Epilogue 1 about Herman

Epilogue 1-Herman Rempel

By Jacob Janzen,July 2, 1984

This diary was written by my lifelong friend, Herman G. Rempel during a period of about a year and ten months. A time of considerable emotional upheaval, anxiety and apprehension when life’s long-range planning was in the balance. He knew that, as a practicing Christian, it would be very difficult if not impossible in an atheistic state with repressive laws to live a meaningful life of fulfillment. He was determined to bend every effort to leave the USSR and to see entry into the foremost state of liberty and opportunity.

Herman showed a keen power of observation and attention to details in observing his surroundings, both nature and people. The evasiveness and non-dependability of governmental authorities as well as their negativism must have ground on his nerves and yet we find no instance where he lost his patience or expressed criticism. It is remarkable also that he was able to take his diary out of the country (Russia).

A brief curriculum vitae of Herman may be appropriate here. My first encounter with Herman was in September, 1913, when we both entered the Mennonite boy’s school in Ohrloff by the Molotschna River in the Ukraine. Herman was two years younger than the average student beginner there. Three years later after finishing we entered the School of Commerce in Halbstadt, not far from Ohrloff.  As an outstanding student, he was abv to skip the preparatory class. I also spent four years at that school in spite of numerous interruptions due to revolution and war activities.

In September, 1921, we met again as fellow students when we matriculated at the University of Frunze in Simferopol, Crimea.

1921 and 1922 were years of famine and epidemics. Many people were dying. Fortunately, we had brought with us from the less-affected Mennonite farming communities flour and dried fruit to tide us over this lean period.

Five of us Mennonite students were rooming together: (i) brothers Gerhard and (ii) Nicolai Neufeld from Dawlecanowo, fourth year medical students, (iii) Herman Neufeld, second year medic, (iv) Herman Rempel enrolled in physical sciences and (v) myself (Jacob Janzen) in biological sciences. Herman and I were freshmen.

Before long, I was taken to the Mennonite village Narassan, about 30 verst distant, acutely ill with typhoid fever. Under the skilled care of Dr. Peter Sawatsky and nurse Helen Wall, I recovered. Herman Rempel also fell ill with the same disease. Fortunately, he also recovered.

Nicolai and Gerhard became doctors. Kolya (Nicolai) migrated to Canada where I visited him a number of times and he visited me in California in later years. He died about nine years ago. Gerhard practiced in Dawlekanowo but succumbed to hardships in a forced labor camp. The fate of Herman Neufeld is unknown to me.

Herman’s father, Gustav Aaron Rempel, managed Marienskoye, a large farm, for his brother-in-law Heinrich Klassen (my great grandfather) in the vicinity of Grishino. The nearest railroad station to Shelanaya, which was the railway station for colony Memrik, which was my home. Heerman’s mother, Elizabeth, was the eldest daughter of missionary Heinrich Dirks of Indonesia fame. Because of social unrest and turmoil, 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 but was robbed and cruelly murdered by the Machno bandits.

In 1920, Mother Rempel died. In 1922, Father Rempel died. The orphan’s uncle Wilhelm Neufeld of Reedley, CA came to Russia to take them with him to California. Here is where Herman’s diary begins.

In America, Herman studied at Bethel College, a Mennonite institution in Newton, Kansas. He became a successful analytical chemist, spending most of his professional life in Fresno, California.

In July, 1931, my wife Ernestine and I, on our way to Africa as medical missionaries, stopped briefly to visit Herman in Fresno. Thereafter, we lost track of each other for the next 53 years. This spring, while translating his diary from German into English, Herman came across my name several times and decided to trace my whereabouts if possible and was successful. Ernestine and I visited Herman and his lovely wife, Jane, a few weeks ago at their retirement home in Pacific Grove, California. And what a marvelous reunion we had!