Sister letters 1931

16 March, 1931

Dear family members, Dietrich, Lina, Artur and nephew Pau!

Out Artur suddenly became very ill on Sunday afternoon, had a very high fever (39.9 C) and complained about neck pains. I was frightened and immediately thought of diphtheria. Therefore, I went quickly to brother-in-law Peter Loewen and asked him to get the physician. Jasch was not home at this time. The physician had driven away but the medical assistant came. She then confirmed that it was diphtheria and immediately gave him an injection. Luckily, she had brought along the most essential items. I immediately took him into another room where the other children did not enter. He was very sick. We had a hard night, he and I, but the dear God helped. To him be praised and thanked. Around 4 o’clock, he became calm and fell asleep. In the morning, when I had completed the work in the stable and came in, he called me into his room and looked at me so bright and happy and said, “Mama, I no longer hurt”. And so it remained. The next day, he was already able to get up and play. Only he was not permitted to be together with the others. For a whole week, he had to be isolated from the others. For now, the others are still well and hopefully will remain so.  They all had just recovered from chicken pox, from which they had not been very sick and were up almost all of that time. First Artur and Kolja got them and two weeks later, Wally and Liesel. Sometimes it was hard to handle the household and take care of all the sick children alone, but we do have One from whom we can always receive strength again. That is so good.

My Jasch, you see, was mobilized to Halbstadt to recondition the dynamos at the electric power station, and also the magnetos for the tractors at the tractor station there. He has already been working there since the first of February. Every two weeks, he comes home for two or three days. Since the food in the commissary is very expensive, he takes along a trunk full of baked goods every time he leaves home.  There he then always brews himself some “prips” (roasted barley beverage) for breakfast and supper, and only takes lunch at the dining hall. There he receives quite a good salary. I believe he will soon be done with his work and then he will return home.

Now we very often think of moving away from here, but so far, we do not know where to go. If we stay here, then I shall have to go to do cooperative work on a daily schedule throughout the spring and summer. Eating is done in a common kitchen. As no one remains with the children, they must all be promptly brought to the child care center. In the evening, one must go to fetch them again. Well, God can make it so that things go as is wholesome.

Here, it is still not at all warm. Often it frosts, and it still snows. Yesterday it again snowed very hard, but today it was quite warm and there is no trace of snow. The starlings are back so it will have to get warmer soon. You write that you have already sown vegetables. What a wonderfully beautiful land California must be! And in the pictures, although they were taken at Christmas, the trees are in full foliage. And Artur, you tender little boy, what a big and strong man you have become! To me you so much resemble our dear mama in this picture. 

When you receive this letter, hopefully you, dear sister, will be up and well, and I wish you God’s help for the difficult hour before you. I will also ask it of Him, and will think of you a great deal. I am overjoyed with you with all my heart. Please write to us right away when you are again able. How tempting that little chest of oranges. But here one must pay so much for a package posted from abroad, that it is often impossible to pick it up. Best of all, we would like to eat them with you in your own garden. Here it will still not be better. On the contrary, alas. One really cannot write anything because then one must always be afraid that the letter will not arrive. For the time being, we are provided with what is most needed for a while, and thank God we still have a roof over our heads, but how many do not have it! Uncle Abram Klassen was sent to the north for five years. He is almost blind (cataract) and he was ill from the long interrogation in a cold, unheated cell on rotten straw. We pray for him and Aunty. We are glad that you are praying for us. Yes, keep doing it, we need it so much. Above all, ask that our faith may not suffer shipwreck, for many are ready to doubt God’s existence, and so despair. But he lives and will surely help.

Arthur, our Artur said recently, “Mama, I want to become a naturalist, I can already draw so many animals free hand”, and Kolja once said he wanted to become a poet and Wally a clockmaker.

Gnadenfeld, 24 May, 1931

Fervently beloved Family members and Children!

The day before yesterday, we received your longed-for letter with a joyful report of the birth of your son. Dear Lina, I was so happy to recognize your handwriting on the envelope, because that was a sign to me that you had already recovered so far as to be able to write. Hopefully, you will be fully recovered and feel well when you read this letter, and hopefully the little Rudi Heinz is as good as in the first two weeks and lets you sleep at night. Whom does he resemble, mama or papa? You write that he is very long. Will probably become a Rempel, but it appears to me that your Dietrich is also not one of the short ones. So gladly, I would like to have a good look at him. This little card with the baby here is quite hearty and pleases us very much.Our children are taking it as a photograph of the little one. Liesel ran to Brauns with it and said, “See Miche, little Rudi Heinz is here in the picture.” As soon as possible, send me an actual little picture of him, yes?

Now I long for you especially, dear sister. Yes, then I also had to think so much about our dear Mama, and I often regret not having shown her much more love and gratitude. I wish that I also may become such a mother as she was. 

Here, it is very sad. Many are without bread, and still one always is not given enough. Today, again 400 pood are to be required for Gnadenfeld. That comes to two pood for us, and just think, that is hard for us, for then we retain, so to speak, nothing. Until now, we have not gone hungry. The potatoes are all used up, but we still have a little flour and the cow gives milk very well. The chickens are laying eggs. Nevertheless, 700 liters a year must be delivered from the cow, that is, only the cream stays here. But the butter we very much miss in the household. So far, we have not bought a piglet because there is no feed and they are also frightfully expensive. Because of the feed shortage, one cannot raise many chicks.

Jasch went to the general village assembly where there was to be a consultation over dealing with the levy. To fail to deliver because so little exists, such an excuse will not do.It has to be even if it is the flour one has. Yesterday we sowed melons. We had a very late spring. The snowing and freezing did not want to stop and yet the fuel was so scarce. Our neighbors, the Brauns, had it so cold that the water in the room froze solid. Yesterday and today were the first days when it was properly warm. It has already rained here. All the vegetables have already sprouted and next week hoeing begins. This week, I will probably not get to that. Tomorrow, I want to do a big wash and, by Pentecost, I want to have our vegetable and fruit garden clean. Here there will be little fruit this year. Just at the blossoming time it rained a great deal.

Jasch is now home again. He is repairing the harvest machines. In Halbstadt, he earned 125 rubles per month and we are glad that we have this money. Then, we at least have something to pay when it is required. Many people must pay very much but they do not have anything. For them it goes badly. 

Our children are all healthy and active. Artur, Kolja and Wally attend the kindergarten. Liesel is our little sunshine, a dear and sweet little girl. She already speaks very clearly.

Lina, you are the only one who is still writing, but probably I’m the one to blame for their not writing any more, since I so seldom manage to write and have not answered their last letters. Uncle Heinrich received a letter from Paula and Lidia Dirks in Java. Among other things, they write that a young man, whose parents are still in Russia, has been there, and that he was a close friend of Dietz and still exchanges letters with him! They did not give his name. Who might he have been? He had been at a hospital there on account of his teeth. Our cousins are doing well there. They are very busy. Paula was once ready to start teaching, but now, she is continuing her education. She sent nine pictures of herself. 

Uncle Heinrich, Aunt Marichen, Uncle Hermann, Uncle Hans and Aunt Varja all send their greetings. Many acquaintances ask about you and also send their greetings, among them Sara, Annche, Heinrich and Mika Rempel. Sara is very busy with her own two and three other children they have taken into their home. Annchen is still engaged. In the next few days, Mika will probably depart for Baku to be with Hans and the Brauns.

I assume that you, dear sister, will be the first to read this letter, and for that reason I left the rest of this just for you only. PoorLinchen, you also had to suffer so much. As consolation I can tell you that Maria has had very easy births, as Aunt Marichen says. That the two of us cannot say, isn’t that true? With Artur, I had it very hard. The clamps too were ready, but thank God, they were not needed. But I was badly torn. For six nights they had to watch over me. The next time, I also tore, but not as much, and no stitches were necessary. Now I am still free, but  I have a very weak body. The muscles were torn apart from under the ribs all the way down, and only the thin skin holds the body together. Now I always wear a protective wrap. Just think, except for Liesel, each child had the cord wound around the neck. In Artur’s case, twice! He didn’t want to breathe and was quite blue.

31 May. This letter has lain around for a whole week. I never had time to make an envelope. Today is the first day of Pentecost. This morning was the baptismal ceremony. This week, I pretty well caught up with everything that I wanted to get done. I was very tired, and this afternoon I have really slept. The cow is coming into the yard. I must go for milk.

A postcard stamped on 29 June, 1931

My dear family members. Today, I heard that the postage price has been doubled for some time now. I had sent the letter with the usual postage, so it could be that you may not receive it. Until now, we have not had to starve, but there is only enough flour for two loaves of bread.Many, many are going very hungry. Consignments of produce arrive quite frequently. The lowest duty is on rice and flour. Otherwise, it is too expensive. It will not cost you much, please send us a little rice and flour. It pains me to beg from you, but it would help us very, very much and when we can we will repay you. Thank you in advance, and please do not despise me for this, no?

A postcard dated 1 October, 1931

Beloved Family Members: Today we received your promised consignment. Heartfelt thanks for it! It contained 1.5 kg of rice and 3 kg of oatmeal. I immediately cooked some oatmeal with milk for supper. It tasted so good. Again a big thank you for it! Please forgive that we have not written for so long. First, we were always waiting. The consignment was to arrive first. Later, there truly was no time. Both on Sunday and on weekdays there is never time to do more than the essential for ourselves. Since more than a month ago, I have had to go to work every day. We have completed only one half of the threshing. It has been very bad threshing weather  and much of the grain has been rain-damaged and has sprouted. We women have been threshing sunflowers for six weeks and still it is hardly half done. Then there is still a great deal of maize to break and husk that we women are to do. Winter is facing us. Enough, we are getting along fine? Well, God still lives and knows what is best for us. We are in need.

18 October, 1931

Dear dear Family members!

Accept our greatest and most heartfelt thanks for the package of meal and rice and also for the money! After receiving the package, I wrote you a card. Hopefully you have received it. A few days ago, we also received the 40 rubles and your dear letter. May the dear God repay you for what you have done for us. Yesterday, we also received a card from Berlin; Charlottenburg, indicating that two packages of provisions will be sent to us on the ninth of October. Thus we have the hope of receiving them soon. The sender was not named although I suppose that it is you again. It simply shames us that we permit you to give us so much. But it helps us very much. The first package was used up right away. For the money we also are very thankful, as in the cooperative there is not a kopek to be had. But what we need here most desperately is flour and cooking oil, yardage and shoes one cannot buy here. Everything is to be distributed in proportion to the work rendered. But since March, each has received only one pair of shoes and one half of a pound of soap. There is so little of everything that it amounts to nothing. Our three boys have no shoes for the winter and for now there are none in sight. Recently, 20 pairs of children’s shoes arrived at the cooperative. They are assigned only to students. Possibly, if we persist, at least Artur, who is a beginner this year, can get a pair through the school administration. Now all the children are wearing shoes knitted out of binder twine, but when it is wet and cold outdoors they are not at all usable. They also lack shirts and underwear and stockings. I had, in fact, bought some wool and wanted to spin and knit during the summer, but I was only able to find time to spin one and a half spools. There was always so much hoeing and housework that I never got to it and later I always had to go to work threshing sunflowers. Yesterday, we, the housewives, finished this work and now there is till the maize to break and to husk. Very, very much was sown and it will be a long time before it is all harvested. Then there will be beets and potatoes to dig. Enough, work without end. We housewives must now work for 12 hours a day, of which there is a noon break of one and one half hours. Then everyone rushes to the community kitchen to get her portion of bread, and then in double-quick march it is home, because during those one and one half hours, lunch has to be prepared. Some of the women who have no one at home to cook go to eat at the community kitchen. The men all eat at the community kitchen, but those who have children or old people at home must go and cook something for them. Then one wants quickly to prepare something and does not know what form. Essentially, no one has any grease, nor flour and although we had a good harvest, we just once received one and one half pood of four in August, which by now is long gone. Bread we receive is already baked, but one also needs flour for meal preparation. First the grain plan has to be fulfilled. We still have about one week to thresh. All the men and young girls are at the threshing establishment. All the other work is left for the housewives to do. 

We are all in good health, for which we are very thankful to God. Artur is attending school. He will be eight years old in April. This evening, I had a good look at his primer. They are now entirely different than before (just think, up to now I had no time to do that!). But one becomes very sad and one’s heart cramps together when one sees what our children, our dearest possessions, must learn. When we parents do not tell them over and over again about Jesus, then they will soon be without faith. Alas, may our dear God give us grace that our children not be ruined! We would not have sent him to school, but it is absolutely required. The children, who are still not in school, even the infants, are picked up in a wagon every morning and taken to the day-care center. (Fortunately until now, it is our own women who have been put in charge!). Then in the evening, the children are brought home again. For a while, I too was working there. In the evening, we get home after dark and see each other after the lamps are lit. The children are sleepy, the cow must be milked and the milk must be carried to the separator point. Then one has to make supper, eat, put the children to bed and then, often into the night, mend and wash, and cook for the next day whatever requires more than one and one half hours to cook, and whatever else is necessary. On Sunday, we have to work just as on other days. Otherwise we do not get any bread for that day. Now, we are still in our own house, which means very much to us, and for the time being we still have the cow and seven chickens and a few chicks. But the cows are soon to be brought together, and then only the one who has filled the milk requirement receives any. Our cow produced milk well so that we were able to fill out the requirement of 730 liters of whole milk as well as the 150 liters of skim milk up to the 7th of November. But many have young or poor cows and for them it is very difficult or even impossible and whoever does not fill out the requirement is punished, some for three years. Because cooking grease is so scarce, most people would like to keep the milk home and make butter, but for many that has long been impossible. We can make do when we carry away only the evening milk and not quite every evening. Now and then, I can make a little butter for meal making. But I have to be thrifty. We are usually without fat for a few days. We have now bought a two-month-old pig, but we are uncertain how we will feed it to maturity. We have to furnish 30 eggs for every hen we own. Then there are not many eggs left to eat. For a long time, we have not been able to buy any sugar, not since summer, and until then there was also very little each month, so that we were afraid to use any. It is the same with soap. It is only in exchange for eggs, 15 eggs for one and one-half pounds. More than that cannot be bought at one time. 

Well, my song of lamentation is much too long. For that matter, I doubt whether this letter will reach you, for I have probably written too much. It is really no joy to write a letter, because one is not to write about such things. But then the whole letter would be a lie, because we would not be able to give you a picture of our life here. 

A letter to Franz last July, I believe, in which we asked him, together with you other relatives, to try to get an entry permit from the government, he probably did not receive it. There I had also written too much. But that too would probably not have been possible. We had heard that some had been able to go there this way.

It is very hard at the day care center and I do not want to go back there. I would rather husk maize. The day care center was set up so that no woman would be prevented from working.

Jasch, too, always has it very hard. Sometimes he does not return for two days in succession, because the threshing is also done during the night. Because I and Liesel got an infectious mouth disease, we did not need to report. We were not permitted to go to the center for a while. The disease is not particularly troublesome. The mouth, the tongue and the gums hurt, and with the children the saliva keeps flowing. 

This week, I want to try to cook up some syrup, because the watermelons are close to rotting. We got only a few potatoes. We women were unable to do our housework. Sometimes even the sweeping is left undone. You can’t imagine, Lina, how uncomfortable it is to come home in the evening and everything is out of order and dirty. But now even half a day do we get off to do that work or to rest.

We are glad that you are praying for us, and, I believe, that we still are relatively well off, we owe to your intercession. Finally, I come to you with a big, big request. On the card from Berlin it states that it is now possible to also send clothing, shoes and soap. I know it is very shameless to still ask for more, as you have already done so much. Maybe we can still repay you later. Dear brother-in-law, you will really be wondering about our impudence, isn’t that true? But perhaps if Hermann and Franz could also help, you might be able to send us some shoes and underwear for the children, and a little dress for Liesel?

A postcard, 18 November, 1931

Dear Sister, Brother-in-law, and Nephew,

Hopefully, you received our letter and card. If not, then again accept our heart-felt thanks for the package that we received quite a long time ago. From Dietz, we also received two and so we feel quite rich. Unfortunately we cannot thank him since we do not have his address. Please send it to us if you know it, yes? Has he not married yet? 

For us, it still goes the same old way, or more correctly, worse. Still we are far from completing the work with the maize, beets and threshing. But fortunately it is not very cold yet, and there is still no snow. Nevertheless, many are freezing because they do not have enough fuel. I and Jasch have to report for work every day, even on Sunday, and everyone is already very tired. The children are then at the daycare center. There they get pretty good food. We all receive our daily bread, which, because of so much rain, however, is very moist and doughy. But we still do not have to go hungry, even though we are lacking in many things. So far, no cooking oil has been given out, although, hopefully, there will be some again. So far, we still have the cow and a few chickens, but probably not for much longer. Pray for us. We need it.