Skip to main content

German Christmas with Moscow Refugees, 1929

In the last century, tens of thousands of Mennonites were homeless, stateless refugees at the mercy and generosity of others. In Fall 1929, as many as 10 to 13,000 Soviet Mennonites left all behind to flee to Moscow in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to escape the USSR.

The German government played the crucial role in a high stakes, international confrontation with Stalin in those months. They successfully extracted 3,885 Mennonite, 1,260 Lutheran, 468 Catholic, 51 Baptist and 7 Adventist "German farmers" in November and December 1929, and served as a transit nation and assisted refugees not accepted by Canada to settle in South America.

The experience of Christmas 1929 was a stark contrast to Christmas (1928), which had been a nightmare for Mennonites:

“The conditions which existed in Russia at that time had the effect of practically destroying all the traditional joys of Christmas for our children,” for whom “all public participation in the celebration of Christmas was strictly forbidden.” The “usual Christmas Eve celebration with the children had to be eliminated.” Christmas celebrations “were not directly forbidden if held within the family circle in private,” yet special candles and Christmas trees “to brighten the home,” could not be bought. Instead, “we took decorative shrubs with home-made candles of tallow … [and] in this way we managed to enjoy Christmas within the close family circle.” (Note 1)

In October and November 1929, these refugees had spent cold weeks in largely unheated cottages outside of Moscow, hoping they might make it to Canadian relatives by Christmas.

Fewer than half were permitted to leave however, but by mid-December some 3,200 persons were safe and well-housed in Germany at the Hammerstein refugee camp, and another 1,350 persons were at the Mölln camp. Canada was wavering, but that did not diminish the joy of those who had escaped.

One couple wrote a letter on December 12 to the Rundschau: “Germany has taken us in and provides us with food, clothing and gives us a warm room with beds, mattresses, pillows and blankets. Oh, Germany does so much for us. They met us with love. It is impossible to describe. ... They are happy that they can have us here for Christmas. Oh, we have it so good here” (note 2).

A large Christmas celebration was planned later in the Christmas week:

“We passed the Christmas holidays in quiet meditation without either candlelight or outward glitter. However, preparations were made for a big performance to take place on [December 30, 1929], which would include a celebration of Christmas. For this purpose a large hall with an altar and pulpit was used. It could seat three thousand people. All along the hall the sponsors of this festival had arranged ten rows of tables with benches. On every table they had placed twenty little Christmas trees, which were equally distant from each other, so that the appearance was one row of trees wherever one looked. In front of the altar and the pulpit stood two huge decorated Christmas trees, lit with electric light bulbs. Everyone had a number, which corresponded to numbers on the filled plates on the tables. Everything was arranged according to the camp houses in which people lived, so that everyone present could easily find his place at any particular table.

The Christmas program included, first, an address by a Catholic priest, which was chiefly directed against the Red Terror of the existing Communist regime in Russia. This was followed by a Christmas message delivered by a Lutheran pastor. The final speech was given by a Mennonite refugee preacher. Various choirs, taking their turns, added to the Christmas spirit by rendering a number of Christmas songs, while the entire refugee assembly sang several appropriate choral hymns. It was truly a typical German Christmas celebration, which everyone enjoyed with grateful hearts.” (Note 3)

This is how the German press covered the event (see pic; note 4):

--

“Christmas with the German Russians in Mölln”

"A hall of the non-commissioned officers' preparatory school near the Mölln camp was decorated for a Christmas party gathering, including high trimmed fir (Tannen) trees, gift tables, long benches, and a podium with a lectern. The Russian refugees celebrate their Christmas here on New Year's Eve and have taken their places. On the one side the men and on the other women, and then also the children. Only the little ones are with their mothers. It is a unique people from a foreign country. Most of the faces are marked with a Slavic type, though they are not purely Slavic. And this is no wonder. One and a half centuries of Russia have had an impact. The clothing is old-fashioned, but scrupulously clean.

The boys’ hair is cut very close, and the little girls’ hair is also closely cropped and short (Bubenkopf). Older girls and women wear their hair long, parted in the middle and combed over the temples. Shawls, long skirts, sometimes colourful, flowery blouses. Older men wore frockcoats. Earnest faces, silence even among the children. Only now and then one of the very small ones coughs or screams in the mother's arms.

The greatest thing is the choir. This is how I hear it: these basses, the full basses, in which the soul of the vast Russian steppe lives, of Mother Volga and the endless forests, of the lonely fur hunters, coal burners and tar boilers. But from alto and soprano the bells of the onion domes ring and sound like contractions in birch crowns, and from the harmony then the indescribable longing of Tchaikovsky's preludes emerge.

These German Russians are all Mennonites. Deep religiousness lives in their songs. Men, women and girls from Turkestan, Crimea and Caucasus gathered here and sing as if they had been singing together since childhood. It is the religious factor, the common faith that enables this. Inexpressible devotion is on their faces, and unmistakably an expression of strong internalization emerges. The singing is utterly haunting, like when a serious question is asked. There is much more to it than the undisputed beauty of the tone, the novelty of the strange sound and the knowledge of the rarity of such a performance.

Six, seven children step up to the podium. Sometimes boys and girls together. They recite poems with separate roles. Sometimes they illustrate the content of the poems. For example, a girl mends a garment. As she speaks, she bites off the sewing thread. Can one call such a thing art, although it is completely natural? Perhaps precisely because of that. But to the little ones, of course, it is only a representation and should be nothing more than that.

Then there is the children's choir, which sings Christmas carols. Some of the lyrics are a little different from ours. Among these children are some who are not yet a metre tall, but who already sing along with all the verses. You smile, but they continue to sing unperturbed. The dialect of the men's and women's choirs is much purer, while the littler are sometimes hard to understand. It resembles a very, very flat East Prussian.

The Mennonites choose their preachers from among themselves. They are all lay ministers. The final word was spoken by one who had also been in Russia, but had returned earlier and had now found his brothers again here in the camp [B. H. Unruh]. He spoke on the Apostle Paul's word, "I want to forget!" --So he said, "Forget what you once possessed, what you once hoped and planned. Forget also what evil men did to you. You must forget, forget! So that you become free for the present and the future. If you cannot forget, you are lost!"-in this way he implored his brethren. From his words spoke an irrepressible persuasiveness that gripped even the bystanders. The lights at the lectern had almost burned down. On the whitewashed wall fell the shadow of the man who knew the plight of his brethren and cried out to them again and again, as if out of inner distress: "You must forget!”

The distribution of the Christmas gifts began and then the hall emptied. We became acquainted with a people that had put peace on its ‘banner of faith’ and experienced peacelessness on this account. In order to endure the immediate misery of their existence, this people must with closed eyes attempt to struggle through the distress of their souls."

Another newspaper wrote: "These farmers wander on this earth with their heart, while we [in the German Reich] live from our intellect. If you imagine yourself fully into their situation, you cannot shake the impression that these so-called 'primitive' people really live, while we just function. Why did they leave their homes and farms behind? For the sake of faith alone" (note 5).

                        -- Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Henry J. Willms, ed., At the Gates of Moscow. God’s gracious aid through a most difficult and trying period. Committee of Mennonite Refugees from the Soviet Union, translated by George G. Thielman (Yarrow, BC: Columbia, 1964), 27, https://archive.org/details/at-the-gates-of-moscow-ocr/.

Note 2: Letter , Heinrich and Maria Pettker, Dec. 12, 1929, Mennonitische Rundschau 53, no. 3, (January 15, 1930), 13, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1930-01-15_53_3/page/n12/mode/1up.

Note 3: Willms, ed., At the Gates of Moscow, 107f.; cf. also p. 118. See other posts on the flight to and escape from Moscow (coming soon). Benjamin H. Unruh played a pivotal role in this refugee and resettlement story; see: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “Benjamin Unruh, Nazism, and MCC,” Mennonite Quarterly Review 96, no. 2 (April 2022),157-205, esp.164-171, https://digitalcollections.tyndale.ca/bitstream/handle/20.500.12730/1571/Neufeldt-Fast_Arnold_2022a.pdf. For a copy of a lengthy poem recited by a German nurse at the Christmas program, see Mennonitische Rundschau 55, no. 51 (December 21, 1932), 7, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1932-12-21_55_51/page/6/mode/2up?q=prenzlau.   

Note 4 (and pic): “Weihnachten bei den Deutschrussen in Mölln,” Hamburger Anzeiger, January 2, 1930. Reprinted in the Mennonitische Rundschau 53, no. 52 (December 31, 1930), 16, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1930-12-31_53_52/page/n15/mode/2up?q=m%C3%B6lln.

Note 5: Cited in the Rundschau (above, note 4).

Photo outside Hammerstein Camp, 1929: https://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/obraz/1151/. 





Print Friendly and PDF
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sesquicentennial: Proclamation of Universal Military Service Manifesto, January 1, 1874

One-hundred-and-fifty years ago Tsar Alexander II proclaimed a new universal military service requirement into law, which—despite the promises of his predecesors—included Russia’s Mennonites. This act fundamentally changed the course of the Russian Mennonite story, and resulted in the emigration of some 17,000 Mennonites. The Russian government’s intentions in this regard were first reported in newspapers in November 1870 ( note 1 ) and later confirmed by Senator Evgenii von Hahn, former President of the Guardianship Committee ( note 2 ). Some Russian Mennonite leaders were soon corresponding with American counterparts on the possibility of mass migration ( note 3 ). Despite painful internal differences in the Mennonite community, between 1871 and Fall 1873 they put up a united front with five joint delegations to St. Petersburg and Yalta to petition for a Mennonite exemption. While the delegations were well received and some options could be discussed with ministers of the Crown, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Flooding as a weapon of war, 1657

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these maps speak volumes. In February 1657, the Swedish King Carolus Gustavus ordered an intentional breach of the embankments along the Vistula River to completely flood the villages of the Danzig Werder. See the vivid punctures and water flow in 1657 map below; compare with the 1730 maps with rebuilt villages and farms ( note 1 ). In Polish memory this war is appropriately remembered as "The Deluge". Villages in the Danzig Werder (delta) from which Mennonites immigrated to Russia include: Quadendorf, Reichenberg, Krampitz, Neunhuben, Hochzeit, Scharfenberg, Wotzlaff, Landau, Schönau, Nassenhuben, Mönchengrebin, and Nobel ( note 2 ). In the war the suburbs outside the gates of Danzig suffered most; Mennonites lived here in large numbers, e.g., in Alt Schottland and Stoltzenberg. First, these villages were completely razed by the City of Danzig to keep the invading Swedes from using the villages to their advantage in battle. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 4 (of 4) to American Mennonite Friends

Irony is used in this post to provoke and invite critical thought; the historical research on the Mennonite experience is accurate and carefully considered. ~ANF Preparing for your next AGM: Mennonite Congregations and Deportations Many U.S. Mennonite pastors voted for Donald Trump, whose signature promise was an immediate start to “the largest deportation operation in American history.” Confirmed this week, President Trump will declare a national emergency and deploy military assets to carry this out. The timing is ideal; in January many Mennonite congregations have their Annual General Meeting (AGM) with opportunity to review and update the bylaws of their constitution. Need help? We have related examples from our tradition, which I offer as a template, together with a few red flags. First, your congregational by-laws.  It is unlikely you have undocumented immigrants in your congregation, but you should flag this. Model: Gustav Reimer, a deacon and notary public from the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Formidable Fräulein Marga Bräul (1919–2011)

Fräulein Bräul left an indelible mark on two generations of high school students in the Mennonite Colony of Fernheim, Paraguay. Former students and acquaintances recall that Marga Bräul demanded the highest effort and achievements of her students, colleagues and of herself—the kind of teacher you either love or hate but will never forget! In March 1947, Marga was offered a position at the Fernheim Secondary School ( Zentralschule ). A recent refugee to Paraguay from war-torn Europe, she taught mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1952, she was the only female faculty member ( note 1 ). Marga wedded a strong commitment to academics with a passion for quality arts and crafts. She provided extensive extra-curricular instruction to students in handiwork and was especially renowned for her artwork—which included painting and woodworking— end of year art exhibits with students, theatre sets, and festival decorations. Marga’s pedagogical philosophy was holistic; she told Mennonite ed...
Post a Comment
Read more

Landless Crisis: Molotschna, 1840s to 1860s

The landless crisis in the mid-1800s in the Molotschna Colony is the context for most other matters of importance to its Mennonites, 1840s to 1860s. When discussing landlessness, historian David G. Rempel has claimed that the “seemingly endemic wranglings and splits” of the Mennonite church in South Russia were only seldom or superficially related to doctrine, and “almost invariably and intimately bound up with some of the most serious social and economic issues” that afflicted one or more of the congregations in the settlement ( note 1 ). It is important from the start to recognize that these Mennonites were not citizens,  but foreign colonists with obligations and privileges that governed their sojourn in New Russia. For Mennonites the privileges, e.g. of land and freedom from military conscription, were connected to the obligation of model farming. Mennonites were given one, and then later two districts of land for this purpose. Within their districts or colonies , villages w...
Post a Comment
Read more

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonite “Displaced Persons” and MCC’s “Jewish Argument”

At the conclusion of the war Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) was fully aware that “their” 13,000-plus Russian Mennonite refugees in Germany did not qualify as displaced persons and for support from the International Refugee Organization. They were refused IRO “care and maintenance” as Soviet citizens, i.e., they were free to return home. MCC sought to convince the IRO that the Mennonite refugees were not “Soviet Germans” and--if they had became German citizens in Warthegau (also a disqualifier), it was done under duress ( note 1 ). Astonishingly MCC’s Europe Director Peter J. Dyck—later seen as the Moses of the Mennonites—proposed to top military personnel at US military headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany (USFET) in July 1946, that Mennonites be granted the same status as Jews as a persecuted people. “By a recent decree all Jews, regardless of their nationality, are automatically given the status of 'D.P.' [displaced person] on the grounds that they are victims of persecu...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Flight to Moscow 1929

In 1926, my grandfather’s sister Justina Fast (b. 1896) and her husband Peter Görzen moved from Krassikow, Neu Samara (Soviet Union) to village no. 5 Dejewka, Orenburg. “We thought we would live our lives here with our children secure in the hands of God. But the times were becoming turbulent,” Justina recalled. In May 1929 they travelled back to Krassikow for Pentecost to visit with her mother, brothers and their families. But when they returned to their home, she writes, “… a large quota of grain was demanded of us. But we had nothing, and the harvest was not yet in. Then we heard that many were planning to move to Canada, including my three siblings with my mother, and my husband's three sisters too. My husband decided to go to Moscow first to see if it was possible and what was required for emigration. We made the decision to leave when the harvest was complete. At that time so many people were leaving [for Moscow], and early in September we sold everything we had. Only the b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Immigration to Canada, 1923: Background

In April 1921 Mennonites in the Caucasus and Don Region officially petitioned Moscow for permissions to emigrate—which Lenin had “flatly refused.” Their rationale was more than economic. “The disruption of economic conditions leads to impoverishment, which again goes hand in hand with the degradation of morals and has an alarming impact on our youth, who are also constantly exposed to the pressure of brutal and ruthless agitation on the part of those in power. … This decay of our spiritual and economic goods will only become greater and more ruinous.” ( Note 1 ) Later that year and some months before the large-scale feeding operations could begin in the Soviet Union, American Mennonite Relief (AMR) commissioner A.J. Miller petitioned the Soviet Embassy in London for exit permissions for 20,000 Mennonites ( note 1b) . He was unsuccessful. Nonetheless in a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, key Mennonite leaders took a decision to work toward the re...
Post a Comment
Read more