TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Adam Giesinger...... i

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: AN APPRAISAL OF OUR FUTURE Adam Giesinger...... 1

RUSSIAN DOCUMENTS WHICH OUR ANCESTORS BROUGHT TO AMERICA Alexander Dupper...... 6

THE BOOK ENTITLED DIE DEUTSCHEN KOLONIEN IN SUDRUSSLAND BY REV. KONRAD KELLER: A RARE FIND A. Becker ...... 9

THE ART OF BLOODLETTING: AS PRACTICED BY MY FATHER Solomon L. Loewen ...... 13

OUR AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS Nancy Bernhardt Holland ...... 19

UND SIEHE, WIR LEBEN: THE STORY OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF OUR PEOPLE IN RUSSIA TODAY Donald Henry Darner ...... 29

THE FARMING VILLAGE OF NORKA, RUSSIA: A DIALECTAL STUDY Mary Lynn Tuck...... 35

TREASURES IN OUR ARCHIVES Emma Schwabenland Haynes ...... 37

AHSGR THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS PRESIDENTS The Founding Years David J. Miller...... 49 Growing Up Ruth M. Amen ...... 51 Building for the Future Adam Giesinger...... 52

AN IDEA IS BORN Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz...... 55

HOW MEMBERS AND CHAPTERS CAN HELP: "WHAT IF ..." Edward Schwartzkopf...... 57

"ABOUT AHSGR"...... 60

OUR SOUTH AMERICAN BROTHERS Adam Giesinger...... 61 (Continued on inside back cover) Published by

American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 631 D Street . Lincoln, Nebraska 68502 Editor: Nancy Bernhardt Holland ©Copyright 1980 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Members of AHSGR: Our Eleventh International Convention is now history. This issue of the Journal brings you a report of the proceedings. The convention was an outstanding success from every point of view. The beautiful Hyatt- Regency Hotel in Dearborn provided first-class meeting-room and guestroom facilities and good food. The convention program was varied and intellectually stimulating, arousing and holding the interest of all. The genealogy workshop and the bookstore were kept busy throughout the week providing services to convention attendants. Good fellowship, so characteristic of all our conventions, was again abundantly evident The papers delivered at this convention on the history and folklore of our people show that varieties of research of interest to us are being actively pursued by members of this Society in all parts of this continent. We have many talented people in our ranks interested in furthering our work. What better assurance could we have that this Society is relevant and has a promising future? Reports by the officers and committee chairmen at this convention show that exciting events are taking place in the Society. We are growing rapidly in every aspect: membership, chapter organization, genealogical records, historical research, materials in our Archives, publishing and sale of books, and interest in our work among our members. To accommodate to this growth we urgently need more work space for our Headquarters staff and more storage space for our valuable books and records. Progress is being made in plans to satisfy this need, as will be evident from the reports here. To me personally the convention at Dearborn was an exhilarating experience. I feel sure that it was the same for many others. All contributors to the program did their jobs so well. And Mary Martini was a superb convention chairman! She is the one who made it run so smoothly, for the rest of us to enjoy. Mary, we thank you so much!

Sincerely,

Adam Giesinger Convention Chairman Mary Martini of Dearborn (standing) takes her moment's pause during the week of July 7- 13 to chat with conventioneers Mr. and Mrs. Carl Amen of Loveland, Colorado and Auggie Graffof Phoenix, Arizona.

Nine new chapters of the AHSGR have been organized since the Society convened in Seattle in 3979. Charters were presented to members representing eight of these new local groups of the Society at the Dearborn convention: Big Rudy Amen of Lincoln, Nebraska enrolls new Life Bend Chapter (Washington), Colorado West, Members of the Society at the Fellowship Columbia Basin Chapter (Washington), Greater Breakfast, while Elsie Whittington records their Detroit Chapter, Greater Spokane Chapter, names and Ruth M. Amen waits expectantly. Kansas City Area Chapter, Palouse Empire Fifteen new Life Members were added to the Chapter (Washington), and Sunflower Chapter Society's rolls during the Dearborn convention. (Kansas). Edmonton and District (Canada) had Photo courtesy of Alexander Dupper. received its charter previously. Photo courtesy of Alexander Dupper. KEYNOTE ADDRESS: AN APPRAISAL OF OUR FUTURE Adam Giesinger You'll notice that I have entitled my address "An Appraisal of our Future." Before one can appraise the future of any organization, one must look at its past. I shall therefore take a quick look at our history to date. The idea of forming a society such as ours, to collect and preserve materials about the Germans from Russia, originated twelve years ago in the minds of a few people in Colorado. After some weeks of discussion in person and by correspondence it was decided to issue invitations for a meeting on the evening of 8 September 1968 at the Windsor Gardens in Denver. With David J. Miller as chairman, this meeting, attended by forty-two persons, unanimously and enthusiastically approved a motion to establish this Society. A month later, on 6 October 1968, a second general meeting, held at Greeley, Colorado and attended by about seventy persons, adopted the present name of the Society, elected permanent officers and discussed articles of incorporation. A meeting at Denver on 24 November chose a board of directors and another meeting at Denver on 15 December adopted articles of incorporation. Finally on 20 December 1968 our Certificate of Incorporation was issued by the Secretary of State of the State of Colorado. Thus by the end of the year 1968 the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia was formally and legally established. By that time it had somewhat over 100 members. The early plans of the founders included the collecting of materials on the history of the Germans from Russia, the establishment of a repository to preserve these materials, and the publication of a yearbook containing articles on our history. Before such dreams could be realized, it was obviously necessary to increase the membership considerably. Membership promotion meetings during the year 1969 contributed towards this end. Such meetings were held at Denver; at Loveland, Colorado; at Scottsbluff, Nebraska; at Windsor, Colorado; at Lincoln, Nebraska; and at Fort Morgan, Colorado. All of these had some success. But it was necessary to go farther afield and to promote membership by mail. For this purpose funds were needed which the Society did not possess. For several months the whole operation was carried financially by its first president, David J. Miller. He advanced the money for postage and stationery and used the secretarial staff in his law office to do our work. Financial problems continued to be the constant concern of the Board of Directors through the early years. But, in spite of this and other problems, the Society survived its infancy, mainly because David Miller refused to accept defeat. At the end of the first five years he turned over a healthy Society to our second president, Ruth Amen. Ruth, as you are all aware, during her five-year term as president, erected an impressive structure on the foundation that he had established, Let me trace briefly our accomplishments during the twelve years of our existence.

Our Membership At the end of the year 1968, as I mentioned, we had about 100 members. By the end of this year we shall have about 5000 family memberships. This is good. But is it good enough? There are at least 500,000 recognizable descendants of Germans from Russia in the United States and Canada. Surely there must be among them more than 5000 families interested in the history of their forefathers. I throw the challenge to you: go out and get them! They are among your relatives, friends, and acquaintances.

Our Chapters The first local chapter of the Society was organized at Lincoln, Nebraska, in May 1970 and was granted its charter by the Board of Directors on 4 June of that year. The moving spirit in this venture, as you would be able to guess, was Ruth Amen. Much progress has been made since that time. We now have forty-five chapters, scattered over eighteen American states and two Canadian provinces. Local chapters increase the membership in the Society and heighten the interest in our work. Is there a chapter in your area? If not, why don't you take the lead in organizing one? The procedure is relatively simple and the results are rewarding.

Our Conventions The first international convention of the Society was held at Greeley, Colorado, in June 1970, with a registration of 250 people. Since then these annual gatherings have taken place three times at Lincoln, Nebraska, and once each-at Boulder, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Fresno, California; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington. Our convention here is the eleventh of the series. Registrations have ranged from 500 to more than 1000 and the programs have brought interesting historical and genealogical information and much enjoyment to the many hundreds of our people who have attended.

Our Archives One of the dreams that motivated our founders was the establishment of a repository in which materials on the history of our people could be collected and preserved. In the earliest months of our existence, David Miller discussed this idea with Esther Fromm, head librarian at the Greeley Public Library, who was an early member of the Society, An informal agreement was reached, later formalized with the Library Board, for the deposit of our books in the Greeley Public Library, which would then serve our members through interlibrary loan. This arrangement still exists, although our materials are now overcrowding the space that can be made available to us. The first books belonging to the Society were placed into the library in the summer of 1969. They were gifts from Dr. Karl Stumpp and Dekan Schwab in Germany, obtained through the persuasiveness of Emma Haynes, who is still our most active promoter of donations and acquisitions for our Archives collection. Bibliographies of our holdings were made available to our members over the years. The most comprehensive one, an annotated bibliography prepared in 1976, showed more than 575 items in the collection at that time. In the last four years new acquisitions have more than doubled this number. A new bibliography is now under preparation. Our Archives collection is something of which we can be very proud. It is undoubtedly the best of its kind on this continent. Later in this convention program we shall have a description of it from the person who knows it best, Emma Schwabenland Haynes,

Our Genealogical Records The Society's Genealogy Committee was established in May 1969, with Gerda Walker as chairman. She found an avid interest for genealogical research among our members and carried on an extensive correspondence answering their questions. Under her chairmanship the first three issues of our genealogical journal. Clues, were published. Since 1975, at first with Gordon Schmidt as co-chairman, Arthur Flegel has been chairman of the committee. Very extensive genealogical resources have been built up by gathering family information from our members. We have at the present time information about 20,000 families, undoubtedly the largest collection of such information on Germans from Russia anywhere in the world. If all our members gave us all the information that they possess about all their families, our records could be much more numerous and hence more useful to more of our members. Have you filled out ancestral charts and family group sheets on all the families about whom you have information,?

Our Regular Publications Since the first year of the Society's existence publications have gone out to the members on a regular basis, which they received in return for their membership dues. The first such publication was our Work Paper, which appeared twice a year in 1969 and 1970 and three times a year from 1971 to 1977 inclusive. At that time it was re- named the Journal and still appears three times a year. Its main content, as you know, is historical material contributed by some of our own members. An early editor was Dr. Jake Lebsack. Since 1974 Nancy Holland has done the job for us in a competently professional style. The second publication our members receive is a thrice-yearly Newsletter, the first issue of which appeared in October 1971. It is edited by Ruth Amen and brings you Society news and announcements. A prominent feature in each issue is news from our chapters, enabling them all to learn from each other what types of activities keep chapters alive. The third publication that goes out to all members is our genealogical journal, Clues, which I mentioned earlier. Beginning in 1973 as an annual publication, it now appears twice a year. There is an important point to be noted here, that is perhaps not realized by our members as widely as it should be. Historical societies in general are not as generous as we are in sending publications to members. I know this from personal experience, as I belong to several. In our case, the retail value of the publications that we send out to members is barely covered by the membership dues. With constantly increasing printing costs, something will soon have to give. Our Published Books Our first book publishing venture was as co-publisher of Dr. Karl Stumpp's Emigration from Germany to Russia. After an appeal from Dr. Stumpp, the Society agreed to help financially to make this publication possible. In 1971-72, with Arthur Flegel heading the fund drive, we raised donations of $10,000 towards the publication costs. In return we received 1000 copies of the book for sale, the profits from which produced ("he beginnings of our publishing fund. We have now acquired the exclusive publishing rights to this book, as well as the translation of the other Stumpp book, The German Russians. Both of them are still selling well and will be reprinted as needed. In 1973 we published our cookbook, Kuche Kochen, which immediately became a best seller and has remained such ever since. This was followed in 1975 by the publication of Hattie Plum Williams' scholarly work. The Czar's Germans, edited by three of our members, Emma Haynes, Phil Legler, and Gerda Walker. In 1976 we published the Mela Meisner Lindsay novel. The White Lamb, which has become a very popular item. In 1979 Dr. Becker of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan gave us the rights to his translation of the two Keller books, The German Colonies in South Russia. A newly revised edition of Volume I has just been printed and is available in our convention bookstore. We shall shortly also reprint my own book, From Catherine to Khrushchev, the supply of which is running low. I am donating the rights to this book to the Society. Other publications are under active consideration.

Our Book Sales Starting with the first convention, at Greeley in 1970, a bookstore has been a popular feature at our conventions. Soon after we set up our Headquarters in Lincoln in 1973, we also began to sell books from there. This business has grown steadily in the last few years. We sell not only the books published by the Society, but books published by our members and by others on the history of our people.

Our Foundation This is the fund-raising arm of the Society, which is becoming ever more important in our affairs. The idea of establishing a Foundation was introduced by Alice Heinz at a board meeting of 29 October 1970. It took some time to work out the details, but on 25 March 1974 the AHSGR Foundation was incorporated. It has been actively raising funds for our work since that time. The first president was Alice Heinz, who was succeeded two years ago by Gordon Schmidt. At the moment the Foundation is engaged in a task that will have a profound influence on the future of this Society. It is raising funds to construct a building for the Society on a site recently acquired in Lincoln, Nebraska. You will be hearing much more about this during the course of this convention. These are our accomplishments during the twelve years of our existence. Those of us who were involved, directly or indirectly, with the Society's beginnings in 1968, would never, in our wildest dreams, have pictured this tremendous progress. But after we have accomplished so much in a few short years, we must surely be intensely interested in making our work secure for generations to come. We have pressing needs. Unless we satisfy these, the Society's future is not assured. I am not a pessimist. I think our people will rise to the occasion when they understand the problem. What are our needs?

1. We need more volunteer workers. Much of the work of the Society up to this time has been done by dedicated volunteers. Outstanding among them are the people who have served on our Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Foundation over the years. They live in widely scattered parts of the United States and Canada, attend meetings four times a year in far-off cities at their own expense and devote countless hours to the work of the Society throughout the year. We owe them an immense debt of gratitude. Unfortunately human beings tend to get older and eventually less able to work. Some of the veteran members of our boards, who have been active in the Society since its earliest years, are reaching an age at which they would like to pass the torch to younger hands. Is there a sufficient number of these waiting on the sidelines ready to take over? I am hopeful, but I worry a bit about it. There are other volunteer workers in our ranks whose names are not so well known as those of the board members. They write articles for our Journal, they donate items to our Archives, they collect obituaries for our genealogical records, they recruit members, they organize a chapter in their area, they type cards for the Genealogy Committee, they do chores at head office, and so on. These are members who make a work contribution to keep the Society alive. We need many more of them. No matter what your talents or where you live, you too can help. Please give the Society a little of your time. Urgently needed at the moment is membership recruiting and chapter formation in many areas. The main effort in these has to be local, but head office will help you,

2. We need more paid staff at Headquarters. The major part of the work of the Society necessarily has to be done at our head office in Lincoln. Here our Executive Director, Ruth Amen, herself an unpaid volunteer (and what would we do without her?), has a full-time paid staff of two and several part-time helpers whom she introduced to you earlier. I am very proud of this staff of ours and mention them here because they deserve special recognition from all members for their devoted services. At the moment, because of the devotion of our staff, we are managing reasonably well, but there is always a backlog of work. Letters can often not be answered as promptly as they should be, making some members unhappy. There is a constantly growing demand for services, questions on history or genealogy, requests for translation of documents, orders for books, and so on. We welcome this trend as evidence of the increasing interest in the work of the Society, but it has brought a large increase in the workload at head office. More staff is needed to cope with it. It should be realized too that it is time that some of the work heretofore done by volunteers, especially by veteran board members, is transferred to paid staff. This has to come soon. More staff is needed. Why then do we not employ more staff? Two considerations are pertinent; money to pay salaries and space to work in.

3. We need a more secure financial structure to support our Headquarters operation. Our main revenue comes from membership dues, but 5000 memberships at $16,00 each do not provide enough revenue to carry on an operation the size of ours. Were it not for the volunteer services that we receive from our Executive Director and others and the income that we derive from the sale of our books, we could not operate with our present dues structure. Even with these helps, because of continuing inflation, we shall undoubtedly have to raise our membership dues again soon. Since too much of an increase can be self-defeating, the change will probably be relatively modest and will not really solve our problem. We could cut costs by dropping some of our services, but this is not a desirable solution. What measures would be helpful? I can see at least two: a substantial increase in membership, so as to lessen the overhead cost per member; and more life memberships, so as to provide a substantial capital sum, the income from which could be used to pay staff salaries. As I mentioned earlier, there are at least 500,000 descendants of Germans from Russia in the United States and Canada. One would think that at least ten per cent of them, 50,000, would be interested in a society such as ours, and ten per cent of these, 5,000, would be able and willing to become life members. That would provide a capital sum of $2,500,000, which, at present interest rates, would give us an annual income of $250,000. I'm dreaming, of course, but it is not an impossible scenario. We need an aggressive membership recruiting campaign in all chapters to get a larger percentage of that possible 500,000. We have one per cent now; surely we can raise that to two per cent or more. All it takes is for each member to get a member. Although 5000 life memberships are not at present within easy reach, we can surely soon reach a more modest goal, such as 1000 life memberships, if we make the effort. All it takes is $ 100 a year for five years, which many of our present members can afford. This would provide a capital sum of $500,000, which would be of considerable help in supporting our Headquarters office.

4. We need a Headquarters building, That this need is urgent is obvious to anyone who looks at our situation: Our staff members at Lincoln work under extremely crowded conditions. Office staff in business would become rebellious if they had to work under such conditions. We need more staff, but do not at present have work space for it. 4 Our valuable and constantly growing Archives collection is stored in the Greeley Public Library, where it has been since the Society's founding and where it is now overcrowding the space that the library can provide for us. We are very grateful to the Greeley Library Board and their librarians, particularly Esther Fromm, for their generosity to us in our formative years. But we are old enough now to be on our own. We must move out. Our rapidly expanding genealogical records, stored partly at Headquarters and partly at the Flegel home in Menio Park, California, need adequate space at Headquarters, where we shall eventually have to employ a full- time genealogist to service the many requests we receive from our members. Our book business is thriving. It is a service much appreciated by our members. But we do not have adequate space at Headquarters to store our stock of books and journals. Many of our books are stored in borrowed space, made available through the generosity of Lincoln members, in particular Jake Sinner. The need for a building is great. The means for constructing it are within our reach, if all members of the Society contribute to the building fund to the extent that they can. A year ago our plan was just a dream. We have begun to realize that dream. During the past year, beginning at last year's convention, the AHSGR Foundation received sufficient donations to make possible the acquisition of an excellent building site in Lincoln suitable for our purposes. Thus the first step has been taken. It is our hope that donations to the building fund in the next year or two will make it possible to begin construction of the building. You will hear more details about this in the next day or two. I appeal to all members to become participants in our dream. Help us to build our AHSGR Heritage Center as a monument to our courageous forefathers, who pioneered in Russia and then in America and who raised us in the blessed lands in which we now live. This Center will make it possible for us to preserve our historical and genealogical heritage for generations to come. I am convinced that the Heritage Center that we envisage will make our descendants proud of their forefathers, as they should be, and will serve to keep this Society alive in perpetuity. This is the key to our future!

International President Adam Giesinger accepts the key to the city from John O'Reilly, Mayor of Dearborn, Michigan at the convention's first general session.

Don Gaus leads the convention in singing the national anthems of the United States and Canada at the convention's opening session. From left, John O'Reilly, Mayor of Dearborn; International President Adam Giesinger, Mr. Gaus, AHSGR Executive Director Ruth M. Amen; Harold Sack, who officiated at the memorial service for deceased members; and Henry Felker, president of the Greater Detroit Chapter.

Photos courtesy of Kern-lit B. Karns.

RUSSIAN DOCUMENTS WHICH OUR ANCESTORS BROUGHT TO AMERICA Alexander Dupper The Germans from Russia brought to America many old Russian documents issued under the reigns of the tsars. The Russian Imperial Foreign Passport was a must for everybody to start the long and difficult journey to America, Being religious and law-abiding citizens, our ancestors took every necessary step to withdraw from their church congregations and the government administration in an orderly fashion. They sold their property, paid their debts, and bade farewell to the community, often with tears in their eyes. Most of the Germans from Russia realized that their departure was likely to be an irreversible finality, and so they took with them their most valuable possessions and documents. The struggle, the hard work, the joy of success, and the agony of the final tragedy-all are well recorded in the documents which our ancestors brought from Russia. I am greatly pleased by the large number and variety of documents our members are now donating to the Archives of AHSGR. After the October Revolution in 1917, and especially during the Stalinist terror in the nineteen-thirties, our people in Russia were forced to destroy most of their valuable documents, in order to avoid any incriminating connection with the past. America is therefore the only place left where the historically important documents of the Germans from Russia may still be collected. To collect those documents, and save them from oblivion before they are lost forever, is therefore our obligation. Now, let's take a look at some of those old documents from Russia. First, the parochial documents. As soon as a village was settled, our ancestors organized themselves into a congregation and built a prayerhouse or church. The sexton and the priest kept a church book or registry for each community. In that church registry book were recorded, in the German language, the birth and baptism, religious education, confirmation, communion, marriage, and death of each individual. Also, any person's joining or withdrawing from the congregation was duly recorded. All religious certificates issued by the church are therefore excerpts from the original church registry book. They are signed by the clergy and certified by affixing the church seal. For some of our ancestors who were illiterate, the affixed seal was the only proof that the document was genuine. All parochial documents issued before the middle of the nineteenth century are handwritten, and in the German language. Then came the printed forms for birth certificates and other church documents. The first forms were in the German language and printed in Germany. The parochial documents of that period were of beautiful designs. In fact, each baptismal, confirmation, and marriage certificate was a piece of fine art, to be framed and proudly displayed on a prominent wall in the living room, With the beginning of the russification policy under Tsar Alexander II, the church started to use preprinted forms in the Russian language. It is interesting to note that, although the new forms were in the Russian language, most of the clergy continued to fill them out in the old Gothic script. Only a few priests filled the forms out in Russian. It creates problems when you are looking for the equivalent words in different languages. Imagine a sexton in Volhynia, who knows the Polish language better than the German, filling out a parochial certificate in the Russian language for a German, and now you want to translate it into English, This requires four aspirin tablets, one for each corner of a German square-head, to make that translation. We have collected, so far, only a few certificates from the German public schools in Russia, These certificate forms are printed and filled out in the Russian language. So are the merit certificates issued by the schools to outstanding students. They are very impressive and signed by the public school inspector and other dignitaries of the district. The children learned the three R's in the school; they also found out where the seat of their pants was. This was pointed out to them with the ever-present bamboo stick. The various military documents of our Russian Germans are exclusively in the Russian language, and are signed in Russian by the bearer and the commanding officers. It's interesting to note that the Russian Germans served throughout the full length and breadth of the tsar's empire, in regiments stationed from Bessarabia in the west to Kamchatka in the far east. The most important military documents are the Discharge Billet and the Service Record. Both documents contain a lot of valuable information for the genealogist. Land and property deeds had to be approved by the village community, and certified by the county and district administration. They are in the Russian language. However, most of our people, including the village mayor, preferred to sign the documents in the German language. Often neglected, but historically very important, are the letters of Germans in Russia to their relatives and friends in America. They are handwritten in the Gothic script, and are a nightmare for translators. However, they show with great immediacy the whole human drama of our ancestors. I mentioned only a few of the documents that came from Russia to America. We are planning to give a more detailed description of some of the old Russian documents in the future. A last appeal: save the old Russian-German documents before they are lost forever and send them to AHSGR Headquarters! But, please, send the complete document! Do not send fragments; instead send the complete document from page one to the end. If you send xerox copies, make sure they are good, readable copies, and that you have not cut the edges; it is impossible to translate an incomplete word or sentence. In conclusion, I wish you all good luck in your search and research.

Dr. Alexander Dupper describes Russian documents brought to America by German emigrants from Russia in the Research Committee Open Meeting. Photo courtesy of Kermit B. Karns.

James J. Murray of the Greater Detroit Area Chapter displays an impressive example of an Imperial Russian document brought to the United States by his ancestors, a certificate of the Saratov General Vocational Administration. 7

Much valued and rare resources of the Society: members of the AHSGR attending the Dearborn Convention who were born in Russia.

Pictured above are Life Members of the AHSGR-persons whose contributions to the on-going work of the Society assure lifetime benefits not only to themselves, but to future generations of descendants of the Germans from Russia as well. THE BOOK ENTITLED DIE DEUTSCHEN KOLONIEN IN SUDRUSSLAND BY REV. KONRAD KELLER: A RARE FIND A. Becker To most of us the desire for knowledge about our ancestors comes late in life, usually after our parents and grandparents are no longer with us. I recall my parents, during their "Maastube" with relatives and friends, talking about their life in their homes in Russia, but I was a slow learner and their interesting conversations never once stirred my curiosity sufficiently, to make any inquiries about their "Heimat." Until I joined the army in 1942, I considered myself a Canadian and had no interest in the ethnic background of my parents. At the time of enlistment, the recruiting officer wanted to know where my father was born. When I told him Russia, he immediately wanted to know whether he was a naturalized British subject. Both of my parents had died but until I could prove that Dad had indeed been naturalized, I apparently could not join the army. 1 obtained a copy of Dad's naturalization papers from the Department of Vital Statistics in the Legislative Building in Regina. This form stated that he had become a naturalized British subject on 2 November 1900, in the North-West Territories of the Dominion of Canada, Regina; Judicial District of Western Assiniboia. His name was spelled Florian Baker and the form stated that he was a farmer and was formerly from Odessa in the Empire of Russia. I have not yet found out why, where, or when he changed the spelling of our last name from Baker to Becker. The other questions which this document aroused in my mind were: Since my Dad spoke German, why was he living in Russia? How did he get to Russia? Why did he leave Russia? Questions are easily formulated but the correct answers can be infuriatingly difficult to find. During the war, feelings towards anything German were pretty hostile. With a name like mine, it would have been very foolish to launch any type of ancestral research at that time. It was about 1965 when I decided to learn what I could about our own people and the colony of St. Joseph, near Balgonie, Saskatchewan, where they had settled. Parish records were scanty but fortunately Father Andreas Zimmermann had written a small twenty-page booklet on the Fiftieth Jubilee of the Colony, which contained some very useful information. Other sources of information were the school records, Land Titles Office, Provincial Archives, Canadian Pacific Railway Archives, the Glenbow Foundation in Calgary and of course, the pioneers. Age plays tricks with our memories and for historical accuracy, statements by pioneers sometimes require editing. St. Joseph's Colony in the early period was under the Episcopal Diocese of St. Boniface at Winnipeg and consequently some records should have been available from this source. The reply to my inquiries, however, indicated that there had been a fire in the archives and all records had been burned. Years later I discovered that these records had not burned and are presently in the archives of the Archdiocese of Regina, Saskatchewan- I mention this only to indicate some of the frustrations one encounters. Eventually, I had accumulated a great deal of information about the church, the school, and the community, but I still had not been able to find anything in writing about our people themselves during their stay in Russia, nor about their migration to and from that country. This "missing link" precluded any chance of completing my research; in my own mind I felt I had exhausted all sources of available information on this particular project and shelved it. Word, however, had circulated among my friends and relatives about my apparent dilemma. By a strange coincidence, a friend of the family by the name of Florian Stephan from Vancouver, British Columbia was visiting my brother Max, at his home m Regina. During their evening "Maastube" this gentleman was told the story of my project. Florian then made the following statement to my brother: "I know exactly the book that Tony needs; my father-in-law has it. His name is John Bichel and he lives in Macklin, Saskatchewan. I doubt very much that the old fellow would let Tony have it. However, I will work on him through my mother and see what I can do." Later that summer my sister visited me and stated that she had something precious that I wanted very badly, at which point she produced a -well worn book. This book was entitled Die Deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland, by Rev. Konrad Keller. It was printed in Odessa, Russia in 1905 and as you have doubtless guessed by now, this was the book owned by John Bichel at Macklin, Saskatchewan, which he actually loaned to me for a short time. I read and speak German very poorly but a quick glance soon showed me that pages 212 to 241 in this book contained a short chronicle on St. Joseph's Colony, the colony which our people had founded in Russia in 1804, where they had lived for almost 100 years and from where they had eventually migrated to St. Joseph's Colony near Balgonie, Saskatchewan.1 The "missing link" had been found, As I could not find time to complete the intended research immediately, I made a copy of the book and returned it to its owner by registered mail as soon as possible (10 January 1966). I later borrowed the book again and received the following letter from Mr. Bichel along with the volume:

The following is a letter written in flowing script which the OCR could not read. I have typed the contents into this page: (jwd) Macklin, Sask Box 335 Feb 14, 1866

Dear Mr. Becker, I am sending the book again pleas tack kar of it and retrun it when you ar finishet with it. So Mr. Becker das Buch ist doch ein Andengen fir mich ich brinke einen Mancher Abeit zu iber houht ... .[a section I cannot read] John Bichel

The story perhaps should and could end here, for at the time, I was gathering this material purely for my own satisfaction and interest. However, Doug Booking, the editor of Saskatchewan History and the man who had been instrumental in helping me with much of the research, felt that the story of the colony was worth publishing and urged me to complete the article. About the same time that all this excitement occurred about Keller's book, I had occasion to buy some life insurance for one of my sons. The agent, whose name was Frank Leboldus, and whose parents had a similar background to mine, stated that he saw my father's name in a book about Germans from Russia. The title of this book when eventually traced was, From the Steppes to the Prairies, by Msgr. George P. Aberle. One cannot help but feel that perhaps there had been some divine guidance in bringing these books about our people to my attention. With the information contained in the Keller and Aberle books, I was able to complete the article on St. Joseph's Colony and it was published in Saskatchewan History (Volume 20, Number 1, the winter issue of 1967).2 After discovering Msgr. Aberle's book, I wrote to him to inquire whether he knew of other books available dealing with this subject. I quote from his letter of 16 August 1966: "I do know that Father Gottlieb Beratz wrote a book on the colonies of the lower Volga, and Father Konrad Keller wrote two volumes on the colonies of Liebental and the Beresan districts. I tried many times to locate these books of Father Beratz and also Volume I of Father Keller's but so far without success. A year ago I was told by a man from Regina, Saskatchewan, whose name I forget, that there is a copy of Volume I of Father Keller's book in the hands of a very old couple.3 He assured me that he would see these people and if possible borrow it

10 for one week at least, but I never heard from him. Volume II by Father Konrad Keller (on the colonies of Landau, Speier, Suiz, Karlsruhe, Katherinental, Rastadt and Munchen) I obtained from an old man living near here, and I am using it at the present time in tracing the history of some of the pioneers around here." You may be sure I arranged an exchange of a copy of Volume I for a copy of Volume II with Msgr. Aberle at the earliest possible moment. I must admit that due to my ignorance, I did not appreciate the rarity of the copies of the books which I had by great good fortune obtained. As my copy of Volume I which I had made was very poor, I wrote to Dr. Karl Stumpp of Tubingen, Germany to inquire whether this book could be obtained in Germany, only to be informed that he had a copy but to his knowledge they could not be obtained in any of the current book stores. I also had some correspondence with Dr. J. S. Height of Franklin, Indiana, in which he indicated that he too was searching for a copy. In November 1965, in an effort to obtain a better copy, I wrote to the University Microfilm Department of Ann Arbor, Michigan, for a Xerox copy and was informed that they "searched the University of Michigan Catalogues, the Cumulative Book Index, the United States Library of Congress Catalogues, the British Museum, and the Keyser Bucher Lexicon, but could find no trace of a copy of Die Deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland, by Konrad Keller." Although I was primarily interested in the section on Josephstal, I did translate the entire book at my leisure, because I was intensely interested in the whole history of the movement of the Germans to Russia, which is really very well described in Rev. Keller's book. The man who persuaded me to proceed with the publication of the English translation was R. H. MacDonald, the editor of The Western Producer in Saskatoon. Because of the rarity of the book, he urged publication, but also implied to me that they would try and distribute these books through their book section. On completion of the printing, however, he felt that this book would have rather limited sale and consequently I would have to look after the distribution of the 1,000 copies on my own. Sales could hardly be described as brisk, for it took about twelve years to dispose of my stock. The response from our own people was very disappointing, but I did find some consolation in the fact that many of the university libraries in England, Canada, and the United States bought copies. I also had an order from the University of Haifa in Israel. Prof. R. J. Theodoratus of Colorado State University wrote. "From my own point of view, as a cultural anthropologist, this is probably the most important work on the German Colonies in Russia. I intended to make full use of Volume I in my lectures in a course which I teach on ethnology of Europe and the Mediterranean." One of my most interesting requests came from the Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen in Stuttgart. The following is a paraphrased translation of the request received from the head librarian, Gertrude Kuhn: "Mrs. E. S. Haynes has told me that you have translated Die Deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland by Konrad Keller into English. We are very interested in obtaining a copy, as unfortunately our German copy was lost during the war, and the original can no longer be obtained on the bookmarket." As a result of my interest in the story of the Germans from Russia, I have received many requests from people seeking information about their ancestors and relatives. One of the more interesting requests came from P. J, Polansky from Spain: "Please excuse me for taking the liberty of writing to you on the basis that I found your name and address in Dr. Kari Stumpp's book. The Emigration from Germany to Russia. For some time, I have been trying to trace relatives of mine that belong to the Reichardt families from the village of Rastatt, Russia, We last had written word from them around 1920. Recently, however, I found out that members of these families immigrated after the end of World War I to Saskatchewan, Canada, but we do not know where. Since your name appeared in Dr. Stumpp's book, I presume you have an interest in German Russians and that you might be able to give me a clue as to where I can locate these families." I remembered seeing this name in the article on St. Peter's Colony near Kronau, Saskatchewan written by Rev. H, Metzger. Sister Bernadine and I had translated this article into English, and it was published in The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society Bulletin.4 I sent Mr. Polansky a copy of this bulletin directing his attention to the Reichert names contained therein with slightly different spelling. He replied, "The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society Bulletin that you sent to me was a God-send. In it I was able to find two Reichert sisters whom we had not heard from since 1919. My grandparents had even forgotten where they lived in Canada, but we have now found their addresses, thanks to you, in the Vibank [Saskatchewan] area. This has really filled in a huge blank in our family history, and I am most appreciative of your kind efforts." A few years ago Mr. John Bichel died and I lost contact with the family. One day Mr. Bichel's son It Ambrose came through our office as a patient and I ascertained that he had fallen heir to Rev. Keller's Volume I. I contacted him on several occasions thereafter, hoping to buy the book and place it in the university library in Saskatoon along with my other books dealing with the Germans from Russia which are deposited there, but with no luck. While preparing this article, I phoned Ambrose hoping to get some first hand information as to exactly how and where his father obtained the book in order to relate it to this meeting. Unfortunately he did not know the answers to these questions. At the conclusion of the conversation I hinted once more that this very rare book should be in safekeeping in a library. He informed me that he had no intention of parting with the book. Later that same evening he phoned back saying, "I talked it over with my wife and if you want the book you can have it." I now have the book and will place it in the university library for safekeeping. If there is a lesson in this presentation, it would suggest that persistence in research pays off and leads to unexpected rewards. One can speculate that there must be other rare books sequestered among our people, the value of which is probably not appreciated by those who possess them. Regarding translations, the following is a quotation from The New York Times made by Walter Sorell, a translator and playwright-teacher at Columbia University: "Translation is a neglected step-child of literature-a thankless art, misunderstood and unappreciated. A French saying goes, 'A translation can be compared to a woman: if she is beautiful, she is not faithful, if she is faithful she is not beautiful,' Confusing as it may seem, the highest praise a translator can wish for is the complete denial of the very thing he has achieved. One should not notice that there has been a translation at all." Prof. J. S. Height made this comment about the translation: "This is not an easy book to translate. Your translation is indeed most readable, I like the style and the smooth English sentence structure. You deserve to be congratulated." In his preface, KeIIer stated, "The book being presented was written with the intention of informing future generations about the circumstances and events of the first German immigrations into South Russia, and the gradual development of their culture. Even if within it, no world shaking events are recounted, nevertheless I hope that it contains, as I believe, much of interest for all colonists in South Russia." In my opinion Father Keller succeeded admirably in his task. In conclusion I wish to paraphrase some remarks in the final paragraph of Rev. Keller's preface: "That the books include many deficiencies and errors in translation is well known to me, but dear little books, go out into the wide world and tell our people of the many things of bygone days."

Notes

1. The first four families arrived on 22 May 1886. 2. Reprinted in AHSGR Work Paper No. 6 (May, 1971) pp. 35-42. 3. This old couple who had the book, was actually Mr. and Mrs. Wendel Wagman, brother and sister-in-law to John Bichel, 4. Rev, H, Metzger, "Historical Sketch of St. Peter's Parish and the Founding of the Colonies of Rastadt, Katharinental and Speyer in Saskatchewan," The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society Bulletin Volume 5, Number 4 (Pall, 1974) pp. 7-29. Reprinted in AHSGR Work Paper No. 17 (April, 1975) pp. 21-32.

"Where to Find Your Genealogical Answers," an address to the Eleventh International Convention of the AHSGR by Mr. Robert E. Stiens, and the text of remarks by Mr. Arthur E. Flegel at the Genealogy Committee Open Meeting—items of particular interest to genealogists in the Society—will be published in Clues 1980, Part II, scheduled for distribution in October.

12 THE ART OF BLOODLETTING: AS PRACTICED BY MY FATHER Solomon L. Loewen The knowledge of the human body, its functions and how it maintains its health was poorly understood by early man. It is not surprising that many myths, misconceptions, and ill practices concerning health developed in all early cultures. Bloodletting was one of the oldest of all medical practices found among practically all tribes and peoples of the world. There were strong proponents for the practice of blood letting as well as those who vehemently opposed it. In the fifth century B.C., Hippocrates endorsed and recommended the practice. Two centuries later, Erasistratus, a highly recognized anatomist and physician, strongly opposed the practice. In the second century after Christ, Galen restored venesection, the cutting of veins for the purpose of letting blood, as a proper medical treatment which persisted for more than sixteen hundred years. He also recommended occasional arteriotomy, the cutting of an artery.1 In 1830 Marshall Hall wrote, "Bloodletting is not only the most powerful and important, but the most generally used, of all remedies. Scarcely a case of acute, or indeed chronic disease, occurs, in which it does not become necessary to consider the property of having recourse to the lancet.. . ."2 The lancet was the common instrument used in cutting a vein or artery. The practice of bloodletting was common for health purposes among the Germanic tribes. Various techniques of drawing blood to combat illnesses were carried over into Russia by the German immigrants when our forefathers settled in the land of the tsars. In Russia bloodletting was practiced as late as the present century. I have talked to a number of persons who have come to America from Russia since World War I and II, and they have all verified that bloodletting was still practiced among our people at the time they left Russia.

Purpose of Bloodletting An early concept of what constituted the well being of the body was based on a balance of body humors. These humors it was thought, consisted of yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood, all of which were influenced by seasons and the weather. If there was a good balance of the different humors, the result was good health. It was generally believed that a plethora, an overabundance, of body humors, including blood, was the most common cause of fevers and other illnesses. Relief, and a return to well being could come only by draining some of the oversupply of humors. Vomiting and diarrhea would relieve the body of an excess of yellow bile and of phlegm, and a hemorrhage of blood. Thus bloodletting was practiced at first more to remove an excess of blood rather than for any other reason. Bloodletting, however, was practiced by various tribes and peoples for almost any and all forms of human ailments. Sigerist reports that in a South American tribe, "The most popular method of driving out a spirit was bleeding through venesection or scarification and it was believed that the demon escaped with the blood."3 Sigerist reports further that "The 'natural' diseases (malaria, venereal diseases, tuberculosis, filariasis, skin eruptions) are treated 'rationally,' and among rational treatment are some that are almost universally found with primitives, namely poulticing, bloodletting, massage, vapor baths, and counter-irritation." He then added, "Bleeding through scarification, venesection, or cupping is practiced by most primitive peoples in the treatment of pneumonia, pleurisy, and other diseases, particularly those that are combined with fevers.... It brings certain relief by decongesting the system."4 Bleeding as a method of treatment no doubt gained support when persons suffering from fever diseases or headaches would suddenly feel relieved from spontaneous nosebleed, menstruation, or from some other form of hemorrhage. Ralph Major quotes a seventeenth century physician. Guy Patin, who said, "There is no remedy in the world which works as many miracles as bleeding." Patin bled his wife twelve times for a chest inflammation, his son twenty times for a persistent fever, and himself seven times for a head cold.5 Some physicians favored bleeding for head injuries as well as for fevers. George Washington was bled by venesection four times in two days for pneumonia just before his death.6 He was also bled by leeches on his throat at one time,7 It was not only a question of whether to bleed or not, but also when, where, and how much. Men like Pierre Brissot, early in the sixteenth century, would bleed near the lesion or organ that was diseased in contrast to what the Arabian physicians recommended, namely to stay as far away from the lesion as possible.8 Often violent controversy would develop whether to bleed on the right side or on the left. The time of the year was also important, whether summer, fall, winter, or spring, or in what phase of the moon. Some of these controversies were quieted somewhat after William Harvey published his discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628. 13 How often to bleed and how much blood to take were also discussed and often with a great deal of fervor. In the second century Galen suggested that the proper amount of blood to withdraw was seven ounces for the smallest and a pound and a half for the largest amount.9 In the eleventh century Avicenna believed a person had twenty- five pounds of blood and that he could lose twenty pounds and survive. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries bloodletters were advised to "bleed to syncope."10 This meant that a person would become faint, and then often go into shock and collapse. Dr. Benjamin Rush of Princeton, a physician to George Washington, would bleed "to the point of faintness." He believed that all fevers had a common cause.11 He claimed that bloodletting removed fevers and that the more blood withdrawn the more the fevers would be dispelled.12 Ambroise Pare, who lived in the late sixteenth century, "was the first man in his century to enter a protest against indiscriminate bleeding."13 Different writers say that there were many deaths due to unnecessary excessive bleedings. In Mainz an "Aderlasskalender," a "Calendar of Bloodletting," was published in 1457, which was then also printed in a number of other German cities.14 It is now a well-known fact that a person weighing 150 pounds has between nine and ten pounds of blood, or a good five quarts (ten pints). In blood transfusions usually a pint of blood is taken, one-tenth of the total of a person's blood, which will be replaced by volume in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. To restore the hemoglobin in such a loss may require days or weeks of time. Red blood cells are continuously destroyed and replaced again in a healthy body at the rate of three million cells per second. The normal life span of a red blood cell is 120 days.

Techniques Employed Primitive tribes used various crude sharp objects for drawing blood, such as sharp-edged stones, fish teeth, thorns. One tribe of Indians had specially designed arrowheads that would be shot into the patient in larger numbers and close together. They penetrated the skin only slightly and would cause light bleeding. Since barbers during ancient and medieval times used sharp instruments, they became the surgeons of the day. The business of the barber-surgeon flourished during the Middle Ages, both as bloodletters and as general surgeons. Kaethe Warkentin, who left Russia in 1943 and now lives in Hillsboro, Kansas, told me personally that barbers had still been used as bloodletters in the Mennonite villages when she left Russia. Venesection, the cutting of a vein, was commonly mentioned in early medical history. "Phlebotomy," Greek for venesection, was practiced by the Greeks and the phlebotome was the instrument used. Later in Anglo-Saxon the word for the instrument became "fleam," a term still used in medical literature. In German it is called "Fliete" and in Low German "Flet."15 The phlebotome or fleam, as used in phlebotomy or venesection, is a sharp-pointed, double-edged type of lancet or scalpel. At first it was a straight-handled tool, but later the blade was placed at right angles to the handle. In refinement the knife became enclosed in a box-like case with a spring which could be released with a button or lever. (See figure 1.) When the knife is held over a vein and the spring released, a cut is made through the skin and vein lengthwise, and the blood will spurt out. The common place to cut a vein was in the elbow, although thirty or more regions have been used. If the elbow or wrist is used, a tourniquet is tied above the elbow; this makes the vein more firm, cuts better, and the blood flows more freely. The spring lancet used on humans is quite small; a larger one is used for barnyard animals.

Figure 1. Single-blade spring lancet, the type my father used in venesection. 14 Cupping was another method used in bloodletting. In German it is called "Schroepfkoepfe setzen " To draw blood the skin had to be scarified, that is scratched, pricked, or cut lightly. The scarificator might be a single small lancet, or more commonly a multi-bladed type of lance or an instrument with a cluster of closely set short pins or needles. (See figure 2.)

Figure 2. Multi-blade lancets or scarificators used in cupping. (Reproduced, with permission from Davis and Appel, p. 79)

Cupping may be dry or wet. In dry cupping very little or no blood was withdrawn from the skin The scarificator would cut or prick the skin just enough to draw blood to the region with little or no blood oozing from the scarified area. This was done primarily on limbs when there was poor circulation with the idea of bringing more blood to that part of the body, thus improving the circulation. A scarificator invented by Carl Baunscheldt of Prussia (1809-1860), which he called Lebenswecker an "Awakener of Life "16 was a very common instrument in almost all Mennonite households in Russia, according to Kaethe Warkentin The instrument was not made in Russia, but imported from Germany. It is a common item in many Menonite homes in Canada today. (See figure 3.) Following such skin scarification a "Wonder Oil" or Wunderoel, a homemade remedy was then used in rubbing it into the punctured skin and with a great' deal of vigor and energy. This would soothe the cut skin and presumably help the circulation of the blood.

Figure 3. Baunscheidt’s Lebenswecker, a device used in dry cupping. (Reduced, with permission from Davis and Appel, p. 79.

In wet cupping cuts made into the skin were usually deeper so that blood would flow more freely. Blood would be drawn out of the skin by cupping. Animal horns were some of the earliest cupping instruments used, the narrow end was cut so as to form a small hole through which the cupper could suck the blood when the larger end of the horn was placed over the scarified skin. Cattle horns were most commonly used. Later metal or glass cups of various designs came into use. These were often provided with some sort of suction apparatus, often highly sophisticated. Or heat would be applied to them before they were placed over the cut skin, which, when they cooled-would form a partial vacuum and thus draw blood into them.15 These cups were often made to hold a small burning candle, a burning wick, or a little alcohol that would be lit. When applied to the skin the flame would consume the oxygen, create a vacuum, and the cup would fill with blood. A dozen or two of these cups would be applied to the chest or back of a person suffering from pleurisy or pneumonia. Peter Penner, now a professional glassblower in Wichita, Kansas, told me that as a small boy in South Russia he had had pneumonia and that a number of cups had been placed on his chest for drawing blood. This was in the late twenties. He blew a glass cup for me. The fleam, phlebotome, or "Flet" used as scarificator for wet cupping was generally a multi-blade spring lancet with three to eighteen blades. The instrument was in the form of a cube, and when placed on the skin and the spring released, it would make a number of closely placed cuts. The cup would then be placed over this area and be filled with blood. The depth of the cut could be regulated. Leeching was another method used in bloodletting, which came later than phlebotomy and cupping. The European leech, or blood-sucker, Hirudo medicinalis, was most commonly used. Those used in this country were generally imported, for the American leeches are not nearly so good as the European leech, In the late nineteenth century they sold for five dollars per hundred. These leeches, two to four inches in length, dull olive green in color with longitudinal stripes, were found in streams in central and northern Europe. The leeches were bought by apothecaries and the demand became so acute that many of the streams became depleted. The leech attaches itself by its two suckers. The one around the mouth has thin, chitinous plates with which it cuts the skin so that the blood will flow freely and the worm can suck up the blood. The saliva of the leech contains an anti-coagulant, hirudin, which prevents the coagulation of the blood. Even after the worm is filled and releases itself, the blood will continue to flow for some time. A leech will gorge itself until it is as thick as a thick finger and reaches six or more inches in length. Three or four dozen leeches may be set at one time, and so a considerable amount of blood can be withdrawn from a person in this way. It will take a leech six to eight months to digest a meal like this, which is not very practical for bloodletting. Placing such a leech into warm, salty water and stroking it, will cause it to regurgitate its whole meal shortly and soon be ready for another meal. An advantage of leeching over cupping is that leeches can be placed in areas where cupping is not practical. They, however, do not always want to feed when you want them to.

Bloodletting as Practiced by my Father My father, Jacob Loewen, came to America in 1874 from the Ukraine as an eighteen-year old lad. In Russia he had already indicated an interest in the healing arts and had learned some of the techniques of bloodletting from his grandmother together with other health cures. Here in America he settled on a farm in Marion County, Kansas, where he remained until he retired nearly forty years later. As his family grew, the nine boys and four girls soon provided sufficient help on the farm so that he could devote more of his time to his natural inclination and interest, that of healing and helping the sick. And so he became a recognized "country doctor," well-known over the county and far beyond even into other states. He never went to a medical school nor was he ever licensed, and so he could never ask for any specific charges. When people would ask how much they owed him, he would say, "What is it worth to you?" To some it apparently wasn't worth much, for he got many dimes, quarters, and half dollars for his services, and occasionally a dollar bill or two. He set many broken bones, reduced dislocated shoulders, fingers and toes, massaged sore muscles and sore backs, and extracted hundreds of aching teeth. Not only did he help suffering mankind, but he also attended to many sick and diseased farm animals. He had a large supply of homeopathic medicines and homemade liniments and ointments. He also practiced bloodletting, not extensively during my memory, but occasionally when he felt that conditions called for it. I remember very distinctly how I would slip into his office as a three or four year old lad while he was cupping or leeching patients. As far as I recall he used leeches only once, for he found them hard to keep alive and they seemed not to be too efficient. He did some dry cupping with his Lehens-wecker and Wonder Oil. He had another homemade oil he called Sch6n6l, or Good Oil, for it smelled good and had a much more pleasant odor than some of the other ointments he used. Wet cupping I remember him using only once, and that was when I slipped unnoticed into his office while he was doing it. Phlebotomy, or venesection, he did more frequently, especially on himself as he got older. He apparently suffered from high blood pressure and found that bleeding gave him at least some temporary relief. He had a small spring-triggered lancet he applied either to the cephalic or the basilic vein in the elbow. He had this done two or three times a year during the last several years of his life. At first one of my older brothers would do it for him, but for the last few years I did it, the last time just a few months before his death. He died from a stroke at the age of over eighty-five years.

16 By request I demonstrated venesection a few times to my class in Human Anatomy and Physiology, a class I taught for many years at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas. 1 had no difficulty in getting volunteers from the class for the demonstration of phlebotomy. Notes

1. Rudolph E. Siegel, Science, Medicine and Society in the Renaissance, Alien G. Debus, ed., Vol. 1 (New York: Neal Watson Academic Publ., Inc., 1972), p. 247. 2. Matthew J. Kluger, "The History of Bloodletting," Natural History, Vol. 82(9), 1978, p. 78. 3. Henry E. Sigerist, A History of Medicine, 2 vols. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1951), p. 197. 4. Sigerist, p. 202. 5. Ralph H. Major, A History of Medicine, 2 vols. (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1954), p. 459. 6. Major, p. 727. 7. D. T. Atkinson, Magic Myth and Medicine, (Greenwich, Conn.; Fawcett Publ, Inc., 1962), p. 151. 8. Major, p. 463. 9. Audrey Davis and Toby Appel, Bloodletting Instruments in the National Museum of History and Technology, (Washington, D.C.; Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1979), p. 5. 10. Atkinson, p. 153. 11. Major, p. 727. 12. Atkinson, p. 114. 13. Atkinson, pp. 114-115. 14. Davis and Appel, p. 7. 15. Davis and Appel, p. 8f. (The material considered here under techniques is discussed extensively by Davis and Appel and in great detail. It is an excellent reference for coverage of this material.) 16. Davis and Appel, p. 31.

Solomon L. Loewen shares insights into the art of bloodletting at the open meeting of the Folklore Committee. A teacher of biological science for many years. Professor Loewen accumulated his knowledge of the practice from his own researches and from recollections of his father, a "country doctor" who immigrated to the United States from Friedensfeld, South Russia in 1874.

The open meeting of the Folklore Committee was chaired by Ruth K. Stoll of Yuma, Arizona. Her recollections of German-Russian riddles set the example for other members who in turn contributed a motley assortment of humorous puzzlements for the delight of the audience. These gleanings of "lore" will appear in the Folklore Forum scheduled for publication in the spring 1981 issue of the AHSGR Journal.

Photos courtesy of Kermit B. Karns.

17

Volunteer staffers assist members researching family lines in the Genealogy Consulting Workshop.

An always-popular spot, the convention bookstore. At the right, bookstore managers Devaun and Esther Cole prepare to receive payment from Lydia Schmick while Ruth M. Amen looks on.

The Hospitality Room provided at this year's convention offered a place to exchange messages, to rest, work, and chat.

18 OUR AUTHORS AND THEIR BOOKS Nancy Bernhardt Holland It seems like a long time ago though I don't remember being so very young at the time (and I realize that both are entirely possible) that my grandfather received in the mail a copy of an anniversary book of the Lutheran Cross Church in Fresno, California. Inside, and in English, was a short history of the Germans from Russia describing the manifesto of Catherine the Great and the migrations of the Germans to Russia and later the Americas. I remember with what avidity I read and re-read those pages. Not that the information was so new — hadn't Grandpa already told me most of this story already? - but somehow being able to read it myself made it all true in a way it had never seemed before. I remember how we passed the book around town from family to family and how pleased we were when after several nervous months it was returned to us, dog-eared and tattered, but still with the precious confirmation inside of the truth of our history. Perhaps even as recently as several years ago my experience with the anniversary book would not have been unique, but we've come a long way since then and now . . . volumes abound attesting to the truth of our history, our body of belief, our corpus of folklore and tradition. There are lots of books (and in English too!) about us now from monumental lifetime studies to unassuming family histories. And I'd like to describe some of them for you. All the books I'm going to discuss are special because they're about us - and they're extra special because all of them were written by our own authors, fellow members of AHSGR. I would like to mention first a volume of particular interest to many Michigan members, a book by your native son, Michael J. Anuta of Menominee, Michigan, East Prussians from Russia. The book is the story of East Prussia and of a group of East Prussian families who immigrated to the Russian Province of Volhynia in the lS60's. The book provides an interesting description of their way of life in the fertile region north of Zhitomir where they remained for the next quarter century. I want to share an excerpt from the book with you, a wolf story: ... a man traveling from a visit to a neighborhood musical gathering was carrying his violin with him when taking a trail through the woods. By accident, in the semi-darkness, he fell into a wolf pit. It was empty but it was also too deep for him to climb out of without assistance. He decided to await daylight when he might be missed or someone could hear his calls. Not long after falling into the pit a wolf came along and also fell into the pit. Having no weapon except the violin, the man started playing the violin and the wolf cowered in fear of the strange noise, and stayed on his side of the pit. However, when the man stopped playing the wolf prepared to attack. When the man did not return home, a search was started and his violin music led the rescuers to the pit where the wolf was dispatched and the man rescued (pp. 65-6). But the story which tops them all is Mr. Anuta's father's story of returning home from an errand to a neighbor. The young man stopped to rest in the bole of a large tree because it had started to rain and he wanted to keep dry. Unfortunately, a wolf came along, and also preferring not to be wet, entered the bole of the same tree: The wolf did not seem to know he [the man] was there because of the thunder, flashes of lightning and the rush of wind and rain upon the leaves and trees. The wolf being familiar with this tree turned around and backed into the hole. The young man spread his legs apart to allow the wolf room to get in. What to do? The best defense, he decided was an offense. He dropped down on the wolf grasping the wolf's ears with both hands and clamping his legs around the wolf, The surprised wolf took off like the wind with the young man holding on for dear life. Now, he could not let the wolf go for he would turn and tear him up. He hung on and steered the wolf by his ears out of the woods and through a field toward one of the home sheds built for sheep. The shed had a sloping roof at the lower end of which was a pile of lumber. A hired hand saw the commotion and yelled, "Uncle, grab hold of a bush." However there was no bush near and they were heading for the lumber pile and roof shed. The wolf was steered over the lumber pile, on to the shed roof and over the high side of the shed and into a duck pond on the other side. The wolf and rider plunged through the air in a furry whirling mass and into the water. Letting go of the wolf, the young man swam to shore while the wolf finding himself in the habita-

19 tion of man, quickly disappeared. The young man had only a case of extreme fright, some bramble scratches and an unbelievable story to tell his family ... (p. 66). Mr. Anuta further describes what happens to his people after they leave wolf-infested Volhynia and settle in Wisconsin. He himself is a member of this group of East Prussians and his own family encapsulates the history of these people rather interestingly, His grandparents were born in East Prussia; his parents were born in Volhynia; Mr. Anuta himself was born in the United States. His book is based on his own experiences growing up in a close-knit settlement of Prussians as well as research in the United States and Europe. In addition to being an author, Mr. Anuta is a practicing attorney - and has been for fifty years. He has also served for ten years as a municipal judge. He has been singled out for special honors from the Michigan State Bar Association and was recently presented with an Award of Merit from the Historical Society of Michigan for his work in preserving the history of Menominee County. The mention of monumental works on the Germans from Russia immediately brings to mind From Catherine to Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans — without question the most complete, authoritative, and well- written history of our people. This one volume deals objectively and specifically with all German settlements in Russia from the time of Ivan the Terrible to the present decade and describes further emigrations to the New World. An example of meticulous scholarship, copiously detailed, and drawing on sources in four languages, the book is a reference and benchmark for all future historians of the Germans from Russia. Always scholarly, but still readable, the book is the work of our own international president, Adam Giesinger of Winnipeg, Manitoba. As he describes himself, "I was born on my father's homestead in central Saskatchewan in 1909, the pioneer days in that area, and I had the privilege of being born in a sod house my grandfather, an expert at that type of construction, had built when he came to Canada from North Dakota in 1905." Professor Giesinger did not attend school until he was eight years old, but by that time he had already taught himself to read. At the age of thirteen he began attending a boarding school in Regina. He continued on to get a bachelor's degree in history before his interests were diverted into mathematics and chemistry in which he persevered to a Ph D. He came back to history after having retired from a distinguished career as a professor of chemistry. His abiding love for his first major is clear to those who've had the pleasure of reading From Catherine to Khrushchev, An interesting autobiography is The Pastor: The Life of an Immigrant by the late Fred William Gross. This book describes the author's early years in Johannestal and Grossliebental, Russia; his painful parting from his family and familiar world to come to the United States, and his career as a minister to congregations of Germans from Russia in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil. The book also includes descriptions of his return trips to the USSR where he was reunited with members of his family who survived the war and Soviet persecutions. A fascinating and brand-new book is The Germans from Russia in Oklahoma by Douglas Hale, a professor of history at the University of Oklahoma. The volume is one in a series of books, "Newcomers to a New Land," which analyzes the role of the major ethnic groups that have contributed to Oklahoma's history. Professor Hale must, of course, give an account of the manifesto of Catherine the Great and the response to her Russian invitation among the Germans but he manages to give even these overly-familiar facts a freshness that makes the reader think he's hearing them for the first time. The freshness, achieved by using concrete specifics in drawing his history, distinguishes the rest of the volume as well. It's full of detail and delight and would serve as an excellent model for similar volumes in the other states and provinces, Of great interest to Black Sea Germans is the trilogy by the late Joseph S. Height, longtime professor of German at Franklin College in Indiana. The first volume, Paradise on the Steppe, provides a cultural history of seventeen Catholic colonies in the Odessa area. The second volume, Homesteaders on the Steppe, focuses on sixteen Lutheran colonies in the same area. The third, Memories of the Black Sea Germans, published posthumously, documents the history of the Black Sea Germans from their trek to Russia through life in the colonies to pioneering days in North Dakota and Saskatchewan. All three volumes are rich in folklore with many pages devoted to customs and culture - poetry, nursery rimes, stories, lots of solid history plus much for just plain pleasure. And still warm from the press is a new edition of Volume I of The German Colonies in South Russia 1804 to 1904 by the Reverend Conrad Keller, translated by Dr. Anthony Becker of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The book was originally published in Odessa in 1905. The author describes the contents as "a brief survey of the development of the German colonies in South Russia during the last 100 years" — i.e. the period between 1804- 1904.

20 The volume concludes with a section on the colonies of the Liebenthal district and detailed histories of the four Catholic colonies of the district: Kleinliebenthal, Josephstal, Marienthal, and Pranzfeld - villages from which many migrants came to western Canada, especially Saskatchewan. In addition to the accounts of the 100 year history of the four villages, there is a list of the founding families of each village and short biographies of the parish priests who served them. The book is outstanding for its wealth of detail, but occasionally Father Keller's generalizations provide a bit of amusement, as in his description of the character and outward appearance of the typical Black Sea German: The German colonist is usually good-natured, honest and faithful, but only so long as he is not put to the crucial test. He is somewhat dull, mostly serious, seldom friendly and cheerful, generous in small matters, neat in many respects, not usually agreeable and hospitable to strangers. He is sensual as is shown by his lewd language in conversation. He is proud, ambitious, boastful, vengeful, stingy and superstitious. [But he is also] courageous, valiant and able, and has a taste for order and discipline, which makes him an excellent and serviceable soldier, openly recognized as such by even the Russian officers. The German colonists are, in the main, a handsome and healthily built race of men . . . Their complexion is mostly fair, with gray, less often blue, or black eyes . . , The forehead is seldom high, and the eyes are moderately large with heavy eyebrows. The noses of the blondes are usually pointed, and of brunettes, flat; the mouth and the ears are rather large. The facial expression is serious, frequently indifferent, and among many, crafty. The neck generally is short, the chest stately and broad, and the arms strong and muscular.... After the age of forty, many of the colonists tend toward corpulence, which is especially true of the women, among whom there are many individuals weighing eight to ten Pud (Pud = 40 pounds) (pp. 96-7). Dr. Becker is himself a descendant of those good-natured, honest and corpulent emigrants from Josephstal, one of the villages Father Keller chronicles. His family immigrated to Russia from Reichenbach, Germany and later moved to Saskatchewan where Dr. Becker was born. After graduation from the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Becker took up the study of medicine at McGill University. Since 1952 he has been chief of the department of radiology at St. Paul's Hospital in Saskatoon as well as a diagnostic radiologist in group practice in that city and a professor of diagnostic radiology at the University of Saskatchewan. His translation of the Keller book has been described as "most readable," distinguished by a "smooth English sentence structure," "wonderful," "much easier to read than the original... a fine job." As R. H. MacDonald, executive editor of Saskatoon's Western Producer puts it. Dr. Becker's translation has rendered a "valuable service not only to descendants of German migrants to Canada but to the history of the country as a whole." Volume II is also available in a translation by Dr. Becker, The 293 page volume describes the ecclesiastical, political, geographical, and statistical situation of the German Beresan villages. Landau, Speier, Suiz, Karlsruhe, Katharinental, Rastadt, Munchen. A most interesting, if very small, book is a reprint of an article which first appeared in Anthropological Quarterly. Titled The Volga Germans in Old Russia and in Western North America: Their Changing World View, the article examines the historical and cultural background of the Volga Germans and the changes in values and attitude the New World has had upon them. I quote from the discussion of Arbeit: . . . For German peasants on the Volga, like those on the Rhine, "work rendered life sweet" (Arbeit macht das Leben suss). The Volga Germans idealized work in songs, proverbs, and other folklore to such an extent that its taste was considered far better than that of any food (Die Arbeit schmeckt besser als Essen). Consequently, the colonists expressed no sympathy for women and children who had to work alongside the men. Nor did they consider it harmful to carry a pale child from his sickbed and place him on a wagon so that he could watch over the team while the rest of the family labored in the fields. Work was such an integral part of the Volga German world view that it was sometimes recognized as a personalized presence. It was not something to be done; it was someone to be conquered. With scythe in hand, the German colonist

21 in Russia would march into the fields and exclaim: "Arbeit, komm her, ich fress dich auf!" — "Come, work, I will devour you!" . . . Neighboring Russian peasants, on the other hand, often viewed work from a decidedly different standpoint. "Rabota durakiv lyube" says one Russian proverb from the Ostrogozhsk Uyezd in southern Russia, "work loves fools" .. . (pp. 212-13). The article was written by our well-known (and much beloved) Folklore Committee Chairman now pursuing studies for his doctorate at the Folklore Institute at the University of Indiana, He is also the author of "The Volga German Catholic Life Cycle" which will be published by AHSGR, To some of you he may be best known as Die Rosie ihre Mann, and of course he's Michael J's father. I mention his name not only for the work he has already done, but for the volumes we are all confident he will write, our author, Timothy J, Kloberdanz. Of particular interest to Volga Germans is a volume by a distinguished newspaperman from Washington State, Fred C. Koch's The Volga Germans in Russia and the Americas from 1763 to the Present. This volume tells the story in rich detail of the original emigration of 27,000 Germans (primarily from Hesse) who, responding to Catherine's Manifesto in the 1760's, founded 104 colonies along the Volga River. Mr. Koch describes the difficulties of the early years and devotes an interesting chapter to folklore, proverbs, superstitions, folk medicine, games, life cycle and holiday customs. Later chapters cover migrations to North and South America and discuss the fate of the Germans who remained behind in the Soviet Union. The book has been described as a "well- documented narrative" making an "enthralling story which has never before been told so completely in the English language." The author has been cited as a "dedicated scholar" who writes with "sympathy, imagination, and a sense of tragic destiny." Though very few of us know the language, there are probably not many members of the AHSGR who don't know that the words "Shukar Balan" mean "White Lamb." The historical novel of that name by Mela Meisner Lindsay tells the story of Evaliz, a young German Russian girl who, wishing to be more than an "ox of the field" as she perceives the other women in the German colonies in Russia to be, longs to escape to America. The book describes the realization of her dream, and the man she loves who makes it all possible, and the hardships she endures before and after emigration. Through the lips of the heroine the author draws from experiences and stories of her own mother and speaks for thousands of German Russian women who have made their homes in America. I can't resist sharing with you one of my favorite passages from the book, a wolf story. In the novel Evaliz has helped her sister deliver a baby under very trying conditions and as a reward she is allowed to go along to Nizhni- Novgorod on the annual trip to store up supplies. Just as the family has finished packing up the sleigh, and said their prayers for an auspicious journey, a neighboring couple come floundering through the snow begging to be taken along to the city because their baby has contracted diphtheria and they're anxious to take it to a doctor. We travel with the group to Nizhni-Novgorod and get to see the city in all its squalor and splendor. Unfortunately the baby dies on the return Journey. Then Mrs. Lindsay describes what else happened on the way home; The anxiety of getting back home is in man and beast alike. Our horses run freely, without a hint of the whip. I peek out to see if the other two sleighs are still following us. They are. They look like black shadows skimming over the white plains. Each driver chooses his own route, since there are no roads on the wide expanse of wind-swept snow, Suddenly there is a faltering in our smooth flight. The steady pace of our horses is broken. They are filled with alarm. The loud shouts of Wilhelm and Johann drown out the silver clamor of the troika bell. I push away the covers and look out over the desolate snow and see nothing. But Wilhelm understands the danger, "Snow wolves! Flanking our left," he cries, ordering Johann to sit down and keep his head. [Johann is the father of the baby who has just died.] "We'll outrun them. Hoi! Hoi!" he shouts, getting to his feet also and applying the braided plotka, the whip, to the horses' rumps for the first time. But ordering Johann to do something is like talking to the wind. Half-crazed he struggles with Wilhelm to get hold of the reins, confounding the already frantic horses. Once as a boy he had an encounter with wolves, and he has not forgotten. "In the name of God, sit down!" Wilhelm thunders. Wilhelm forces his elbow into Johann's chest and compels him to sit down, but only for a moment. Then Johann is

22 up again more bothersome than before. Our horses cannot keep their heads, with Wilhelm and Johann fighting over the reins. "Throw out everything but the quilts," Wilhelm commands. Minna [the mother] lays aside her still bundle and together we struggle to get the heavy barrels of oil overboard, next the sacks of heated sand, then everything Wilhelm had bought, the bolts of bright fabric, metal chests of Tabak and tea, cones of wax, the China doll for Lydia, the schoolmaster's books and slates. Out they go! It makes me sick to see them spill over the snow. So far, our three-horse team has not laid eyes on the wolves. Wilhelm has been able to keep them slightly ahead of the seething pack. But there is no mistaking, they have caught the scent that rides the wind, and Wilhelm's soothing words have little effect on them. . . . Then suddenly, over the white crest of snow on Johann's side come the snarling wolves! They come on in droves, their fangs bared. Closer and closer they come, and once more Wilhelm tries to out-circle them. But our horses panic. They will not settle to their harness. "Oh God," I pray, "save us from a terrible death." Absolute chaos reigns inside our sleigh. Johann demands that Minna throw the body of the child to the wolves. "Throw it out," he shouts. "Throw it out, to save us from those fangs!" He takes hold of the bundle, pulling hard. But Minna resists him, her cries agonizing and terrible, while she clings to the still form with arms strong as iron. "No, Johann! No! God help me, I cannot!" .. . The struggle goes on between them. . . . "Give it," Johann shouts, his eyes filled with blue-white fire. "What good is it now? What good I ask you? Let go! Minna, let go'" He grabs hold of the wrapping and tears it away. "No!" Minna wails. "It is my heart — my breath — my entire being! Ach, Gott No!" Her bloodcurdling cry is loud enough to wake the dead, Johann is a demon. With brutal force he wrests the body away from Minna, then uttering an oath he throws it to the oncoming wolves. It is a pitifully small bundle, bouncing crazily in a spray of snow. Minna grips the side of the sleigh with iron fingers, screaming her heart out. "Lieber Holland! Dear Lord!" I wail at the awfulness, and my heart breaks with hers. The ferocious beasts snatch up the tiny token, tearing at it, but not all of them are satisfied with so small a morsel. Only a few stay behind to devour it. Then suddenly, there is more offered them. Minna lets out an ungodly cry and throws herself from the sleigh. A grey wave swarms over her body, yapping greedily. But less than a score of wolves stay behind to worry with the paltry heap that was once a woman. There was much more to be had. Now with the smell of blood in their nostrils the remaining wolves come on with even greater lust. Then we are speeding erratically within the swarming mass. Some of the wolves leap high against our squealing, ranting horses, aiming for their throats. Wilhelm tries desperately to drive them off. Shouting terrible shouts, he swings the whip hard over the lean, muscular bodies of the yelping wolves. Some of them tumble over the snow, howling in pain. Yet they rise again and come after us with added fury (PP. 40-2). Eventually Johann, crazed with emotion, falls off the sleigh himself, and is devoured by the wolves. The horses are devoured by the wolves. But Evahz and her brother survive this ordeal and are rescued later — to go on and suffer more ordeals. There are lighter moments in the narrative too and everyone no doubt has a favorite passage. I might have chosen something more pleasant, but I like wolf stories. 23 The book has been the subject of much attention, widely reviewed and featured in many publications and the recipient of awards. The White Lamb won the adult fiction "Top Hand" award from the Colorado Author's League in 1977. It has been approved for purchase by a Kansas committee of state educators and is being used as a history book in Kansas junior high schools. The author was born in Russia, in Kindsvatter Kutter near the Don Cossack border. She came to America in the spring of 1905 soon after the Russo-Japanese war in which her father served as a soldier of the tsar. Mrs. Lindsay grew up on the Kansas prairie near the town of WaKeeney. She lives now in Denver, Colorado. Her book is the product of forty years of work and a lifetime of listening to details of the lives of the Germans from Russia. A fascinating contribution to the history of the Black Sea Germans is The Black Sea Germans in the Dakotas by the late George Rath, an Evangelical minister and professor of modern languages at Peru (Nebraska) State College. The volume gives a brief history of the original emigration from Germany to Russia and then to the United States, but concentrates on Black Sea settlements in North and South Dakota, giving place names of the original settlements, a history of the churches established by Black Sea Germans and biographies of some of the outstanding ministers who served them. A history of German language publications is also included. One volume you didn't have to come to an AHSGR convention to find is Ingrid Rimland's The Wanderers. This historical novel was published in hardback, then distributed across the country in a Bantam paperback edition. Among other awards the book was designated "the best first novel of 1977 by a California writer." Timothy Kloberdanz summarizes the novel as follows: The opening chapters of the novel are set in the Molotschna area of the Ukraine, where Low German-speaking Mennonites had established agrarian villages in the early nineteenth century. By 1914, most of the Mennonite colonies in South Russia had become quite prosperous and consequently were the envious targets of less affluent neighbors. In The Wanderers, Ingrid Rimland paints an all-encompassing picture that effectively captures not only the unique life style of the Russian Mennonite colonists but the historic events that would forever change their once peaceful existence: World War I and the Russian Revolution; civil war and Soviet collectivization; World War II and the Nazi Blitzkrieg; the long trek of many Russian Mennonites into war-ravaged Germany; the Battle of Berlin and the ultimate defeat of the Third Reich and finally the emigration of numerous hope-filled Mennonite refugees to the South American jungles of Paraguay in 1948. The book makes these events real, personal, and affecting by focussing on three generations of women who survived these ordeals. Much of the drama comes from Ms. Rimland's having lived what she describes. She was herself born in Halbstadt in the Ukraine five years before the Nazi occupation and with her family made the harrowing trek to Germany and the jungles of eastern Paraguay. Her novel has been described in these words by one respected reviewer: The Wanderers, a deeply moving and beautifully written novel by Ingrid Rimland will demand your complete attention until you turn the final page. So prepare yourself before even starting this book by reserving a secluded spot, a comfortable chair, and an evening during which you can afford to turn loose your imagination and emotions. After finishing this remarkable novel, you may well need to simply sit back and slowly recover from the exhilarating experience of having read it! A familiar name among Germans from Russia is that of Richard Sallet, a Reichsdeutscher who for several years traveled widely in the Midwest serving as managing editor of the Dakota Freie Presse. He was obviously fascinated and amused by that strange breed of Germans (those from Russia) that he found among the paper's subscribers. After returning to Germany, Sallet studied at the University of Koenigsberg, and in 1931 presented a doctoral dissertation based on his experiences among the Germans from Russia, The main part of the thesis is a detailed study of the geographical distribution of Germans from Russia in the various states of the union, including much historical data and a treasury of personal anecdotes. The thesis has long been regarded as one of the major standard works on the Germans from Russia but was not available to English readers until 1974 when two members of the AHSGR, Professors Armand Bauer of North Dakota State University and LaVern Rippley of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota prepared a translation which was published as Russian-German Settlements in the United States. The translation has been described by Richard Sallet himself as "an excellent accomplishment" that "fully reflects every sentence of the German text." The translators have expanded the volume to include not only Sallet's thesis, but an introductory 24 history of the German-Russians, an essay on "Prairie Architecture of the Russian-German Settlers" by William Sherman, a table of place names and geographical locations of former German colonies in Russia, and a biographical sketch of Sallet's career. Outstanding in the volume is the series of charming photos, recording the lives and culture of our people. Anyone who attended last year's convention will remember our young but formidable scholar and historian of the Pacific Northwest, Richard D. Scheuerman. His book. Pilgrims on the Earth: A German-Russian Chronicle, focuses on one group of Germans from Russia: the 269 Hessians who in the late summer of 1767 founded Jagodnaja Poljana, one of the first German colonies in Russia, Scheuerman then traces the history of those Germans through the difficulties of the early years, the period of cultural flower on the banks of the Volga, and their later migrations to the Pacific Northwest. The author is a doctoral candidate in the department of anthropology at Washington State University. A finely-detailed addition to the historical and autobiographical literature of the Germans from Russia is Miracles of Grace and Judgment by Gerhard P. Schroeder. The volume draws on the Reverend Schroeder's own experiences in the Ukrainian Mennonite colonies between 1916 and 1923, the frightful period of civil war, brigandism, and famine. The book is a testament to the capacities of human nature for utter depravity and for Christian love and forgiveness. The author, who will be ninety-one in November, lives in Lodi, California with his wife Gertrude (They've just celebrated their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary.) He speaks four languages fluently, plays the mandolin, and is working on his second book, In the New World. Another pair of interesting books are A Century of Russian Mennonite History in America, a well-documented study of the culture and contributions of the Mennonites who migrated from Russia to the United States and a companion volume of particular interest to those involved with genealogy of this group, Mennonite Ship List Swiss (Volhynian) 1874 which gives lists of names and information about members of the Sahorez, Horodischtz, Waldheim, and Kotosufka congregations who came to the Freeman-Marion area of South Dakota and to Moundridge. Kansas. The author of both books is AHSGR member Harley Stucky of North Newton, Kansas. Among the truly monumental volumes about Germans from Russia is The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862 by Professor Karl Stumpp. These more than 1000 pages are the fruition of forty years of research. The book contains alphabetical lists of thousands of names of German immigrants to Russia, many with vital statistics, place of origin in Germany, and place of settlement in Russia. The lists are nearly complete for Black Sea Germans, fragmentary for Volga Germans. The tome, of inestimable value for genealogists, also includes a packet of eight sixteen-by-twenty inch maps. The author is honorary chairman of the AHSGR, now retired from a professorial career in Germany. He was born in Alexanderhilf on the Black Sea and has devoted most of his life to study of our people. He is also the author of The German-Russians: Two Centuries of Pioneering, an attractive description of the history and culture of the Germans from Russia, and a photograph gallery of more than 200 remarkable pictures of Russian German people, villages, churches, and scenes of cultural, life and traditions. In the spring of 1914 a young woman working on a doctoral dissertation at the University of Nebraska initiated a private census of 6,500 Russian Germans then living in Lincoln. The results of this study were used by Hattie Plum Williams in her dissertation, A Social Study of the Russian German, printed in 1916. During her sociological research she also amassed a great deal of historical information about the Germans from Russia, thus becoming the first American scholar to be professionally interested in our people. Although she had amassed an impressive amount of information, her historical study remained incomplete until 1975 when an AHSGR editorial committee prepared the unfinished manuscript for publication as The Czar's Germans. The book opened a treasure trove of new material for those interested in the history of the Germans from Russia. Drawing on materials from German and Russian archives as well as her interviews with Lincoln informants, Mrs. Williams produced a volume full of fascinating details. The book consists of four long chapters each covering a major topic in the history of our people. The first describes the massive emigration from Germany to Russia in the eighteenth century and the appalling conditions in the Fatherland that occasioned it. Chapter II describes the migration itself and the (often unscrupulous) efforts of the Russian immigration agents. Mrs. Williams quotes from Zuege, one of the original colonists who recorded his experiences. I'd like to share a couple of passages with you which tell us what that first journey was like. Few of the immigrants to Russia had ever seen the ocean and the experience of being on a ship for the first time was terrifically frightening for them: Since the majority of us had never been upon a ship, it was hard for the people to stand up because of the natural swaying of the boat. They tumbled against each other;

25 fear and trembling mastered every mind; one cried, another swore, the majority prayed, yet in such a varied mixture that out of it all arose a strange woeful cry. Of the Catholics among us, some told their beads, one called on this saint, another on that; the Protestants uttered pious ejaculations from the Kubach, Schmolken, and other prayer books. Finally a Catholic struck up the litany; a Lutheran the song, "Befiehl du deine Wege." And now almost the whole crowd formed two choruses of which the first sang one song, the second the other (p. 107). With such a frightful beginning they were no more pleased when they ended the sea leg of their journey and began the land travel. Nor was the surprise pleasant when the journey ended; When we had traveled a while longer (after leaving the last trace of a road) in a barren, sober waste, we came to a brook, which, if my memory does not fail me, was called Medwe Stitz (Medveditza) or "Baerenfluss" (Bear Creek). Our guides called "Halt!" at which we were very much surprised because it was too early to put up for the night; our surprise soon changed into astonishment and terror when they told us that we were at the end of our journey. We looked at each other, astonished to see ourselves here in a wilderness; as far as the eye could see, nothing was visible except a small bit of woods and grass, mostly withered and about three shoes high. Not one of us made a start to climb down from his horse or wagon, and when the first general dismay had been somewhat dissipated, you could read the desire in every face to turn back. This, however, was not possible. With a sigh, one after another climbed down, and the announcement by the lieutenant, given with a certain degree of importance, that everything we saw here was presented to us with the compliments of the Empress, did not produce in one of us the slightest pleasure. How could such a feeling have been possible, with a gift which was useless in its present condition and had not a particle of value; a gift that must first be created by us with great toil and which gave no certain assurance that it would repay the labor and time spent upon it! "This is truly the paradise which the Russian emissaries promised us in Luebeck," said one of my fellow sufferers with a sad face. "It is the 'lost paradise,* good friend," I answered (p. 110). The later chapters of the book describe the cultural aspects of life in the German colonies on the Volga. The colonists were able, of course, to turn this inauspicious beginning into something good. The final chapter describes the emigration of Russian Germans to the United States. The editors who brought Ms. Williams' work to light, completed and organized her manuscript, added pictures and maps, and oversaw the miraculous transformation of a raw collection of papers into an attractive and fascinating book are Emma Schwabenland Haynes, Phil Legler, and Gerda Walker. Mrs. Haynes whose meticulous researches have been the basis for a number of Society publications traces her ancestry to the Volga villages of Norka and Straub. She was educated at the University of Colorado where her master's thesis, "German- Russians on the Volga and in the United States," was a pioneering English language study of our people. She attended the University of Breslau, Germany and served as a translator during the Nuremberg Trials. She is the author of A History of the Volga Relief Society. Phillip B. Legler who was educated at the University of Northern Colorado, Iowa University, and Long Beach State University has devoted himself to genealogical and historical research after his retirement from careers in business, teaching, and the aerospace industry. Donnhof is his ancestral village. Gerda Stroh Walker is well known to members of the AHSGR for her genealogical work, being one of the foremost experts in this complicated field. She has served as editor and co-editor of Clues. Her ancestral roots are in the Volga village of Frank. In addition to these authors and their books there are many other members of the Society who have written their own family histories which will be of especial interest to those who can establish kinship links with them. Some of these volumes are complex and much-researched family histories like those written by Arthur Flegel. There are compilations of family trees like those by Solomon Loewen, Raymond Wiebe, and Erwin Ulmer. And there are anthologies of anecdotes and recollections like those of Lester Harsh in Grand father Stones — all important contributions to the preservation of our history. And there are our dedicated members who have labored to compile information that others have produced. We must be grateful for the outstanding work of our bibliographers, Emma Schwabenland Haynes,

26 Adam Giesinger, and Marie Olson. And we cannot fail to mention the members who compiled the Society’s all time bestseller, Kueche Kochen, the Germans from Russia Cookbook: Rachel Amen, Katherine Uhrich. Emma Kindsfater, Esther Lebsack, Mary Wilhelm, Lydia Miller, Lydia Ruyle, and Alice Heinz.. All of these authors, editors, genealogists, bibliographers, and compilers have left a valuable legacy for future generations. They have done the miraculous: they’ve stopped time for our descendants; they’ve made our history true.

Anthony Becker of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan auto- graphs copies of his translation of The German

Authors Adam Giesinger (From Catherine to Colonies in South Russia 1804 to 1904 Dr Becker's Khrushchev) and Michael J. Anuta (East Prussians description of how he found the rare German volumes from Russia autograph copies of their books for Mr. by Konrad Keller was a featured presentation of the and Mrs. Kenneth Larson of Minneapolis in the Research Committee open meeting. convention bookstore.

Members of the Society look on as Gerda Walker Emma Haynes, and Lester Harsh sign volumes Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Haynes are co-editors of The Czar's Germans, a history of the Volga colonists left in manuscript by Hattie Plum Williams the first American scholar to be professionally interested in the Germans from Russia. Mr. Harsh is the author of Grandfather Mela Meisner Lindsay (seated at left) takes time out Stories, proceeds from the sale of which have been from autographing copies o/The White Lamb to pose donated to the AHSGR Foundation by the author. for a photo with some of her readers.

Photos courtesy of Alexander Dupper.

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Mr. and Mrs. David J. Miller flank a matted impression of "Babushka," an original two- color (dark brown and tan on buff) lithograph executed by their daughter, professional artist Lydia Miller Ruyle. A limited edition of the fine art print—the original image for which comes from a photograph of Mr. Miller's grandmother taken in Norka, Russia-was prepared by the artist in collaboration with master printer Bud Shark of Boulder, Colorado. A signed copy of the lithograph was presented by the Society to persons making a donation of $200 or more to the AHSGR Foundation. 28 UND SIEHE, WIR LEBEN: THE STORY OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF OUR PEOPLE IN RUSSIA TODAY Donald Henry Darner Und siehe, wir leben: Behold, We live. That is the message that those of our people who still live in the Soviet Union send out to us today. What is the real meaning of Und siehe, wir leben? Let us go to the source for its significance. For truly, there is a great similarity between the religious life of our people in Russia since the 1917 Communist Revolution, and the life experienced by the early Christians who worshipped in the catacombs of Rome, and were thrown to the lions to satisfy the worldly pleasures of the populace of Rome. The Apostle Paul is the source of "Behold, we live." In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter VI, Verses 4-9 he states: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live .. . The religious life of our people has survived through the tribulations of the May and October Revolutions of 1917, the famines of 1920-1923 and 1932-33, the cruel collectivization of the land in the 1930's and very early 1940's, the religious and political terror of the period of 1937-1938, World War II and deportation, internment in the labor camps from 1941-1955, and through the devious devices of the regimes that followed Stalin in power. We need not repeat what religion means to our people. That we feel in our hearts. It was deeply rooted when our people left Germany in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to make that long trek into tsarist Russia. It was at the core of their village life. The church and the church school stood at the center of each village. During the periods of Tod und Not of the early settlements, our people clung tenatiously to their faith. This part of Germany transported into tsarist Russia received yet another trauma when the manifestos of Catherine the Great and Alexander I were revoked on 4 June 1871. Our people saw this not only as a threat to their overall way of life, but they saw it as an even greater threat to their religion and to the youth of the colonies. The ten year period of grace that followed the revocation of the manifestos marks the beginning of the near forty year period of exodus from tsarist Russia to the New World. The 1872 exodus from Johannestal in the Odessa District of the Black Sea marks the beginning of the mass migration. Sandusky, Ohio was richer for their coming. The 1874 decree instituting compulsory military conscription struck into the heart of their families. Now proud sons by the thousands marched off not to war, but to the New World. My father was one of those many who later left to escape military service. His brother followed ,a year later. There were no sons left in this family in the village of Beideck. There was yet another threat when instruction in the schools was mandated to include the language of the Russians. That threat struck at the heart of the German way of life in the villages. Their isolation was being threatened. The attempt at russification was viewed with great suspicion and alarm. Yet by the thousands they stayed and prevailed. Religion does mean a great deal to all of us. It obviously means more to our people in the Soviet Union today. "Behold we live," is their message. They also have a strong feeling that in their deportation and isolation, they will not be - forgotten. They look to us, their brothers and sisters overseas and in Germany, for moral support. Let us not forget them, Yes, let us remember them by taking a look at their religious life today, and what it might be in the immediate future, so that we can better understand what it means to be a Christian today in the Soviet Union. The most disruptive force to our people was World War II - That war for our people in Stalinist Russia began on 22 June 1941. That date was quickly followed by the massive deportation of the Volga Germans beginning on 28 August 1941. They were sent to the northeastern part of European Russia, to the Middle Asian Republics, and to Siberia. The banishment and the exile of the Germans in the South Caucasus came in October of that same year. In Southern Russia over 350,000 Germans fled to the Warthe River area of Poland and Germany, when the German armies retreated in the years 1942-1944. Fate was to be very cruel to these people. As Russian troops entered Poland and Germany they forced a quarter of a million of these people into exile in the far reaches of Asiatic Russia. Today these people are still trying to reassemble their lives as is evident in the many Suchliste (missing persons lists) as found in the publication Volk auf dem Weg, and on a smaller scale in Neues Leben. They are terse, but each one represents a personal tragedy. 29 "Aus Karlsruhe/Odessa-Johannes Vogel, geboren 1913, von seiner Ehefrau Theresia Vogel, geboren Bosch, 19I9." (From Karlsruhe in the Odessa Region-Johannes Vogel born in 1913 is being hunted by his wife, Theresa Vogel-maiden name Bosch-born 1919.) In scattered places these people live today, far from their original homes in European Russia. Wherever they are, religion seems to go with them. It is not easy to start a religion from scratch. Our people, however, had it in their hearts hidden away from external threat. For all practical purposes organized religion for our people died in the 1930's. For instance by 1937 the Evangelical Lutheran Church had ceased to exist. Religion on an organized basis remained dormant for almost thirty years. The religious repression, the imprisonments, the deaths, and the martyrdom of the 1920's and 1930's are all too vivid to us. My Dahmer grandparents perished in the 1930's from other than natural deaths. One need only read through the lists of the religious leaders in the Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland (Jahrbuch 1969-1972), entitled Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen, to see organized religions being driven into the ground for Lutherans, Catholics, and Mennonites. There you will see such words listed after the names of the clergymen as: verhaftet (arrested), gefaengnis (imprisonment), todesurteil (condemned to death), flucht (in flight), and verschollen (missing). The official churches for all practical purposes had been silenced. The churches were turned into libraries, museums, and swimming pools. Many were desecrated, transformed, and some were destroyed. So by necessity, once organized religion was destroyed, religion retreated into the hearts and minds of our people. There it stayed until Stalinism had run its course, and Khrushchev and Bulganin came to power. Then followed the condemnation of Stalinism and this denunciation created an impetus to greater religious freedom for our scattered people. It created a boldness that led two delegations of our people to go to Moscow to plead for the restoration of full rights so abruptly abridged in 1941. Religious groups did spring up. They were like small seedlings. They had to be carefully nurtured in a protected place. They met in woods, in cemeteries, in vineyards, and in private houses. They met around the bed of a sick or dying person. Without ordained ministers or priests, who had been trained in religious institutions, they created their own realm of preachers and lay people. Let us see what a few specific examples can tell us about this religious revival taking place today. Karaganda, a young industrial city and coal mining area in Kazakhstan on the steppes of Asia, is perhaps the largest German-speaking Lutheran church in the Soviet Union today. It is a registered congregation of approximately 2,800 members. After the war, a former Volga German pastor, the Rev. Johannes Pabst, worked with great success in this area until his death. He simply became known as Bruder Johannes. Rev, Bachmann buried him and installed Lehrer Schaefer as his successor. The place of worship seats about 600 people. As a result of the large congregation, services are held each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. and at 2:00 p.m. The congregation then is changed around by time the following month. It also has gatherings on Sunday evenings, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. In 1977 there were over 500 baptisms, mostly children, 87 confirmations, and 190 burials. In 1978 the evident growth of the congregation is indicated by the fact that through the month of September there were already 107 confirmations. All of these confirmations are of course for people over eighteen years of age, since by Russian law religion is not be to taught to anyone under eighteen years of age. Confirmations are held once a month on Saturday, and baptisms are held every Saturday because of the large number occurring. On 17 October 1978 during the visit of the Rev. Paul Hansen of Switzerland, and the Rev. Harald Kalnins from Riga, there were two services in which all of the seats were taken. Although made up mostly of old people, there were men of working age and there were young people. This indicates that people are willing to risk reprisals against their persons for their religious activities. Something unique exists here. The Evangelical Baptists use the same house of worship in the afternoon for their services, and at Christmas time there is a joint service. In Alma Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, there is a registered congregation of Lutherans which became registered in the late 1960*s under their preacher Zielke. In 1968 a young assistant was installed by Rev. Bachmann. This church has had a remarkable growth. In 1976 there were 600 members and by 1978 it had grown to 1,051. In 1977 they built a new place of worship in two weeks. They purchased two old houses, and nail by nail, and board by board, they disassembled the two houses and then built them into a new house of worship. They had paid 10,000 rubles for the houses, and the members of the congregation spent 11,000 hours of labor taking the houses apart and building a new gathering place. The gathering place holds from 700-800 people, and when the consecration took place on 15 October 1978 with Rev. Kalnins presiding, there were over 1,000 people in attendance. Most of them stayed the entire six hours of the consecration. Their dedication certainly indicated their pride and deep devoutness.

30 In the area around Alma Ata, there are a number of unregistered Evangelical Lutheran congregations who meet in private homes and partake of holy communion. Dushanbe, the capital of the Tadzhik Soviet Socialist Republic, is the site of a new house of worship that was recently consecrated. It seats over 400 people and is situated in a garden. There is a sitting room off the side for families at baptisms. The large number of baptisms is indicative of the ever growing power of religion. They now have permission to build an addition to the original gathering place. Their preacher is Herman Geworski. In Frunze, the capital of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic, a new preacher was recently installed, and an addition was built to the prayer house. Tokmak, which lies about thirty-six miles from Frunze, was the second Evangelical Lutheran church to be registered. It was registered in 1967 and the church was enlarged in 1977. It seats from 300-400 people, and when Rev. Kalnins recently visited there, two services were filled. Tschirtschik near Tashkent, the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, has an unregistered con- gregation. It is unique in that it has been in operation ten years as an unregistered group, and it has remained undisturbed. Perhaps this indicates that there is no uniform policy on the part of the government towards registered and unregistered congregations. The place, the time, and the attitude of the local officials have a great deal to do with the treatment meted out to religious groups. This Gemeinde appears to be moving towards registration and towards building a church. Barnaul is another unique congregation. Not only did it gain international prominence in 1972, but it is a mixed congregation which in the past had a large number of Germans as members. This group was once a registered congregation, but now because of its difficulties with officials of the government, it is a non-registered church, and it has gone underground. Barnaul is the capital of the Altai Region, and is an industrial city of over one-half million people. The congregation has been made a special case in religious persecution. There obviously are many factors involved in this rather harsh treatment. One factor is obviously the large number of Germans who were members. Over one-hundred nationalities live in the area of their origin, and have been recognized as an official nationality. Socialist republics have been set up for them, and for smaller groups autonomous regions have been established. Only two large groups of people do not have official status. They are the two million Germans and the three million Jews. Both groups are scattered throughout the country, and as a result do not have a national territory, nor a national identity. Therefore, when one of our people in this country receives an official birth certificate from the authorities in the Soviet Union, there is a dash indicated on the nationality line. Germans are looked upon with suspicion and almost as non-persons. The Germans in the Barnaul congregation have practically all been allowed to go to West Germany to be repatriated, whereas thousands of Germans from elsewhere in the Soviet Union have been denied exit. The contact of our people with the general population appears to be looked upon with deep suspicion. This is a congregation of Baptists, a name which the official hierarchy applies to any evangelical protestant group. It was an overactive congregation, an unregistered one, and one that enlisted a large number of young people. The members were threatened in their homes by searches, and at their places of work. Many were arrested, their children were interrogated in school, many were tortured, and many went to prison. However, they did dramatize their case for all to see. The 1971 incident outside of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow dramatizes the intensity of their religion. This group had sought continually to gain civil rights in religion. The demonstration was an effort to expose to the world the plight of religion in the U.S.S.R. Traveling a great distance, a number of members sought to rush by the Russian guards who were stationed outside of the embassy, and once inside, they wished to document their case. Some made the dash successful. Others did not, and were brutalized. Since President Nixon was to visit the Soviet Union in a few days, this event put the United States in a rather difficult diplomatic situation. In spite of an obvious violation of human rights, and of police brutality, the U.S. embarrassingly accepted the promise of the government that if released by the Americans, they would be allowed to go home to Barnaul. They were released, but immediately were arrested by the authorities and taken to a police station. Even today there is pressure on this group, Anita and Peter Deyneka's book, A Song in Siberia, is the story of the Barnaul congregation. The members of the group continually keep reminding the government of the clauses of the constitution guaranteeing religious freedom and separation of church and state. To add fuel to the embarrassment, a daily log of persecutions of the members has been kept. Ewald Gauf, Vladimir Muller, Alexander Shtertser (Scherzer), Kondrat Rudi, Gotlib Airihk (Eurich), Arthur Mentoi, and Jacob Bil are a few of our members from our people who repeatedly had their homes searched, were arrested, and imprisoned. In a recent letter the congregation wrote, "The work of God is continuing. We thank God that at the present, persecutions here have subsided." 31 In the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic there have been recent registrations in Tscheljabinsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, and Sysran. At first the Lutherans and the Mennonites bought land and a house jointly in Novosibirsk. There was a regular Sunday service, and they rotated clergymen. They took communion together, but each in his own way. Later the Lutherans built their own house of worship. Here, as in Karaganda, the Germans had lived in two suburbs of the city, where they were interned from 1941-1955. They went from the suburbs to the city to work. Lastly, let us mention the former Akmolinsk, presently called Zelinograd. Here we have the best known of the Lutheran congregations. It is registered and has been in existence since the death of Stalin. Religion here developed with a great deal of caution. First, there were just women. When it appeared that it was not too dangerous, then men with religious beliefs stepped forward. Even though it was considered counter-revolutionary, they gathered at first around the bed of a sick or dying person for prayers and songs. Out of this small gathering grew the congregation of the Rev. Eugen Bachmann. As early as 1955 he gave communion to people who did not have the opportunity for the sacrament for over twenty years. Pastor Bachmann lived through the ban on religion, and the labor camps. He was pastor of this church until 1972, when ill health forced him to retire. Later he was allowed to go to West Germany to live. He was the only ordained Evangelical Lutheran minister in this country outside of the Latvian area. At first this group operated without state sanction. There were rigid conditions that had to be met for registration. Rev, Bachmann was forbidden to carry out religious instruction, religious activity with children, instruction for confirmation, charitable acts, and to involve children in the activity of the church. They were the first congregation to be registered and had purchased their house of worship as early as 1955. It is complete with an altar and pulpit. Twice it has been closed by the authorities. In 1959 the authorities made a direct assault on Rev. Bachmann. The congregation rose up in written protest to Moscow. The congregation was allowed to open again on Palm Sunday in 1959. As a result of this incident. Rev. Bachmann assumed a quasi-leadership role for all of the registered and unregistered congregations in this entire area of Russia, and he traveled widely. But still the cross on the church was forced from the street side of the building to the rear of the church so that it would not be recognized as a house of prayer. The political thaw of 1956-1957 was a boon to the congregation. The Hilfskomitee der evangelisch-lutherischen Ostumsiedler (Russlanddeutschen) supported by the Wuerttembergischen Bibelgesellschaft, sent Bibles, songbooks, and other religious materials. But after the Twentieth Party Congress of the Communist Party, the religious battle sharpened and the flow of literature stopped. However, the religious life of the Gemeinde flourished with great intensity. If there were not enough songbooks, then a Vorsinger would lead the way. The Gustav-Adolph Werk of Leipzig, East Germany sent a harmonium and communion vessels. From 1960-1972, Rev. Bachmann worked under difficult circumstances. Messages in German over radio, in newspapers, and on banners were directed against religion. A non-religious group even sought to hold meetings in the church to run counter with the religious gatherings. The congregation prevailed. When a religious holiday fell on a workday, the service was held at night. Pastor Bachmann personally was from the Gemeinde Worms in the Odessa District. The choir is led by a Mennonite. The organ is played by a woman from the Crimea. The courage of this church can best be portrayed by the experience that Pastor Bachmann had in 1959 when the registration for the congregation had been suspended and he was called before the local authorities for interrogation. Upon leaving, the one official told him that they would make every effort to close the church. Rev. Bachmann responded by saying, "Auch wir werden alles tun, aber urn sie zu erhalten" ("And we will make every effort to keep it open"), What price have our people paid for the practice of their religion? Only a fraction of what occurs reaches the media level. Dr. Andrei Sakharov, himself presently sentenced to internal exile, estimates that there now are over 10,000 prisoners of conscience. Of these probably 2,000 are religious prisoners, both Christian and non-Christian. Many are arrested, but only a small minority are prosecuted. Some are released after investigation, some are administratively handled as one would have a traffic ticket handled here. Some are fined up to sixty-five dollars for organizing a congregation or leading an unregistered congregation. Others are given ten to fifteen days of detention when ordered to disperse when a service is interrupted by the police. Some only suffer bruises from the rough handling by the police. Many suffer discrimination in housing, employment, education, and some may have their religious literature confiscated. What are they arrested for in the present day environment of the Soviet Union? Articles 142 and 227 of the criminal code cover offenses that are purely religious in nature. This could mean organizing religious meetings for worship or study, teaching religion to children, or printing religious literature. Others are covered by Section 3 of the criminal code. These offenses center on conscientious objectors, and protesting the violations of human rights, including religious freedom.

32 Punishment can be in the form of correctional tasks or detention in a labor camp. As a correctional measure a person is assigned to a specific job and a certain percentage of the wages are kept as a fine. There are four types of labor camps, ordinary, intensified, strict, and special. The stricter the camp, the more unpleasant the conditions. There are dormitories, cells, and isolation for special prisoners for disciplinary purposes. The type of work, the length of time for work, the calories in the diet, and food parcels from home are all determined by the nature of the camp. The Society for the Study of Religion under Communism lists the following people of our background in prisons at the end of the year 1979: (1) Johann Steffen—Sentenced November 1976 to five years strict regime camp for being a pastor of an unregistered congregation. (2) Ivan Loewen— Sentenced to five years camp for leading a church, illegal printing and circulating of literature in 1977. (3) Ivan Toews—Sentenced to five years ordinary camp for activity as a leader of a Mennonite church. (4) Pyotr Peters—Sentenced in 1978 to two and one-half years strict camp for organizing a public disturbance when police prevented the Rostov church of which he was pastor from meeting. (5) David Koop— Sentenced to four years regime camp for operating an illegal press, circulating literature about religious persecution, and being an active church member. (6) Jacob Wold—Sentenced to two years for organizing youth work. (7) Alvin Klassen—Sentenced to two and one-half years for being the pastor of the Issyk church, after Johann Steffen's arrest. (8) Jacob Pot—Sentenced to two years. (9) Boris Bergen—Sentenced in 1978 to two years ordinary camp. (10) Jacob Janzen—Sentenced in 1977 for teaching religion to children. (11) Johann SchIecht - Sentenced in 1977 to three years for teaching religion to children. (12) Heinrich Mock-Sentenced in 1978 to one year camp for teaching religion to children. (13) Heinrich Wiebe - Sentenced in 1978 for teaching religion to children. (14) No Name - At age twenty-two asked to go abroad to study for the ministry and as a result sentenced to three years. But our people are not just sitting in place and allowing the massive bureaucracy of the government to overrun them. As reported in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in October of 1979, five Germans in the Kirghiz Republic, who had been jailed for anti-government behavior, went on a hunger strike. In Bonn, on Volkstrauertag in 1979, returnees from Russia demonstrated peacefully in the capital city of West Germany to protest the Russian government's treatment of divided families who wished to leave the U.S.S.R. to join relatives in West Germany. They had the names of areas, of cities, and of people who have not been allowed to leave the Soviet Union. They went in fours and fives to members of the Bundestag factions, and to the office of Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of the Federal German Republic. They left a list of 1,782 families that want to leave the U.S.S.R. The total number of people would be in excess of 10,000 people. They asked that Bonn ask the U.S.S.R. to increase the number of returnees because during the past few years there has been a steady decrease. For the first time Germans from Russia were allowed entry into the Russian Embassy in Bonn. There they presented the same list of people. Along with this list they presented a letter to Leonid Brezhnev asking for a redress of grievance. It would appear that our people are willing to explore every means to obtain the exit from Russia of all the people who wish to leave. They are concerned with the lack of attention that is being paid to their human rights. They indeed are correct. We hear so much about human rights, but when do we hear about the two million of our people held in bondage without even a recognition of their nationality? Also a letter signed by 101 Germans living in Russia has been translated and submitted to the members of the German Bundestag, and to Chancellor Schmidt. This letter asked that the West German government intercede with the government of the U.S.S.R. and ask that they adhere to the Helsinki Agreement and the Human Rights Declaration. In addition, a letter signed by seventeen Germans in Kazakhstan has been sent to the Pope. They ask the Pope for assistance in leaving the U.S.S.R. They point out that they have the necessary invitations from Germany, but the Soviet government will not let them go. They stated they believe in God, they want their children to go to church, and they want their own national identity.

33 On 11 and 12 April of this year, forty returnees demonstrated with placards in Bonn. The placards read, "Lasst die Deutschen in ihre historische Heimat reisen" and "Lasst unsere Kinder zu uns." Then something rare for both the U.S.S.R. and our people. Five of our people demonstrated in Red Square in Moscow. Their placards in both Russian and German read, "Lasst uns nach Deutschland ausreisen" and "Wir wollen in unsere historische Heimat." The five were Victor Ebel, Lydia Ebel, Alexander Oblinder, Alvina Fritzler, and Victor Fritzler. They were tired of always being told that they had nothing to do in Germany by the Russian authorities. They made their point. They were however arrested and returned to Kotowo in the Volgograd area under house arrest. It appears that action will be taken against the three men. Evidently no price is too much to pay for our people. What then is the extent of religion today? There are no real statistics to work with. We can get the best figures on the Evangelical Lutheran group. It appears that there are nearly forty registered congregations. This means that they are recognized by the government, a list of the members of the congregation has been submitted to the government, and the property of the church is in essence the property of the government. There are hundreds of unregistered groups. In the Omsk area it is estimated that there are fifty-nine, in the Zelinograd area twenty-four, and in the Volgograd area seventeen. Fear perhaps can partially explain the small number of registered congregations as compared with the large number of unregistered ones. Now perhaps fear is dying because more congregations are coming forward to be registered. However, many do not want any restrictions on their religion. Therefore they meet in private. Some have tried to register and have failed. Others when asked, state they really had not thought of it. Some unregistered congregations work out in the open, and have not been accused of being part of the underground church. Really what is more courageous? To be a registered congregation or an unregistered one? There is tremendous pressure being asserted against them from the atheistic society. They, however, have patience, and obviously they trust in God's power and direction. In a sense they are like the quiet Christians of the catacombs of Rome in the first century. However, in quiet much occurs. The present day rallying point for the Lutherans is the Jesus Kirche in Riga, Latvia. The Reverend Harald Kalnins has made several trips into the Central Asian area. It is the church through which the Lutheran World Service can work. Jesus Kirche has been the gathering point for Germans who are about to be repatriated to West Germany, As in 1978, it appears that the Lutheran World Service will again be able to ship 4,000 Bibles and 4,000 songbooks into the Soviet Union. There is much hope. Through the work of the church in Riga, and the Lutheran World Service, the government of the U.S.S.R. has been approached to see if additional religious favors can be granted. At a meeting in Moscow several questions were raised. Can there be a consolidation of the various Lutheran groups mentioned previously? Can the authority of the Jesus Kirche in Riga be extended to these churches? Can there be a systematic training for preachers? Finally, can additional religious literature be made available? These requests are now being weighed in Moscow. But the big question immediately comes to mind. How far can a communist state accommodate religion without endangering its own system, and weakening its control? Only time will give us that answer. What we do know is that we have brothers and sisters in the world who are in need. Let us not forget them in our prayers.

Sources

Bibel und Pflug. Curitiba, Brazil; Years 1978.1980. Christian Prisoners in the (U.S.S.R. 1979. Keston, England: Keston College, 1980. Deyneka. Anita and Peter,/I Song in Siberia. Elgin, Illinois: David Cook Publishing Co., 1977. Keston News Service. Wheaton, Illinois: Society for the Study of Religion under Communism, Years 1979-1980. Lutherishcher Dienst. Eriangen, West Germany: Martin Luthern Bund, Years 1979-1980. Schleuning, Roemmich and Bachmann. Und Siehe, Wir Leben. Eriangen, West Germany: Martin Luther Verlag, 1977. Schnurr, Joseph, ed. Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen. Stuttgart, West Germany: Der Landsmann- schaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972. Volk aufdem Weg. Stuttgart, West Germany: Der Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Years 1976-1980. 34 THE FARMING VILLAGE OF NORKA, RUSSIA: A DIALECTAL STUDY Mary Lynn Tuck During the summer of 1976 I conducted initial interviews with fifteen prospective informants whose mother language is the Norka Dialect and who now live in a secondary settlement in. Lincoln, Nebraska, the primary settlement having been in Russia. Ruth Amen had given me the names of these dialect speakers. I explained to them that I wanted to help preserve the dialect through taping various sorts of historical and language information and also wanted to eventually use the project in my dissertation. These interviews on tape included the numbers 1- 21, a short narration about the family, and the story of their journey to the United States—all spoken in the dialect. I analyzed the data collected on the tape and my personal observations with the view in mind of choosing eight informants. The following criteria were decisive factors: health, pronunciation (do dentures interfere, etc.?), alertness, willingness, eyesight and hearing, frequency of dialect-speaking, and interferences of Russian, English and/or other languages. I also took into consideration the educational background, occupation, age, cultural experiences, outside influences in daily life, and the dialect spoken by the spouse. Preference was given to those whose spouses also came from Norka, Two chief informants were chosen and after taping at least sixteen hours' worth of interviews with them and analyzing the data, I did the same with the other six, checking and rechecking the initial information. Included on the tapes were the Norka- Dialect interpretations of the "Wenkersaetze" (a set of German sentences comprising all the possible sounds and sound combinations as well as many sayings found in Standard German dialects), phrases, single words, the days of the week, free narration, and conversation with another Norka-Dialect speaker. I transcribed all the sounds on the tapes into phonetic symbols so that I, as well as anyone else familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet, could determine the exact pronunciation of any given word. I developed an inventory of all the sounds to be found in the dialect, in what combination with other letters and in what position in the word. Then I examined the way the words fit together into phrases and sentences and the way in which words are built (how the verb forms are pronounced and formed, for example). In Standard German, one says, "Ich habe getan," but in this dialect, one says, "Aich hun gedo." I also checked on the grammatical forms, such as how one says, "That is my mother's book" in the dialect. In this sentence I would be interested in the possessive form (italicized above), I then asked myself: What is missing from the dialect which is to be found in Standard German and how can I be sure that this is the case? At this point I rechecked, revised some of my questionnaires and found new ways to ask old questions to which I had received no answer or a partial answer or conflicting answers between informants. At this stage of my research I went to Germany for a year and lived in the probable areas from which the ancestors of the Lincoln group migrated to Russia. I familiarized myself with the dialectal patterns found in the Mainz-Frankfurt-Darmstadt areas, studied word-geography maps and did historical research. I returned to Lincoln to work on loan words from Russian and English which appear in the dialect, made some sonograms ("visible speech") on one informant's speech patterns for nearer analysis of sounds and in order to compare the findings with my own analyses. I also tried to resolve the confusing problem of whether it is one person's way of talking or a general way the group talks. The problem revolved around the question: Is the way Mrs. A pronounces this word her own special form or is this actually a feature of the dialect itself? For the word "horse" Mrs. A says "Gaul" and Mrs. B says "Pert" (Pferd). Mrs. C also uses the word "Gaul" but pronounces it differently from the way Mrs. A does, etc. What to do? I reinterviewed my other informants and came to no clear-cut conclusions. I decided to interview some other Norka- Dialect speakers in the hope that I can resolve this question. The most efficient means of accomplishing that would be to meet with them at the convention when they are all in one place at the same time, which is one reason why I am here in Dearborn and which is also the point to which my work has progressed.

Editor's Note: The preceding article is a precis of Mrs. Tuck's address to the convention. Final results of her dialectal study will appear in future issues of the AHSGR Journal.

35

Awards for perfect attendance are due these faithful members of the Society who have never missed an AHSGR convention. Having followed the Society in its migrations from Greeley, to Lincoln, to Boulder, to Portland, to Fresno, to Lincoln, to Denver, to San Francisco, to Lincoln, to Seattle, to Dearborn are (back row, left to right): Jake Sinner, Lincoln, Nebraska; David J. Miller, Greeley, Colorado; Edward Schwartzkopf, Lincoln, Nebraska; Daniel Walker, Denver, Colorado; Peter Koch, Portland, Oregon; (front row) Dorothy Hill Sinner, Lincoln, Nebraska; Ruth M. Amen, Lincoln, Nebraska; Lydia Alles Miller, Greeley, Colorado; Alice Amen Heinz, Greeley, Colorado; and Gerda Stroh Walker, Denver, Colorado.

Two featured presentations of the Eleventh International Convention of the AHSGR, Professor Irma E. Eichhorn's paper on "The Famine of 1891-1892 in the Volga Colonies" and "Scenes from a Fading Past, Glimpses of a Beckoning Future: Collecting Folklore among the Germans from Russia/' a slide presentation by Timothy J. Kloberdanz, mil be published in future editions of the AHSGR Journal.

36 TREASURES IN OUR ARCHIVES Emma Schwabenland Haynes When I was asked to talk about treasures in our Archives, my first reaction was of utter dismay. I felt that I couldn't begin to do justice to all the outstanding books and articles that AHSGR has collected in the past eleven and one-half years. Our holdings are numbered consecutively and we have now reached 1,060 by actual count. However, this does not begin to tell the story. Number 52, for example, stands for the Heimatbuecher der Deutschen aus Russland. But there are actually fourteen such Heimatbuecher which were issued in Stuttgart, Germany between the years 1954-1967, No scholar could begin to tell the story of our people without referring to these wonderful annuals which contain articles describing the history, folklore, religion, and daily life of Germans from Russia. In the same way, the Bessarabian Germans print a Heimatkalender der Bessarabiendeutschen. We have every volume from 1950 through 1980, including two which are on order. Consequently, these two sets of annuals alone give us not two items but instead forty-five. I should guess, therefore, that instead of 1,060, we have approximately 1,200 separate books and articles in our Greeley Archives. Of these 1,200 items, about 350 deal with the Volga Germans, another 350 with the Black Sea and the Volhynian Germans, about 175 with the Mennonites, another 225 with more than one group of Russian Germans and about 100 are miscellaneous items on such subjects as genealogy. There are also maps, phonograph records of German folksongs, and microfilms of newspapers. I shall try to tell you just a little about these various categories. Time does not allow me to mention any articles from magazines.

Volga Germans When our Society was organized in the fall of 1968, one of its stated aims was the establishment of a repository for books and articles about Germans from Russia. I lived in Germany at the time and heard that Reverend August Schwab, who had been born on the Volga and served as a minister in Germany, was willing to sell some of his books. I was particularly anxious to buy copies of the histories which had been written by Gottlieb Bauer, Gottlieb Beratz, and Gerhard Bonwetsch, who have often been called the three B's of Volga German literature. The Bauer book which appeared in 1908 was actually written twenty years earlier and represented the first attempt to present a history of the Volga Germans. The book contains many flaws. It gives no references and both dates and facts are sometimes inaccurate, but it is still worthwhile for its stories of pioneer days. Gottlieb Beratz, a Catholic priest, and Gerhard Bonwetsch, whose father had been a Protestant minister in Norka, were both true historians. Their books came out in 1915 and 1919 respectively, the first in Saratov, Russia, and the second in Stuttgart, Germany. When I went to see Reverend Schwab, I mentioned that my father had been born in Straub on the Volga but had an uncle named Johann Philipp Bier in Warenburg. At this Reverend Schwab got quite excited and told that the Bier house had been a second home for him during his student days. He then got out the three very valuable books by Bauer, Beratz, and Bonwetsch. He held them in his hands as though it pained him to part from them, but he then gave them to me as a gift for our Society. Today they are numbers 1, 2, and 3 in our Archives, signifying that they were the first books with which we began our collection. David Miller was our president at the time, and he made an agreement with the Greeley Public Library that any volume which AHSGR owned could be sent out on inter-library loan. In case the original book was irreplaceable, as these were, Xerox copies should be made and the original kept in our files. Esther Fromm, librarian in Greeley, became our archivist, and Marie Olson, who is herself a trained librarian, has headed the Library Committee. Two other valuable books which we own are by David Schmidt and Lothar Koenig. The Schmidt book, which is entitled Studien Uber die Geschichte der Wolgadeutschen, was printed in Russia in 1930, and shows the influence of Communist thinking. Nevertheless, David Schmidt was a good scholar and by using the German archives in Saratov and Engels, he was able to cast much light on the early years of the Volga colonists. The Lothar Koenig book was printed in Germany in 1938. Its translated title is A German Island on the Volga. Our Society paid to obtain a Xeroxed copy of the Schmidt book, but the one by Lothar Koenig is an original volume donated by Dr. Karl Stumpp.

*The 1954 and 1955 annuals were called Heimatbuch der Ostumsiedler, but from 1956 on, the name Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland was adopted. The 1969-1972 volume, Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen, is given separately. See list of books mentioned in this report at the conclusion of the article.

37 Here in the United States, one of the first collections of books dealing with Germans from Russia was probably begun by Hattie Plum Williams, a professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska. While she was a student at the University before World War I, she became aware that Lincoln had become a gathering center for Protestant Volga Germans, and she decided to write a doctoral dissertation about them. In assembling her material, she happened to hear that a Russian historian named Gregorii Pisarevskii had written a book in 1909 which can be translated as Foreign Colonization in Russia in the Eighteenth Century from Unpublished Sources. She wrote to Dr. Pisarevskii and obtained a copy of his book. In later years she received three other volumes which he wrote between 1914 and 1917. One of these is about the coming of the Prussian Mennonites to Russia but the other two are about the Volga Germans. These books are extremely rare. Not even the Library of Congress possesses them, but the four have been copied for our Archives in Greeley. Another very rare book which she acquired was a collection of folk songs and children's rimes by Reverend Johannes Erbes and Peter Sinner, It was published in Saratov in 1914, and has also been Xeroxed for us. Then there is the book Der russische Kolonist by Christian Zuege, Zuege arrived on the Volga in 1767 but he soon became disillusioned with life in Russia and returned to Germany on false papers. Many years later, in 1802, he published the story of his adventures. Certain quotations from his book have been repeated over and over again by authors writing about the Volga colonies. There is, for example, his description of the arrival of the settlers to the place where the village of Kratzke later developed, and of how astonished everyone was when their guide called, "Halt," because they were in a wilderness covered with withered grass, and of how one of the men in the group said, "So this is the Paradise which was promised to us," and of how Zuege answered, "If so, it is the Lost Paradise, good friend." I was most anxious to Xerox this book, but so many German libraries were destroyed by bombing raids in World War II that it was extremely difficult to find a copy. Finally I discovered one at the library of the University of Goettingen, and ordered it though inter-library loan. I wasn't allowed to take the book home, but did make a Xerox copy for our Archives. Another rare book was written in 1936 by Dr. Herwig Hafa on Die Bruedergemeinde Sarepta. Sarepta was founded by Moravian Brethren who wanted to carry on missionary activity among the Asiatic tribes of the neighborhood. It lay south of the other Volga colonies near a city which used to be called Tsaritsyn, then became Stalingrad and is known today as Volgograd. This volume was very kindly Xeroxed and presented to our Archives by Dr. Irma Eichhorn, During the years 1918 to 1926, many Volga Germans came to Germany either legally or illegally and then wrote of their experiences in Russia. Thus we have the pamphlet, From the Days of Suffering by the German Volga Colonies written by Friedrich Bier and Alexander Schick. There are also booklets by Reverend Johannes Schleuning who arrived in Germany in May 1918, returned briefly to Russia, and then left for good in October 1919. Another author, Anna Jauck, who wrote under the pen name of Anna Janecke, is the author of a book Wolgadeutsches Schicksal, I went to see her in Wiesbaden in 1971 to ask if she would give our Society a copy of her book. She responded that the only thing that she had left was the typewritten manuscript from which her volume has been printed. She gave this to me for our Archives.

The photo of Anna Jauck with her brother David and his wife which appeared originally in The Saginaw News for 4 January 1952. In 1921. after unimaginable difficulties. Miss Jauck was able to escape to Germany from the famine-stricken 'USSR. She is the author, under the pen name of Anna Janecke, of Wolgadeutsches Schicksal, the original typescript of which is among the treasures of the AHSGR Archives.

38

While Anna Jauck was still a young girl in 1905, she lost a leg in a shooting accident at a wedding celebration. Later she became a seamstress, but after the terrible famine of 1921 broke out, she decided to travel to Minsk and then cross the border into Poland illegally. Along with three other women, the attempt was made on a bitterly cold night in November, A man with a wagon had been hired to take them into Poland, but he stopped several miles short of the border and the women had to leave on foot carrying their luggage with them. After walking for several hours, the ground became very swampy and Anna's artificial leg got stuck in the mud. She was bringing up the rear and was afraid to cry out for help because the women had been warned to keep absolutely quiet for fear of wandering patrols. It was only with the greatest difficulty that she was able to retrieve her leg and go on. However, eventually she did reach Germany, and in 1952 she managed to come to the United States to visit two of her brothers whom she hadn't seen for forty years. She gave me a clipping from the Saginaw News for 5 January 1952, which shows her with her brother David Jauck, and his wife at a coffee table. The article said that her second brother lived in Windsor, Colorado, and that she intended to visit him also. The years 1923 to 1928 were a period of relative stability in the Volga colonies. It was at this time that Professor Dinges of Saratov University edited an amazing collection of essays in a book called in English Contributions to the Folklore of the German Volga District. Professor Dinges was an authority on the dialects spoken by the Volga Germans and he used these to determine from what areas of Germany the people had originally come. He drew a colored map based upon his findings which we now have on sale in the AHSGR bookstore. In the same way. Professor P. Rau won a reputation as an archeologist; and a third scholar, Peter Sinner, wrote on history and folklore. All of these men contributed articles to important scientific and historical magazines printed in Germany. This was held against them after 1929 when anyone who had contacts with Germany or other western nations was likely to disappear in Stalin's horrible purges. Here in the United States we have tried to gather as many theses as possible about the Volga Germans. At the latest count we possessed eleven, which were written in the years 1929 to 1979. Two of the most outstanding are by Richard Scheuerman of Endicott, Washington, and Timothy Kloberdanz of Sterling, Colorado. Both young men are now working on doctor's degrees. We expect great things of them in the future. I should like to end this section of my report by mentioning Ellis and Rush Counties, Kansas. Beginning with Father Francis S. Laing who wrote a booklet giving the names of all Catholic Volga Germans who came to this section of Kansas in the 1870's and continuing to Lawrence A. Weigel, Volga German Catholics have always stressed their history, music, and folklore. In 1976 they celebrated the 100th anniversary of their arrival in the United States. We have in our library not only the official centennial history of the event as written by Norbert R. Dreiling, but also three excellent books telling about the towns of Munjor, Schoenchen, and Liebenthal.

The Black Sea Germans The big influx of immigration to the Black Sea area began under Alexander I in the year 1803. Ten years later, Bessarabia was opened to settlement, and in 1816 Separatists who believed that the world would come to an end in twenty years, founded such colonies as Marienfeld in the Caucasus and Hoffnungstal north of Odessa. Some of the Black Sea Germans came to Russia by land, but others journeyed down the Danube in flat boats from Ulm, Germany. We have in our Archives a book telling about people who took the latter route. It is Die Auswanderung aus Schwaben nach Russland 1816-1823 ("The Emigration from Swabia to Russia 1816-1823") and was written in 1928 by Georg Leibbrandt, a native of Hoffnungstal. The book had been out-of-print for many years and neither could it be found in any second hand book store. Then in the summer of 1974, when our convention was held in Fresno, California, I discovered it in the library of one of my relatives. With all the eloquence which I was able to command, I urged these relatives to please donate their copy to our Archives in Greeley, and finally they reluctantly agreed. Early in 1974, Adam Giesinger sent me a list of about ten important volumes which he asked me to search for in Germany. In case I wasn't able to find them, I was to Xerox them at Society expense. The first was Jacob Stach's Die deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland. It was published in Russia in the year 1904 and is the first book specifically on the German colonies of south Russia. A few months later, Father Conrad Keller's first volume, which included information on the Catholic colonies of the Liebenthal area, appeared. It began with a charming appeal to every seeker of truth to inform him of any mistakes that he may have made because it is only by joint effort that the true history of the German colonies can be told. Father Keller's second volume was printed in 1914 and deals with the Catholic Beresan colonies. Dr. A.

39 Becker, who has translated both volumes into English, very kindly Xeroxed the first German volume for us, and Dr. Stumpp loaned me the second volume. As a result, we not only have the English translation but also the original German of Father Keller. In the year 1848 all schoolteachers in the Black Sea area were commanded by Eugen von Hahn, chairman of the Social Welfare Committee, to write reports on the founding of their colonies and to hand in the finished manuscripts within four months. In spite of the importance of these reports, they were never published until 1926 when Georg Leibbrandt used some of them to write his book, Die deutschen Kolonien in Cherson und Bessarabien. One year later, Father J. A. Malinowsky wrote about the Catholic villages of the Black Sea area based upon the same reports. Then, in 1941, Dr. Margaret Woltner, who was born in the Baltic provinces became the author of a third book dealing with the Mennonite colonies and scattered Lutheran ones. We have all three volumes in our Archives. Dr. Woltner was living in Bonn in retirement when I went to see her in 1975. She was seventy-eight years old and had trouble walking, but her mind was as alert as ever. She regaled me with stories of the days after World War II when the Russians hired her to teach at the University of Berlin which lay in their zone of occupation. But she resigned her position in 1950 and moved to West Germany where she eventually joined the faculty of the University of Bonn. In addition to her book on the 1848 reports, Dr. Woltner had also written about the educational system in Volga German schools before the year 1840. She had planned to write a second volume and had it almost ready for publication when an air raid on Berlin in World War II destroyed her entire library including irreplaceable archival material. She seemed surprised that any American would show interest in her work and was amazed when I told her that both the Library of Congress and the New York City Library had copies of her books. I also mentioned that a man named Adam Giesinger had Xeroxed both volumes for our Archives, Then there is Dr. Karl Stumpp's doctoral dissertation on the Black Sea colonies that was written at the University of Tubingen in 1921 and printed in Stuttgart the following year. We received this book by a rather indirect route. Reverend Fred Gross of Sacramento gave it to us along with a collection of books dealing with Russian Germans in South America. Another very interesting work is Johannes Brendel's account of the Catholic colonies in the Kutschurgan District, from where the grandparents of two members of our Board came. Incidentally, Johannes Brendel immigrated to the United States in 1927 and was working for a newspaper called the Dakota Rundschau in Bismarck, North Dakota, when his book was printed in Germany in the year 1930. I believe that there are only three colonies east of the Dniester River in the Ukraine about which books have been written. The first is Christian Kugler's volume on Grossliebental which appeared in 1939, and which Dr. Stumpp donated to our Archives. The second is on the village of Zuerichtal which lies in the Crimea and was founded by Swiss colonists from Zurich. The third is Anatole Bond's Lustdorfbei Odessa which came out in 1978. Our Society bought this just a few months ago. For the last eight months we have been trying to obtain a fourth book which Georg Leibbrandt wrote on the colony of Hoffnungstal, but it is still not available for distribution. In contrast, the German colonies which lay west of the Dniester River in Bessarabia have had more reports written about them than exist in all the rest of Russia combined. The reason is that in 1919 Bessarabia was turned over to Romania. Consequently, its inhabitants were spared the famines, the purges, and the deportations that took place in Russia. Furthermore, in 1940, during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact, German people were allowed to leave their homes legally, taking their schoolteachers, ministers, businessmen, and political leaders with them. A few of the twenty-five Bessarabian mother colonies, such as Teplitz and Gnadental, had village chronicles prior to 1940, However, after 1960, twelve additional colonies began writing histories of their villages, often in honor of the 150th anniversary of their founding. Thus it is now possible to read accounts of the villages of Alt Arciz, Alt Elft, Alt Postal, Beresina, Brienne, Gnadental*, Katzbach, Klostitz, Krasna, Kulm, Lichtental, Sarata, Tarutino, and Teplitz. I am happy to say that we have all fourteen of these books in our Archives. In addition, we have seven books on such daughter colonies as Basyrjamka, Benkendorf, Eichendorf, Friedensfeld, Gnadenfeld, Neu Postal, and Seimeny. In some cases, we even have two or more books on the same colony. Thus Herbert Weiss wrote his first book on Teplitz in 1931 and a second one in 1958, and Herman Wildermuth has given to our Archives a volume on Lichtental by Karl Roth and two *The book on Gnadental is a copy of the handwritten manuscript by Friedrich Rub which we obtained from the National Archives. It was brought to the United States along with Captured War Documents.

40 shorter booklets on the same village. Most of these village chronicles contain the names of the original settlers, discuss the religious and educational life of the people, tell about agriculture and industry, and then report on the events of World War II which led to their evacuation. Many of the chronicles even give the names of the families which were resettled in German territory in 1940. They are of incalculable aid in genealogical research. Then there is the 1931 book by Karasek and Lueck on Die deutschen Siedlungen in Wolhynien which discusses the history, folklore, and problems of the Volhynian Germans. And just last year the beautiful volume, Wolhynisches Tagebuch ("Volhynian Diary"), appeared describing conditions in Volhynia during World War II. Several members of our Board received free copies of this book from the German government in Bonn. We knew that one of us ought to give our copy to the Archives in Greeley, but the volume was so lovely that everyone hoped that somebody else would do it. Finally, our president, Adam Giesinger very magnanimously sent his copy to Greeley. Nancy Holland chose one of the pictures which illustrate the book as the cover for the Journal in the winter of 1979. To our amazement, we discovered that Luisa Bohn, who is pictured there, is the grandmother of one of our members, Waldemar Bohn of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin chapter.

The glass-enclosed reference room in the Greeley (Colorado) Public Library. The shelves to the right hold the AHSGR collection of materials on the Germans from Russia which at present numbers more than 1,200 separate items. The persecution of Protestant ministers and Catholic priests under the Communists is described by Reverend Johann Foeil in his book, Das ueberteunchte Grab ("The Whitewashed Grave") which he wrote under the pseudonym of J. Kern in 1936. Reverend Foil was arrested in 1930 and subjected to twenty-two days of almost continuous interrogation and then sentenced to three years at hard labor in lumber camps of Siberia or work on the White Sea Canal. He came to Germany at the completion of his sentence and describes the awful conditions under which prisoners lived. This book was Xeroxed for us by Arthur FIegel.

The Mennonites And now come the Mennonites. Our Society would never try to compete with the wonderful Mennonite libraries and archives in such places as Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas; or in Goshen, Indiana; Hillsboro, Kansas; and Winnipeg, Manitoba. However, we have obtained the following representative books on the Mennonites: The first volume is particularly important for genealogical purposes. It is by Benjamin Heinrich Unruh and tells about Mennonite emigration during the sixteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Professor Unruh gives the names and ages of the first 228 families that came to Chortitza in the spring of 1789. Later chapters give information on additional families who organized villages on the Molotschna River. This particular volume, which was published in 1955, was given to our Archives by Gary Waltner, who is an

41 American teacher in the U.S. army school in Weierhof, a lovely Mennonite village in the German Palatinate. In 1911, Peter M. Friesen, who was a teacher and acting principal of the Halbstadt, Russia, secondary school, wrote a book primarily on the Mennonite Brethren. Adam Giesinger had placed it on the list which he sent to Germany for me to Xerox. However, I noticed that the book was 940 pages long, and I told Adam that if any of our members wanted to read it, they could surely borrow a copy from some Mennonite library. However, I always felt guilty about not having carried out Adam's request. For that reason, I was delighted to learn that in 1978 a committee of such Mennonite scholars as J.B. Toews, Abraham Friesen, Peter J. Klassen, and others, had translated the volume into English under the title, The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910). This volume now stands on our shelves. One of my favorite Mennonite books is Fred Belk's The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia 1880-1884. It tells the story of how a group of Mennonites from both the Volga and the Molotschna area set out, for Central Asia under the leadership of Claas Epp. The reason they left was that they thought that the return of Christ was imminent and that God had prepared a place of refuge for them in Turkestan. After undergoing many difficulties, the group arrived in Tashkent. The majority accepted an offer of land in a valley south of Dzhambul where ninety-five families founded four villages in 1882. However, Claas Epp and the more fanatical of his followers tried to enter the emir of Bukhara's kingdom but were refused admission and then went on to the city of Khiva. Epp became more and more fanatical as the years went by. After claiming that he was the son of Christ, he was deserted by many of his followers, some of whom immigrated to America. All of these events are described so vividly that the book reads like a novel. Even before Mennonites left on this ill-fated adventure, thoughts had turned to settlement in America. As early as 1870 a man named Cornelius Jansen, who was living in Berdyansk, Russia, began writing to American Mennonites asking about possibilities of settlement. Answers to his letters were printed in 1872 in Danzig in a booklet called Sammlung von Notizen ueber Amerika. Copies of the booklet are very rare today, but somehow Hattie Plum Williams of Lincoln, Nebraska made a typewritten copy of it, which we, in turn, had Xeroxed for our collection. In 1927 Dr. C. Henry Smith of Bluffton College in Ohio wrote The Coming of the Russian Mennonites: An Episode in the Settlement of the Last Frontier. This must be one of the most widely read English language histories of the Mennonites. It remains a final authority on the subject. There is a very interesting description of early days in America, compiled by Dr. Cornelius Krahn in 1949 under the title, From the Steppes to the Prairies. It consists of a variety of articles, such as those by the Kansas newspaperman, Noble L. Prentis, who describes the Mennonites with humor and understanding. There are also articles by Jacob A. Wiebe on the founding of Gnadenau and by Melvin Gingerich on the Mennonite immigration to Manitoba. Dr. Krahn is also responsible for starting the outstanding quarterly, Mennonite Life, copies of which are in our library. Going back now to Russia, I should like to mention two books which were written by Gerhard Fast. The first is called Im Schatten des Todes ("In the Shadow of Death") which appeared in Germany in 1935. In it the author tells how he came to Moscow in 1929 in a vain attempt to leave the country. He was arrested in the spring of 1930 and sentenced to five years imprisonment on charges of counter-revolutionary activity. The prison camp to which he was sent lay in the far north, in sight of a harbor where foreign ships from England, Sweden, France, and Germany came to collect the lumber which the prisoners cut. One day when a German ship lay in the harbor, Fast decided to escape. That night he stood in the front row of prisoners who were supposed to load lumber on the vessel. Then he hastened to board the ship and disappeared through a door leading down to the boiler room where he hid in a dark comer. A German workman discovered him and helped him to a more secure hiding place. In this way he eventually managed to reach Germany. The second book, which is called Das Ende von Chortitza, appeared in 1973. During World War II, Gerhard Fast was sent back to Chortitza by the German government to register all German inhabitants of the area and to write reports on them. In October 1943 when the German army began retreating from Russia, all of these people were brought to Upper Silesia, Poland, or to Austria. None of them ever saw Chortitza again. In 1974 Mennonites in North America celebrated the 100th anniversary of their arrival in the New World. Our Board met in Hillsboro in August to participate in the festivities. Books, about the Mennonites were on sale and Marie Olson bought two of them with funds from our Society. The first, which was by Walter Quiring and Helen Bartels, was entitled In the Fullness of Time: 150 Years of Mennonite Sojourn in Russia. It is a beautiful, oversize pictorial record of Mennonite history with brief descriptions of the various areas in which they settled. The other. Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need, by Clarence Hiebert tells 42 how Mennonites in the eastern part of the United States and Canada gave money and support to their coreligionists from Russia. This is again an oversize volume with reprints from contemporary newspapers and journals and with copies of American and Canadian government documents. Best of all, it contains passenger lists of all ships bringing Mennonites to the United States and Canada from 1872 to 1885. No other group of Germans from Russia has as many scholars writing about their people as the Mennonites have. I could not begin to mention all the historians of today, but in our library in Greeley there are two books by Dr. John B. Toews of Calgary, Alberta, two by Dr. Frank Epp of Waterloo, Ontario, four by Mr. Harley J. Stucky of North Newton, Kansas, two by Dr. Victor Peters of Moorhead, Minnesota, and two by Dr. Lawrence Klippenstein of Winnipeg. It is truly an amazing record which other groups of Russian Germans would do well to emulate.

Germans from Russia — General The fourth category of books in our Archives consists of those which deal with more than one group of Germans from Russia. I might mention first of all Friedrich Matthai's Die deutschen Ansiedlung in Russland which was printed in Leipzig in 1886. The author tried to gather together everything that had been written about the German colonies up to this time. He relied extensively on statistical reports that had been printed by the Lutheran, Catholic, and Mennonite churches of Russia. He also studied the works of different German travelers such as Baron von Haxthausen who had come to Russia in 1844 and of W. Hamm who published an account of the southeastern steppes and cities of Russia in 1862. The second book is called Our Colonies by Alexander Klaus, which was written in Russian and printed in Odessa in 1885. The following year Johann Tows translated it into German. Although Alexander Klaus was born in the colony of Norka, he devoted the largest part of his book, not to the Volga colonies, but instead to the Mennonites, the Hutterites, and the colony of Sarepta. I have always suspected that he did this because it was easier to find material on the latter groups. We also have in our Archives, a copy of Dr. Georg Schunemann's collection of Russian German folk songs. Dr. Schunemann gathered these songs during World War I in prisoner of war camps in Germany after he heard Russian German soldiers sitting around a camp fire singing them. The songs were printed in 1923 under the title Das Lied der deutschen Kolonisten in Russland. Dr. Matthias Hagin of Germany, who was our guest speaker in 1973, wanted to show his appreciation for the hospitality which had been shown to him, and when he returned home, he had this volume copied and bound, and then presented it to our Society, It is another book which is extremely difficult to find today. A fourth author, Professor Kari Lindemann, was born in Nizhni Novgorod (Gorki) on the Volga. After finishing his university education, he became a professor of science at the Petrowsky Academy in Moscow. On 20-23 April 1917, when the tsar was overthrown, he presided over a congress of eighty-six German delegates from fifteen provinces who, for the first time in history, came together to discuss common problems. During the following months, separate meetings were held in Saratov and in Odessa, Russia, to make plans for the future. We are fortunate to have in our Archives, Xerox copies of the minutes of the meetings which were held in Saratov in April and in Odessa in August 1917. This was, of course, before the Communist Revolution broke out. In 1919-1921, Professor Lindemann made a study trip to the Mennonite and Lutheran colonies of the Ukraine and then went on into the Crimea. After telling of the economic conditions that he found there, he concluded his report with an account of how Germans were oppressed during World War I. These papers appeared under the title, Von den deutschen Kolonisten in Russland. They were printed in Stuttgart in 1924 in the days when Russian citizens could still maintain contact with Germany. Another important book, called Der Wanderweg der Russlanddeutschen, appeared in 1939. Much of it consists of articles, written by such specialists in genealogy as Dr. Karl Stumpp, telling about the emigration of Germans from Wurttemberg, Baden, Poland, and other places to Russia. The names of these people and often their ages and the exact place of origin is given. The book also contains descriptions of the immigration of Russian Germans to the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South America. It is a veritable gold mine of information about our people. We also have in our files, eighteen books or pamphlets printed in the Soviet Union since 1960 in the German language, and written by Soviet Germans. As I'm sure you all know, Russian Germans were ordered deported in 1941 after Hitler invaded Russia. People were sent to work camps or to closed settlements in Siberia or Soviet Asia where they lived under appalling conditions. Until 1955 not one word appeared about them in any Russian newspaper or magazine. They were then released from the camps but not al-

43 lowed to return to their former homes. In 1960 a book in the German language called Hand in Hand, consisting of essays, poetry, and short stories by Soviet Germans was printed in Moscow. A second volume appeared in 1965 and countless other books have been published since then. These books are primarily interesting for what they do not say. Not once is it ever mentioned that the Germans were forcibly deported in 1941. Nothing but praise and gratitude is ever expressed to the Soviet Union which supposedly freed the Russian Germans from oppression and abuse. Nevertheless, one can occasionally glean interesting bits of information from them. Among our most prized possessions in the AHSGR Archives are microfilms of newspapers and periodicals. We have copies of the Odessaer Zeitung from 1890 to 1914 which we obtained from the Library of Congress. Hattie Plum Williams subscribed to the Volkszeitung of Saratov during the years 1913 and 1914. Her papers are today in the Nebraska State Historical Society which furnished us with a microfilm. A third periodical called Der Morgenstern was published in Saratov for the brethren of the Volga and the Black Sea regions from 1909-1914. Dr. Albert Wardin of Belmont College, Nashville, Tennessee, very kindly provided microfilms for us. We also have microfilms of the periodicals, Deutsche Post aus dem Osten, from 1926 through 1930 and again from 1936 to December 1942, which we obtained from the Library of Congress. And we have Xeroxed copies of all issues of the Wolgadeutsche Monatshefte which was printed in Berlin from July 1922 through March 1925. Here in the United States, Gerda Walker has been primarily responsible for the collection of those newspapers which our parents formerly read. We now have microfilms of the Dakota Freie Presse from April 1909 to September 1916; of the Welt Post, published in Nebraska from April 1915 to October 1972, and of the Nord Dakota Herold which appeared between the years 1907-1960. These newspapers are constantly being used by researchers of Russian German history and are indeed one of the real treasures of our Archives. Mention should also be made of the Captured War Documents which were brought to the Library of Congress from Germany in 1945. They included reports on those German villages of the central Ukraine whose inhabitants had not been deported because of the speed of German advance. Dr. Karl Stumpp commanded a team of researchers who reported on such things as the current population of the villages, how many people had been murdered by armed bandits in the civil war period, how many had died in the famines of 1921 and 1933, how many had been deported to slave labor camps in the 1930's and how many were taken away from their villages after the outbreak of war with Germany. These documents were thought to have been lost, but they were found by Dr. Adam Giesinger in the Library of Congress. Today, we have not only microfilms of the reports themselves, but a key to them prepared by Dr. Giesinger in 1977. We are also indebted to Dr. Peter J. Klassen of Presno, California for finding village reports from the western Ukraine which had been kept in the Bundesarchiv of Koblenz, Germany. Copies of these were bought by AHSGR for our collection,

Family Histories I should like to close by saying a few words to the many members of AHSGR who have written autobiographies or family histories and then sent a copy to our Archives. In looking over these histories, I always pay particular attention to the last days in Russia and the trip to the United States, Every story contains a wealth of drama. On the day of departure from Russia, there was usually a religious service for the departing members of the community. Then the few possessions which people were taking with them were loaded on wagons. Many of their neighbors and friends would accompany them to the edge of the village where final farewells would be said. People on the Volga usually drove to Saratov to catch the train and people on the Black Sea to Odessa. Relatives would stand weeping as the train disappeared in the distance because they knew that they would probably never see each other again. It became customary to refer to this farewell as a "living death." Both the train ride to the port of embarkation and the ocean trip to America were frightening experiences because most of our ancestors had never been on a train or a steamship before. The long voyage across the Atlantic was particularly bad. Whole families were wedged tightly together in compartments which reeked of foul air, old food, seasickness, and unwashed humanity. The worst experience of all was when a baby or some other member of the party died and the lifeless body was thrown overboard into the ocean. Then after reaching New York, there was always the danger that not every member of the family would pass the physical examination that was given. In some cases, the husband of the family was admitted and

44 the wife kept in New York, or even sent to Galveston, Texas, as one of our members told, until she had recovered from her illness. In other cases, whole families decided to go on to South America where laws were less stringent. I am always impressed with how poor many people were. After 1893 it became necessary to state how much money a father possessed, and over and over again he would say that he had just five or ten dollars to start out in the New World. Sometimes there was just enough money for the family to reach Chicago. The mother and children would stay there, while the father went on alone to Lincoln or some other town, where friends or relatives would give him the necessary money for his family to follow him. A fascinating family history written by Victor Reisig, tells how his parents arrived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, "tired, sick, dirty, hungry, confused, and frightened." To make matters worse, the relatives whom they were supposed to meet had moved away. They mayor of the town, who spoke German, hired a dray to take the Reisigs to a poor hotel, and when the relatives could not be found, the family was sent to Mt. Clemens where they were housed in the city jail for three days. Not everyone had such an inauspicious start as this, but Theodore Straub tells that his mother remembers the great blizzard of 12 January 1888 and of how the frozen body of a schoolteacher was found the next morning near her home. He also relates that he was often sent out to pick up cow chips for fuel while his family was living near Eureka, South Dakota. In the same way, little girls with gunny sacks would walk along the Burlington Railroad tracks, picking up pieces of coal that had been dropped from trains. I could easily spend another hour telling stories such as these which I have gleaned from your family histories. You may not think that these stories are very important now, but in the next thirty years they will be read with fascination by your children and grandchildren. In their eyes, these family histories will also become "Treasures in our Archives."

Library numbers in Greeley and book titles, listed in the order in which they were mentioned, are given below.

Library No. Title

GR - 52 Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 1956 to 1967/68 (called Heimatbuch der Ostum-siedler in 1954 and 1955) edited primarily by Dr. Karl Stumpp. Stuttgart, Germany. GR - 52 Schnurr, Joseph, ed. Die Kirchen und das religioese Leben der Russlanddeutschen. (Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 1969-1972.) Stuttgart, 1972. GR - 147 Heimatkalender der Bessarabiendeutschen. (Until 1963 called Bessarabischer Heimatkalen-der.) 1950-1980 inclusive.

Volga Germans GR - 1 Bauer, Gottlieb, ed. Geschichte der deutschen Ansiedler an der Wolga. .. . 1766-1874. 2nd ed. Saratov, 1908. GR - 2 Beratz, Gottlieb, Die deutschen Kotonien an der unteren Wolga in ihrer Entstehung und ersten Entwicklung.. . . Saratov, 1915. GR - 3 Bonwetsch, Gerhard. Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien an der Wolga. Stuttgart, 1919. GR - 457 Schmidt, David. Studien ueber die Geschichte der Wolgadeutschen.. . . Pokrowsk, 1930. GR - 474 Koenig, Lothar. Die Deutschtumsinsel an der Wolga. . .. Duelmen in Westphalen [Germany],1938. GR - 493 Pisarevskii, G. G. Studies on the History of Foreign Colonization in Russia in the 18th Century [in Russian]. Moscow, 1909. GR - 495 Additional works by Pisarevskii on the Volga Germans. and 496 GR - 497 About the migration of Prussian Mennonites to Russia under Alexander I. (All books by Pisarevskii are in Russian.) GR — 368 E(rbes) J. and P. S(inner), comps. Volkslieder und Kinderreime aus den Wolgakolonien. Saratov, 1914. GR - 248 Zuege, Christian Gottlob. Derrussische Kolonist. Vol. I, Gera, Saxony, 1802. GR - 248a: An English Translation by Hattie Plum Williams. GR - 933 Hafa, Herwig. Die Bruedergemeinde Sarepta. .. . Breslau, 1936.

45 GR - 883 Bier, Friedrich and Alexander Schick. From the Days of Suffering by the German Volga Colonies. (Originally printed as Aus den Leidenstagen der deutschen Wolgakolonien. Darmstadt, 1922.) Translated from the German by Herman G. Rempel, Fresno, California, 1978. The original German version is GR - 4. GR - 519 Schleuning, Johannes. Aus tiefster Not: Schicksale der deutscher Kolonisten in Russland. Berlin, 1922. We also have other books by Johannes Schleuning which are numbered GR- 119 and GR" 120. GR - 244 Janecke, Anna (Anna Jauck). Wolgadeutsches Schicksal. . . . Leipzig, 1937, (Typewritten copy). GR - 321 Dinges, Georg, ed, Beitraege zur Heimatkunde des deutschen Wolgagebiets. . . . Pokrowsk (Kosakenstadt), 1923. GR - 976 Scheuerman, Richard D. "The Pacific Northwest's Volga Germans." Unpublished M.A. thesis. Pacific Lutheran University, 1977. GR - 422 Kloberdanz, Timothy John. "The Volga German Catholic Life Cycle: An Ethnographic Reconstruction." Unpublished M.A. thesis, Colorado State University, 1974. GR ~ 691 DreiHng, Norbert R. Official Centennial History of the German Settlements in Ellis and Rush Counties of Kansas 1876-1976. Hays, Kansas, 1976. GR - 620 Meyer, Earl et al. St. Francis Parish, Munjor, Kansas, 1876-1976. Hays, Kansas, 1976. GR - 959 Werth, Rev. Alvin V. Our Ancestors' Quest for Freedom realized in Schoenchen, Kansas. Hays, Kansas, 1979. GR - 618 Dechant, Emerald. Die Liebenthaler und Ihre Kirche . . . 1776-1876-1976. Liebenthal, Kansas, 1976. Black Sea Germans GR - 437 Leibbrandt, Georg, Die Auswanderung aus Schwaben nach Russland 1816-1823. .. . Stuttgart, 1928. GR - 331 Stach, Jacob. Die deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland. Prischib, Russia, 1904. GR - 135 Keller, Conrad. Die deutschen Kolonien in Suedrussland. Vol. I: Odessa, 1905; Vol. II: Odessa, 1914. GR - 135a Keller, Conrad. The German Colonies in South Russia. Translated by A, Becker. Vol. I in1968 and Vol. II in 1973. GR - 34 Leibbrandt, Georg. Die deutschen Kolonien in Cherson und Bessarabien. . . . Stuttgart, 1926. GR - 327 Malinowsky, Josef A. Die deutschen katholischen Kolonien am Schwarzen Meer. , . . Stuttgart, 1927 GR--243 Woltner, M(argarete). Die Gemeindeberichten von 1848 der deutschen Siedlungen am Schwarzen Meer. Leipzig, 1941. Dr. Woltner also wrote Das wolgadeutsche Bildungswesen und die russische Schulpolitik. . .. Leipzig, 1937. It can be found under GR - 441. GR-526 Stumpp, Karl. Die deutschen Kolonien am Schvarzmeergebiet dem frueheren Neu (Sued )- Russland. .. . Stuttgart, 1922. GR - 454 Brendel, Johannes. Aus deutschen Kolonien im Kutschurganer Gebiet. . .. Stuttgart, 1930. GR - 69 Kugler, Christian. Grossliebenthal. Leipzig, 1939. GR -- 1048 Weisbrod-Buhler. Zuerichtal eine Bauernkolonie in der Krim. . . . Affoltern, no date given, but after 1956.

GR - 1004 Bond, Anatole. Deutsche Siedlung am Schwarzen Meer: Lustdorf bei Odessa. Marburg, 1978. GR - 804 Weiss, Herbert, Geschichte der Kolonie Teplitz. Tarutino, Romania, 1931. GR - 870 Weiss, Herbert. Teplitzer Chronik. ... Germany, 1958. GR - 978 Rub, Priedrich. Geschichte der Gemeinde Gnadental, 1830-1930. Handwritten document with first 44 pages missing. Among Captured War Documents in the National Archives. Space permits me to give just the library call number of the following Bessarabian mother colonies, Our 1976 bibliography of AHSGR materials will give additional information. All of these books were printed in Germany. GR - 124 Ziebart, Alfred. Alt Arzis, Bessarabien. . .. 1967. GR - 127 Lehmann, Otto. Alt Elft, Heimat im Wort und Bild. . .. 1968.

46 GR - 838 Weiss, Oskar, Chronik der deutschen Kolonie Alt Postal. 1967. GR - 109 Becker, Jacob. Beresina: cine bessarabiendeutsche Gemeinde. 1967. GR - 123 Ziebart, Alfred. 150 Jahre: 1816-1966 Brienne-Bessarabien. 1967. GR - 899 Winger, Arnold. Chronik der Gemeinde Katzbach. ... no date given. GR - 117 Mammel, Arnold, ed. Kloestitz das Bild der Heimat. 1962. GR-71 Leinz, Alois, ed. Heimatbuch der Bessarabiendeutschen 1960. Leinz wrote about such Catholic villages as Krasna. GR - 116 Treichel, David. Heimatbuch der Gemeinde Kulm, Bessarabien. 1968. GR - 196 Roth, Karl. Lichtental, Bessarabien. . . . 1969. GR - 1009 Fiess, Christian, ed. Sarata 1822-1940. 1979. GR - 837 Mutschall, W. Geschichte der Gemeinde Tarutino von 1814 bis 1934. 1966. GR - 503 Karasek-[Langer, Alfred] und [Kurt] Luck. Die deutschen Siedlungen in Wolhynien. Geschichte, Volkskunde, Lebensfragen. Leipzig, 1931. GR - 986 Karasek-Strzygowski, Hertha. Wolhynisches Tagebuch. Marburg, 1979. GR - 509 Kern, J. (Johann Foil). Das uebertuenchte Grab. . .. Berlin, 1936.

The Mennonites GR—871 Unruh, Benjamin Heinrich. Die niederlaendisch-niederdeutschen Hintergrunde der men- nonitischen Ostwanderungen im 16., 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Karlsruhe, 1955. GR - 895 Friesen, Peter M. The Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia (1789-1910). Translated from the German by J. B. Toews, Abraham Friesen, Peter J. Klassen et al. Winnipeg, Canada, 1978. GR - 478 Belk, Fred Richard. The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884. Scottdale, Pa., 1976. GR — 609 Jansen, Cornelius. Sammlung von Notizen ueber Amerika. Dantzig, 1872. GR - 384 Smith, C. Henry. The Coming of the Russian Mennonites. .. . Berne, Indiana, 1927. GR - 118 Krahn, Cornelius, ed. From the Steppes to the Prairies. Kansas, 1949. GR ~ 70 Fast, Gerhard. Im Schatten des Todes: Eriebnisbericht aus Sowjetrussland. Winnipeg, Canada, 1956. GR - 395 Fast, Gerhard. Das Ende von Chortitza. Winnipeg, 1973. GR - 415 Quiring, Walter and Helen Bartel. In the Fullness of Time: 150 Years of Mennonite Sojourn in Russia. Kitchener, Canada, 1974, GR - 416 Hiebert, Clarence, comp. Brothers in Deed to Brothers in Need: A Scrapbook about Mennonite Immigrants from Russia 1870-1885. Hillsboro, Kansas, 1974.

Germans from Russia — General GR - 249 Matthai, Friedrich. Die deutschen Ansiedlungen in Russland. .. . Leipzig, 1866. GR - 322 Klaus, Alexander. Unsere Kolonien. Trans, from the Russian by J. Tows. Odessa, Russia, 1887. GR - 475 Schuenemann, Georg. Das Lied der deutschen Kolonisten in Russland. Munich, 1923. GR - 501 Zentralkomitee der deutschen Wolgakolonisten in Saratow ...am 25-27. April 1917. Saratow. GR - 499 Zentralkomitee des Gebietsverbandes . .. im Schwarzmeergebiet vom 1. bis 3. August 1917.Odessa. GR - 452 Lindeman, Karl. Von den deutschen Kolonisten in Russland: Ergebnisse einer Studienreise 1919-1921. Stuttgart, 1924. GR - 359 Der Wanderweg der Russlanddeutschen. Jahrbuch der Hauptstelle fuer die Sippenkunde des Deutschtums im Ausland. Stuttgart, 1939. GR - 191 Gaus [sic], Anna, comp. Hand in Hand: Gedichte und Erzahlungen, Moscow, 1960. GR - 192 Gauss, Anna, comp. Hand in Hand II: Gedichte und Erzahlungen So\vjetdeutscher Autoren. Moscow, 1965. Among other books, the most important is probably GR - 427: Klein, Victor. Unversiegbarer Born. Alma Ata, 1974. GR - 707 Giesinger, Adam. German Villages in the Ukraine: A Key to a Microfilm of Materials in Boxes 146- 154 of the Captured German Documents at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. Lincoln, Nebraska, 1977.

47 Family Histories GR - 958 Reisig, Victor A. The Descendants of Johann Peter Lehr and Katherina Margareta Loefler. ... St. Joe, Michigan, 1980 [?]. GR - 189 Straub, Theodore Friedrich. Johann Brandt Family. Bismarck, North Dakota, 1968.

Several of the many volumes in the AHSGR collection. Members of the Society may use materials in the library, or order books and articles through inter- library loan. Rare and irreplaceable materials by such authors as Bauer, Beratz, Bonwetsch, and some others to whom Mrs. Haynes refers in her address, are not circulated but Xerox copies of these items can be made upon request. The three persons most responsible for building the AHSGR Archives and Historical Library from a dream into the most extensive collection of materials on all Germans from Russia in the western hemisphere: Emma Schwabenland Haynes, Adam Giesinger, and Marie Miller Olson.

Two of the uncatalogued treasures in the Archives, librarians Esther Fromm and Paula Franks, re- searching a reference question. The AHSGR collection of materials on the Germans from Russia is in the background. Librarian Paula Franks assisting visitors with research at the AHSGR Archives and Historical Library housed in the Greeley (Colorado) Public Library. Transfer of the AHSGR collection to the reference area has made a large work space available for researchers to use.

48 AHSGR THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS PRESIDENTS

THE FOUNDING YEARS David J. Miller Fellow members of the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, fellow members and guests: Mary, I want to commend you, your committees, and the Michigan chapters for the splendid job you have done at this convention. It is an honor and a high personal privilege for me to speak to you .tonight about the early days of AHSGR. . . . The founders of our Society and its Foundation were many. Next to my country, my family, my church, and my profession, our Society has been the most important thing in my life. Let me repeat, next to my country, my family, my church, and my profession, AHSGR has been the most important thing in my life. The future of AHSGR depends on how important AHSGR is in your life as well as with lives of all other members. No single person or group of persons created AHSGR; no single person can destroy it. Its life, its vitality, and its continued growth depend upon all of us and how we work together. It is an old maxim that each of us can get a lot accomplished if we do not care who gets the credit. Ours is a competitive world, a competitive society, an unhappy one, a selfish one, and at times a self-destructive one. Each of us, old and young, can destroy herself and himself. A few of us can destroy AHSGR that it took thousands of us to build. No single one of us founded AHSGR. History records that empires of the world have decayed or have destroyed themselves from within. They were not destroyed from without. AHSGR will not be destroyed from without; it can only be destroyed from within. I am reminded of the day at our San Francisco convention when we got the sad news of Chet Krieger's death. Chet was the first secretary of AHSGR. It was a sad day for all of us, not just for his wife and sisters, and their families. As a matter of personal privilege, I would like to introduce to you Chets sister, Albertina Sanger; his sister, Evelyn Cook, and her husband Bill Cook. Let us all pause a moment to honor Chets memory and the work he did for AHSGR. I would like to say to his wife Carolyn, and his sisters and their families, and to each of you, that Chet served AHSGR and Dave Miller as president of AHSGR generously and well, without counting the cost to himself in time, effort, and money. Only Adam as president and Ruth as past president, can know the countless times a member, a chapter president, or a member of the Board of Directors or of the Board of Trustees has put the president of AHSGR on the spot. I also learned early in the five years I served as the first president, how easily I could put myself, my fellow officers, and board members on the spot. I cannot remember a single time that Chet put me or AHSGR on the spot. I must hasten to say that certainly there were other members who have not put me on the spot, but I shall not name all of them tonight. In all humility let me say as an individual and as a past president of AHSGR I have not always had the moral integrity to "turn the other cheek." I must confess at times to the detriment of myself and contrary to the best interest of AHSGR I have "lost my cool" and hit back as hard as I could. Competition may be the American and the Canadian way of life, and be good for business, in the general sense, but it is not in the interest of AHSGR for its members and its chapter presidents to contest with each other the point of who has made the greatest contribution to AHSGR. Many of our ethnic group have had the idea of a historical society for many years. I am proud to number myself among them. I do not presume to exclude anyone. I had the privilege in 1948 and 1949 to serve on the legal staff of General Clay, Office of Military Government of the United States in Germany. I had a bibliography that I had put together when I served with the O.P.A. in Washington, D.C. for a short time in 1944. I had that bibliography with me in Berlin and I was able to get many books and pamphlets during the time Lydia and our children were in Berlin, Nuremberg, and Bad Nauheim, West Germany. Upon our return to the United States m the summer of 1949 we were asked to show our slides on postwar Germany, many, many times. In presenting these slides to the father and son banquet at the St. Paul's Congregational Church in Greeley, I suggested that we put together a group to form a historical society for Germans from Russia. There was interest but no action. Lydia and I had the opportunity in June of 1966 to participate with the Citizens Exchange Corps of New York City on a three week study tour through Russia. It was eventful. Every possible attempt by us to get

49 permission to visit the towns of our forefathers on the Volga failed. In 1967 we joined the round-the-world tour of the American Bar Association and the World Peace through Law Center, through the U.S.S.R. In the fall of 1966, we were fortunate to locate first cousins of mine in central Asia, We sought and obtained permission to go to Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, not far from the Chinese border. By good luck and extensive correspondence some forty Miller relatives gathered at the home of a first cousin of mine in Alma-Ata. Lydia and I each had a camera and we took a good many pictures and had slides made. We showed the Russian slides including the Miller relatives at St. Paul's Congregational Church in Greeley, in the fall of 1967. Among those attending was John Werner. He questioned me extensively about the trip and told me about the material which he had collected on Germans from Russia over the years. We met at his home in Greeley. John showed us part of his collection including the German edition of Dr. Stumpp's picture book. John Werner told us that on a business trip in Scottsbluff he checked the Scottsbluff Public Library for items on Germans from Russia and found a copy of William Urbach's Our Parents were Russian Germans. He mentioned that the Urbachs had moved to Windsor Gardens in Denver. I agreed with John to meet with the Urbachs with a view of starting a historical society. I talked to both Bill Urbach and John Werner. We agreed to form an ad hoc committee. Each of us furnished names. I prepared and mailed from my office a mimeographed letter to all on the lists inviting them to a meeting at Windsor Gardens, Denver, Colorado, 8 September 1968, We also announced the meeting through the press. President Giesinger has reviewed the meetings at Windsor Gardens, Denver, Colorado, and at the community building in Greeley, Colorado, and the adoption of the name. From the beginning, and at all times since, we have had members on the Board of Directors whose ethnic background is from the Volga, the Black Sea. Volhynia, the Caucasus, and central Asia. The Board has also been representative of our different religious backgrounds: Lutheran, Catholic, Mennonite, Reformed, and others. The Board has at all times had members from all areas in the United States and to the extent possible in Canada as well. President Giesinger has served on the Board from the beginning. The nucleus of the officers and the Board of Directors the first five years had to be from Denver and northern Colorado so that we could meet monthly or on call. The minutes of those early meetings do present a summary of our problems and our achievements. Very few of us were retired. Most of us carried full time jobs or professions. The first convention in Greeley, Colorado was an outstanding success. The program ideas were developed by working together. Registration was extremely slow. Before the opening day of the convention we had fewer than fifty paid registrations. Meal guarantees were a great problem. We guaranteed twice as many meals as had been paid for, but we exceeded the estimates! At the last business session the nominating committee suggested we increase the board members from fifteen to twenty. Some additional persons were nominated from the floor. As president, I asked the convention to suspend its rules, increase the number of board members to thirty and elect all by acclamation. The motion was made and seconded and adopted. There was no dissenting vote. This left some vacancies to be filled at the discretion of the Board. The highlights of those first five years in my memory are: the volume of letters from far and wide, the board meetings, the great ideas we developed, the deliberate founding of the first chapter in Lincoln rather than in Colorado, the wonderful people we have met and most of all the enthusiasm and willingness of all officers, board members, and members without office, and their spouses to do what it took to build an organization. AHSGR outgrew my office, preempted most of my time and Lydia's. It became necessary for me to find a new president and new headquarters. Upon my recommendation to the Board of Directors Ruth Amen served as convention chairman for each of the conventions at Lincoln, Boulder, and Portland, under the general supervision of the Board. Since all officers and board members serve without pay and pay their own travel expenses as well, I felt that Lincoln, under the demonstrated ability and willingness of Ruth Amen and the Lincoln Chapter, held the best hope for the future. My recommendation to the Board was approved. The outstanding progress of AHSGR shows that we made an excellent choice. I am glad to share very briefly the first five years of our history. The pleasure of meeting old friends is exceeded only by the opportunity of meeting new ones each year. Let us pledge to each other and to AHSGR our best efforts in meeting the challenge of the membership goal set by President Giesinger in his keynote address: Fifty thousand members by the 1985 convention. Each of us must pledge at least one member each year for five years. I will get my first one by 1 September 1980.1 challenge each of you to do the same. 50 GROWING UP Ruth M. Amen The years 1973-1978 will always stand out as a memorable period for me personally. Many things happened during that period that were a source of great satisfaction to me, and I hope will also be looked on as progress for the AHSGR. I'm taking the liberty to detour to be a bit personal. Ed Schwartzkopf and I were both members of the Board of Directors and were to attend a meeting at Windsor Gardens on a weekend in the spring of 1973. As many of you know I was living with my father who was then ninety-six years of age. I wouldn't think of leaving him alone so my brother Duffy and sister-in-law Evelyn moved in at 601 D, our family home. Ed and I were to leave at two o'clock on a Friday night to make the drive to Denver in time for a ten o'clock meeting. When the alarm went off at one a.m. I rose to get ready and noticed my father was also dressing to make the trip. You see I was still his little girl and he wasn't about to let me go off on a trip over night with a man even though he knew him well. In fact, I think it can be said that theirs was a mutual admiration society. But I can talk fast and with Duffy's help I was able to convince my father that it would be all right. So off into the night I went. I picked up Ed and drove for a time. Then Ed took the wheel. Before long we were into a heavy, slushy snowfall. It was not quite dawn when suddenly we slipped into the interstate median. Ed said, "Hang on," and I didn't utter a sound. Miraculously we were up on the pavement again and I thought we were headed for the shoulder when we straightened out and began to "fly right." I still don't know if Ed told me the truth when he said those little posts with reflectors will bend on impact. I just know that I'm glad to this day that I wasn't driving and that a good pilot was at the wheel. I did wonder about the possible newspaper headline, "University Regent injured in accident. Passenger in car Professor Ruth M. Amen of Wesleyan University Staff." But something else happened on the way home that was deserving of headlines for AHSGR. I knew of a rental house in my block that was to be vacated and suggested to Ed that perhaps the Chapter could rent it for a chapter office. He thought it a good idea which we proposed at our next chapter meeting. Before we knew it there were crews in to redecorate. They hammered, sawed, varnished, scrubbed, painted, hung curtains, laid carpet, and sawed off doors so they'd continue to close. Things happened in close succession after that. The Chapter didn't need all that space so we decided to make it a museum with the "back bedroom" as an office. Then came the 1973 convention in Portland after which the Lincoln Chapter yielded its office and AHSGR had its very first International Headquarters in a room that measured about ten feet six inches by twelve feet. The linen closet became the supply cabinet and the clothes closet the storage space for files, dictaphone, maps—you name it. When the Board met in Lincoln on 2 November 1973, we had formal dedication exercises with the Russian German Mayor Sam Schwartzkopf as one of the speakers and David J. Miller, our first president, cutting the ribbon. After the program we went to the basement where tables were set up amid the furnace and pipes and had a dinner to celebrate. You can believe it—it was an exciting event. The minutes of that meeting recorded 1,356 memberships. The Foundation had $871.20 on deposit. It was decided to draft bylaws and incorporation papers for the Foundation. There was a motion to purchase a copier. There were, I believe, seven or eight chapters at this time. There was no paid staff but there were many, many enthusiastic, loyal volunteers who are still playing that role today. Four board meetings later we were in Fresno, California for our Fifth International Convention where your second president noted that "The Past is Prologue" and invited everyone to "Come Grow with Us." By then we had published fourteen Work Papers and were distributing them to 1,523 members, one of them a life member. Every day in that Headquarters office and every board meeting brought new excitement, more progress, increased memberships, and by the time of the 1975 convention in Lincoln we had more than 600 in attendance. A committee was proofing the galleys of The Czar's Germans. The Foundation assets were nearing $10,000. We had six new chapters. Let me point out a few other things that were happening: Our board meetings were learning experiences besides business sessions. We went to Freeman, South Dakota for the Schmeckfest and toured the area to see the old Russian German Mennonite homes. We

51 attended (several times) the German Heritage Days in McCook. We met in Hillsboro, Kansas to attend the Wheat Centennial. We met in Henderson, Nebraska at the time of the annual smorgasboard. We visited Colorado State University and heard about the special project being initiated there. We went to Palo Alto, California so we could visit the Hoover Institute and Library which has many documents relating to Germans from Russia. July 1976 found us in Hays, Kansas. Sometimes we went places just so people would read about us and inquire, like Yuma, Arizona. We even met in Rio de Janeiro in January of 1978. That was one of the highlights of the five years I served this great Society as president. Sixty-one of us in two groups went to Argentina to help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Germans from Russia in that country. En route we made friends with those in Brazil and Paraguay as well. But it all peaked in June 1978 when once again our convention met in Lincoln, Nebraska to celebrate its Tenth Anniversary. The previous November we had moved two doors up the street into a whole house where we now had four rooms. We chartered ten new chapters in our tenth year to make a total of thirty-two. There were 3,743 memberships, 69 of them life. And with us to make that convention more special was Dr. Karl Stumpp whom we had brought from Germany for the second time. For me the climax was the pageant "Through the Years with the Germans from Russia." It was all the compensation one could wish for. Many of you were in the audience at First Plymouth Church that night and I thank you for singing those old familiar hymns as I have never heard them sung. And let me say again —sincere thanks to you for granting me the honor to serve. Growing up with AHSGR has been hard work—1 can't deny it- but it has been worth every ounce of effort. To know you, to learn from you-I loved it all. And I love all of you.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE Adam Giesinger A common method of exposition in ancient times was the parable. To make certain points I shall use this method tonight. In the fall of 1968 David J. Miller presided at the birth of an infant. The exact date of the birth has been disputed. There is alleged to be a birth certificate which gives one date and a newspaper report of the time which gives another. It could be that the Russian calendar is confusing them. Also disputed, in recent articles in a publication which I shall not name, is the child's paternity. The infant appeared at first to be a robust child, but it soon developed frequent attacks of colic, David worried over it by day and walked the floors with it by night. Alice Heinz did baby-sitting now and then, as did Gerda Walker, Rachel Amen, Chester Krieger, Jerry Lehr, and others. Ruth Stoll came from Yuma, Arizona occasionally to help. At the age of about two the child was attacked by a recurring vicious virus which threatened its life on occasion. With the help of his friends and his infinite patience and endurance, David nursed it back to health. Eventually he turned over a vigorous, somewhat unruly youngster of five to schoolmistress Ruth Amen. Ruth emphasized discipline. She made rules for the child and made him conform. She kept detailed records of his progress and gave him good reports when he deserved them. She got him interested in book learning. Two years ago she turned him over to me as a well-mannered teenager with a bright future. Having been involved in the education of young adults all my life, I knew that this wasn't going to be an easy task. This teenager, like so many in our day, is mature for his age and has many problems, many needs, and many wants. At the present time, for instance, he has an overwhelming desire for a pad of his own! I think I have carried the analogy far enough. I want to pay a special tribute here tonight to my two predecessors in the presidency of this Society. They have rendered incalculable services to us and are still doing it. You will understand when I tell you that they have been for me a tough act to follow. David Miller was the leader who kept the Society alive in its first years, when it was constantly in danger of collapsing. Without his efforts of those years we would not be here today. He is now our general counsel

52 and elder statesman, to whom our Boards still turn for advice on many matters. Ruth Amen established our head office in its present format and the Society's present mode of operation. It is a master-piece of organization which is serving us well. It is our great good fortune that, when she retired from the presidency two years ago, she agreed to stay on as Executive Director. Without her at Headquarters a non-resident president could not have operated. The accomplishments of my predecessors are there for all to see. What do I hope to accomplish? I think you know from my keynote address on Thursday morning what my dream is: I want to turn the first sod for our Heritage Center! We need such a center as a loving memorial to our intrepid forefathers and for the preservation of our historical and genealogical heritage for our descendants. To build it we need your help and that of all members of this Society. Those who do contribute towards this building will have their names perpetuated within it. What better monument could you provide for yourself? This convention, although it has tired me physically, has exhilarated me mentally. It has been an exciting experience. Your large scale attendance at our sessions and your interest in our proceedings have been an inspiration to all of us involved in the preparation of this event. I was tremendously pleased by the contributions of so many gifted speakers. We have great talent among us! And most of the people who spoke are relatively young. The future looks good, doesn't it? This convention has been educational and it has been fun. Mary Martini has accomplished miracles for us. But now I must declare the convention adjourned. Enjoy the party tonight and come to the ecumenical service tomorrow, and to Minneapolis next summer.

Adam Giesinger The Eleventh International Convention Banquet featured addresses by the three presidents of the AHSGR who recalled major events during their terms of office. First president, David J. Miller recollected "The Founding Years," and paid tribute to the first secretary of the Society, Major Chester Krieger. Second president, Ruth M. Amen delineated the Society's years of "Growing Up," and current president, Adam Giesinger shared his hopes of "Building for the Future. "

53

Dr. and Mrs. W. E. Hieb of Henderson, Nebraska and Mrs. Betty Hieb Lucas of Rochester, Michigan (from right) turn their attentions to the Foundation quilt which was designed and pieced by Miss Therese Kober of Laurel, Montana and quilted by volunteers from the Lincoln, Nebraska Chapter of the AHSGR. The project resulted in donations of $1,332.25 to the International Foundation's building fund. In a drawing held at the Fellowship Breakfast during convention week, the quilt was won by Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Kissler of Seattle, Washington,

Some of the descendants of the Germans from Russia lightened the Hyatt with their bright young faces. The Society's future is looking good?

54 AN IDEA IS BORN Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz Mr. President, distinguished guests, officers, and our dear members of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia: I am pleased to have an opportunity to have a few words with you today. I would like to chat with you about something very special that is in my heart and I hope when I finish it will also be special with you. I am anxious to share with you some of the happenings in the beginning of our AHSGR Foundation. They were real. They were successful. We feel very humble because we feel we have been blessed from someone above to have made the strides we have made, Some years ago, I listened to a university professor who delivered a stirring address on education. His subject was, "The Power of an Idea." I was terribly impressed. It made me very cognizant of something I had not thought too much about. Later, I remembered that in 1968 some other people had an idea. We had a new organization for us. It was the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. This illustration here before you* shows the program from our first convention, held in Greeley, Colorado. I am reminded of something important. We had a member of the Board of Directors by the name of Jerry Lehr from Denver, Every time we said "AHSGR" for brevity, he reminded us to add "International." Hats off to Jerry Lehr who realized we needed to be international. All through my life I have observed the wonderful achievements in science, space, construction, the miracles of medicine, and countless other fields. I am always aware of progress. Behind all this progress there must be ideas and someone who has talent and takes the time to develop them. May I call your attention to our visit to the Ford Museum we had on Tuesday? As you entered the great hall, the first thing you saw was a vast picture of our American pioneers. As I stood there in awe, I remembered a story. I wonder how many of you know it. There was a six year old lad who, after three months in school, came home one day with a note from his teacher suggesting he be put into another school. Why? He was too stupid to learn. Said his mother, "I will teach him myself!" She did. Can you guess who it was? You saw his picture at the museum. You also saw his footprints and shovel in the cemented sand at the museum, It was Thomas A. Edison and as a result you and I push a button and we have light, and we have heat, and we have power. Only a few of the things Edison did. He had ideas and knew what to do with them. In 1970 after our first AHSGR Convention in Greeley, Colorado, the Board of Directors was confronted with problems that were real. The ledger was in red. We needed funds for mailing. We needed funds for the coming Work Paper. I had an idea. Why not a Foundation to help AHSGR? I had had the privilege of working with the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and the American Medical Auxiliary, beginning in 1949 for five years. We needed 70,000 nurses, 50,000 doctors, and more and better medical schools, We organized the AMA- ERF Foundation. Ladies and gentlemen, we started with $ 1,000.00 and in less than ten years, we raised over one hundred million dollars. You see what an idea can do? We can afford action if we dare take the steps. It was in January 1971, at the home of Major and Mrs. Chester Krieger in Denver that with the sanction and consent of our then international president, David J. Miller, who was always very cooperative, had an open mind, and was always ready to assist AHSGR, I took courage, I suggested a foundation. You and I know that no one sells a German Russian anything, nothing but nothing without working for it. The idea did not fall on a bed of roses. It was not immediately accepted. Before long, I decided to do something more because I was made chairman of a committee charged with the study to see if a foundation was feasible. We were going to the moon at that time. We had been several times. We were going again. We had powerful rocket engines. Those of you who know me personally can understand better why in Work Paper No. 5, page forty, you found this page. (Illustration). It was a rocket taking off. The message said: "Coming soon! Foundation Education and Research. ... the AHSGR Foundation is almost a reality." I had not been told I could do this. I did it. We had a few favorable responses and after consulting the international president again I said to myself, "Why don't we get started?" And so, I went to the Greeley National Bank. I inquired as to how much money was necessary for an organization to have a savings account. The response was simple: no designated amount needed. Start with a dollar. ... You will recall with me Matthew XVTI:20, "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed .. . nothing shall be impossible unto you." Ladies and gentlemen, I opened my purse. With two dollar bills of currency, the AHSGR Foundation account was opened. We were to get four per cent interest. I was pleased. Happily I went to Mr. Miller and informed him we had a Foundation. We had two dollars in the bank. *Note: Ten charts were used during the presentation to illustrate various stages of development. 55 Not long after that we were preparing for our second convention. Before going to Lincoln in June it was time for interest to be computed in savings accounts. Mr. Miller had sent me some memorial donations I had been promoting. I went to the bank, took my own savings book and that of the Foundation. The first interest recorded was six cents, represented by the six pennies on the chart before you. We went to Lincoln. Here we received some gimmicks when we registered. There were knives from the National Bank of Commerce. ... At any rate, when I made my report I stated I was superstitious. One should never accept a sharp gift without giving the donor at least a penny. Why not drop a penny in a dish for the Foundation? The next day, Henry Dietz of Greeley came to me with a little sack. "Here it is," he said. "It's what you asked for." And sure enough (illustration), you see the pennies plus a few dimes and nickles. For the Foundation $3.71. We were in business. The Foundation was taking shape. Soon it was time to consider getting more funds. In 1973 we went to Portland with brochures, a large poster, and donor's envelopes. ... Meanwhile, with caution. Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were written. Tax exemption was applied for. A Board of Trustees was envisioned. We had faith. Our brochure featuring the lamplighter symbol seemed appropriate. The purpose and need of a Foundation was clearly defined. May I again read from the brochure, "What dazzles for the moment spends its spirit; what's genuine shall posterity inherit." In German, "Was glanzt ist fuer den Augenblick geboren; Das Echte bleibt der Nachwelt unverloren!" (Goethe quote.) So, I sent all of you a love-letter, our brochure, inviting you to make a Foundation donation of twenty-five dollars and become a lamplighter, or make a memorial donation to honor a loved one. Many, many of you did it. I thank all of you. In 1974 at the convention in Fresno a motion to accept the recommendation that we have an AHSGR Foundation was adopted. We became a child of AHSGR. I was pleased that our president, Dr. Giesinger, in his fine address this week, said we are now a sister organization of AHSGR. The Lincoln, Nebraska convention, in 1975 brought our first Foundation appreciation luncheon. There were seventy-four guests. Our troubled story was told. We were handicapped. The bylaws stated only interest could be used for expenses. We learned we had friends like Don and Hulda Vowel, Art and Cleo Flegel, Jake and Dorothy Sinner, who wrote checks in three figures. A special friend had been my brother Rudy and his wife Esther Amen. I could always go to Rudy and ask for help. He was always ready to help the Foundation. He not only gave me stock certificates to sell for postage but he really put us in business by donating shares of Air Products, Inc.-stock which we are proud to hold today-in the thousands of dollars. By year-end our assets were $9,000.00 plus. (Illustration). Please note the careful tally of donors and memorial donations. It tells you who really supported the Foundation. Colorado's Centennial year saw us in Denver. The news regarding the Foundation was more accepted. Luncheon guests more than doubled, with effort, and our assets were $17,000.00 plus. The atmosphere was friendly and gaining some enthusiasm. Those early supporters were very precious. We went to San Francisco in 1977. Sad, but true, we had had a rather dry year in spite of our second love-letter mailing of our brochure. Don Vowel, as vice-president, was chairman of the Foundation arrangements and he took care of our needs. The response was beautiful, in fact overwhelming. Our assets reached $26,000.00 plus. I must remind you the importance of becoming a lamplighter is to light the lamp and keep it lighted by renewing your twenty-five dollar donation each year. Many of you have done this. Thank you. In 1978 we met again in Lincoln, Nebraska. Long will I remember the beautiful luncheon, the gold table appointments, and the precious lamps as centerpieces. The guests numbered approximately 475. All arrangements were efficiently made by Jake and Dorothy Sinner and committee. An awareness of the need of International Headquarters was created. I am happy to report that when we left Lincoln, which was the end of my term as President of the International Foundation of AHSGR, our assets were over $35,000.00. We had helped acquire some equipment for Headquarters and obviously the Foundation had become a reality. We can be proud of this. Now then, I want to tell you my faith in the idea of a foundation is as great today as it was the day we started. I hope your faith is also great. Let's keep the faith! If everyone in the Society would at least become a lamplighter, we could turn the first shovel [of ground for our new building]. He who does the best his circumstances allow, does nobly. Angels can do no more. I would like to close with this thought: "I am only one, but still I am one. I can't do everything, but I can do something. And because \ cannot do everything, I will not neglect to do that something I can do."

56 HOW MEMBERS AND CHAPTERS CAN HELP: "WHAT IF..." Edward Schwartzkopf ... I must confess that my presentation to you today is not what I had planned while working on it prior to coming here for the convention. After listening to our president, Adam Giesinger, give his outstanding address, "An Appraisal of our Future," after seeing Lew Marquardt's excellent slide presentation about AHSGR, and after witnessing Walter Seibel's deep feeling of affinity, comradeship, and coming home to AHSGR, my ancestral battery was really charged up and I decided to title this presentation, "What If. . ." What if? What if our ancestors had not responded to Catherine the Great's recruitment appeal and had stayed in Germany? Many of us would not have been born. Many of us would not be here today. There would be no Germans from Russia. What if our ancestors and those of you born in Russia had not taken that bold brave step and made the decision to emigrate from Russia to the United States, Canada, South America, and other countries? There would be no Germans from Russia. What if our ancestors and those of you born in Russia on arrival in the United States had been met and greeted ... by the welfare and social workers as we know them today? Would there be any AHSGR? We would not have the funds to go anywhere. We'd be complaisant in that cycle of life. When I speak of welfare workers and social workers you've heard me say that I grew up without the benefit of a social worker or welfare worker ever calling on my parents. But I learned early in life that there are three kinds of people that you need to be aware of. And you ladies, the first one is a fellow who says, "My wife doesn't understand me." Beware. The second one is (and those of you in the Foundation beware) the person who says, "I put the check in the mail." Be aware and be leery of them. The third one is the government worker who comes to your home or to your place of business and says, "I'm from the federal government (or the local government, or whatever) and I'm here to help you." Last night Peter Bitter and I were visiting and Peter said, "We should have started this organization twenty or twenty-five years ago." And I got to thinking, What if this organization had been started twenty or twenty-five years ago? I doubt that very many of us would have been able to have been active. My parents . . . wouldn't have been able to get involved in this great Society. I do not say that out of disrespect to my parents. My respect and appreciation of and for them is what really keeps me motivated and keeps me moving ahead, I never know what the circumstances or where some activity will remind me of the great heritage they gave to me.. . . Another "What if . . ." What if each of us, members of AHSGR, would identify members of our organization who could benefit from a gift in trust, a life annuity to our Foundation? You identify the people, you visit with them, or if you'd rather we do it, we'd be delighted to visit with them. We could work out some programs that would be very beneficial to our members and also to our Society. There are tax advantages for them and benefits for us. When I talk about annuities I mean a plan whereby, depending on their age, we could pay a member nine percent for life and then upon their passing, which we would not really appreciate — we'd rather keep them here, but we know we all need to make that trip one of these days — the money that remained would go to the Society, and in the meantime we'd have the use of that money. What if, in memory of our loved ones, we recognized them with a gift to our Foundation? Now I indicated that I was really inspired by what Adam said and I told him I was going to hitchhike on some of the things that he gave in his fine address, "An Appraisal of our Future." He stated that there are over 500,000 living, potential AHSGR members. What if we signed up, as Adam indicated, ten percent, or 50,000 of them? At our current membership rate of $ 16 that comes up to a tidy figure of $800,000 a year.. .. What if ten percent of these became life members, as Adam indicated? That would be 5,000 at $500 each. That would be $2,500,000. What if, as Adam indicated, only five percent of those became life members? That would still be one and a quarter million dollars. What if the approximately 500 AHSGR members present at this convention really made a commitment to contribute $100 a year? That would total up to $50,000 a year real fast. What if each of our chapters decided to raise $1,000 a year? With forty-five chapters that would be 57 $45,000 a year. This money would not come from the treasury. . . . It's amazing how much you appreciate other members when you've got special projects, Ruth mentioned drawings, or art festivals, or ethnic or heritage days where you get together and make things. . . , You think you know [ the other members of your chapter] but you really haven't understood them until you get into this kind of situation and work together. So it isn't just dollars you're generating, but great friendship, everlasting friendship. I have a much greater appreciation for the people in our chapter as a result of those money-raising projects, and I'm glad that we just haven't taken a token few dollars out of the treasury and mailed it in. I'm delighted that we've worked at it and really gained something that money can't buy. . , . At our winter board of directors and board of trustees meeting in San Antonio the suggestion was made that board members contact foundations in their communities and see if we could solicit some contributions or grants from them. We have a little foundation in Lincoln , . . and I thought if I expect other people to do this, I ought to do it. So I wrote a grant [proposal] and sent it to the Lincoln Foundation. A few weeks later I got a call [asking me to appear at their board meeting]. So I did appear. I walked in ... and there were eighteen men and women sitting around a table, outstanding people in the community. I was the only German Russian in the group but I presented our proposal — I called it our proposal — then went to lunch. At 2:30 in the afternoon the executive director called and said, "We're going to award your grant." I could have gone through the ceiling. The grant is for $30,000 - $10,000 a year for three years. But we need to raise $ 100,000 a year to get it.... So I say, What if each of our members familiar with a foundation writes a request for a grant? What if we got only thirty of them and they averaged only $ 10,000 from each of those foundations? That adds up to $300,000 real fast. . . . Also our president, Adam Giesinger, in his address stated needs of our Society. And the number one need he indicated was for more volunteers. Adam expressed concern about getting members to take over and "carry the torch." . , . I'm reminded of the words of Martin Niemoller, the German Lutheran minister who was imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II because of his outspokenness. . . In his book he says, "In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." The reason I include this is that I think that we have spoken, we shall continue to speak through the work of the Society. We are repaying the debt to our heritage and to our ancestors through the great work being accomplished through the various members. We've taken a giant step forward in accumulating records, pictures, documents, museum pieces. Think how much easier it would be for those to whom we pass the torch. How much brighter the torch will shine because of all the things that we have accumulated in one central place. Our descendants will not have to start at ground zero the way we did. On 7 April 1980 at 2:00 p.m. on a Monday afternoon we signed documents. In exchange for an $85,000 check we acquired four properties: three purchased, one presented as a gift from the Amen family who owned the lot. This was a tremendous leap forward for the Society. On Tuesday, 8 July 1980 at this convention at 9:30 a.m. the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees met in joint session. A motion was made and passed that the Building Committee engage an architect and that preference be given to the architect who cooperated and worked with us on the preliminary plan and that we proceed to build when we have $ 100,000 beyond our land purchase price. I know that this is the moment you've all been waiting for. . . Editor's Note: Following Mr. Schwartzkopfs' remarks members in attendance were provided the opportunity to make contributions and pledges to the building fund. Monies so received included $2,795.00 in cash contributions and $18,800.00 in pledges.

Cassette tapes of all sessions of the Eleventh International Convention of the AHSGR have been made available for purchase by members of the Society through Marvl Productions of Mukilteo, Washington. Further information and order blanks will be included in Newsletter Number 28.

58 Gemutlichkeit: Conventioneers enjoy the food, fun, and fellowship of the Eleventh International Convention Banquet and get acquainted at a poolside reception hosted by the Michigan chapters of the Society. Photos courtesy of Kermit B. Kams.

59 "ABOUT AHSGR" One of the high points of the Society's Eleventh International Convention was the premiere showing of "About AHSGR," a twenty-minute audio-visual program designed to tell the story of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and to encourage wider participation in the Society. The program, prepared by a subcommittee of the AHSGR Board of Directors chaired by Professor Lewis R. Marquardt, contains eighty specially selected thirty-five millimeter slides, many of which were submitted by the Society's chapters; a pre- recorded cassette tape of narration and musical excerpts, and a narration script complete with showing instructions. The slide-tape program tells of the trek made by the original German immigrants to Russia during the 1760's, the following major trek in the early 1800*s to the Black Sea region, and the eventual emigration of those who settled in North and South America. Following this brief history, the program describes the Society, its goals and objectives, its Board of Directors and Trustees, chapter activities, and special events. The music included in the program ranges from excerpts of Johannes Brahms's Second Symphony, a German-Russian polka, "The Song of the Volga Boatmen," and hymns sung by those in attendance at the Lincoln Convention in 1978. The program may be borrowed by AHSGR chapters from the Society's Headquarters at 631 D Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68502.

Special surprise visitors to the Dearborn convention were Senor and Senora Anseimo Schoenberger of Entre Rios, Argentina. Designated as official delegate to the AHSGR Convention by Bernardo Glaser, president of the Asociacion Argentina de los Alemanes del Volga (the Argentinian counterpart of the AHSGR), Senor Schoenberger conveyed greetings to the convention from our brothers in South America. Photo courtesy of Alexander Dupper.

Reuniting to reminisce at the convention were members of the Society who had taken part in the AHSGR tour to visit Germans from Russia in South America in 1978. Among those present at the convention were several Argentinians now touring the United States. Photo courtesy of Kermit B. Karns.

60 OUR SOUTH AMERICAN BROTHERS Adam Giesinger

A surprise visitor at the 1980 convention was Senor Anselrno Schoenberger from Argentina, with his wife, at present on a tour of North America. Senor Schoenberger brought with him the following documents, which he presented to the President of AHSGR: 1. A letter of 25 June 1980, in the Spanish language, signed by Bernardo Glaser, President of the Asociacion Argentina de los Ajlemanes del Volga, designating Senor Schoenberger as his official delegate to our convention in Dearborn. 2. A message, in the Spanish language, from Bernardo Glaser, President of the Asociacion Argentina de los Alemanes del Volga, to the members of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia attending the convention in Dearborn. The message, signed by Bernardo Glaser, President, and Juan Carios Badia Riedinger, Secretary General of the Argentinian society, is given in the original Spanish and in English translation below. 3. A letter of greeting to the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, in the German language, from Senor Victor Pedro Popp, first vice-president of the Asociacion Argentina de los Alemanes del Volga. This letter is printed below in the original German and in English translation. 4. A list of the Board Members of the Asociacion Argentina de los Alemanes del Volga, signed by the Secretary General of the Asociacion, Juan Carios Badia Riedinger.

Message from Bernardo Glaser, President of the Argentinian Association of Germans from the Volga, to the participants in the convention of the Germans from Russia at Dearborn (Detroit). Dear Countrymen: It is for us members of the Argentinian Association of Germans from the Volga a great satisfaction and a privilege to be able to send to you our greetings and best wishes for a successful eleventh annual convention in your great country. We wish to bring to you, through our delegate Don Anseimo Schoenberger, our warm fraternal embrace and assure you that we are all with you in spirit at this magnificent gathering. Because our Association is young, born only recently, we wish to learn from our northern brothers, so as to assure that the interchange of ideas will be beneficial to our common goals. We hope that the bond between us will be strengthened as the years go by and that God will bless and guide us all in this undertaking. With a heartfelt embrace, Juan Carios Badia Riedinger Secretary General Bernardo Glaser President

To the AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA: In the name of the Argentinian Association of Volga Germans we greet you on the occasion of your convention of the year 1980 in North America. It is our wish that the friendship which has developed between us may continue to grow in the future through increasing personal contact and correspondence, for we are bound together through the pilgrimage of our forefathers, who migrated from Germany to Russia and then had to leave Russia again to find a new home in America, This common experience binds us together and will remain the historical reason for continuing collaboration between us. I wish to inform you that our member Anseimo Schoenberger will bring you this letter with our heartiest greetings. His handclasp and embrace will come from us all.

61 Be assured that you will always be welcome with us, 20 June 1980 ASOCIACION ARGENTINA DE LOS ALEMANES DEL VOLGA Victor Pedro Popp

Editor's Note: The translation from Spanish was rendered by Mrs. Lawrence (Eugenia) Desmond of Winnipeg, Manitoba. ASOCIATON ARGENTINA CONSEJO DE LOS DIRECTIVO NACIONAL ALEMANS DEL VOLGA

MENSAJE DEL PRESIDENTE DE LA ASOCIACION ARGENTINA DE LOS ALEMANES DEL VOLGA, SENOR BERNARDO GLASER, A LOS PARTICIPANTES DE LA CONVENTION DES ALEMANES DEL VOLGA DE DEARBORN, DETROIT

Estimados paisanos: 'Es para nosotros, miembros de la Asooiacion Argentina de los Alemanes del Volga, una gran satisfaccion y un privilegio poder hacer llegar a Uds. nuestros saludos y las mejores deseos de exito en vuestera decimoprimera Convencion en ese gran pais. Queremos, a traves de quien les dirige la palabra, nuestro delegado Don Anselmo Schoenberger, hacer llegar a todos Uds. nuestra Adhesion y el calor de un fraternal abrazo y asegurar que espiritualmente estamos con Uds. en este magnifico evento. Nuestra Asociacion es joven, pues es de reciente creaci6n y queremos aprender de nuestros hermanos del Norte en la seguridad de que el interoambio de ideas ha de ser beneficioso a nuestros ideales comunes. Esperando que nuestro vinculo se vea fortalecido con el correr del tiempo, es nuestro deseo que la mano del Senor bendiga y guie a todos nuestroa hermanos en este acontecimiento y siempre.

Con un fuerte abrazo

62

Comision Central del Centenario de la Inmiqracion de los Alemanes del Volga

An den AMERIKANISCHEN HISTORISCHEN VEREIN DER DEUTSCHEN AUS RUSSLAND

Im Namen unseres argentinischen Verbandes Der WOLGA DEUTSGHEN

gruessen wir Sie anlasslich des Treffens im Jahre 1980 in Nordamerika."

Unser Wunsch ist, dass die angeknuepfte Freunischaft zu Euchdurch

persoenlichen und schriftliohen Kontakt in Zukunft zunehmen und. wachsen moechte, sind. wir doch alle

verbunden durch das Pilgertum unserer Voreltern, die aus Deutschland nach Russland wanierten and. dann

wieder Russland verlassen mussten, um eine neue HEIMAT in AMERIKA zu suchen.

Dieses gemeinsame Erleben bindet uns zusammen und soll der his- torische Grund sein, der uns immer wieder zasammenhalten lassen muss. - Mitteilen moechte ich Euch, dass unser Mitglied ANSELMO SCHEN-

BERGER Euch dieses Schreiben mit unseren Herzlichsten Gruessen ueberbringen soll.-

Sein Haendedruck und seine Uniarmung schliessen auch die unsrigen ein. Ihr sollt wissen, dass Ihr immer bei uns herzlich willkomeienseid

20. 6. 1980. ASOCIACION ARGENTINA DE LOS ALEMANES DEL VOLGA

VICTOR PEDRO POPP PRESIDENTE CONSEJO DIN----. NACIONALDineccidn Pcsetali Rivadevia 1070 - 3116 - CRESPO, Entire Rioe - Argentina

63 VILLAGE NIGHT

An innovation of the Dearborn convention was "Village Night," a special evening in which members assembled in groups according to ancestral villages or regions. Resource persons knowledgeable about the villages represented led discussions at designated tables. Many groups used village plat maps, books, and/or articles on their specific villages from Work Papers, Journals, Heimatbuecher, and other publications as springboards for the evening's conversation. Special resource persons at some of the tables were Russian-born members who were able to provide first-hand descriptions of the Dorfer and answer questions raised by other members. Descendants of Russian-born members shared experiences related to them by their parents concerning life in the old country, the journey to the United States, and early days in the New World. Many tables used the opportunity to discuss family relationships and exchange information useful in tracing their genealogies. Others concentrated on the dialect of their particular village - conversing in that dialect and making collections of words unique to their speech. The discussions often evolved eventually to "the great German-Russian favorite, food" with debates concerning what foods were native to a village, by what name they were called, how they were prepared, and how culinary traditions have persisted into the New World. Several tables were composed of members from a number of villages in a designated area. One of the resource persons described her table of "assorted Evangelical villages from the Wiesenseite" of the Volga as a "Schnitz- suppe," and in fact much fruitful exchange of information concerning customs, dialects, and folklore took place at such mixed tables. Leona Pfeifer summarizes the experiences of the "descendants of the Bergseite and Wiesenseite Catholic villages" as "an enjoyable evening, exchanging ideas and information, comparing childhood experiences, examining maps and books, and enjoying the refreshments and fellowship." Other persons have described the evening as "very enjoyable," "an absolutely delightful time," "a complete success," a "rewarding evening," "a lot of fun." Among materials evoking special interest at village night were photographs of several replicas of buildings in German colonies in Russia. Dorothy Dahmer Schmidt of the Greater Sheboygan Area Chapter shared a photograph of a model of the home that her father lived in the Volga village of Reinwald. (See figure 1.)

Figure 1. Replica of the Dahmer home in Reinwald. 64 Car] Weber of the Greater Sheboygan Area Chapter provided a photo of a replica of the church in Reinwald. (See figure 2.) Alex Weber of the Flint, Michigan Chapter supplied pictures of an authentic scale

Figure 2. Scale model of church in Reinwald. model of the Erdmann home which formerly stood on the Hauptgasse in the Volga village of Grimm. Mrs. Amalie Erdmann Van Pelt, pictured with her daughter Alice (figure 3), was born in this house in 1893. She came to America in 1907 and now resides in Cincinnati. Figure 4 shows the replica of the Erdmann house with the roof removed. The addition in the upper right corner was the entrance leading to the yard.

Figure 3. Replica of Erdmann home in Grimm, p^^ 4 Interior of Erdmann home. Many participants in Village Night were inspired to search out more information concerning their ancestral villages, to gather photographs, old letters and documents, to work on village maps showing the location of family homes and public buildings, to collect sayings, anecdotes, nick names, folklore materials such as weather beliefs, folk medicine, holiday customs, and to do oral research among older members of their communities. Elsie Sturges characterizes the evening at her table as "an opportunity to get acquainted, a chance to realize how incomplete our records are, and [to] have resolved to add every fragment we find to our Archives," Mrs. Maxwill Muth, representing the table of Polish settlements, expressed the general consensus: We are "looking forward to next year."

65 Something new at the Eleventh International Convention was a post-banquet party which featured live entertainment and group singing as well as the traditional dance.

Ed Schwartzkopf masters the ceremonies. A men's chorus provides entertainment.

A German band, "Melodien der Heimat, "entertains. Don Gaus leads group singing.

Mr. and Mrs. Reuben D. Lebsack perform. It's polka time! Photos courtesy of

Kermit B. Kams.

66 REPORTS TO THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

Report of the Executive Director Ruth M. Amen It would take too long to relate all that goes on at Headquarters throughout the year. The day-to-day happenings are the concern of your Executive Director and the very limited staff that services AHSGR's rapidly growing membership. No two days are alike and no day progresses as planned and that makes life interesting for us. 631 D Street in Lincoln is Headquarters not only for AHSGR but also for the International Foundation of our Society. It is my responsibility to direct the staff and activities in a way that our members will receive the help they request. Further, much of our effort is geared toward continuing growth, program development, expanding our resources, and the production of historical and genealogical publications. In this brief report, I will mention just a few of the highlights of the year since our Seattle convention: 1. During the period since the last convention it has been my privilege and pleasure to visit fifteen of our chapters. In one trip through the state of Washington I met with four groups—some in the process of organizing, some meeting for the very first time to consider the advantages of having an AHSGR chapter. Chapter organization is one of my responsibilities. While some of this can be accomplished through correspondence, experience has proven a personal visit is very beneficial. We are proud to report that we have now chartered forty-five chapters, nine during the past year. Eight of these local groups will receive their charters at this convention. There are other areas around the United States and in Canada in the works. We try to keep in close contact with all chapters through letters to the chapter presidents informing them of board action and how it affects them. 2. Responsibilities related to our genealogical program take a large share of our time at Headquarters. Jo Ann Kuhr responds to many of the inquiries using the coupons members receive. Of the ninety-five requests for genealogical information received in the past year, sixty-five were handled at Headquarters. Others were referred to Adam Giesinger, Arthur Flegel, Emma Haynes, or back to me. Copies of such correspondence are always sent to Mr. Flegel. He, in turn, keeps us informed so we all know what is taking place. 3. Thirty-seven coupons requested translations, fourteen of which were handled by Jo Ann Kuhr. Others go to Dona Reeves, the Translations Committee chairman. Not all inquiries related to translations and genealogy questions are accompanied by coupons. Many more are received. 4. A great deal of time at Headquarters also went toward preparations for this convention. Whatever number you have in attendance—1,000, 1,500, or 5,000—there is the same amount of work. The convention chairman and I worked very closely on all aspects of these meetings with the counsel of the AHSGR and Foundation presidents and other board members. It shouldn't surprise you to know that we have already done considerable work on the 1981 convention to be held in Minneapolis. The contract has been signed and before we leave Dearborn the Board of Directors will review a chart of the 1981 meeting which I have been preparing this week. 5. It should go without saying that we handle all the correspondence that comes to AHSGR and the Foundation. This includes all the funds—dues, the sale of books, and contributions. All should be addressed to 631 D Street. Linda Lange is the person there who handles all the monies, does the banking, and pays the bills. She keeps all the records and prepares them for the accountant whose services have recently been extended to include the Foundation. With regard to the contributions, the letters are all typed in our office for the signature of the Foundation president. Other Foundation activities managed at Headquarters related to the quilt project (the distribution and sale of tickets), the preparation of the certificates of appreciation you have been receiving during this week, and the donor ribbons many of you are wearing. 6. Finally, I was deeply involved in the details surrounding the purchase of the land for our Headquarters building. Since I sit on both sides, I kept a close watch as funds accumulated to make the purchase possible. Other reports of officers and board members will provide you with further indications of growth and progress. We welcome your criticism and constructive comments and particularly your patience as we constantly strive to do a better job.

67 Report of the International Secretary Sally Hieb

The Board of Directors of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is comprised of thirty men and women representing a geographical area that stretches from California to Virginia, and from Manitoba to Texas. It includes sixteen states and provinces. These members represent many different colonies in Russia and embrace a variety of religious persuasions. The Board has met five times since the Seattle convention last year. The first meeting was the post-convention meeting in Seattle. It was an organizational meeting with Dr. Adam Giesinger named as President, and Miss Ruth Amen named Executive Director. On 5 and 6 October 1979 the Board convened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. On 1 and 2 February 1980 the meetings were held in San Antonio, Texas. Lincoln, Nebraska was the site of the board meetings on 8 and 10 May. Pre-convention board meetings were held here in Dearborn on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Attendance at these meetings has averaged twenty members. At each of these sites, the Board of Directors has had some joint sessions with the International Foundation Board of Trustees. The Board deals with the many facets of work relating to the Society including convention planning, publications, financing, memberships, chapter organization, genealogy, library, archives, staff, translations, research, publicity, folklore, linguistics, and building. The Board has approved the chartering of nine new chapters since the convention last year, After many months of planning, discussion, and work, a momentous decision was made at a joint meeting of the AHSGR Board of Directors and the International Foundation Board of Trustees in San Antonio, Texas, on 2 February 1980, The motion read: I move that the Building Committee on behalf of the Foundation be authorized to purchase the following properties: 621 "D" (street), 631 "D," 616 "C," and 628 "C," for the sum of $85,000.00 in the name of the Foundation; that officers be authorized to complete transaction on condition that vendors agree to grant AHSGR Foundation the right to first refusal to adjoining property; the committee be authorized to negotiate purchase of any property located in the block bounded by 6th and 7th streets; that both organizations be authorized to make loans to each other to supply funds, and that title to the property be taken in the name of the Foundation. A roll call vote resulted in a unanimous approval of this motion. The long anticipated beginning of the new AHSGR Headquarters building program became a reality. The AHSGR Board of Directors continues to be a group of hard working men and women who pay all their own expenses to and at the board meetings throughout the year in order to help make the AHSGR the fine organization it is today.

Library Committee Report Marie M. Olson

The collection of materials at the Archives continues to grow steadily. Sixty-eight new items have been catalogued since convention time 1979. Since January of this year, the circulation count is 209 items, 150 of which were interlibrary loans. Miss Esther Fromm, Archivist, reports that some thirty-five people visited the Archives this year, most of them from out of state. She stated that most requests for information continue to relate to genealogy. During the winter the city built a glass-enclosed reference area in the main reading room, which has provided more shelving space for the Archives and a more pleasant place in which to work. The library has a Xerox machine for public use and has microfilm readers, one of which makes Xerox copies. On behalf of all members of AHSGR, I wish to extend many thanks to Miss Fromm and her staff for their continued gracious and efficient service.

68 Folklore Committee Timothy J. Kloberdanz

The major task of our committee has been collecting and disseminating various genres of Russian-German folklore. We have attempted to do this in a number of ways, relying primarily on the "Folklore Forum" which is published annually in our Society's Journal. Our next topic will be that of traditional riddles and we welcome any additional contributions that you might have. As always we will be more than happy to credit you as a contributor. One of our major goals includes the eventual compilation and publication of a special volume devoted exclusively to the folklore of all the various geographical, linguistic, and religious Russian-German enclaves in both the Old and New Worlds. Such a volume will require concerted effort and commitment on the part of every folklore-minded member in our Society. Another goal of this committee includes the publication of a series of monographs on selected topics of Russian- German folklore, beginning with an issue on proverbs and proverbial expressions. Other possibilities include the publication of monographs relating to folk architecture, humorous anecdotes, folk religion, and even a special bibliography of folklore-related sources. Last year, the awarding of a special grant to conduct urgent Russian-German folklore research in North Dakota, Iowa, and western Canada was made possible through the good faith and generosity of the International AHSGR Foundation. Our committee would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest appreciation and gratitude to the Foundation for making this important research possible. Also, we want to thank Dr. Solomon L. Loewen of Hillsboro, Kansas and Mrs. Mary Lynn Tuck of Lincoln, Nebraska for the interesting and informative papers on Russian-German folklore and dialects that they presented at this year's convention. We also are grateful to Miss Ruth Stoll for expertly chairing the Folklore Committee Open Meeting last Wednesday afternoon. Ruth expressed it best with this challenge: "It may be that not all of you are researchers; some of you may not be genealogists; few of you can be translators; but all of you are potential folklore-collectors." Please continue to support our important work, for we depend on you—the folk—to provide us with "the lore."

Research Committee Report Emma Schwabenland Haynes At our Research Committee meeting we were fortunate in having two very fine speakers. The first was Alexander Dupper who arrived in New York on the Swedish liner Gripsholm on 10 January 1952. He is one of the last members of AHSGR to come to the United States. Dr. Dupper is a graduate of the University of Odessa and has been of inestimable aid to our Society because of his knowledge of the Russian language. His subject was "Russian Documents that our Ancestors Brought to America." In his talk Dr. Dupper discussed the form of the Russian imperial passport and then continued with the internal passport, birth certificates, school certificates, and confirmation, marriage, and parochial certificates. He also mentioned military papers. Dr. Dupper is maintaining a file of these documents and urges people who possess such papers to make Xerox copies for AHSGR. This is a very worthwhile project which deserves the support of every member of our Society. Our second speaker. Dr. Anthony Becker, talked about the difficulties he had in obtaining a copy of Father Conrad Keller's two volumes on the German colonies in South Russia from 1804 to 1904. These books are extremely rare. One academic microfilm company searched the U.S. Library of Congress catalogues, the Book Index of the British Museum, and the Keyser Buecher Lexikon of Germany without success. By mere chance a copy was eventually found in the home of Mr. John Bichel of Macklin, Saskatchewan. The original German version of the books are still missing in the Library of Congress, but in 1974 Dr. Karl Stumpp donated his copies to the Institut fuer Auslandsbeziehungen in Stuttgart, Germany. Emma S. Haynes then mentioned the book, The Germans from Russia in Oklahoma, written by Douglas Hale and published by the University of Oklahoma Press. It is one of a series on the various ethnic groups which are found in that state. Prof. Hale discusses the Mennonites, the Volga German Protestants, and the Volhynian Germans who constitute the three most important groups of Germans from Russia in Oklahoma. It is hoped that the universities of other states in which Russian Germans settled will follow the example of Oklahoma University in this most admirable project.

69 Genealogy Committee Report Arthur E. Flegel The on-going progress and achievements of the genealogical effort of the AHSGR are most gratifying and continue to delight the Genealogy Committee. For the first time in the history of AHSGR, it became necessary to publish two editions of our genealogy periodical, Clues. In the committee's opinion, this appears to be a continuing need for the foreseeable future. Additional important research tools have become available to us. A number of members have produced family histories which they are sharing with the Archives at Greeley, Headquarters at Lincoln, and the Genealogy Committee Office at Menlo Park. It is greatly appreciated as well as advantageous to have copies at each of the three locations. It was also good fortune to acquire the microfilms of the Odessaer Haus und Wirtschaffs Kalender for the years 1881 through 1915 with its strong historical as well as genealogical content. Several new Jubilee Books have come into existence in areas of heavy German from Russia settlement and we welcome the significant family accounts they contain. A number of our AHSGR members are concentrating on the development of the history as well as the resident family name listings of specific villages, such as Unsere Leute von Walter under the direction of Jean Roth of Seattle, Washington, Unsere Leute von Kautz, published by Elaine Frank Davison of Walla Walla, Washington, Usu Leut vo Jagada, edited by Richard D. Scheuerman of Endicott, Washington, and Die Beidecker, prepared by Donald H. Darner of Merrill, Michigan. These and other similar projects that may be in work are highly beneficial from the genealogical as well as the historical aspect, for many people are thereby aided in associating their ancestral lines with specific localities in Russia. We would encourage anyone who holds dear the memory of his ancestral village, to consider initiating and devoting time to the development of a similar historical record. Many more members have been submitting well-detailed genealogy forms than was the case in previous years. Mrs. Rachel Amen of the Northern Colorado Chapter devised a support team to help people properly fill in their genealogy forms. Through her efforts, we have received a number of forms from the Loveland, Colorado area. Just prior to the Seattle convention, Part 1 of Clues 1979 was published and mailed to the membership. From that time until the publication of Clues Part 2 in the fall of 1979, forms had come in from 212 members. An additional 188 members had prepared their forms by the time Clues 1980 Part 1 was published. Since that date, we have received genealogy forms from 115 new members and 20 old-time members who discovered that their names were missing from the last issue of Clues because they had failed to submit the required material. No researcher's names can be listed in the Surname Exchange of Clues without an expressed desire clearly indicated in response to Question 4 on the Membership Data Form. Please do not leave that space blank, but indicate your wishes with a definite "yes" or "no." To have your names listed, we must have the following from you: 1. The Membership Data Form, 2. One or more Ancestral Charts, 3. One or more Family Group Charts, It is important to include all possible data when preparing your charts. As a gathering place for information, the Genealogy Committee can only disseminate the data that you as members choose to share. The more, therefore, that is placed at our disposal, the more helpful we can be to others. In total, from the time of the Seattle convention until the one here at Dearborn, we have received and edited forms from 535 members. At a mean average of thirty minutes required to edit a normal set of forms—with some exceptions when several hours are needed to properly review them—a minimum of 267 hours is entailed in processing forms, exclusive of the time spent in research for the member's benefit or necessary letter writing. After being edited and processed the genealogy forms are mailed in packets to a staff of currently thirty-one volunteer typists who contribute their time and expertise to the transcription of the information from the forms to our standardized genealogy cards for the permanent files. In this context, special commendations are due Mrs. Jeanene Euhus, Yuma, Arizona and Mrs. Marilyse Goozey, Issaquah, Washington who have each typed in excess of 2,000 cards; Mrs. Carolyn Carmony, Washington, D.C. who has typed over 1,500; and the following who have prepared 1,000 or more: Mrs. Beatrice Colvin, Leavenworth, Washington; Mrs. Louise England, Midland, Texas; Miss Harriett Gettman, Modesto, California; Mrs. Betty Renfro, Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Mrs. Bunnie Runman, Montrose, Minnesota. Presently, there are some 18,500 cards reflecting genealogical information of our ethnic group on file at Headquarters in Lincoln with duplicate files at the office in Menlo Park. The numbers of individuals and groups all across the country engaged in collecting and mounting obituaries throughout the past year is difficult to determine, but their efforts are equally meaningful and appreciated. Although at the outset, the Golden Gate Chapter assumed the challenge of initiating this

70 project, it has since been greatly augmented by the labors of the Denver Metro and Lincoln, Nebraska Chapters. Probably there are others as well. For all who have contributed time and effort in behalf of this worthy activity, we extend our most sincere thanks. At this time, there are approximately 28,000 obituary cards on file at Headquarters and a like number at Memo Park with more arriving continuously. It is important to call to your attention the passenger lists provided through the effort of Mrs. Emma Schwabenland Haynes. Mrs. Haynes painstakingly reads and records the information on the microfilms covering passenger ship arrivals on file at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. These listings are of unusual benefit to member researchers in many ways and we are most grateful for Mrs. Haynes' efforts. Finally, we would be remiss not to mention the Consulting Workshop on Genealogy which is again a major highlight at its now fourth consecutive convention. The materials are on hand essentially through the efforts of the staff at Headquarters who carefully select and pack for shipment the books and files that are currently available for our member researchers. Staffed by a number of dedicated volunteers under the direction of Donald Darner, it is operating efficiently and beneficially for members who are desirous of learning more about their ancestral backgrounds. Members of the Genealogy Committee are Victor Bohnet, Calgary, Alberta; Pauline Dudek, Bladen, Nebraska; Kermit Karns, Kansas City, Missouri; Solomon Loewen, Hillsboro, Kansas; Ann Reisbick, Denver Colorado; and Gerda Walker, Denver, Colorado.

Report of the Nominating Committee Gordon L. Schmidt The AHSGR Board of Directors is comprised of thirty AHSGR members. Board membership is for a three year period with a two-term maximum which means that the Board has a continuity of two-thirds membership every year. This gives strength and continuity to the programs of AHSGR. These board members are selected from the constituency at large and do not by design represent a particular group or region. The qualifications are quite broad but in sense very specific. Everyone is given an area of responsibility and is requested to report to board meetings which are held four times a year. All board members serve without any pay or special privileges. There are no paid travel expenses. Those people contacted for board membership have various gifts and qualifications which can be of benefit to this organization and the request which goes to them is quite pointed in asking for attendance and service. The Nominating Committee, Marie Olson, Leona Pfeifer, Edward Scheldt, and I present the following ten nominees to fill the expiring terms on the Board: Mrs. Emma S. Haynes Arlington, Virginia Mr. Alvin Kissler Seattle, Washington Mr. David J. Miller Greeley, Colorado Mrs. Ann Reisbick Denver, Colorado Dr. Solomon R. Schneider Fort Collins, Colorado Mr. Edward Schwartzkopf Lincoln, Nebraska Dr. John Siemens Kentfield, California Nominated for first terms to fill the vacancies of retiring board members Victor Bohnet, Michael Anuta, and Monte Lung are the following: Mr. Donald H. Darner Merrill, Michigan Mrs. Martha Issinghoff Wichita, Kansas Mr. Edward Scheldt Sanger, California Editor's Note: The slate proposed by the Nominating Committee was elected by the convention. In a meeting of the newly-constituted Board of Directors the following officers were elected: President, Dr. Adam Giesinger; Vice- Presidents, Mr. Arthur E. Flegel, Mr. Reuben Goertz, and Mr. Edward Schwartzkopf; Secretary, Mrs. Sally Hieb; Treasurer, Mr. Ralph L. Giebelhaus.

71 Translations Committee Report Dona Reeves Translation provides one of the most valuable and enduring services to our membership. It informs present members at the same time that it preserves documents for future generations. We cannot stress too strongly the need to locate and restore written artifacts recording the history of our people. As time goes on, these artifacts- whether they be letters, photographs, certificates, journals, or any variety of written testimony-will become increasingly rare. They must be preserved. We urge also that they be deposited in an appropriate and appreciating archive, to be shared with all who are interested in the larger dimensions of our history. At the same time the number of documents may be decreasing, the number of members with sufficient language skills in two languages to provide professional translations is most certainly dwindling, (The numbers of American young people studying German or Russian has steadily declined since 1970, to the point that a recent Presidential Commission has labeled this neglect of a natural resource a national scandal.) The Committee needs volunteer translators who are not only at ease in two languages, but who are able to read German and/or Russian pre-war handwriting. Please contact the Committee Chairman or the International Headquarters in Lincoln if you are able and willing to help. During the past year, translations were provided members by the following volunteers: Mrs. Albert Bernhardt, Allyn Brosz, John Dreiling, Alexander Dupper, Mrs. Irmgard Ellingson, Mrs. Gisela Gimbel, Arthur R. Hartwig, Albert Hein, Mrs. Alex Schwabauer, Mrs. Ida Schuster, and H. D. Wildermuth, as well as by Mrs. Jo Ann Kuhr of our Headquarters. The Committee expresses its appreciation of the effort expended by these volunteers to furnish this service to its membership.

Membership Committee Report Elsie I. Whittington How do we measure our gains in memberships? We know that we are forty-five chapters strong with eight receiving their charters at this convention, Our membership count as of 30 June 1980 is 4,484. The best way of measuring the Society's memberships is by reminding ourselves that the increases are the direct result of those members who become personally involved. They are committed to helping in the recruitment and reinstatement of new and lapsed memberships. We have 36 more life memberships than one year ago, a total of 138. Of these, 85 have been paid m full. This represents a cash outlay of $42,500 that the Society has been able to invest. In addition to this we've had partial payments totaling $12,600 making a grand total of $55,100. At least two payments towards a life membership are required to service that membership. All of this money is invested. The interest from the money helped us purchase the land for our Headquarters building. Our heritage is certainly the bond that makes it easy to tell prospective members about the many benefits we derive from our Society. So let's tell them about how this heritage is being preserved in its publications. Let's tell them about the discoveries of histories, songs, stories, and artifacts. Let's tell them of the largest collection of Russian-German genealogical information anywhere! Let's tell them about all the wonderful people who are the Society, the eager and enthusiastic young members, our wise and knowledgeable elders. They all have something to contribute. Then don't forget the most important thing of nil—asking them to become members. So often we hear, "But no one asked me." The momentum is here. Keep this momentum going and AHSGR will continue to grow. Now for the statistics: A comparison of membership totals; 4,484 June 12, 1979 3,952 June 25,1980 3,743 June 6, 1978 June 1,1977 2,717 72

[This section could not be corrected Please see original publication.] A comparison of membership groupings: . 6-6-78 6-12-79 6-25-80 New Members Life 1,081 624 908 Non-renewals 5769 79102* 13880 2 5 8 Members 00 1 $25Supporting 2,530 3,141** 3,345 $50Contributing 44 4 $100Sustaining 3,743 3,952 4,484*3 are $ Total 6-6-78 6-12-79 6-25-80 252 196 735 216 761 182 In Chapter Areas Outside Chapter Areas 448 951 943

Five States leading in New Memberships: 6-12-79 6-25-80 1. California 106 California 152 2. Washington 101 Washington 129 3. Kansas 55 Colorado 109 4. Nebraska 50 Kansas 95 5. Colorado 50 Nebraska 64

Life Memberships by Chapters: Lodi 0 Arizona Sun 2 Mid-Nebraska 1 Big Bend 0 Nation's Capital Area 1 Blue Mountain 1 Nebraska Panhandle 1 Calgary 1 North Star of Minnesota 0 Center of the Nation 1 Northeast Kansas 1 Central California 8 Northern Colorado 13 Central Washington 1 Northern Illinois 1 Colorado High Plains 0 Olympic Peninsula 1 Colorado West 0 Oregon 16 Columbia Basin 0 Palouse Empire 1 Denver Metro 4 Sacramento Valley 1 Edmonton 0 Saginaw Valley 5 Flint 2 Southeastern Wisconsin 3 Golden Empire/Bakersfield 1 Southeastern Wyoming 0 Golden Gate 8 Southern California 5 Golden Spread 0 Southwest Michigan 2 Golden Wheat 1 Southwest Nebraska 0 Greater Detroit 0 Sunflower 0 Greater Seattle 9 Western Idaho 1 Greater Sheboygan 0 Winnipeg 1 Greater Spokane 2 Yellowstone Valley 0 Kansas City Area 0 Non-Chapter Areas 10 Lincoln Chapter One 33

Total- 138

73 Memberships by States, Provinces, and Countries 25 June 1980 Alabama 2 Alaska 10 Massachusetts 5 Tennessee 8 55 Alberta 88 Michigan 257 Texas 25 1 Arizona 48 Minnesota 84 Utah 23 Arkansas 10 Missouri 19 Vermont BritishColumbia25 Montana 64 Virginia 597 Nebraska 498 California 833 Washington 131 Nevada 5 Wisconsin Colorado 522 New Hampshire 1 63 8 Wyoming Connecticut 3 New Jersey 7 D.C. 1 Washington, Delaware 2 New Mexico 9 2 Florida 12 New York 18 Austria 8 Georgia 1 North Carolina 6 Argentina Hawaii 5 North Dakota 47 West Germany 1 Ohio 13 Idaho 58 Brazil 1 Oklahoma 42 France 1 Illinois 91 Ontario 6 Israel Indiana 13 Oregon 207 Norway 1 Pennsylvania 13 Iowa 29 Saudi Arabia 1 Kansas 380 Saskatchewan 36 South Carolina 2 Spain 1 Maine 1 Switzerland Manitoba 19 South Dakota 52 1 Virgin Islands Maryland 11 Total - 4,484 1

Report of the International AHSGR Foundation Gordon L. Schmidt

First I want to express the gratitude of the Foundation Board to several groups of people: The Michigan members with Mary Martini as chairman for all their effort in making it possible to have such a successful convention in Dearborn, Your organization is so efficient and your welcome is so warm. Your hotel has also been most accommodating and comfortable. To the people at Headquarters with Ruth Amen as the Director who managed and supervised this convention. You have done a fine job and the results of such efficient programming will continue to be evidenced in the books of the Society. Thirdly to all of you attending this convention, especially those appearing on the program. Without you there would be no growth. Our history would be dormant and soon lost forever. Our children would find no answers and their roots would die. I thank all of you for the yearly opportunity to meet old friends and make new friends. The Foundation exists for the benefit of the AHSGR. In eleven years we have drawn together volumes of information which had been scattered here and there. We have given it form and order. Much has been published and even more waits to be published depending on funds to be received from all of us. Considerable material in the hands and minds of our members still waits for proper storage and classification in preparation for publication and/or personal research. The primary function of the Foundation is to communicate to all members the financial needs of collecting, managing, and housing the history of our people. The Foundation is a tax exempt charitable organ- ization which receives your tax deductible contributions. Any gifts you give to the Foundation either as money or in goods, through pledges, through wills, via a trust, or by purchasing an annuity—whether designated or undesignated—are tax deductible. All gifts help provide for the safe and permanent deposit of your history. Your gifts to the Foundation assure your children and their children that they can know "from whence they come."

74 We solicit gifts in memorium of your loved ones, for purposes of research and for grants to projects which we feel will give the organization valuable information generally not available. Currently, we have two people working on grants, John Stuart Butler of Oklahoma University researching obituaries and Timothy Kloberdanz researching folklore. AHSGR expects to publish much of the information provided by Timothy Kloberdanz. The Foundation is quite young but every year its growth is obvious. You will take note of the fact that this last year cash receipts were ten times greater than last year. Those whom we honored in memorium tripled. We have had the exciting experience of having a family remember the Foundation in a substantial manner when they distributed their estate. Substantial stock has been added to our portfolio and has increased in value by more than thirty per cent since the date of receipt. All of these are good signs. Our cash is distributed among several banks and federal farm credit notes insured by an agency of the government. Those who handle our money are bonded. We receive quarterly financial reports from the CPA firm of Rhoades & Wendt. Our property is properly insured against the elements and also protected by a liability policy. Currently we own the real estate on which you expect to build a Headquarters building to house the administrative offices of AHSGR and the Foundation and in which we will also house the volumes of material gathered and to be gathered. It will be arranged in such manner that you can with pride say to your children, "Go to AHSGR Headquarters for there you can Find from whence you came." The cost is estimated at $300,000. In the coming year we will continue to solicit your gifts. We will do so with great zeal and effort for it is our responsibility to provide the housing for your records as formally requested by you at last year's meeting. We intend to build in a fashion to which you are accustomed together with the financial prudence generally evidenced by our people. With your continued interest and your continued encouragement we will provide the finances and facilities necessary for the safe keeping and proper distribution of the history and roots of our people. Please remember your Foundation in the coming year. Make a pledge today. Give graciously and substantially. It is your investment in the future.

Report of the Nominating Committee of the International AHSGR Foundation Jake Sinner The Nominating Committee is comprised of Mrs. Theodore E. Heinz, Miss Ruth K. Stoll, Edwin Beisel, and Jake Sinner. To begin, we would like to remind everyone that there are five terms for Trustees that expire each year. The following individuals have consented to have their names placed in nomination for three-year terms. We submit these names for nomination for the Board of Trustees of the International Foundation of the AHSGR: Mrs. Marie Olson Mr. Don Vowel Mr. Edward Schwartzkopf Mr. Edward Scheldt Mr. Reuben Goertz

Editor's Note: The slate of nominees presented by the committee was elected by unanimous vote at the business meeting of the Foundation. At a later meeting of the newly-constituted Board of Trustees, the following officers were elected: Gordon L. Schmidt, president; Marie M. Olson, president-elect; Solomon R. Schneider, secretary; Edward Schwartzkopf, treasurer.

75 WE HONOR OUR HERITAGE THROUGH FAITH

The following "Sermon in Poetry" compiled by Nancy Bernhardt Holland was presented at the Sunday morning Ecumenical Worship Service. Participants in the service were Karen Soeken, Marie Wasemiller, Harold Sack, Donald H. Darner, and Nancy Bernhardt Holland. English translations of the German poetry were rendered by Emma Schwabenland Haynes, Joseph S. Height, Nancy Bernhardt Holland, Jo Ann Kuhr, Abe J. Unruh, and Lawrence A. Weigel.

The Legacy of the Germans from Russia: Trust and Endure This morning we celebrate the faith and courage of our enduring pioneer ancestors and worship the God who brought them through generations of sufferings and sorrows. Ravaged by war, poverty, political tyranny, and religious persecution, our Germanic forefathers found the faith to venture into the unknown new world of the Russian Empire. Our infant race was cradled in crisis. Bernhard Ludwig von Platen's epic poem about the emigration provides a description of the journey— and a prediction of the fate of the Germans from Russia; Sechs Wochen mussten wir For six weeks we had to Die Wasserfahrt ausstehen Endure the journey by water Angst, Elend, Hungersnoth Fear, misery, and hunger Taeglich vor Augen sehen Stood daily before our eyes. Also dass wir zuletzt Finally we had nothing to SaIz-Wasser, schimmlich Brot Subsist on except Zur Lebens uenterhalt Salt water and mouldy bread Erhielten kaum zur Noth. Which scarcely met our needs. Da habt ihr euren Fleck Nun Here you have your plots schafft euch euer Brod Now produce bread for yourselves Arbeiten muesst ihr So lang bis Toil will be your lot in den Tod Und wenn ihr gnug Until you all perish geschafft So ist es denn And when you have slaved enough vollendet Dann heisst es grosse Then everything will be complete. Noth Viel Arbeit wenig Brod,1 Our future will be called Great need, much work, and little bread.

Yet our people endured the journey and faced the future with the consolation that

"Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer and fuer."

"Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." And with the help of God, our ancestors survived the trials and privations of pioneering on the naked steppe, the scourges of robber bands and wolf packs, the ravages of famine and disease, and built a German island from the banks of the Volga to the shores of the Black Seas and beyond. But new trials awaited them and the privileges promised by the tsars were abrogated. As a colonist from Schaffhausen describes conditions: Das Manifest der Kaiserin, Es dachte nach den The Manifesto of the Empress Was directed at Deutschen tun; the Germans; Sie sollten pflanzen Brot und Wein Und sollten They were to grow bread and wine And were also to auch Kolonisten sein. be colonists. Wir verliessen unser Vaterland Und zogen in das We left our Fatherland Russenland. Die Russen warn uns sehr beneidt, And journeyed into Russia. Und weil wir warn so lang befreit. The Russians were very jealous of us So brachten sie's dahin mit List, Das wir nicht mehr Because we were free so long. sollten sein Kolonist. Ei keine Kolonisten sind wir They accomplished it with cunning That we should not be mehr Und muessen tragen das Gewehr. colonists any more. No, we are not colonists any more And must now bear arms.

76 Ja, was doch durch den Neid geschicht! To think what happens through envy! Hat man das Manifest vernicht! They destroyed the Manifesto' Wir stammen aus dem Deutschen Reich, We come from the German Reich Und jetzt sind wir den Russen gleich.2 And now we're the equals of the Russians, But they took consolation in the fact that "Du bist Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit." "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." And again, trusting God, our people plucked up the courage to seek a new homeland across the seas in the two Americas: Jetzt 1st die Zeit und Stunde da Dass wir The time and hour is now at hand, We're ziehn nach Amerika. Viel tausend moving to a foreign land. Where souls Seelen gent's dort gut, Das troestet uns by thousands prosper well, Dauntless, und gibt uns Mut. with tears, we say farewell. Die Wagen stehn schon vor der Tuer, Our wagons loaded stand in a row, With Mit Weib und Kinder ziehen wir. Die wives and children we shall go. Our Pferde stehn schon angespannt, Wir horses hitched to wagons stand, We're ziehen in ein fremdes Land. leaving for an unknown land. Ihr alle die mit uns verwandt, Reicht uns To our beloved ones and our kin, zum letzten mal die Hand. Ihr Freunde We say farewell, and sigh within; weinet nicht zu sehr, Wir seh'n uns nun, Weep not so hard that we must part, It und nimmer mehr. grieves our weary saddened heart. Seid alle maennlich, und seid stark, Be manly and renew your strength, As Macht uns den Abschied nicht zu hart. time goes on, we'll meet at length. We Wir ziehen ja nicht aus der Welt, Auch still remain upon this sphere, Where da 1st Gott. der uns erhaelt.3 God's protection will be near. Our pioneer forefathers began a new life in another new world knowing that "Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer and fuer." "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." For those who remained behind in Russia new trials awaited, famines, arrests, and deportations. As an anonymous Volhynian ballad complains: Oh, mein Gott, wann wird das enden. Oh, my God, when is it over, Alle diese grosse Not.- All this misery so great. Wann wird sich die Trubsal wenden. When will this affliction cease, Die uns jetzt so maechtig droht. Which severely threatens us. Mittwoch Nacht sind wir genommen In Wednesday night we all were taken den Kerker dann hinein. Alle, die vom Into prison we were thrown. All who Dorfgekommen, In der Stadt sie sollen once were from the village In the city sein. are to be.

Siebzig Mann in einer Kammer Seventy men all in one cell, Sassen wir, well sonst kein Raum. Where we sat for lack of space. Welch ein Schmerz und welch ein Jammer, Oh, what suffering and what grief, Wen's nicht trifft, der ahnt es kaum. Who has not lived it won't believe. Zwanzig Tag wir da zubrachten Tag Twenty days distressed we spent there, und Nacht im Kerker nur. Dienstag Day and night in prison bleak. And on wir dann Antrab machten, Trieben Tuesday we were driven Just like cattle uns wie Kreatur. on our march. Als wir abgerichtert waren, Ging's And at last when we were sentenced zum Dopor dann zurueck. Back to Dopor we did go. We were Aufdem Auto wir gefahren, Viele driven then by auto; blieben noch zuruck. Many stayed behind although.

77 Als wir nun sind angekommen Vor das When we all had then arrived there, grosse Schreckenshaus, Wurden da ;At that house of doom so great, We gleich aufgenommen, Wo man nicht were taken in at once, From whence kann selbst hinaus. one can ne'er escape. Oh wie viel verschickte Leute Oh, how many of our people, Are Sitzen heut im Dopor noch, sitting still in gray Dopor. Many sigh Manche seufzen, beten, weinen, or pray or cry Others laugh and can Andre lachen, scherzen noch. make jokes. Doch wir sitzen oft und beten, Lesen We sit together often praying Many viel auch Gottes Wort, Wo wir also read God's Word. Where we still manchen Trost noch finden. Jesus ist find consolation, Refuge in our Jesus unser Schutz und Hort. Lord. Herr, wir mussten ja vergehen, Wenn Oh, dear Lord, we would all perish If Dein Wort uns Trost nicht war. Daft in your Word were not our trust. In our Not willst bei uns stehen, Das bringt distress you stand by us Bringing uns Hoffnung immer her.4 hope for ever more,

And still there was the consolation that "Du bist Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit." "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." Even in the frozen wastes of sub-Arctic Siberia, confined to slave labor camps, our people continued to trust and endure, A contemporary Soviet German poet describes the situation: Wir vertrieb'nen Sowjetdeutschen We expelled Soviet-Germans are dispersed, Sind zerstreut vom Heimatland. Far from the home where we did once abide. Wo einst lebten unsre Vaeter The place where our fathers lived, Wo auch unsre Wiege stand. And mother rocked the cradle at her side. Und am fremden Ort, vertrieben We were deported to a strange place, Par Weit entfernt vom Heimatland, Nur removed from our own native land And only noch unsre Lieder blieben Die als our beautiful folksongs remain That we, as Kinder wir gekannt. children, learned to chant. Die Familien sind zerrissen: The families are torn apart, One is here; Der eine hier, der andere, dort. the other is there. Where have they taken Viele Muetter nicht mehr wissen our children? If only the mother knew Wo jetzt ihrer Kinder Ort. where. Hunger, Elend, Angst, und Kummer Das war Hunger, misery, fear, and sorrow This was unser schweres Los Und gar viele unsrer to be our sad destiny. And when many of Brueder, Ruehen langst im Erdenschoss. our brothers died, The grave is what made All das haben wir ertragen Ohne them free. Murren, mit Geduld. Wem auch All these hardships we endured, patiently, sollten wir es klagen Wir Without grumbling, our tongues stilled. And to Vertrieb'nen ohne Schuld. whom could we have complained? We expelled people, who were without guilt. Rechtlos waren wir und Knechte, Nur zur Arbeit, wie das Vieh. We were outlawed and lived in servitude, To Und zum Spotte nanrit' man uns Schlechte, cattle at work, we were compared, And in "Fritz," "Faschist," auch da und hie. mockery they called us worthless, "Fritz," "Faschist," no insult was spared. Doch wir werden nicht mehr schweigen' Brueder, auf Nun ist es Zeit! Unsre Stimme No longer will we remain silent, Brothers soil erschallen, Bis da siegt Gerechtigkeit.5 arise! It is time to be free. Our voices will loudly resound, Until justice will bring us victory.

78 There were times of great despondency: Wir mussten die Heimat verlassen, Forced to forsake our homeland. Denn hinter uns hetzte der Tod. Wir Harried by importunate Death, We wandelten eiskalte Strassen Und assen trudged on ice-cold roads And ate ein kummervolles Brot. our grief-stained bread. Nun schleichen die freudlosen Tage Im Now in the camp drab and drear Lager so eintoenig hin, Und jeden Our days drag on joyless indeed. bedrueckt oft die Frage Nach solch All are oppressed by the sheer 6 eines Daseins Sinn. Meaningless life we now lead.

Yet our people always were able to find a meaning in the assurance that "Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer and fuer." "Lord, thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations." There were many who suffered and died in the old country: Ich seh' euch in Sibiriens eis'gen Waeldern, I see you in Siberia's frozen forests, Im fernen Turkestan im Wuestensand, In Turkestan's dread desert sand; In Knechtschaft auf ukrain'schen Weizen- Enslaved on the wheatfields of the Ukraine feldern, And banished to the White Sea's arctic In der Verbannung an des Weissmeers strand. Strand; I see you press the wine for the oppressor, Seh' Wein euch fuer die Unterdruecker Your crumpled bodies shot by ruthless keltern hands, Und sinken kalt erschossen an der Wand, I see countless thousands starve and perish Seh' zahllos euch des Hungertodes sterben, While alien nomads rape their towns and Und fremdes Volk mil Lachen euch lands. beerben. Flierwahr, ihr habt zur Neige ausgetrunken In truth, you have all drunk to the lees The Den bittern Kelch, gleich dem, der selbst bitter cup that He Himself did ihn trank, consume, Bevor im Maertyrglanz zur Gruft gesunken Ere your bodies, weary, sick, and sore, Euch 1st der Leib, der mude, wund, und Succumbed in martyr's splendor to the krank. tomb. Erioschen ist des Lebens Himmelsfunken, The heavenly spark of your life is quenched Mit ihm der letzte Seufzer, Schmerz, und And with it the last sigh, the grief, the pain; Dank, The final tears and plaints have ebbed and Versiegt die letzten Traenen, letzten Klagen, died And the burden that you bore is laid Und abgelegt die Last, die ihrgetragen.7 aside.

There were many who suffered and endured in the New World, sustained always by the consolation that "Du bist Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit." "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."

The Reverend George Rath describes the fate of the Germans from Russia: Nicht vielen ist das Los so schwer gefallen. Not many other peoples have to suffer Wie dir, mein Volk, aus tuck'schen What's been given you by Fortune's heavy hand. Schicksals Hand; How often you've been scorned by other nations Das oft verkannt und ungeliebt von alien, Du heimatsuchend irrst von Land zu Land. As you wander searching for a home from land to land. Ein bess'res Los verdient dein heisses Sehnen You've earned a better fate through Ardent longing Nach deinem Menschenrecht, nach Glueck und Rast, For your human rights, good fortune, and repose.

79 Und einer Heimat wert sind schon die Tranen, And your tears must be rewarded with a homeland Die in der Fremde heiss geweint du hast.8 For you've wept enough in strangers* lands, God knows. A race of wanderers, ein Volk aufdem Weg, searching for centuries for an earthly home, our people have always known that the Lord is our only true dwellingplace. They have left us the legacy and the promise that, "Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer und fur; ehe denn die Berge worden, und die Erde und die Welt geschaffen worden, bist Du, Gott, von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit," "Lord thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."

Notes 1. Stanzas from "Reisebeschreibung der Kolonisten, wie auch Lebensart der Russen," by Bernhard Ludwig von Platen, published in Heimatbuch der Ostumsiedler: Kalender 1955 (Stuttgart: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Ostumsiedler, 1955) pp. 52-5. 2. "Das Manifest," a traditional song from the village of Schaffhausen. 3. The emigration song, "Jetzt 1st die Zeit und Stunde da," words by Jacob Stukii. 4. Portions of an anonymous ballad quoted in Wolhynisches Tagebuch by Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski (Marburg, 1979) pp. 87-9. 5. Stanzas from "Die Vertriebenen," an anonymous Soviet-German poem. 6. "Verlust der Heimat," by H. F. [sic] quoted in Memories of the Black Sea Germans by Joseph S. Height (Chelsea, Michigan, 1979) p. 227. 7. From "Unseren Toten," by George Rath in Klaenge der Seele (Omaha, 1960) p. 25. 8. From "Meinem Volk zum Trost," by George Rath in KIaenge der Seele (Omaha, 1960) p. 14.

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

Be it resolved: That each of the 12,000 individual members throughout the United States and Canada be charged with the responsibility of involving their youth in the rich heritage of our forefathers. That extensive efforts be made by every means possible and by every capable individual to make educational institutions and text-book publishers aware of the history of the Germans from Russia as an identifiable ethnic group. That preliminary plans for our Heritage Center be made available to all members and that chapters call meetings for their members to review the plan. That thanks and appreciation be extended to Michael Anuta, Victor Bohnet, and Monte Lung, retiring members of the International Board of Directors for their contributions of time, talent, and resources, and that this same appreciation be extended to all members of the Board of Directors and the Trustees of the Foundation in their continuing efforts on behalf of the members and AHSGR. That we extend thanks to each individual who participated in making the Eleventh International Convention a success, with special recognition to the members of all committees, all speakers, and finally, and most of all, to the Headquarters staff. The warm hospitality of Dearborn, Michigan has been the result of special efforts made by the staff of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Mayor John O'Reilly, Dr. Carl G. Howie, and especially the chapters of Michigan-Greater Detroit, Southwest Michigan, Saginaw Valley, and Flint. Finally be it resolved that the unstinting efforts, hard work, and cheerful leadership exemplified by Convention General Chairman Mary Martini and her lovely family be acknowledged for making this Eleventh International Convention in Dearborn, Michigan another benchmark in our growing number of successful conventions.

80 PRAYERS FOR THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA Opening Invocation — Carl G. Howie Almighty God, who doth call us to be a pilgrim people, we praise Thee for keeping company with us wherever we are. We bless Thee, our God, for being our dwelling place in all generations and in every place. Praise to Thee our Father who dost abide with us and keep us company wherever we may be. Being at home with Thee, we are never homeless. Going forward with Thee, we never lose hope. We express our gratitude for our heritage in faith and life. We thank Thee for freedom, not as a possession, but as an opportunity. Blessed art Thou, 0 God, who dost neither recognize national boundaries or cultural differences. Thou dost call us to oneness, yet in our unity thou dost challenge us to maintain the rich diversity of our varied backgrounds. Truly Thou hast been present with us in our history and through our culture. Accept our praise for the heritage and the history of Germans from Russia which we here celebrate. We thank Thee for a long and useful story of people uprooted yet proud of their roots. Let Thy favor be felt by those who search for rootage in order to secure a new and better heritage. Guide those who research and write, that history may become not just a monument to the past, but may become a directive for the future. Bless the good purposes of this convention and guide this organization to fulfill its highest purposes and to meet its worthy goals. Never let us become mere recorders of history; rather, inspire us to be makers of history. Our prayer we make in Jesus' name, who is the Alpha and the Omega, our Savior. Amen.

Memorial Service - Harold Sack Of those who have departed from us in the past year, we remember the good that has come from their lives and it will remain with us as we strive to continue on with the great inheritance left by our forefathers. In one sense, there is no death, for those who have gone will last beyond their departure. Their lives will always be felt touching the lives of others who knew them. They have supplied an inspiration to this generation. As we pause to remember them let us not forget, life is no brief candle but a splendid, flaming torch which we have the privilege of carrying for only a moment and we want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. Our Father in heaven, as we come into Thy presence this morning, we offer unto Thee our grateful thanks for Thy mercy that cared for us and brought us safely together to this convention. We are reminded how fragile is the thread of life as we think of those who were summoned away in the past year. May we ever be grateful to those who in the past years have labored with love in order that we might have something to inherit and may we never slightly esteem what they obtained at a great price. Remind us that we are not called to fill the places of those who have gone but to fill our own places to do the work that is before us. We thank Thee for hope Thou hast given us that there will come a day when the lost chords of life may be found again in that happy land. May this minute of prayer find each one of us, in his own way, reach out for Thy guidance. Give us a true appreciation of our heritage. Hear our prayer and be with us this day in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Luncheon Invocation - Lydia Schmick Lord God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come: We thank Thee for the blessings of life. Graciously accept our praise and thanksgiving for all Thy mercies and love which Thou hast granted daily to us. Permit our nation to prosper, to fulfill Thy purpose to the good of mankind. Help our leaders always to pursue the search for human freedoms. Where men are unjust, inhumane, and cruel, send corrections. Lord Jesus, we are meeting with Thee according to Thy promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Remember those who for various reasons are unable to be with us. Being knit together in Christian fellowship causes us to appreciate more and more how much we need 81 There were times of great despondency: Wir mussten die Heimat verlassen, Forced to forsake our homeland, Denn hinter uns hetzte der Tod. Harried by importunate Death, We Wirwandelten eiskalte Strassen Und trudged on ice-cold roads And ate assen ein kummervolles Brot. our grief-stained bread. Nun schleichen die freudlosen Tage Im Now in the camp drab and drear Lager so eintoenig bin, Und jeden Our days drag on Joyless indeed. bedruckt oft die Frage Nach solch All are oppressed by the sheer eines Daseins Sinn.6 Meaningless life we now lead.

Yet our people always were able to find a meaning in the assurance that "Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer and fuer. " "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." There were many who suffered and died in the old country: Ich sell' euch in Sibiriens eis'gen Waeldern, I see you in Siberia's frozen forests, Im fernen Turkestan im Wuestensand, In Turkestan's dread desert sand; In Knechtschaft auf ukrain'schen Weizen- feldern, Enslaved on the wheatfields of the Ukraine In der Verbannung an des Weissmeers Strand; And banished to the White Sea's arctic strand. I see you press the wine for the oppressor, Seh' Wein euch flir die Unterdruecker keltern Your crumpled bodies shot by ruthless hands, Und sinken kalt erschossen an der Wand, I see countless thousands starve and perish Seh' zahllos euch des Hungertodes sterben. While alien nomads rape their towns and lands. Und fremdes Volk mit Lachen euch beerben.

Furwahr, ihr habt zur Neige ausgetrunken In truth, you have all drunk to the lees The Den bittern Kelch, gleich dem, der selbst bitter cup that He Himself did inn frank, consume, Bevor im Maertyrglanz zur Gruft gesunken Ere your bodies, weary, sick, and sore, Euch ist der Leib, der mude, wund, und Succumbed in martyr's splendor to the krank. tomb. Erioschen ist des Lebens Himmelsfunken, The heavenly spark of your life is quenched Mit mm der letzte Seufzer, Schmerz, und And with it the last sigh, the grief, the pain; Dank, The final tears and plaints have ebbed and Versiegt die letzten Tranen, letzten Klagen, died And the burden that you bore is laid Und abgelegt die Last, die ihr getragen.7 aside.

There were many who suffered and endured in the New World, sustained always by the consolation that "Du bist Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit." "From everlasting to everlasting, thou art God."

The Reverend George Rath describes the fate of the Germans from Russia: Nicht vielen ist das Los so schwer gefallen, Not many other peoples have to suffer Wie dir, mem Volk, aus tueck'schen Schicksals Hand; What's been given you by Fortune's heavy hand. Das oft verkannt und ungeliebt von alien, How often you've been scorned by other nations

Du heimatsuchend irrst von Land zu Land. As you wander searching for a home from land to land. Ein bess'res Los verdient dein heisses Sehnen You've earned a better fate through ardent longing Nach deinem Menschenrecht, nach Glueck und Rast, For your human rights, good fortune, and repose.

79 Und einer Heimat wert sind schon die And your tears must be rewarded with a Tranen, homeland Die in der Fremde heiss geweint du hast.8 For you've wept enough in strangers' lands, God knows. A race of wanderers, ein Volk aufdem Weg, searching for centuries for an earthly home, our people have always known that the Lord is our only true dwelling place. They have left us the legacy and the promise that, "Herr Gott! Du bist unsere Zuflucht fuer und fuer; ehe denn die Berge worden, und die Erde und die Welt geschaffen worden, bist Du, Gott, von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit." "Lord thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God."

Notes 1. Stanzas from "Reisebeschreibung der Kolonisten, wie auch Lebensart der Russen," by Bernhard Ludwig von Platen, published in Heimatbuch der Ostumsiedler: Kalender 1955 (Stuttgart: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Ostumsiedler, 1955) pp. 52-5. 2. "Das Manifest," a traditional song from the village of Schaffhausen. 3. The emigration song, "Jetzt ist die Zeit und Stunde da," words by Jacob Stukii. 4. Portions of an anonymous ballad quoted in Wolhynisches Tagebuch by Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski (Marburg, 1979) pp. 87-9. 5. Stanzas from "Die Vertriebenen," an anonymous Soviet-German poem. 6. "Verlust der Heimat," by H. F. [sic] quoted in Memories of the Black Sea Germans by Joseph S, Height (Chelsea, Michigan, 1979) p. 227. 7. From "Unseren Toten" by George Rath in Kldnge der Seele (Omaha, 1960) p. 25. 8. From"Meinem Volk zumTrost," by George Rath in Klange der Seele (Omaha, 1960)p. 14.

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

Be it resolved: That each of the 12,000 individual members throughout the United States and Canada be charged with the responsibility of involving their youth in the rich heritage of our forefathers, That extensive efforts be made by every means possible and by every capable individual to make educational institutions and text-book publishers aware of the history of the Germans from Russia as an identifiable ethnic group. That preliminary plans for our Heritage Center be made available to all members and that chapters call meetings for their members to review the plan. That thanks and appreciation be extended to Michael Anuta, Victor Bonnet, and Monte Lung, retiring members of the International Board of Directors for their contributions of time, talent, and resources, and that this same appreciation be extended to all members of the Board of Directors and the Trustees of the Foundation in their continuing efforts on behalf of the members and AHSGR. That we extend thanks to each individual who participated in making the Eleventh International Convention a success, with special recognition to the members of all committees, all speakers, and finally, and most of all, to the Headquarters staff. The warm hospitality of Dearborn, Michigan has been the result of special efforts made by the staff of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Mayor John C V Reilly, Dr. Carl G. Howie, and especially the chapters of Michigan-Greater Detroit, Southwest Michigan, Saginaw Valley, and Flint. Finally be it resolved that the unstinting efforts, hard work, and cheerful leadership exemplified by Convention General Chairman Mary Martini and her lovely family be acknowledged for making this Eleventh International Convention in Dearborn, Michigan another benchmark in our growing number of successful conventions.

80 PRAYERS FOR THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA Opening Invocation - Carl G. Howie Almighty God, who doth call us to be a pilgrim people, we praise Thee for keeping company with us wherever we are. We bless Thee, our God, for being our dwelling place in all generations and in every place. Praise to Thee our Father who dost abide with us and keep us company wherever we may be. Being at home with Thee, we are never homeless. Going forward with Thee, we never lose hope. We express our gratitude for our heritage in faith and life. We thank Thee for freedom, not as a possession, but as an opportunity. Blessed art Thou, 0 God, who dost neither recognize national boundaries or cultural differences. Thou dost call us to oneness, yet in our unity thou dost challenge us to maintain the rich diversity of our varied backgrounds. Truly Thou hast been present with us in our history and through our culture. Accept our praise for the heritage and the history of Germans from Russia which we here celebrate. We thank Thee for a long and useful story of people uprooted yet proud of their roots. Let Thy favor be felt by those who search for rootage in order to secure a new and better heritage. Guide those who research and write, that history may become not just a monument to the past, but may become a directive for the future. Bless the good purposes of this convention and guide this organization to fulfill its highest purposes and to meet its worthy goals. Never let us become mere recorders of history; rather, inspire us to be makers of history. Our prayer we make in Jesus' name, who is the Alpha and the Omega, our Savior. Amen.

Memorial Service - Harold Sack Of those who have departed from us in the past year, we remember the good that has come from their lives and it will remain with us as we strive to continue on with the great inheritance left by our forefathers, In one sense, there is no death, for those who have gone will last beyond their departure. Their lives will always be felt touching the lives of others who knew them. They have supplied an inspiration to this generation. As we pause to remember them let us not forget, life is no brief candle but a splendid, flaming torch which we have the privilege of carrying for only a moment and we want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. Our Father in heaven, as we come into Thy presence this morning, we offer unto Thee our grateful thanks for Thy mercy that cared for us and brought us safely together to this convention. We are reminded how fragile is the thread of life as we think of those who were summoned away in the past year. May we ever be grateful to those who in the past years have labored with love in order that we might have something to inherit and may we never slightly esteem what they obtained at a great price. Remind us that we are not called to fill the places of those who have gone but to fill our own places to do the work that is before us. We thank Thee for hope Thou hast given us that there will come a day when the lost chords of life may be found again in that happy land. May this minute of prayer find each one of us, in his own way, reach out for Thy guidance. Give us a true appreciation of our heritage. Hear our prayer and be with us this day in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Luncheon Invocation — Lydia Schmick Lord God, our help In ages past, our hope for years to come: We thank Thee for the blessings of life. Graciously accept our praise and thanksgiving for all Thy mercies and love which Thou hast granted daily to us. Permit our nation to prosper, to fulfill Thy purpose to the good of mankind. Help our leaders always to pursue the search for human freedoms. Where men are unjust, inhumane, and cruel, send corrections, Lord Jesus, we are meeting with Thee according to Thy promise, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Remember those who for various reasons are unable to be with us. Being knit together in Christian fellowship causes us to appreciate more and more how much we need 81 each other as fellow members. As we participate in the various programs, may we be drawn closer to Thee and through Thee closer to one another. Direct us in our daily lives to share our heritage joyfully. Help us to see more clearly the work that is before us in preserving our aims. Give us the wisdom and strength to be doers and not hearers only. Remind us that we inherited a valuable link in this unending chain. Komm Herr Jesus, sei unser Cast und segne Alles was Du uns bescheret hast. Amen.

Foundation Invocation - Don C. Vowel

Gracious God, our Heavenly Father: We join hands in worship, prayer, and praise. We join hands in a project to preserve the history of our heritage. We join hands to raise money to erect a structure for this purpose. We thank You for the visions of individuals who brought AHSGR and the International Foundation into being. We thank You for the enthusiastic response of individuals who increase our membership each year. We thank You for loyal staff who work beyond the call of duty to make our programs productive, We thank You for the gifts of time, talent, money, and property that have brought our present Headquarters project into focus. We ask Your continued blessing on our organizations, projects, and members. We ask You to touch the hearts of members and friends to respond to our appeal for funds to take the next step in the building program. Bless each one who has given, and those who continue to give, in making this dream a reality. Endow Your Holy Spirit in our leaders that they may reflect Your grace in every word and deed. Help us all that we may be sensitive to the feelings of others. Be with our loved ones wherever they are. Be with those who are sick and afflicted and in need. Bless this food to our needs, and us in Your service. May all honor and glory be to You, for we ask these things in Your holy name. Amen.

Banquet Invocation ~ Arthur E. Flegel Great God, our Heavenly Father, as we near the close of another heart-warming event in our lives, we pause to give thanks and acknowledge that You, our creator, are also our guide and strength. We thank You for choosing to inspire the minds of a certain few to bring this unique Society into being, and we pay tribute to them and to those others who have contributed so generously of their time and talents to bring this organization to the high plateau it has attained so early in its existence. We say this not with pride, but with a deep sense of humility for we believe that You have singled us out to forthrightly carry the banner of our honored forefathers who through Your guidance and providence made it possible for us to become a vital part of this free land. Though often times without education and financial means, their determination to succeed was a legacy that has been handed down to us their descendants - so that we can justly point out that in the short span of one or two generations members of our ethnic group have achieved recognition in every honorable endeavor. We praise You for this and the love that You have given us as it is reflected in the bond that so closely unites us into one huge family. We are well aware that some of us may be called to our reward before the time of the next convention in Minneapolis but we are reassured by Your promise that the memory of those who go on before will ever be a part of us, and their contribution, be it great or small, has been a building block in this great movement forward. We pray that You will look with favor on our plans for the future, and that a Headquarters building will soon be a reality, for our faith tells us that this is Your will. And with that as our source of strength we will succeed in our mission. We thank You for the food provided for us and invoke Your blessings upon it to the nourishment of our bodies and may each and every one of us leave this place with a feeling of exhilaration from our experiences here and a renewed dedication to the ideals and goals of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, This we pray in Jesus' name. And may we now join our voices in repeating the simple prayer that was so much a part of our lives in time past: Segne Voter diese Speise, uns zur Kraft und Dir zum Preise. Amen.

82 VILLAGE NIGHT...... 64

REPORTS TO THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION Report of the Executive Director ...... 67 Report of the International Secretary...... 68 Library Committee Report...... 68 Folklore Committee ...... 69 Research Committee Report...... 69 Genealogy Committee Report...... 70 Report of the Nominating Committee...... 71 Translations Committee Report ...... 72 Membership Committee Report ...... 72 Report of the International AHSGR Foundation ...... 74 Report of the Nominating Committee of the International AHSGR Foundation ...... 75

WE HONOR OUR HERITAGE THROUGH FAITH...... 76

RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ...... 80

PRAYERS FOR THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GERMANS FROM RUSSIA ...... 81

COVER: "Babushka," a reproduction of a two-color lithograph by Lydia Miller Ruyle. The original image for the artwork comes from an old photograph of Elisabeth Pauly Miller, grandmother of David J. Miller, first president of the AHSGR. The photograph of Mrs. Miller (1846-1920) was taken in the Volga village of Norka prior to the first world war.

End of Volume 3, No. 2 Fall 1980