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Herman’s father, Gustav Aaron Rempel, managed Marienskaya, a large estate farm, for his brother-in-law Heinrich Klassen (my great grandfather). Herman’s mother, Elizabeth, was the eldest daughter of missionary Heinrich Dirks. Because of social unrest and turmoil from the Bolshevik revolution, the family had to leave the farm in 1918 and flee to Gnadenfeld, the Rempel clan’s home base. Herman’s older brother, Heinrich, tried to salvage a few household belongings during this move but was robbed and cruelly murdered by the Mahkno bandits.
In 1920, Mother Rempel died. In 1922, Father Rempel died. The orphan’s uncle Wilhem Neufeld of Reedley, CA came to Russia to take them with him to California. Herman Rempel and his brother, Dietrich, had to make a different way to America than their sister Evangeline and others.
I found Herman's experience to be quite moving. He was a bright, analytical, optimistic young man. He had two major barriers to migrating from Russia to America. The first was the opaque, convoluted, corrupt and often cruel bureaucracy of Russia. The second was money, particularly in getting from Turkey to America. His faith in God helped him. As did the local and global Mennonite community. I hope to become friends with him in heaven.
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