, No. 16, 1082-1083. 64. P. S. "Allerlei aus der Wolgarepublik." Die Arbeit, No. 20, 1205-1206. 65. P. Sinner. "Der Wunderbrief in den Wolgakolonien." Hessische Blaetter fuer Volkshunde, Bd. XXIII, 116-

118. Giessen 1924. 66. P. Sinner. "Aus der Geschichte der Wolgakolonien." Arb. u. Bauemkal, Moskau 1924, 124-146, 67. P. Sinner. "Die Wolgasteppe im Winter." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 2, 6-7. Marxstadt 1925. 68. P. Sinner. "Reisebeschreibung der Kolonisten, wie auch Lebensart der Russen von Offizier Plahten."

Unsere Wirtschaft, Nos. 6, 7, 189-192, 221-224. 1925.

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69. Hans Peter {P. Sinner). "Den Frauen freie Bahn. " (D. Beilny}. Die Maistube, No. 1, 3. Pokrovsk 1925. 70. P. Sinner. "Was ist erne Spinnstube?" Die Maistube, No. 1, 6. 1925. 71. Hans Peter. "E' U'glick." (D. Beilny). Die Maistube, No. 2, 7-8. 1925. 72. Hans Peter. "T. G. Schewtschenko." (Nebst 3 Gedichten). Die Maistube, No. 2, 1-3. 1925. 73. Hans Peter. "P. Jakubowitsch." (Newbst 3 Gedichten). Die Maistube, No. 4, 1-3. 1925. 74. P. S. "Hessische Blaetter fuer Volkskunde." Die Maistube, No. 4, 6. 1925. 75. Hans Peter. "Gleb Uspensky." (Nebst Gedichten von Jakubowitsch). Die Maistube, No. 6,1-3. 1925. 76. Hans Peter. "Die Lena” (D. Beitny). Die Maistube, No. 7, 1. 1925. 77. P. Sinner. "Aus alter Zeit." (Erfurt, Koliweck, Stallbaum, Scheck, Asmus). Die Maistube, No. 3, 3-5; No. 4,

5-6; No. 5, 1-6; No. 6, 4; No. 7, 3-6. 1925.

78. P. Sinner. "Volksglaube in den wolgakolonien." Die Maistube, No. 6, 5-7; No. 6, 5-7; No. 7, 6-7; No. 8, 3-4; No. 9, 6-8. 1925.

79. Hans Peter. "Das Vermaechtnis" (Aus Schewtschenko). Die Maistube, No. 10, 1. 1925. 80. P. Sinner. "Stenjka Rasin und die Perserbraut." Die Maistube, No. 10, 8. 1925. 81. (P. Sinner). "Die Liebe des Berggottes." (Legende). Die Maistube, No. 14, 1-3, 1925. 82. (P. Sinner). Schule und Kultur. Deutscher Staatsverlag. 44 pp. 83. P. I. Sinner. "Nemtsy Nizhnego Povolzh'ia." Ves' Saratov. 1925. 16pp. 84. P. Sinner. "Vydaiushchiesia Deiateli iz Kolonii Povolzhia." Ves' Saratov 1925. 5 pp. 85. P. Sinner. "Izdatel’skoe Delo v Nemrespublike." Ves' Saratov 1925, 1 p. 86. P. Sinner. "Kurze statistische Beschreibung der auslaendischen Ansiedlungen in dem Saratower

Gouvernement." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 10. 149-150; No. 11, 165-167; No. 13, 196-198. Marx-stadt 1926. 87. P. Sinner. "Die Dekabristendichter." Unsere Wirtschaft, No. 4, 61-63; No. 5, 77. 1926. 88. P. Sinner, "Das Saratower Stadttheater." Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 16, 443-444. 1926. 89. P. Sinner. "Die Ueberschwemmungen an der Wolga." Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 19, 614-615. 1926. 90. P. Sinner. "Das deutsche Buch in der Wolgarepublik." Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 20, 648-649. 1926. 91. P. Sinner. "Bernh. Ludwig von Plahten, der erste wolgadeutsche Dichter und sein Gedicht." Teutkonista,

No. 3-4, 270-286. Rostock, Bonn 1925-26. 92. P. Sinner. "Das Volksleben der Wolgadeutschen." Das Neue Russland, No. 1/2, 7-14. Berlin 1926. 93. H. Hansen(P. Sinner). "Unser darstellende Kunst.Das Neue Russland. No. 1/2,16. Berlin 1926. 94. H. Hansen. "Der Deutsche Staatsverlag der Wolgarep." Das Neue Russland, No. 9/10, 45. Berlin 1926. 95. (P. Sinner) "Ein hervorragender Wolgakolonist gestorben." (F, S. Lorenz). Aufwaerts, No. 161, 1 V. 96. (Review). W. Waschinger. "Beitraege zur Heimatkunde des deutschen Wolgabietes.” Volk und Heimat, No.

10-20, Mai 1926, 2-3. Muenchen. 97. P. Sinner. "Wan die Wildgans rueckwaerts fliege." Die Wolga Journal No. 5, 11. Chicago 1927. 98. P. Sinner. "Eine Fussreise durchdie Karamankolonien."-Das Wolga Journal No. 6, 2-5. Chicago 1927. 99. P. Sinner. "Mein Wolgavolk." Das Wolga Journal No. 6, 7, 1927.

100. J. P. Sinner. "Ein Besuch im Kanton Kukkus." Das Wolga Journal No. 7, 6. 1927. 101. J. P. Sinner. "Eine Fahrt in den Kanton Balzer." Das Wolga Journal, No. 8, 7. 1927. 102. Fritze-Hannes. "An ma grosse Kinner.” Das Wolga Journal, No. 8, 16. 1927. 103. P. Sinner. "Bilder aus unserer Vorzeit." Wolgadeutsches Sckulblatt, No. 1, 32-35. Pokrovsk, 1926. 104. (P. Sinner). "Aus der Baschkirei." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 1, 67. 105. P. Sinner, "Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi." Wolgad. Schulbl., No. 2, 82-83. 106. P. Sinner. "Was uns die Huegelgraeber erzaehlen." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 3, 231-232. 107. J. P. "Die Arbeit bei der 1. paed. Versuchsstation bei Moskau." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 3, 248-249. 108. P. Sinner. "Ob wir sie wert sind." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 3, 255-256. 109. Ihre Kollegen. "Frieda Junemann." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 3. 257-58.

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110. J. P. "Ehrung des Geigers G. K. Jerschow." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 3, 260. 111. J, P. "Lunatscharsky in Saratow." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 4, 323-327; No. 5, 457-460; No. 6, 511-515. 112. P. Sinner. "Unterichtsfahrten aus dem Dorfe in die Stadt." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 7, 646-647. 113. P. Sinner. "Der wolgadeutsche Dekabrist Adolf Knobloch" (nebst Bild). Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 1, 13-

14. Stuttgart 1927. 114. (P. Sinner). "Ein Doppeljubilaeum der Ev.-Luth. Kirche Russlands." Der Ausslanddeutsche, No. 2, 58.

1927. 115. P. Sinner. "Theater- und Musikpflege in der Wolgaresidenz." Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 17, 596-597. 1927. 116. P. Sinner. "Gedachtnisfeier a. d. Wolga." Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 22, 781-82. 117. (Review). Dr. H. K. "Der Deutsche im Wolgaland" Der Auslanddeutsche, No. 24, 845-46. 118. P. Sinner. Der Deutsche im Wolgaland. 1927. Belz Langensalza: Zentralinstitut fuer Erziehung und

Unterricht, Berlin. 119. P. Sinner. "Kulturarbeit in Leningrad." Das Neue Eussland, No. 11-12, 66-67. Berlin 1927. 120. P. Sinner. "Pestalozzifeier an der Wolga," Zentralblatt fur Erz. und Unt. No. 9. 121. P. Sinner. "Wann die Wildgaens rueckwrts fliege." Freie Fluren, Kal. 1927. 122. (Review). J. Volz. "Der Deutsche im Wolgaland." Welt-Post, 22 XII. 3. 1927. 123. (P. Sinner). "Das erste deutsche Theater in Saratow." Wolgad. Schulbl, No. 8, 722-727. 1927. 124. P. Sinner. "Wie ich meine Schuler in der Gesellschaftskunde and freie Reden gewoehne." Wolgad. Schulbl,

No. 9, 767-770. 1927. 125. P. Sinner. "Das deutsche Unterrichtswesen in Leningrad einst undjetzt." Wolg'ad. Schulb., No. 11, 993-996.

1927.

Title Page of one of the Volga German periodicals of the 1920s in which articles by Peter Sinner appeared.

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IN THE WAKE OF THE GERMAN ARMY ON THE EASTERN FRONT, AUGUST 1941 TO MAY 1942

Reports by Dr. Karl Stumpp Translated by Adam Giesinger

The first three reports of this series appeared in our Spring 1984 issue, Vol 7, No. 1, and report No. 4 in the Summer issue. Vol. 7, No. 2.

REPORT No. 5: Diary, 13-23 September 1941. When we continued our journey to the east, we stayed overnight with a Ukrainian family in the

Russian town Nimrov. The ethnic German Ludwig Moderau came to see us and reported that there are six German families living here. Formerly there were 600 Germans here, who worked in a cloth factory or as bakers, tailors, sausage makers, etc.

Along the road there move long columns of ragged, starved, dirty Russian prisoners-of-war. In the opposite direction our cheerful singing troops are marching eastward. Absolutely everyone is moving here. Liberated Ukrainian prisoners-of-war are going home. Hundreds of Ukrainian women with sacks or baskets are on the way to the city to exchange farm products (eggs and butter) for fruit or clothing. They wander for hours, for days. Time is not important here.

Harvesting is over everywhere. But, because laborers, work animals and machines are in short supply, the grain is still lying in the fields. Around Lemberg and Staro-Konstantinov the crop was very good. Around Zhitomir it is classified as average and in some places as poor. In the region between Novo-Archangelsk and Krivoy-Rog the crop is good to very good. The yield of wheat is 2-2.5 metric tons [per hectare, presumably], sometimes even 3 metric tons. You are always told, of course, that in the last weeks the yield was less, because a large portion of the grain was overripe and fell out.

In Novo-Archangelsk I met an ethnic German woman doctor (Frieda Wacker) from Alt-Freudental. There is no town and almost no place of any size in which there aren't ethnic Germans.

The outward picture changes as we travel eastward. The fields of hops so typical of Volhynia are replaced by fields of sunflowers. You also begin to see much fruit growing here. In Kirovograd there live many Germans, above all from the Odessa region. Here I met the first ethnic German woman from my own home village; she had been with my sister in banishment. In Krivoy-Rog also there live very many ethnic Germans, mainly from the Catholic settlements near Odessa. The women still wear their typical black head shawl. Frau Schaffert told me how they had all been waiting for resettlement when other ethnic Germans were being returned to the Reich. They all had their bags packed and no one wanted to work anymore.

From 21 to 23 September we visited the Kronau German settlement (Lutheran and Catholic), 55 km from Krivoy-Rog, and the adjoining Mennonite settlement, Zagradovka. The many different names of the villages provided some difficulties for us. Mostly the settlements are designated by numbers. Thus, for example, you receive no information when you asked about Furstental, but immediately when you say No. 5. The outward picture of these settlements is quite different from that in Volhynia. The old brick houses, roofs covered with tin or tiles, still stand in part. They do not, of course, look as beautiful any more as they did in the past; they look neglected. You see many roofs with holes in them or covered with straw. The barns have been either torn down or converted into living quarters. In most houses two or three families live. Each family, however, has at least two rooms, a kitchen and a front room. On the outbreak of war, the houses had to be smeared with mud to darken them. The villages therefore make a gloomy impression. But you already see houses here and there, which have been white-washed, giving them a friendlier appearance.

In these villages too, as in Volhynia, special war measures were carried out: 1. The agricultural machines, particularly tractors, however, were not destroyed here, but were moved

away or rendered unworkable. Many of the tractors have now been restored to working order. The former operators had, cunningly, been given their jobs again, at least temporarily. They knew where the missing pieces of the machines were hidden and brought them out, so that the machines and tractors could be made usable again.

2. The livestock, pigs and sheep had to be driven away. Even the animals belonging to individual farmers were supposed to go along with the animals belonging to the collective. But, because

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everything was done in such a hurry, most of these farmers could hide their cow. Some of the animals belonging to the collective have also come back. Even horses, and above all stud-horses, were taken away by the Soviets.

3. The records in the office of the local Soviet were all destroyed, usually burned. The inquiry regarding the church records always elicits the answer that these had been taken to the district capital, Alexandrovka, and destroyed there. The district mayor has been asked to drive to Alexandrovka within the next few days to establish definitely whether the church records are still there. In case they are, they are to be brought to Kronau or Orlov. A report on these will be given later.

4. Crushing were the reports about the removing of the men of ages 16 to 60. According to a strict order, all these were to be taken across the Dnieper. In fact in almost all villages the men were forced to leave their homes. In many cases, however, some of them were able to escape and return home again. In some villages, on the other hand, only the odd one or no one at all was able to return. Thus, there are still missing today 93 men from Altona alone. In Nikolaital, however, of the 104 taken away, all returned except one.

The German villages in these two districts have preserved their German character almost entirely. Usually only 1 to 3 Ukrainian families live in the village and no Jews at all. Exceptions are: Kronau, which has been the seat of the district Soviet; Sandfeld, where the majority is Ukrainian; and Gnadenfeld and Reinfeld in the Mennonite district, where the Germans — they are Volhynian Germans — are a minority. The Mennonites left these villages in 1925 to go to America or to the other Mennonite villages nearby.

The German population in the individual villages, as well as altogether, has increased in comparison with 1914. In the Mennonite district the German population in 1914 was around 3200, today it is about 5000.

Unfortunately, it has to be confirmed, the blame for the earlier deportations, as well as for the recent ones, lies with the Germans themselves. In part the denunciations were made by depraved individuals and ethnic traitors, but in part also by others who were coerced. The former are now receiving their deserved fate.

Frightful are the descriptions by the ethnic Germans in these two districts about the activities of the Makhno bands. These brutal men brought terror into the German settlements in 1919. In almost every village 20 to 50 German men, and sometimes women and children as well, were murdered in a horrible manner. The band gave the worst treatment of all to the German village of Muensterberg (No. 11). Here the German inhabitants, to the extent that they could not flee during the night, were all murdered. The houses were set on fire or wrecked. In the place of the former beautiful neat German houses, there stand today miserable little huts, in which only Russians live. Only one German house is still left there. In it a sick children's recovery home has been established. For the tragedy of the people of Muensterberg, the neighboring Russians of the village of Shesternya are to blame, for the people of that village incited the Makhno bands against the Germans. Incidentally in the year 1933 at least 50 per cent of the inhabitants of that Russian village died of hunger.

The economic situation in these German settlements has already improved considerably. Everyone has his milk and now also his butter to eat. It is striking what a large number of chickens are kept here. In contrast with Volhynia, the farmers here eat only white bread, which is often as beautiful as it used to be before the world war. The food supply for the winter is completely assured. In the village Schonsee the people are receiving 5.7 kg of wheat per work day. They are therefore in a position to sell wheat. In addition to that they have barley, millet, corn, potatoes and water melons. Because sugar can not be found anywhere, the people make themselves a sweet syrup from water melons, which they can spread on bread or use in baking cake.

In a few German villages school instruction has begun. But there is a shortage of teachers and even more of school books. It is urgently necessary that the German communities be provided with German literature — school books, fiction, picture books, and periodicals. The demand for these is very great.

We held a meeting in each of the two districts. The people came streaming in on foot, in crowds from all the surrounding villages, in spite of darkness and urgent field work. The meeting rooms were overfilled and many more stood outside. We were for them the first messengers, who told them about Germany. One could have spoken for hours. It had become late at night and there were still many people who did not want to leave for home. At the close of the meeting, they came to get a close-up look at the picture of the Fuehrer that we had put up. The youth sang many songs, among

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them such as they had just learned from our soldiers during their short stay in the German villages. Three questions in particular agitate these ethnic Germans:

1. What will become of us now? We want to live in a closed area under German protection and work, fight and, if necessary, die for Germany. We don't want to see again the day, when we shall be murdered by bandits or foreign people, especially our wives and children.

2. Will our men ever return home again? 3. When will be freed from the Collective? The people are tired of the work in the collective, and

want to stop such work, not because they are lazy but because of an inner repugnance to it. REPORT No. 6: Diary, 26 September to 10 October 1941.

From 26 September to 10 October I traveled through the German settlements between the Bug and the Dniester, particularly the oldest settlements near Odessa.

In Inguletz-Rudni, the ethnic German Willhauk from Kronau informed us reliably for the first time about the mood of the Ukrainian workers in the iron ore mines there. The majority of these workers welcomed the arrival of the German troops. They did not obey the orders issued by the Bolsheviks. In case there is ever a retreat of the German army, these miners want to come with the Germans. The iron ore mines here, as well as elsewhere, were destroyed by the Soviets before they left. The miners are now working in the collectives to earn their bread.

Traveling on, we arrived at a mixed settlement, Dobraya (Dobrenka), where along with Germans there had lived Jews. The Germans originate from the Catholic settlements Landau, Sulz, Speyer, etc. It struck us that the Germans for the most part lived in miserable huts at the edge of the village and the Jews in the beautiful houses in the center. The colonists told us that they had been exploited by the Jews and that great tension always existed between the Jews and Germans. The colonists have now moved into the emptied houses of the Jews. Over every house door hangs an order with the following message: "Germans live here. Anyone who lays hands on them or any of their property will be shot." A 77-year-old Ukrainian woman stopped us, crossed herself again and again, told of her sufferings in the past years and, crossing herself again and again, thanked us for the liberation from the Bolsheviks.

Travelling on again, we arrived at the German village Neu-Danzig. This village has received harsh treatment, as the battle raged here for three days. Of the men taken away recently, 40 have not yet returned. The inhabitants came here from various other German colonies. This varied background of the people shows up in the way houses were built. There is a lack of unity in the community. No harmonious village spirit has as yet developed.

It is known from press reports that the city of Nikolayev has remained generally undamaged. But the Bolsheviks before leaving set fire to all the better hotels. From this city 200 Germans are said to have been taken away recently. In spite of all efforts, it has not yet been possible to determine whether they were shot or were sent eastward. In Nikolayev there lived 900 Germans and in the neighboring city of Kherson 220.

Our journey onward brought us to the Catholic Beresan region and into the three large evangelical colonies, Worms, Rohrbach and Johannistal. These villages still exist as closed German settlements. The proportion of foreign population is insignificant. The number of mixed marriages is also relatively small. In this region the famine in the years 1921 and 1933 was at its worst. The explanation given is that the soil is poor here and that no help could be expected from the neighboring villages. In Landau, for example, 450 Germans died of hunger, in Johannistal 98. It was generally remarked by everyone that many more would have died if the help from Germany through the Firm Westen had not come. This firm provided foodstuffs for the needy, such as beans, millet, rice, lard.

The old long-time village secretary Christian Maier of Johannistal described for us very interestingly the early days of the village. He had built up an outstanding archive here, arranged chronologically, which portrayed the history of the village from its founding. This archive was taken away to Nikolayev by a Soviet functionary in 1927 and was there destroyed. I regret to say it, but our inquiry regarding archival materials and church records has confirmed that these were almost all destroyed, mostly burned, in earlier years and more recently before the departure of the Soviet officials. Only in Landau were a few church records preserved and in Hoffnungstal the major part of them.

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A teacher, who had been drafted to dig trenches in the northern Crimea, reported that he had himself seen there three long trains with German colonists from the Crimea being transported into inner Russia. These ethnic Germans had told him that they were the last of their group. They had been ordered to take a 10-day supply of food and when they asked the Soviet officials where they were being taken, they received the answer: you'll find out in due time. In the meantime news had come also from other sources that the Crimean Germans had been deported. A letter from a friend informs me that the Soviets before they left had terrorized the people in Eigenfeld and neighboring German villages and murdered many Germans,

Our onward journey took us through Rohrbach, Worms and Waterloo to Rastatt and Muenchen. In Rohrbach the people were just engaged in the wine harvest. The vineyards are so overgrown with weeds that the grape vines are scarcely visible. The grapes are very small and hardly usable. The Germans here had been so continuously drafted for the digging of tank traps and trenches that they had had no time to look after their vineyards. For the same reason the crop also had not yet been completely brought in. The crop yield this year was gratifyingly good. At first the yield of wheat was 2 to 2.5 metric tons [per hectare], and as high as 3 metric tons. But because harvest work had to be interrupted to dig trenches, a part of the crop was lost due to rain and the falling out of kernels through overripeness, so that the yield was lowered to 1 metric ton. Because of the shortage of draft animals the grain could not all be stacked or hauled into the village. The threshing also is proceeding very slowly, because of the shortage of machines and even more of fuel. The farmers are very worried about the fall sowing. For this too there is a shortage of draft animals, tractors and fuel.

In Worms there is an institution known throughout the Black Sea region, the school for the deaf. The building still stands there undamaged, but is now used as an elementary school. At my entrance into the school building, the children sang the songs: "Auf auf zum Kampf”, "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" and the "Horst Wessel Lied". Enthusiastically and eagerly they listened to my stories about Germany and the Fuehrer. School instruction has begun in most of the colonies. The school buildings are in good condition. It is gratifying to note that male and female teachers are available everywhere as, for example, 11 in Rohrbach, 8 in Worms. They are mostly of the younger generation, who received their training in Odessa and later in Chortitza. Only a very few of the teachers were actually bolshevistic and these have disappeared. Much the greater number stayed here and after suitable re-education can be put back into the schools. The re-education has to be both political and professional. The teachers generally impress one as good, mentally-alert persons, who will certainly be willing to submit to re-education. The most urgent task will be to provide the schools with learning materials and above all the teachers with suitable textbooks.

Surprising is the discovery that in most German settlements, in spite of famine years and deportations, the German population has not declined in comparison with 1914, but even increased. In connection with this it has to be noted also that there was a considerable migration from the German colonies into the cities and into neighboring Ukrainian villages. In addition to this, there arose quite a number of new German settlements. The outward appearance of these newly founded German villages is fundamentally different from that of the old villages. An example is the village Friedenheim near Rohrbach. The houses are all small, low, and similar to each other, but they look clean and friendly.

In putting together totals of the German population, you are struck by the fact that there are many women and children, but few men between the ages 21 and 60. Strassburg, for example, has 394 men, 578 women and 980 young persons under 18; Kandel has 757 men, 1041 women and 1672 young persons. Selz has 592 men, 879 women and 1199 young persons. For 100 German villages, with a total population of 8010, the result is: 1723 men, 2658 women and 3629 children under 14.

All the villages mentioned above and those to follow are in the region occupied by and governed by the Rumanians. The Special Command of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle [a branch of Himmler's SS] has succeeded in prevailing on the Rumanian troops to leave the German villages and permit these to set up their own administrations. German mayors have now been installed everywhere, as well as district mayors for groups of villages in the same region. In each of the colonies self-defense units are being trained and organized, consisting mostly of the younger people. These are at present receiving military training and will be provided with weapons. It has to be said, unfortunately, that the behavior of the Rumanian troops has taken unbearable forms. The requisitions of grain and livestock needed for the troops have degenerated almost everywhere into senseless seizures, plain thefts. Houses are broken into and objects taken from the people, not only items such as food for their own maintenance, but also linens, sewing machines, bicycles, barrels, etc. It has happened that

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pigs and cattle far beyond the number needed were taken away and butchered, and the meat allowed to spoil. This behavior of the Rumanian troops has aroused great dissatisfaction and indignation among the German population. The view is expressed generally that they do not under any conditions want to remain under Rumanian rule, but want to come under the protection of Germany.

The outward appearance of the German settlements changes daily. The somewhat neglected houses, smeared with mud during the war, are all being beautifully white-washed and take on an appearance such as they had before the world war. At almost every house or farmyard gate there hangs a swastika flag. In the schools and council offices hang pictures of the Fuehrer. The church towers were torn down everywhere and the churches converted into clubs, theatres or granaries. Now there are again religious services everywhere.

Gratifyingly, it can be confirmed for the whole region between the Bug and the Dniester, that the order that all men between 16 and 60 years were to leave their villages to go east across the Dnieper, was not carried out here. Because of the rapid advance of the German and Rumanian forces, the men in a majority of the German villages did not leave their home village at all. In those cases where they did leave, they hid themselves in the corn or the grainfields and later came back to their home villages. In a few villages a number of young men are missing, who had been forced to drive Soviet officials, mainly Jews, eastward and did not return. There were some arrests also, as, for example, 7 men in Alexanderhilf and 27 in Neuburg.

In the German settlements situated around Odessa, nearly all the cattle belonging to the collectives have been driven away, but each family still has its cow. It is interesting and valuable to remember the following facts. In 1933 the Soviets wanted to take from each family its one remaining cow. Then, as if in response to a command, there broke out in the whole of Russia the "women's revolt"; the women demonstrated against the government plan and the Soviets were forced to withdraw it. 1933 was the great famine year. In spite of the fact that the crop that year was very good, a terrible famine developed, because the last kernel of grain had been requisitioned from the farmers. The fact that the death rate was not even higher can undoubtedly be ascribed to this "women's revolt", as a result of which each family still had its cow.

In a particularly difficult situation have been the German villages west of Odessa in the Baraboi valley: Alt-Freudental, Peterstal, Josephstal, Mariental, Neuburg, Alexanderhilf, Grossliebental and Kleinliebental. [The siege of Odessa was then still in progress.] The conditions are worst in Alt-Freudental. There is hardly a house here that has not suffered in the fighting or been destroyed completely. The village was occupied more than fully by Rumanian soldiers. In the whole village there is no longer a chicken left nor a loaf of bread. The people nourish themselves with cornmeal alone. The supplies will last at most to the end of December. The people are still constantly disturbed by attacks from Russian planes. These villages also lie within range of Russian artillery. It is particularly bad in this respect in Grossliebental and Kleinliebental. The latter had to be evacuated during the time that we were there.

Our onward journey led us to villages located farther north: Kassel, Glueckstal, Neudorf. . . . Here there was already complete peace and the people could do their work without being disturbed. Glueckstal was fought over very hard. 80 German soldiers lie buried here. There were no deaths among the local Germans, because these were all away from the village during the fighting.

Two difficult questions always come up: 1. The people, remembering their experiences of the past years, no longer want to work in the

collectives. It takes much effort and much enlightening argument to convince them that the work in the collectives is still necessary at this time. They want to possess land of their own and farm it independently and won't be happy with anything less.

2. It is the general and understandable wish of all to return to former homes, from which they were driven in past years. The difficulty is that other families live there now for whom other homes can not always be found.

The general landscape changes as one travels farther southward. While fields of hops dominated the landscape in Volhynia, it is now corn, then flax and hemp and tobacco fields. At one time it was fruit orchards that dominated the scene in the valley from Glueckstal to Bergdorf. One can see clearly here how comprehensive planning in the Ukraine could produce a great deal from the still largely uncultivated slopes.

Our journey on to Kirovograd (Jelisabethgrad) took us through the German village Alt-Danzig, 37

which is completely isolated from other German settlement areas. This isolation has had an extraordinarily disadvantageous effect on this community. The German population has decreased from 400 to 150, of which 12 families, with a total of 50 persons, are mixed marriages.

In Kirovograd itself there live 431 ethnic Germans, the great majority of whom consist of German farm families who originated in the surrounding German colonies. During the Bolshevik period they lived in miserable huts on the outskirts of the city and led a completely isolated life, so that one German family knew nothing of another. Their children had associations only with Russian children, as a result of which they spoke Russian better than German and could not read or write German. Now these German families have all been re-settled in good living quarters and the majority of them work for the German army as interpreters, cooks, cleaning women, chauffeurs, etc. During our stay in the city, a special food store for the Germans was established and all of them were issued certificates testifying that they are ethnic Germans.

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BOOK REVIEW

Loewen, Abram J. Immer weiter nach Osten: Suedrussland — China — Kanada. Ein siebzehnjaehriger mennonitischer Leidensweg. Winnipeg, Manitoba: CMBC Publications, 1981. 120pp., illus., pb.

Reviewed by Harry Loewen, University of Winnipeg. There has been in the last few years a veritable flood of publications, in both English and German,

telling the story of Mennonites who managed to escape from the Soviet Union. This book adds another, not as well-known, chapter to the story. It deals with a group of Mennonite refugees who, after an abortive attempt in 1929 to leave Moscow for the West, succeeded in crossing into western China and thence, after some seventeen years of hardships and suffering, emigrate to Canada. The story, written as an "Eriebnisbericht," has Lily Goossen and her fate as its main theme, taking the heroine from her love and joys as a young bride to the loss of her husband and subsequent difficulties.

It comes almost as a surprise to leam at the end of the book that Lily Goossen is now the wife of the author. In the Foreword the author states that Lily Goossen commissioned him to write about her escape from Russia and later experiences in China. It would surely have been quite appropriate to have named her as the co-author of the book.

While the book provides valuable information, it suffers, like other such Mennonite writing, from a desire on the part of the author to edify his readers. For example, no matter how intense the suffering and insurmountable the difficulties, the characters in the book always trust God, who not only comes to their aid but also performs "miracles" to save them.

In the last two chapters the reader is baffled by the inclusion of material which seems to have little to do with the story. We are told, for example, that the Chinese cities of Kaifong and Nanking have great universities and Shanghai is described in great detail as the largest city of China without any reference to Lily's story, except that she passed through these cities.

The German of Immer weiter nach Osten, having benefited from the careful editing of Gerhard Ens, editor of Der Bote (which is not acknowledged in the book), is fluent, clear and crisp. The book contains many photographs and several maps tracing the routes of the refugees. The dramatic description of the near-misses in the characters' life-and-death encounters make for interesting reading.

A copy of Immer weiter nach Osten has been donated to the AHSGR Archives by the publishers. The book may be purchased from: CMBC Publications, 600 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, Manitoba

R3P OM4. The price is $6.50.

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[End of Volume 7, Number 3, Fall 1984]