Mennonite German Soldiers from Paraguay

In January 2020 I received information from the German Federal Archives on the fate of my father's oldest brother, Jakob Fast, 1918-1944 -- a WW2 German soldier and Mennonite from Paraguay.

Jakob was among the first group of young men from Friesland, Paraguay who "returned" to Germany in May 1939. Their families had all arrived in Paraguay in 1930 via Germany and Moscow from the Soviet countryside. These young men were promised an apprenticeship in Germany with the hope their families might be able to follow.

Only a few months later the war started. There would be no return to Paraguay for 11 of the 28 Friesländer, including my uncle. The three little file cards from his record indicate that Jakob Fast, Jr. was first conscripted in Oldenburg in April 1942. Some of the 28 young men from Friesland had volunteered earlier. Fast's unit reached the Dnieper River in south Ukraine according to a letter an aunt received--the area their grandparents left in the 1890s in search for land (they were pioneers of the Neu Samara Settlement, where this uncle too was born in 1918).

Sometime after February 24, 1943, communication with family ceased. The materials received indicate he was still with his troop as late as September 1944. There is no record of his death, nor a record that he may have been taken to the USSR as a prisoner of war. While that is not improbable, he likely died before war’s end at about age 26. Jakob had been a "Kradmelder" or motorcycle dispatcher, typically tasked to relay information between the battalion and the command post. It was a dangerous role because opposing forces were always keen to break down communication.

How could this come about?

The Nazi German support and propaganda in Paraguay had been very effective before Jakob left for Europe. In 1938 the German External Affairs envoy H.C. Büsing was very pleased with the Nazi-friendly attitude in the colonies of Fernheim and in the new colony of Friesland, which my grandparents and their family helped establish. Here is a part of Büsing’s report:

“The inhabitants of the Mennonite settlement Friesland—established September 1937—… are undoubtedly closer to Germany than the two aforementioned settlements. … They know very well that this biological inheritance (Erbgut) alone—their love and capacity for work that is in their blood, their sense of order and discipline—will guarantee them economic success.

As a summary of the facts in this report, the following can be said: the Mennonites are of the most valuable German blood. … Their Nordic blood-- they probably originally stem mostly from Frisians and Lower Saxony-- which gave them unprecedented willpower, tenacity and perseverance on the journey of life, in the same way also made them stubbornly thickheaded (starke Dickköpfigkeit). … They are not intellectually untalented, however ... they are still a long way from the ideas of National Socialism and the Third Reich, however ... in all of the colonies apart from Menno, a love for things German and enthusiasm for the Third Reich is on display. … However, one senses an unmistakable caution when they happily confess their allegiance to the Third Reich. At the moment they only have Germany from whom they can expect help and support, and they are not foolish enough to forfeit that. It goes without saying, however, that you cannot leave such valuable German racial material unattended. Just as the young Mennonites in Asuncion are beginning to sense a strong feeling for today's Germany growing within them, it will not take long for this feeling to gradually assert itself in the younger generation in the settlements as well, aside from Menno for the time being. I have had the impression that the many presentations that I have made everywhere, have stimulated new thoughts, and that some of them have wished to free themselves from their intimate community and to grow into the greater German Volk-community. I have already mentioned that Colony Friesland has already come a long way on this path. Among the majority of other settlements, especially in Menno but probably in Fernheim as well, the older generation will hardly be open for anything new. --Büsing.” (Note 1)

There were also a few young women from the colony who returned to Germany in 1939. Justina Epp Goering recalled how arrangements were made by a former student of Unruh’s, Heinrich “Hayo” Schröder.

"Mr. Hayo Schröder, who arranged through the Reichsnährstand (Reich Food Production Agency) to bring us young people to Germany, also visited me at the farm. His smart SA uniform (Storm Detachment [paramiitary]) and slick speeches made me uncomfortable, especially at the first Christmas party [1939]. We were all homesick, and he let us be informed by a stylish Mennonite from Canada (Hayo Schroeder had also recruited young men from Canada and California, USA) that it was a solstice festival. Franz P. [Pankratz] stood up and said, 'For us it is the birth of Jesus and we're not changing that!' So the celebration ended without singing or music. Everyone received a copy of Adolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf." (Note 2)

Schröder was not a theologian, but argued that the deep religiosity of Mennonites was characteristic of “Frisians” generally, that in turn awakens concern for “blood purity” which alone can ensure the health, vitality and survival of clan and race (note 3). Schroeder was from a wealthy Molotschna family and he fled to Germany after the Russian revolution and became a teacher and fanatical Nazi. He published many columns on genealogy and on German “Frisians” in Canadian Mennonite publications throughout the 1930s. The Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Volkswarte afforded Schröder space for extensive explanations of Aryanism and its supporting pseudo-scientific racial theory—e.g., that racial/genetic purity is critical for the development of a people; that foreign blood is poison for a people; that the Nordic race is the determinant race for the German people; that "Frisians" are the most ancient Aryan branch; that God has given every race a mission in the place that they have dwelt for centuries; the importance of a politics of race and a racial state; the yearning for a Menno-state, praise of Hitler, and all of this peppered with explicit anti-Semitic statements (Note 4).

Schröder’s amplification of Nazi theory and its adaptation for Mennonites was encouraged in some Canadian circles, tolerated by his former teacher Benjamin Unruh in Germany, and for those struggling in Paraguay an acceptable quasi-scientific and historical consistent with other sources from Germany. His pitch to attract young Mennonites in Paraguay to return to Germany was compelling but hollow, fanatical and ultimately deadly, as was the case for young Jakob Fast, Jr.

–Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: H. C. Büsing, Excerpt from Report on Paraguayan Mennonite Colonies, June 20, 1938; Akten des Auslandsamt (Germany), Fernheim Archive, Paraguay, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_416/fernheim_archives/SKMBT_C35108043009400_0002. jpg; other pages: https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_416/fernheim_archives/.

Note 2: Justina Epp Goering, Eine Familiengeschichte und eigene Erlebnisse (Nanaimo, B.C.: Self published, 2001), 50. Dietrich Rempel, ";Studienfahrt' nach Deutschland," in Auf den Spuren der Väter: Eine Jubiläumsschrift der Kolonie Friesland in Ostparaguay, 1937-1987, ed. Gerhard Ratzlaff (Asuncion: Cromos, 1987), 167-169. Pics: memorial and Studienreise group pic pp. 170, 171.

Note 3: Heinrich Schröder, Ruβlanddeutsche Friesen (Döllstädt-Langensalza, 1936) 31, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/1936,%20Schroeder,%20Russlanddetusche%20Friesen/. For background, see Gerhard Rempel, “Heinrich Hajo Schroeder: The Allure of Race and Space in Hitler’s Empire,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 29 (2011) 227–254, https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/1416/1406; also John D. Thiesen, Mennonite and Nazi? Attitudes among Mennonite Colonists in Latin America, 1933-1945 (Kitchener, ON: Pandora, 1999), https://mla.bethelks.edu/temp/nazi%20book%20thiesen/.

Note 4: See Heinrich Schröder, “Was heißt völkisch?,” Mennonitische Volkswarte 2, no. 8 (August 1936), 252-256, https://chortitza.org/pdf/vpetk379.pdf; no. 9 (September 1936) 279-282, https://chortitza.org/pdf/vpetk380.pdf.

Comments

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

Why study and write about Russian Mennonite history?

David G. Rempel’s credentials as an historian of the Russian Mennonite story are impeccable—he was a mentor to James Urry in the 1980s, for example, which says it all. In 1974 Rempel wrote an article on Mennonite historical work for an issue of the Mennonite Quarterly Review commemorating the arrival of Russian Mennonites to North America 100 years earlier ( note 1). In one section of the essay Rempel reflected on Mennonites’ general “lack of interest in their history,” and why they were so “exceedingly slow” in reflecting on their historic development in Russia with so little scholarly rigour. Rempel noted that he was not alone in this observation; some prominent Mennonites of his generation who had noted the same pointed an “extreme spirit of individualism” among Mennonites in Russia; the absence of Mennonite “authoritative voices,” both in and outside the church; the “relative indifference” of Mennonites to the past; “intellectual laziness” among many who do not wish to be distu...

Mennonite Literacy in Polish-Prussia

At a Mennonite wedding in Deutsch Kazun in 1833 (pic), neither groom nor bride nor the witnesses could sign the wedding register. A Görtz, a Janzen, a Schröder—born a Görtzen – illiterate. “This act was read to the married couple and witnesses, but not signed because they were unable to write.” Similarly, with the certification of a Mennonite death in Culm (Chelmo), West Prussia, 1813-14: “This document was read and it was signed by us because the witnesses were illiterate.” Spouse and children were unable to read or write. Names like Gerz, Plenert, Kliewer, Kasper, Buller and others. 14 families of the 25 Mennonite deaths registered --or 56%--could not sign the paperwork ( note 1 ; pic ). This appears to be an anomaly. We know some pioneers to Russia were well educated. The letters of the land-scout to Russia, Johann Bartsch to his wife back home (1786-87) are eloquent, beautifully written and indicate a high level of literacy ( note 2 ). Even Klaas Reimer (b. 1770), the founder t...

"Between Monarchs" a lot can happen (like revolt). A Mennonite "Accession" Prayer for the Monarch

It is surprising for many to learn that Russian Mennonites sang the Russian national anthem "God save the Tsar" in special worship services ... frequently! We have a "Mennonite prayer" and sermon sample for the accession of the monarch ( Thronbesteigung ) or its anniversary, with closing prayer-- and another Mennonite sampler of a coronation ( Krönung ) prayer, sermon and closing prayer ( note 1 ). After 70 years with one monarch, the manual is made for a time like this--try sharing it with your Canadian Mennonite pastor ;) Technically there is no “between” monarchs: “The Queen is Dead. Long live the King!” But there is much that happens or can happen before the coronation of the new monarch. Including revolt. Mennonites in Molotschna had hosted Tsar Alexander I shortly before his death in 1825. Upon his death in December, Alexander's brother and heir Constantine declined succession, and prior to the coronation of the next brother Nicholas, some 3,000 rebel (mos...

The Tinkelstein Family of Chortitza-Rosenthal (Ukraine)

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha...

Four-Part Singing in Mennonite Schools and Church in Russia

The significance of singing instruction may seem trite, but it became a key vehicle in the Mennonite school curriculum for fostering a basic appreciation of the arts and for faith formation. In Johann Cornies’ circulated guidelines for teachers, singing was recommended as a means “to stimulate and enliven pious feelings” in the children—a guideline he copied directly from a German Catholic pedagogue and circulated freely under his own name ( note 1 ). On January 26, 1846 Cornies distributed a curriculum regulation to all schools that mandated “singing by numbers ( Zahlen ) from the church hymnal” ( note 2 ). Attention to singing instruction in the schools precipitated significant and controversial changes in Mennonite liturgy. An 1854 visiting observer to the Bergthal Colony—a Chortitza daughter colony outside of Cornies’ purview—wrote: “Endlessly long hymns from the Gesangbuch (hymnal) were begun by the Vorsänger (song leader) of the congregation, and sung with so many flo...

Russia: A Refuge for all True Christians Living in the Last Days

If only it were so. It was not only a fringe group of Russian Mennonites who believed that they were living the Last Days. This view was widely shared--though rejected by the minority conservative Kleine Gemeinde. In 1820 upon the recommendation of Rudnerweide (Frisian) Elder Franz Görz, the progressive and influential Mennonite leader Johann Cornies asked the Mennonite Tobias Voth (b. 1791) of Graudenz, Prussia to come and lead his Agricultural Association’s private high school in Ohrloff, in the Russian Mennonite colony of Molotschna. Voth understood this as nothing less than a divine call upon his life ( note 1; pic 3 ). In Ohrloff Voth grew not only a secondary school, but also a community lending library, book clubs, as well as mission prayer meetings, and Bible study evenings. Voth was the son of a Mennonite minister and his wife was raised Lutheran ( note 2 ). For some years, Voth had been strongly influenced by the warm, Pietist devotional fiction writings of Johann Heinrich Ju...

Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor), 1932-1933

In 2008 the Canadian Parliament passed an act declaring the fourth Saturday in November as “Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (‘Holodomor’) Memorial Day” ( note 1 ). Southern Ukraine was arguably the worst affected region of the famine of 1932–33, where 30,000 to 40,000 Mennonites lived ( note 2 ). The number of famine-related deaths in Ukraine during this period are conservatively estimated at 3.5 million ( note 3 ). In the early 1930s Stalin feared growing “Ukrainian nationalism” and the possibility of “losing Ukraine” ( note 4 ). He was also suspicious of ethnic Poles and Germans—like Mennonites—in Ukraine, convinced of the “existence of an organized counter-revolutionary insurgent underground” in support of Ukrainian national independence ( note 5 ). Ukraine was targeted with a “lengthy schooling” designed to ruthlessly break the threat of Ukrainian nationalism and resistance, and this included Ukraine’s Mennonites (viewed simply as “Germans”). Various causes combined to bring on w...

Eduard Wüst: A “Second Menno”?

Arguably the most significant outside religious influence on Mennonite s in the 19th century was the revivalist preaching of Eduard Wüst, a university-trained Württemberg Pietist minister installed by the separatist Evangelical Brethren Church in New Russia in 1843 ( note 1 ). With the end-time prophesies of a previous generation of Pietists (and many Mennonites) coming to naught, Wüst introduced Germans in this area of New Russia to the “New Pietism” and its more individualistic, emotional conversion experience and sermons on the free grace of God centred on the cross of Christ ( note 2 ). Wüst’s 1851 Christmas sermon series give a good picture of what was changing ( note 3 ). His core agenda was to dispel gloom (which maybe could describe more traditional Mennonites) and induce Christian joy. This is the root impulse of the Mennonite Brethren beginnings years later in 1860. “Satan is not entitled to present his own as the most joyful.” His people “sing, jump, leap ( hüpfen ) ...

1871: "Mennonite Tough Luck"

In 1868, a delegation of Prussian Mennonite elders met with Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Berlin. The topic was universal conscription--now also for Mennonites. They were informed that “what has happened here is coming soon to Russia as well” ( note 1 ). In Berlin the secret was already out. Three years later this political cartoon appeared in a satirical Berlin newspaper. It captures the predicament of Russian Mennonites (some enticed in recent decades from Prussia), with the announcement of a new policy of compulsory, universal military service. “‘Out of the frying pan and into the fire—or: Mennonite tough luck.’ The Mennonites, who immigrated to Russia in order to avoid becoming soldiers in Prussia, are now subject to newly introduced compulsory military service.” ( Note 2 ) The man caught in between looks more like a Prussian than Russian Mennonite—but that’s beside the point. With the “Great Reforms” of the 1860s (including emancipation of serfs) the fundamentals were c...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog