JOURNAL Of The American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 17, No. 4 Winter 1994 Editor CHRISTINE CLAYTON Editorial Board IRMGARD HEIN ELLINGSON PETER J. KLASSEN Bukovina Society, EUis, KS California State University, Fresno ARTHUR E. FLEGEL TIMOTHY KLOBERDANZ Certified Genealogist, Menio Park, CA North Dakota State University, Fargo ADAM GIESINGER GEORGE KUFELDT University of Manitoba, emeritus Anderson University, Indiana, emeritus NANCY BERNHARDT HOLLAND LEONA PFEIFER Trinity College, Burlington, VT Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS WILLIAM KEEL HELMUT SCHMELLER University of Kansas, Lawrence Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS On the cover: The Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is published quarterly by AHSGR. The photograph shows members of Members of the Society receive the Journal, a quarterly Newsletter, and an annual genealogical publication, Clues. Members qualify for discounts on material available for purchase from AHSGR. Membership Abram Berg's family in the Ukraine. It is categories are: Individual, $40; Family, $40; Contributing, $50; Sustaining, $100; Life, $500 (may be paid in one of the few records left after the five annual installments). Memberships are based on a calendar year, due each January 1. Dues in excess family's repeated disbursement. John B. of $40 may be tax-deductible as allowed by law. Applications for membership should be sent to AHSGR, 631 Toews' translated and edited version of D Street, Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. The Journal welcomes the submission of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, book "Abram's List" tells the stories of the reviews, and items regarding all aspects of the lives of Germans in/from Russia, Manuscripts should be Berg family members and other Germans typed double spaced with endnotes. Computer fan-fold paper should be separated before mailing. 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Gifts to the Foundation may be designated for specific purposes such as promoting the work of the Aussiedler Project gathering information from German-Russian emigrants recently arrived in Germany, the AHSGR/CIS Project of research in Russia, or supporting the Society's library or genealogical work; gifts may also be designated for use where most needed. All contributions help further the goals of AHSGR; to gather, preserve, and make available for research material pertaining to the history of Germans from Russia. For information and to make contributions, contact the International Foundation of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 631 D Street, Lincoln. NE 68502-1199. Telephone: (402) 474- 3363. Fax: (402) 474-7229. Donations to the International Foundation are tax deductible as allowed by law. Opinions and statements of fact expressed by contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society, the Foundation, the Editor, or members of the Editorial Board, who assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Published by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street - Lincoln, NE 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 • Fax 402-474-7229 © Copyright 1 W4 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0162-8283 CONTENTS CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FATHERLAND............................................................………................................ ii Timothy J. Kloberdanz IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR TRIP TO RUSSIA (SARATOV VILLAGES) AND KAZAKHSTAN (KUSTANAI AREA) IN 1993 ...................................................................... 1 William M Wiest THE LANDAU BAPTISTS ..................................................................................................…………................. 16 Adam Giesinger "THE TERRIBLE GHOST OF 1941": A HAUNTING REMINDER OF THE VOLGA GERMAN DEPORTATION ............................................................................... 22 Rosalinda Kloberdanz, and Timothy J. Kloberdanz ABRAM'SLIST...............,............,.................,................,.......................................................................26 Edited and Translated by John B. Toews Compiled by Abram Berg AHSGR LIBRARY POLICIES................................................................................................................ 40 NEW ADDITIONS TO AHSGR LIBRARY............................................................................................ 41 Michael Ronn, AHSGR Librarian GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH OUR NEIGHBORS: MULTI-ETHNIC RESEARCH...................................................................……………....................... 49 Edward Reimer Brandt BEGINNING GENEALOGY .................................................................................................................. 53 Donnette M. Sonnenfeld AHSGR Journal/Winter 1994 CHRISTMAS EVE IN THE FATHERLAND Timothy J. Kloberdanz In what language do you cry out As swastika-bedecked youths Set fire to your shelter On this, the holiest of nights? Surely you hear the attackers Running and shouting in the street As hatred's hungry flames Lap at the children's feet. "Keine Auslander!" (No more foreigners!) "Schweinhunde!" (Filthy dogs!) "Kommunisten!" (Communists!) "Russen raus!" (Russians out!) Could this be the same fatherland your old ones immortalized in song? —The home of Heine's Lorelei And deutsche Gemutlichkeit? Or does it suddenly seem you are back in Omsk or Volchansk Where the frozen Siberian stillness Was pierced by other taunts? "Rossiya dlya Russkich!" (Russia for the Russians!) "Frits! Frits! Frits!" (Fritz!) "Fashisty!" (Fascists!) "Nemtsy proch!" (Germans out!) Yes, you can fight the encircling flames —Even whitewash the blackened walls. But how do you disguise the telltale smoke when it clings to the clothes of children? Is this why you escaped the gulag And signed your hands upon barbed wire? Did you survive the Russian holocaust to warm your scars in German fire? (Written after hearing a news report about the fire-bombing of a Germans from Russia refugee center in Werbig, Germany. The attack occurred on 24 December 1993.) AHSGR Journal/Winter 1994 IMPRESSIONS FROM OUR TRIP TO RUSSIA (SARATOV VILLAGES) AND KAZAKHSTAN (KUSTANAI AREA) IN 1993 William M. Wiest After years of planning and hoping, my wife, Thelma, and Germans from Russia 12 (Spring 1989): 1-12]. Two years our oldest daughter, Suzanne, as well as a wonderful group later we had the privilege of leading a group of American of fellow travelers joined me in the summer of 2993 in and Canadian visitors to Friedrichsfeld in the North visiting the Volga villages of my mother's people. I had Caucasus, not far from Gorbachev's home village near long dreamed of seeing Brunnental (Krivoyar) and Stavropol [see article by Irene Kary in Journal of the Wiesenseite (Lugovskoye) on the Wiesenseite (or meadow American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 16 side) of the Volga River, southeast of Saratov; my maternal (Summer 1993): 36-40]. Such satisfying discoveries about grandmother, Maria (Weber) Buxman (daughter of the history of my father's family strongly influenced my Heinrich Peter Weber and Elizabeth Mohn) was born and determination to visit the Volga villages where my mater- grew up in Brunnental and she married my grandfather, nal grandparents were born and lived prior to their 1901 Karl A. Buxman (son of Peter Buxman and Katerina immigration to America. Helfenbein) from nearby Wiesenmueller, before they came When the formerly closed Saratov area was finally to America in 1901 (first to Isabella, Oklahoma, and a year officially open to foreign visitors we began to plan in ear- later to Windsor, Colorado), I remember my mother telling nest for our three week tour, "Russia: Old and New." Hav- me when I was a child that her mother, Maria, and her aunt, ing adequate time to spend in the Saratov area and espe- Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Weber) Uhrich often spoke longingly cially in the Volga villages was our primary objective. But of the beautiful wild flowers and wonderfully tasty we also wanted to be able to see some of the wonderful old strawberries that grew in the meadows near their homes in historically interesting places in Russia, and to experience a Brunnental. variety of types of transportation—train, cruise ship, bus, My own dreams about visiting Brunnental and and airplane. As a final objective, we wanted our tour to Wiesenmueller were further nourished in 1988 when make contact with the large group of ethnic German people Thelma and I, along with my parents, William W. and still living in Central Asia—so we also included a visit to {Catherine E. (Buxman) Wiest had the opportunity