Sister epilogue by Arthur

Epilogue

Arthur G. Rempel

July 5, 1996

These are the recollections of Liesel Loewen, now of Espelkamp, Germany, as recorded on tape in the German language during an after-dinner conversation at our home in Walla Walla, Washington on June 27, 1995. Subsequently, I transcribed her story, which is here rendered in English.

Liesel is the daughter of my sister Greta (Margaret) and her husband Jasch (Jacob) Loewen, who were married in Gnadenfeld in the autumn of 1922. Greta had decided to remain in the Ukraine of the U.S.S.R. Shortly after Greta’s marriage, my older sister, Evangeline and all my brothers and I left for America. We left with our uncle and aunt , Wilheim P. and Margaret Rempel Neufeld, of Reedley, California. They had returned to their former home in  the Mennonite Molochnaya colony to distribute food and to help alleviate the hardships of famine.

Near the end of the second World War, the ethnic Germans of the Ukraine were forced to trek westward in advance of the retreating German army. Consequently, when the war was over, Liesel’s mother, that is my sister Greta, found herself and her three youngest children (Liesel, 16, Gretel 13 and Jascha, 11 years of age) stranded in vanquished Germany. Assured by Russian authorities that her previously exiled husband was waiting for her, Grertra, with her three young children, decided to return to the U.S.S.R. hoping to join Jasch after a decade of forced separation. Thus, on the second of December, 1945, these four forlorn persons boarded the train back to Russia. But their “return trip” took Greta not to a reunion at their home in the Ukraine  with her husband, and the children’s father, but off-loaded them at the railroad station of Lostroma, a city over 300 km northeast of Moscow.

There, the family’s meager possessions were loaded on a small one-horse sled, driven by a teen-age guard. With the two younger children allowed to ride the sled and with Liesel and Greta on foot, this family was then driven into a forest village some 19 km from the train station. Crossing an ice-covered stream on a very rickety bridge, Greta broke through the ice and sank hip-deep into the frigid water. She was helped out by Liesel, but her clothing was thoroughly drenched. As her wet clothing was freezing upon her body, walking became ever more difficult and tiring. When she tried to ride the sled, the driver drove her off with a backward swipe of his whip. Riding the sled was forbidden to her. Only on arrival at their destination was she allowed to remove her wet and frozen clothing.

When they arrived at a group of cottages, this family was assigned to a small bed bug-ridden, one-room wooden house, with a cook stove in one corner. Another family was also crowded into this limited space. They had to bring in fuel wood from the forest.

Greta and Liesel were assigned to felling trees, sawing these evergreens down with a whipsaw, one sawyer pulling at each end. There was a “plan” or quota that had to be completed each day in order to receive their food ration of 600 grams of bread per day. Then, in the evening, they brought a little log with them to fuel their stove.

Liesel and Greta continued to work as a team in the forest for about three months. At that time, Greta’s health deteriorated, which made it impossible for her to continue felling trees. That also meant that her bread ration was cut down from 600 grams to 150 grams per day. With the bread very moist and heavy, that comes to a very small amount. For meat, they were given small frozen fish. Together with some potatoes, these were made into fish soup. When the fish meat had been consumed, the bones were again heated in the frying pan until they became very brittle, which were then also worked into their food. They used cooked sting nettle to augment their diet. The nettle could also be worked into grated potato fritters. There were mushrooms in the forest and various kinds of berries: strawberries, raspberries and large black currants. They did not stray far into the forest because of the bears. There were always bears.

The tree fellers in the forest were required not only to cut the trees down but they were also required to make them fall into a precise position parallel to the tracks. That was to make it easier to load the trunks onto the sleds to be hauled to the river. Failure to bring the trees down in the required position entailed much additional work. And quotas had to be met to receive full bread rations. Failure in that regard meant a cut in food rations, and insufficient food, and prolonged hunger led to swelling of the body. One Russian woman was able to treat herself with an herb concoction and appeared to be helped by this.

To supplement the food rations, Greta was able to earn some food by painting wall hangings for neighboring villagers. Little Jascha earned food by whittling toys like little roe deer and jumping hacks out of food scraps. He was also quite able to successfully beg for food and by such means the family was able to stretch the meager food rations dealt out by the authorities.

Greta had memorized the old address of her husband Jasch, who had been sent to Karaganda in Kazakhstan a decade earlier. She wrote to him on the chance that her letter might possibly reach him. Because it was recognized by an old acquaintance of asch in Karaganda, the letter was actually delivered into his hands.

In Karaganda, Jasch arranged for his family to come and join him. He had completed his ten-year sentence. In his reply, he also sent money for Greta and the three children to travel to Karaganda. But, when the letter with the money reached Kostroma, Greta had passed away and was buried under the evergreens in the northern forest. 

Although the letter reached Liesel and her younger sister and brother, the money had to be claimed at the distant post office in Kostroma. Young Jasch had to make his way to the post office on foot. But, the postmaster warned him that he was liable to be robbed or even killed on the way home. So, he helped Jascha to hide the money in his socks and shoes. The postmaster also provided him with some potato sacks, apparently to disguise his mission and to enable him to reach home safely without drawing attention to himself.

Liesel, Gretel and young Jacha were unable to make the necessary arrangements for their departure from Kostroma immediately, and some of the money had to be used for living expenses. Actually, their father Jasch had wanted to come to Kostrom to get them, but that could not be arranged.

To get the necessary travel arrangements, Liesel had to go to the Kommandatura for an appointment with the Komandant. This was a very fine man, who said that it was proper for children to be with their father. He gave them a sealed envelope to give to the officer in charge at the railroad station and also issued a worker’s bread ration card for each one of them. They did not  receive train tickets but were permitted to get any available train to Karaganda. There was a flat car in such a train with a truck on it.  So Liesel, Gretel and Jascha climbed onto that flat car and found shelter under the truck. They had traveled some distance toward Karaganda when their train came to a stop and did not proceed again. For many days, they were stranded at that railroad station until they finally found another train that was headed for Karaganda. Similar travel interruptions occurred repeatedly. Jascha had a nice jacket, still from Germany. On one of these travel interruptions, he went in search of bread, offering his jacket in trade to one of the local residents. The man gave him a loaf of bread and when Jascha left, this man pursued him. Jascha ran for his life but was overtaken. His pursuer only wanted to tell him that he also had some milk coming in return for the jacket!

It took them two months to reach their destination. When they at last reached Karaganda, there was a worker’s train going from this station to the locality where their father lived. The fare on this train was one ruble per passenger, but the three of them together had only one ruble left.They were permitted to board but required to remain at the entrance. They were not permitted to occupy any seats. This trip lasted about two hours. Their father had given them precise instructions just how to find him upon their arrival in Karaganda, so when they reached their destination they asked a man about their father. Oh yes, he said, Jasch had already spoken of their coming. Jasch was living in a working man’s dormitory. On reaching this new arrivals walked down a long hall to the last room. It was a Sunday morning and everyone had the day off. The door of the room was open, and the men were lounging on their cots and visiting. Just before reaching the room, Liesel heard her father’s voice, clearly recognizing it after more than a decade of separation. Then came their wonderful reunion. “Now there they are!”, their father shouted. They all cried tears of joy over being together again.

Jasch lived in this dormitory room with five other men. In one corner of the room was a built-in brick heating unit topped with a large flat surface area close to the ceiling. This was a cozy warm place where Jasch arranged for Liesel, Gretal and Jascha to sleep. They lived there for a couple of weeks with their father and his roommates until Jasch was able to find better accommodations for himself and his family.

But this restored life as a family was not to last. The children lived with their father for only ten months until a man placed an accusation against Jasch. This charge of wrongdoing resulted in his incarceration. Asch was a skilled technician and was able to solve mechanical problems. In Karanda, there was quite a collection of American trucks standing useless because of engine problems. Fashioning exact molds, Jasch was able to cast new pistons and to repair these trucks. Was it jealousy on the part of one of his co-workers that led this man to lodge the accusation against Jasch? That appeared to have been the case. Before his trial, which occurred about a year later, Jasch was imprisoned in Karaganda where Liesel could at least visit him at times and bring him food and get the help of his counsel. There was never enough food for the prisoners in the prison.

Under the Soviet system, it was not the obligation of the court to prove a person’s guilt. It was the responsibility of the accused to prove his innocence, even to the extent that he did not harbor forbidden thoughts. Because such defense is actually impossible to produce, guilty verdicts are virtual certainties. When the court had finally ruled, Jasch was again sentenced to years of labor. This time, he was sent to Moscow. The distance separating him from his family was as great as it had been before his children left Kostroma to find him.

Liesel worked as a chore woman or cleaning lady and tended furnaces during her father’s imprisonment in Karaganda. But she wanted to improve her status by going to school and learning a trade. Her supervisors did not want to let her go, but since she was still young, the rules of employment were such that she was able to leave her job and to learn the skills of a seamstress at the sewing factory in karaganda.

Gretel’s health was not robust and continued to decline. She passed away in her teens as a result of tuberculosis.

Jascha, mechanically gifted like his father, also learned a trade.

Eventually, Liesel met Adolf Breivogel in the Baptist Church they both attended and later married. Her personal life became less traumatic and the Breivogels raised a large family.

Jascha too grew up and married Irma Reisen. They also raised their family in Karaganda.

It was in Karaganda where Lucile and I first met these relatives in the month of July, 1989. Now, thanks to greater freedom of movement in what was once the U.S.S.R. and thanks to the generosity of Germany, they are all residents of Germany, the land of their forebears.

The six children of my sister Greta:

Artur (Arthur)-killed in WWII, New Years Eve, 1944

Kolja (Nikolai)-died age 16 WWII

Wally (Walter)-living in Winnipeg, Canada with his family

Liesel-living in Espelkamp, Germany with her family

Gretel-died of TB in her teens

Jascha (Jakob)-living in Ebsdorfergrund, Germany with his family

Arthur G. Rempel

Walla Walla, Washington

July 1996