The Constructed Mennonite - History, Memory, and the Second World War
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My parents’ stories illustrated the multiple intersections and layering of scale inherent in telling stories about the past. As individuals, we participate in the history of our time on a small scale. Despite his remarkable flurry of experiences, my father participated in very little of what would be the story of Stalin, the Second World War, and postwar immigration to Canada. However, both my parents framed their stories in constant tension with what became the dominant Western narrative during the Cold War. Although they experienced famine, war, the Holocaust, and dislocation, they could not have known the places of these events in the later master narrative, and they could not avoid telling their stories in relation to that narrative. I finally had to stop engaging my mother in conversations about the treatment of Jews, the Nazi occupation, and Hitler because she believed my sense of the story was coloured by the Canadian history view. Her rejoinder was that “you had to be there.”
My father’s autobiography also recalls the tensions his stories created for a boy growing up in postwar suburban Canada. Although I do not recall his answer, I remember asking my father why he was not on parade when the few veterans in Steinbach marched to the cenotaph at the town’s main intersection on Remembrance Day. It took me some time to grasp that, though Remembrance Day honoured those who had served and died in the war, not all who had served and died were to be remembered in the same way. As I began to grasp the gravity of the Holocaust, I remember experiencing a moment of fear that there would be a knock on the door and that my father would be arrested for having committed an atrocity—a story that he had never told us.
Finally, the stories told here offer a remarkable commentary on the human spirit and resilience with which we deal with conflicting and compromising memories. Reflecting on what her sister has told her, the narrator in Marina Lewycka’s humorous but thought-provoking novel A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian acknowledges that “some things are better not known, for the knowledge of them can never be unknown.” Once I knew my father’s secrets, they could not become unknown. The novel’s humour comes from the second marriage of her elderly father to a much younger gold digger, but a subtheme of the novel is an earlier dark family secret. The narrator is astounded by her parents’ ability to go on with life despite difficult memories and a “terrible secret” and wonders how “they grow vegetables, and mend motor-bikes, and send us to school and worry about our exam results? But they did.”22 I sometimes thought my father would be unable to come to terms with his memories and suffer some kind of mental breakdown as a result. The opposite happened. Not only did he continue to fix motorbikes, but also he gradually told his stories less often and with less urgency. He was able to assemble his narrative—to fix his spoiled biography—in ways that allowed him to come to terms with his past.
Appendix: Family Trees
Glossary
Afrika Korps: the German Army in Africa
Alexsandrovka: a village in the concentrated German settlement area northeast of Slavgorod
Angerapp, Angerab, Ozyorsk: a city in the Russian federation, formerly East Prussia, entered as Johann Werner’s birthplace by the German Army
Annanyevka: one of the Pashnaya villages and the location of the selsoviet
artel: a collective farm where the peasants kept their own yards but pooled all their equipment, fields, and farm work
Pabiance, Pabianitz, Babianitz: a town just outside Litzmannstadt
Barnaul: a city along the Ob River in West Siberia
blitzmädchen: young women enlisted for various services in support of the German war effort. The name came from the lightning bolt patch worn by women who worked as radio operators.
brigadier: the highest management position in a collective farm
Cherno Dol: a Ukrainian village near the concentrated German settlement area northeast of Slavgorod
Choroschoje, Khoroshee: one of the Eighties Villages, also known as number eighty-seven
Chortitza, Khortitza: the first or Old Colony established by Mennonites at the junction of the Dnieper and Chortitza Rivers in Ukraine in 1789. One of the villages was also named Chortitza.
combinyor: a combine operator in the machine tractor station (MTS) system
dachas: the summer homes surrounding Moscow
desyatin: a unit of land area in tsarist times equal to 2.7 acres or 1.1 hectares
dummkopf: an idiot
Eighties Villages: a cluster of villages located about fifty kilometres southeast of the concentrated German settlement area northeast of Slavgorod
Ekaterinoslav: the tsarist-era province where the Old Colony was located
Esbit: a solid fuel made of hexamine invented in Germany in 1936 and used in military field stoves
Étain: a town in France west of Metz; site of a POW camp
EWZ Einwandererzentralstelle: the German organization that processed ethnic Germans for citizenship
Fabrikerwiese: a village in the Molotschna Colony
Fiseler Storch: a light reconnaissance and air ambulance airplane used by the German Army
gefreiter: German military rank equivalent to lance corporal
GPU (or OGPU): the state political directorate under the Soviet system responsible for security and the persecution of religious groups
Grodno: a city in Poland on the German–Russian frontier in 1941; misspelled by my father as Grodnau in some documents
Grigorevka, Grigorewka: one of the Pashnaya villages
Nekrasovo, Halbstadt: a village and the administrative centre of the concentrated German settlement area northeast of Slavgorod
herrenvolk: the master race, the superior Aryan race of Nazi ideology
jabos: the German nickname for Allied fighter–bombers
Kanzerovka: a Ukrainian town on the rail line near the Chortitza Colony
kaserne: a military compound or base
Kirchliche: the larger church grouping among Russian Mennonites; also referred to here as the Kirchengemeinde
Kitchkas: the former village of Einlage in the Chortitza Colony
Klyuchia : a Russian village not far from the Pashnaya villages in Siberia
kolkhoz: a collective farm
kulak: literally “fist.” The term referred to peasants deemed to be “exploiters,” who were banished or executed; the drive to eliminate kulaks was known as “dekulakization.”
Kulunda: the name of the steppe in the Slavgorod area of West Siberia; also the name of a town south of Slavgorod
Lebensraum: literally “living space.” It was Hitler’s grand scheme to create space for German expansion in Eastern Europe by conquest and resettlement.
Litzmannstadt, Łódź: a city in Poland that was the major centre for processing ethnic German migrants during the German occupation
Luftwaffe: the German Air Force
Mailly-le-Camp: a French village about 220 kilometres east of Paris and the site of a large POW camp
Markovka, Markow: one of the Pashnaya villages
mladshiy leytenant: a rank designation in the Red Army equivalent to a junior lieutenant
Molotschna: the name of the second colony established by Mennonites in 1803; also the name of the river along which the colony was established
Moskalenki, Moskalenka: a village east of Omsk along the Trans-Siberian Railway
MTS: machine tractor stations. The MTS was a second-level collective that provided mechanized services to the kolkhoz farms.
Nadarovka: a Mennonite village near Pavlodar in Siberia
nebelwerfer: a rocket launcher
Niederwampach: a village in Belgium near Bastogne
Nikolaipol, Nikol’skiy: a Mennonite village in the concentrated German settlement area northeast of the city of Slavgorod
NSKK: Nationalsozialistischeskraftfahrerkorps, a Nazi party organization devoted to training for and providing transport services
Oberwampach: a village in Belgium near Bastogne
ostarbeiter: forced labour taken from Eastern Europe by the Germans t
o work in German factories
Osterwick: a Mennonite village in the Chortitza Colony
OT: Organization Todt, devoted to supporting the military by constructing roads, bridges, and other infrastructure
panzer: tank or armoured military vehicle. Panzer divisions and armies were mechanized units of the German Army.
Panzerspeewagon: a light armoured vehicle
Pashnaya: a cluster of Mennonite villages located about 100 kilometres southeast of the concentrated German settlement northeast of Slavgorod
Perlovka: a train station and suburb of 1929 Moscow
Podsosnovo: a Lutheran village on the northern edge of the concentrated German settlement area northeast of the city of Slavgorod
politruk: a political commissar attached to Red Army units to assure adequate party vigilance and control over the military
polta: a traditional evening celebrating a couple’s engagement. Guests also brought gifts for the couple.
pud: a unit of weight during the tsarist era; 1 pud = 16.3 kilograms
RAD: Reichsarbeitsdienst, a German labour organization
Reichswald: a forested area on the west bank of the Rhine River north of the German city of Xanten
Reinfeld: a Mennonite village in the concentrated German settlement area northeast of Slavgorod
Rhinewiesenlager: large, open-air, fenced enclosures built by the U.S. Army in which the large numbers of captured and surrendering German soldiers were temporarily put. Conditions in these enclosures were very difficult.
RKFDV: Reichskommisariat fur die Festigung des Deutschen Volkstums, an organization devoted to preserving the German character and purity of ethnic Germans
samohonka: homemade, distilled liquor—moonshine
Schnee Eiffel: the Ardennes forest along the German–Belgian border
Schoenberg: a Mennonite village in the Chortitza Colony
Schwerpunkt Artillerie: the artillery units whose task was to fire on the point of attack, either while attacking or defending
selsoviet: the equivalent of a local government office under the Soviet system
Silberfeld, Serebropol: a Mennonite village in the cluster of villages known as the Eighties Villages
Skvortsovka, Skworzowo: a village south of the Trans-Siberian Railway near Petropavlovsk
SS: Schutz Staffel. Originally Hitler’s bodyguards, the SS became part of the German war machine with its own command structure and referred to as the Waffen SS.
Stakhanovite: a person who exceeded the norms set out by the state for work performance. Stakhanovites were rewarded by the state with honours and special privileges.
stellungsbefehl: a German military draft order
Taurida: the tsarist-era province where the Molotschna Colony was located
Torgsin: stores where foreigners and party officials could buy consumer goods otherwise not generally available provided they had access to hard currency
Totenkopf: a notorious SS division of the German military
TOZ: a collective farm where only the fieldwork was done together
tractorist: a tractor operator in the machine tractor station (MTS) system
trossraum: the rear area for a German military unit where supplies were assembled and repairs and other support operations were performed
trudanye: a labour day; a unit of work on a collective farm that formed the basis for compensation for its members
trudarmiya: a work army created by Stalin
verst: a tsarist-era unit of distance equal to 1.067 kilometres
vertrauensmänner: contact persons for the MCC who kept lists of refugees and acted as liaisons between refugees and the organization
Vlasov Army: a military unit made up of former Red Army soldiers who fought on the German side. They were led by General Andrei Vlasov, a former Red Army general.
volksliste: the Nazi list placing ethnic Germans into categories based on their suitability for membership in the master race
Volkssturm: an adhoc marshalling of young boys and old men to defend German cities against Allied invaders in the last months of the Second World War
VoMi: Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, an SS organization dedicated to integrating ethnic Germans into Nazi Germany
Wehrkreis: a military district used to recruit replacements for specific military units
Wehrmacht: the regular German Army
Wochenschau: a weekly propaganda reel shown in German theatres before the main feature
Zagradovka: one of the Mennonite colonies in Ukraine, located southwest of the city of Zaporozhye
Zlatopolye: a town between Kulunda and the Pashnaya villages in Siberia
Zugmaschine: a half-track used by the German Army to pull cannons
Notes
Introduction
1 David Thelen, “An Afterthought on Scale and History,” Journal of American History 77, 2 (1990): 592.
2 Susan Engel, Context Is Everything: The Nature of Memory (New York: Freeman, 1999), 157; Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (New York: Pantheon Books, 1997).
3 Endel Tulving, “Episodic Memory and Common Sense: How Far Apart?,” in Episodic Memory: New Directions in Research, ed. Alan Baddely, Martin Conway, and John Aggleton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 270.
4 Ulrich Neisser, “Memory with a Grain of Salt,” in Memory: An Anthology, ed. Harriet Harvey Wood and A.S. Byatt (London: Vintage, 2009), 88.
5 Engel, Context Is Everything, 83.
6 Jill Ker Conway, When Memory Speaks: Exploring the Art of Autobiography (Toronto: Random House, 1998), 177.
7 Tina Hinz, “Memoir,” (Paderborn: n.p., 1968). The memoir was subsequently transcribed, edited, and privately printed by the Hinz family. The original handwritten and printed versions form the basis of the following account. The page numbers are from the printed version.
Chapter 1: Beginnings
1 Serebropol in Russian.
2 Tina Hinz, “Memoir,” (Paderborn: n.p., 1968), 81; John Werner, interview tape 1, 22 March 1987.
3 Hans Mansson, “Childhood Stuttering: Incidence and Development,” Journal of Fluency Disorders 25, 1 (2000): 47–57.
4 Helmut Anger, Die Deutschen in Sibierien: Reise durch die deutschen Dörfer Westsibiriens (Berlin: Ost-Europa Verlag, 1930), 38–39. Average yields in the Kulunda Steppe were 4.0 bushels per acre in 1920, 5.0 in 1921 and 1922, 2.7 in 1923, and only 2.1 in 1924. Quoted in Manfred Klaube, Die Deutschen Dörfer in der Westsibirischen Kulunda-Steppe: Entwicklung, Strukturen, Probleme (Marburg: N.G. Elwert Verlag, 1991), 44. A letter from my grandmother in the 1930s suggested they had obtained eleven bushels per acre. Anna Janzen, letter fragment #7, n.d.
5 EWZ record card number 723 213, undated, Berlin Document Centre (hereafter BDC).
6 Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 128.
Chapter 2: Difficult Years
1 Manfred Klaube, Die Deutschen Dörfer in der Westsibirischen Kulunda-Steppe: Entwicklung, Strukturen, Probleme (Marburg: N.G. Elwert Verlag, 1991), 45.
2 In Low German, his nickname was Schacha Jaunse. Schacha is an expression that alludes to the game of chess. In this context, it refers to his dealing or trading.
3 Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives (hereafter MHC), Winnipeg, Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (hereafter CMBC), vol. 3393.
4 Letter to Aganetha dated 22 February 1927, OS (Old Style), from a collection kept by Aganetha’s son Willie Reimer and loaned to me by Maxine Fehr, his daughter. The reference to “Eighty-Six” is to the village of Silberfeld, where the Janzens lived.
5 Martha Zimbelman, Lebenslauf, personal communication, n.d. The account written by Martha suffers from numerous inaccuracies. She conflates the emigration of the Aaron Janzens (1925) and the attempted emigration of the Johan Froeses (1929). Hers is also the only account suggesting that Aaron might have consulted with his sister about taking Aganetha with them on the basis that they would soon follow.
6 Aganeth
a Reimer, obituary, Blumenort, MB.
7 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #8, 22 February 1927, OS.
8 Ibid.; Anna Janzen, letter fragment #5, n.d. The content of the letter points to its having been written in May, 1928.
9 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #5, n.d.
10 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #2, 20 February 1929, OS.
11 Harvey L. Dyck, “Collectivization, Depression, and Immigration, 1929–1930: A Chance Interplay,” in Empire and Nations: Essays in Honour of Frederic H. Soward, ed. Harvey L. Dyck and H. Peter Krosby (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 144–59; H.J. Wilms, comp., Vor den Toren Moskaus (Abbotsford, BC: Committee of the Mennonite Refugees from the Soviet Union, 1960).
12 John Werner, interview tape 6, Summer, 1988.
13 Frank H. Epp, Mennonite Exodus: The Rescue and Resettlement of the Russian Mennonites since the Communist Revolution (Altona, MB: Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council, 1962), 231.
14 Erwin Warkentin, “The Mennonites before Moscow: The Notes of Dr. Otto Auhagen,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 26 (2008): 205, 210.
15 Dyck, “Collectivization,” 147.
16 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #1, 19 December 1929, OS; Anna Janzen, letter fragment #2, 20 February 1929, OS.
17 Dyck, “Collectivization,” 149, 153.
18 Ibid., 149.
19 Ibid., 157–58.
20 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #1, 19 December 1929, OS. A verst is 1.067 kilometres.
21 Epp, Mennonite Exodus, 239.
22 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #1, 19 December 1929, OS.
23 Ibid.
24 John Werner, interview tape 1.
25 Anna Janzen, letter fragment #7, n.d.
26 Neil Sutherland, Childhood in English Canada from the Great War to the Age of Television (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 12.
Chapter 3: Ivan, Stalin’s Hope
1 Detlef Brandes and Andrej Savin, Die Siberien-deutschen im Sovietstaat, 1919–1938 (Essen: Klartext, 2001), 314–15, 319–20.