Skip to main content

Walking with a Limp: Isbrand Janzen (1863-1944)

The surviving photographs of my great-grandfather Isbrand Janzen (b. 1863) consistently give profile to his cane.

Our earliest photograph of Isbrand is about 1902, age 38 in Spat, Crimea. His cane or crutch is on prominent display and already part of his identity. He married late—age 32 in 1893; maybe because of his leg? His wife was the widow Elisabeth Plönnert Böse, and she brought three children into the marriage.


In their fifth year of marriage the couple experienced a double grief: their two children died within nine days each other, ages 1½ and 3, January 1898 (note 1).

Both Isbrand and Elisabeth were born in the Molotschna Colony in the village of Petershagen; Elisabeth’s parents were more recent immigrants (note 2). Isbrand’s grandfather was one of the pioneer settlers of the village.

How and when Isbrand came to Crimea is unclear. In 1860 after the Crimean War, the Molotschna Colony purchased 40,000 desiatini of land in Crimea for a daughter colony. By the start of World War I, approximately 3,500 Mennonites were living in Crimea, and 4,817 Mennonites (892 families) in 1926 across 70 villages (note 4).

Isbrand was not an estate owner, but the first family portrait indicates that they were materially comfortable. The second family photo was taken ca. 1907. Again, the cane is profiled as part of his identity. The youngest in the photograph would die skating on a pond with two Teichrob boys in 1914.


During the Russian Revolution the Crimean Peninsula was the last hold-out of the White Army, and so the population was not raided by the Makhno anarchists as in the mother colonies. But the Revolution left destruction everywhere.

Starting 1921 Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) allowed for some small-scale private farms and cooperative organizations, and Mennonites were quick to try and rebuild within the limits imposed; the Crimean Mennonite Agricultural Society was soon organized (note 5). The famine of 1922 took on horrific proportions (note 6).

American Mennonite Relief came largely through the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, and Mennonites in Spat—one of the largest Mennonite villages in Crimea, with high school, mills, churches. etc.—benefitted.

When the American Fordson tractors arrived, there was a lack of specialists to operate and maintain them, and the Agricultural Society made an effort to train "tractorists” (note 7). The small freedoms of the early 1920s did not last long and, like the sister society in Molotschna, the Society was soon forced to close (for a sample “poison” letter to the Bolshevik German newspaper for Crimea in 1926, cf. note 8).

For Crimean Mennonites, their greatest fear was for their children’s future, and this grew from year to year. In 1928, Saat (Communist “Seed”), the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of Ukraine published the following article: “A Declaration of Crimean Mennonite Youth to the Soviet Government: 'Youth Expose the Hoax of the Preachers. The Mennonite youth joins the ranks of the active defenders of the S.S.S.R.'" The article claimed that forty-two Crimean Mennonites signed their readiness to enter military service with arms. The claims of the paper were dubious at best, but the probability that their youth would rapidly distance themselves from church was real and an ever-present anxiety. Isbrand’s children were still part of that demographic (note 9).

Isbrand and family were among those who would make one last desperate attempt to flee the Soviet Union via Moscow. 4,000 Mennonites had already descended on the capital by October 29, 1929. A Secret Police (GPU) report based on a sample survey of five village councils in the Simferopol District (Crimea) dated November 5, 1929, listed 50 families that were ready to leave and another 314 people who were in the process of selling their property (note 10). By mid-November that number had mushroomed to over 12,000 (note 11).

Isbrand and his wife and four adult children and few grandchildren were among those who were successfully transported to Germany, with hopes to be in Canada soon (note 12). Perhaps because of his leg, he and wife Elisabeth and their two unmarried adult daughters were not given clearance to enter Canada.

Their son Isbrand I. Janzen (Jr.) and his step-son Martin Boese with families left for Canada from Hamburg on April 1, 1930, but not before one of the grandchildren (Willi, age 10 months) died in an epidemic outbreak in the refugee housing (note 13).

A 1930 MCC photograph from Germany shows a group of men planning--perhaps for the new settlement in Paraguay—and Isbrand is at the table, age 66 (note 14). The end of the crutch is barely visible under the table. On July 11, 1930, one day before departure, the group crafted a letter to MCC, indicating that their flight from their homes was for the sake of the faith of their children. They knew that they were among the fortunate ones to be saved “and to have found a temporary warm welcome in our old motherland [Germany]. As is well known, our destination was Canada ... but since the situation is such that only a limited number of our co-sufferers could enter Canada, we are deeply moved that the Mennonites of the USA take such a great interest in our fate and extend their helping hand to us with advice and deeds.” (Note 15)


With the steamship "Villagarcia," MCC’s fourth Paraguay transport departed on July 12, 1930 from Hamburg. These 64 families of 353 individuals arrived in Buenos Aires on August 9, prepared to settle into three new villages of 25 families each (villages nos. 9, 10 and 11). Of the 1,572 refugees that were transported and settled in Paraguay by MCC in 1930, 585 were from Ukraine or Crimea (note 16).


Isbrand’s family settled in village no. 10, Rosenort, Fernheim Colony, Gran Chaco. Very soon a significant epidemic broke out among the new settlers—all living in the most primitive conditions and without a medical doctor.

Isbrand’s wife Elisabeth was one of the first to die. His daughter Helena would soon marry Jakob Fast also in village no. 10, whose wife and child also died from the Fernheim epidemic—all before Christmas 1930 (note 17). Their first child was my father, Peter Fast—Isbrand’s first grandchild in Paraguay.


This family would be among those who were disappointed with the conditions and prospects in Fernheim and—without options to immigrate to Canada or return to Germany—they sought to establish a new colony in east Paraguay, Friesland in 1937 (note 18). From 1933 until the end of the war, many in Fernheim and the majority of those in Friesland were taken up with excitement for National Socialism (note 19). The community was still very poor when Isbrand died in Friesland, 1944. He had spent the last years of his life in the household of daughter Elisabeth Janzen Peters.


His final portrait has an almost artistic quality. But the crutch is missing as he sits on his bed. His handicap was part of his identity. I think of the biblical figure of Jacob—we are told he wrestled with God and angels and was left with a limp … and a blessing for his descendants.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: On Mennonite child mortality rates in Russia, cf. my previous post: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-cycle-of-time-and-maternal-and.html.

Note 2: For background on the Plönnert /Plennert Mennonite name, cf. see my previous post (forthcoming).

Note 3: On the Mennonite experience during the Crimean War, cf. my previous post: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/mennonites-and-crimean-war-1853-56.html.

Note 4: In Adolf Ehrt, Das Mennonitentum in Rußland von seiner Einwanderung bis zur Gegenwart (Berlin-Leipzig: Belz, 1932), 78, https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/?file=Pis/Ehrt.pdf.

Note 5: On the Mennonite response to Lenin’s New Economic Plan, cf. my previous post: https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/1921-formation-of-union-of-citizens-of.html.

Note 6: On the famine of 1921 and 1922 in Ukraine and the impact on the Mennonite communities, cf. my previous posts (forthcoming).

Note 7: On the Crimean Mennonite Agricultural Society, cf. Martin Durksen, Die Krim war unsere Heimat (Winnipeg, MB: Christian Press, 1977), 177f. https://archive.org/details/DieKrimWarUnsereHeimOCROpt/page/n177/mode/2up. Cf. also my previous posts (forthcoming)

Note 8: "Aus der Krim. Spat. 55,000 Rubel Defizit im mennonitischen Verein," Das Neue Dorf, 63 (13) (1926), 5, https://martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/de/elektronischer-lesesaal?action=book&bookId=via000515#lg=1&slide=0.

Note 9: Cf. "Deklaration mennonitischer Jugendlicher der Krim an die Sowjet-Regierung," Saat no. 7/8 (Novemer 7, 1928), cited by Ehrt, Das Mennonitentum in Rußland, 146. For a selection of Saat issues from 1928, cf. https://kat.martin-opitz-bibliothek.de/vufind/Search/Results?lookfor=saat&type=AllFields&daterange%5B%5D=publishDate&publishDatefrom=1921&publishDateto=1931.

Note 10: Cited in Detlef Brandes and Andrej I. Savin, eds., Die Sibiriendeutschen im Sowjetstaat 1919–1938 (Essen: Klartext, 2001), 296.

Note 11: On the flight to Moscow, cf. my previous posts (forthcoming; see also Table of Contents).

Note 12: On the refugee experience in Germany, cf. my previous posts (forthcoming).

Note 13: On Canada’s restrictive measures, and the difficulties for entering Canada in 1930, cf. my previous posts (forthcoming).

Note 14: On MCC’s flurry of activity to resettle this group, cf. my previous post (forthcoming), as well as the passenger lists compiled by Ron Isaak: “Mennonite Passenger lists for Refugee Transport to Paraguay in 1930,” http://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/latin/paraguay1930.htm; AND https://www.mennonitegenealogy.com/latin/paraguaycombined.htm.

Note 15: "An das M.C.C. USA, “Dankschreiben der vierten nach Paraguay gehenden Gruppe,“ MCC-Akron, IX3-1, fox 1, file 6, document 0004.

Note 16: On the transport to Paraguay, cf. my previous post (forthcoming); also: Harold S. Bender to Max Kratz, letter, July 14, 1930, MCC-Akron archives, IX3-1, Box 3, file 80003.

Note 17: On the Fernheim epidemic, see my previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/03/what-does-it-cost-to-settle-refugee.html.

Note 18: On the letters sent by grandmother, Isbrand’s daughter Helene, to siblings in Canada, see my previous post (forthcoming).

Note 19: On the Nazi influence in the Mennonite colonies of Fernheim and Friesland beginning 1933, see my previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2022/09/eradicating-communist-spirit-in-young.html.


Print Friendly and PDF

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

1923 Mennonite immigrants "kept behind": Lechfeld (Bavaria) transit camp

An important part of the larger 1923 immigration story includes the chapter of the hundreds who were held back at Riga and Southampton and taken to the Lechfeld (Bavaria) transit camp for medical care. “Germany generously and magnanimously helped our organizations, on my intercession, to overcome the manifold difficulties connected with such a ( Volksbewegung ) movement of people in such critical times,” Benjamin H. Unruh wrote some years later ( note 1 ). Just as the first group of Russländer Mennonites set foot in Canada 100 years ago this month, the North American relief effort in the USSR was also winding down (August 1923). The famine relief work in 1921 and 1922 had found broad support in the North American Mennonite community. However excitement about a larger immigration of Russian Mennonites to North America was muted, and a new call to action could not forge the same level of cooperation across Mennonite groups. The plan required huge money guarantees. In USSR B.B. Janz h...
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

1920s: Those who left and those who stayed behind

The picture below is my grandmother's family in 1928. Some could leave but most stayed behind. In 1928 a small group of some 511 Soviet Mennonites were unexpectedly approved for emigration ( note 1 ). None of the circa 21,000 Mennonites who emigrated from Russia in the 1920s “simply” left. And for everyone who left, at least three more hoped to leave but couldn’t. It is a complex story. Canada only wanted a certain type—young healthy farmers—and not all were transparent about their skills and intentions The Soviet Union wanted to rid itself of a specifically-defined “excess,” and Mennonite leadership knew how to leverage that Estate owners, and Selbstschutz /White Army militia were the first to be helped to leave, because they were deemed as most threatened community members; What role did money play? Thousands paid cash for their tickets; Who made the final decision on group lists, and for which regions? This was not transparent. Exit visa applications were also regularly reje...
Post a Comment
Read more

School Reports, 1890s

Mennonite memoirs typically paint a golden picture of schools in the so-called “golden era” of Mennonite life in Russia. The official “Reports on Molotschna Schools: 1895/96 and 1897/98,” however, give us a more lackluster and realistic picture ( note 1 ). What do we learn from these reports? Many schools had minor infractions—the furniture did not correspond to requirements, there were insufficient book cabinets, or the desks and benches were too old and in need of repair. The Mennonite schoolhouses in Halbstadt and Rudnerweide—once recognized as leading and exceptional—together with schools in Friedensruh, Fürstenwerder, Franzthal, and Blumstein were deemed to be “in an unsatisfactory state.” In other cases a new roof and new steps were needed, or the rooms too were too small, too dark, too cramped, or with moist walls. More seriously in some villages—Waldheim, Schönsee, Fabrikerwiese, and even Gnadenfeld, well-known for its educational past—inspectors recorded that pupils “do not ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links

Each of the "Commando Dr. Stumpp" village reports written during German occupation of Ukraine 1942 contains a mountain of demographic data, names, dates, occupations, numbers of untimely deaths (revolution, famines, abductions), narratives of life in the 1930s, of repression and liberation, maps, and much more. The reports are critical for telling the story of Mennonites in the Soviet Union before 1942, albeit written with the dynamics of Nazi German rule at play. Reports for some 56 (predominantly) Mennonite villages from the historic Mennonite settlement areas of Chortitza, Sagradovka, Baratow, Schlachtin, Milorodovka, and Borosenko have survived. Unfortunately no village reports from the Molotschna area (known under occupation as “Halbstadt”) have been found. Dr. Karl Stumpp, a prolific chronicler of “Germans abroad,” became well-known to German Mennonites (Prof. Benjamin Unruh/ Dr. Walter Quiring) before the war as the director of the Research Center for Russian Germans...
Post a Comment
Read more

Queen Elizabeth II and Aunt Adina Neufeld Bräul

This month (April 2023) we celebrated my aunt’s 97th birthday—Adina Neufeld Bräul. Queen Elizabeth II and Aunt Adina were born within hours of each other, April 20-21, 1926. She once told me—in somewhat different words—that this makes her wonder about God’s providence … In 1944 in German-annexed Poland, my 16-year-old uncle Walter Bräul was required to report for military service. His first thought: no good soldier should be without a girlfriend! Before leaving for training, he asked one of the girls from "the trek" on a date to see a movie in Exin. Seven years later they would marry in Paraguay. Adina and her mother and sister were on the same trek or group (Gnadenfeld/ Molotschna) out of Ukraine as Walter and my mother (in the 2023 photo). Adina’s most terrible memory of the trek was when their wagon almost tipped over into a deep ravine. She was 17—a year older than Walter—and it was Walter’s 17-year-old brother Peter who literally jumped from his wagon to physically stop ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Traveler's Impressions of the Molotschna, 1927

In November 1927, Susanna Toews of Ohrloff, Molotschna wrote to her brother Gerhard in Canada, "Father is sleeping and the sisters are reading, even though they have read the stuff ten times. . .. Twice a week we get Das Neue Dorf . We read the most important material the first evening and then father reads the rest of it the next day" ( note 1 ). A youth in Friedensruh, Molotschna reported to the communist youth paper Die Saat in 1928, that their village receives 13 copies of Das Neue Dorf , 6 copies of Die Saat , one of the Moscow-based Deutsche Zentral-Zeitung , 16 copies of Die Trompete, 2 copies of Neuland , and some Russian papers as well. On average, 2 papers per household--all communist papers. A Mennonite-based monthly agricultural journal, “The Practical Agriculturalist” ( Der praktische Landwirt ) had been approved for publication in Ukraine in 1924 but was shut down in December 1926. Government authorities in Ukraine were exasperated to see a “significant a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Warthegau, Nazism and two 15-year-old Mennonites, 1944

Katharina Esau offered me a home away from home when I was a student in Germany in the 1980s. The Soviet Union released her and her family in 1972. Käthe Heinrichs—her maiden name (b. Aug. 18, 1928)—and my Uncle Walter Bräul were classmates in Gnadenfeld during Nazi occupation of Ukraine, and experienced the Gnadenfeld group “trek” as 15-year-olds together. Before she passed, she wrote her story ( note 1 )—and I had opportunity to interview my uncle. Käthe and Walter both arrived in Warthegau—German annexed Poland—in March 1944 ( note 2 ), and the Reich had a plan for their lives. In February 1944, the Governor of Warthegau ordered the Hitler Youth (HJ) organization to “care for Black Sea German youth” ( note 3 ). Youth were examined for the Hitler Youth, but also for suitability for elite tracks like the one-year Landjahr (farm year and service) program. The highly politicized training of the Landjahr was available for young people in Hitler Youth and its counterpart the League of G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Flemish Anabaptists and Witch Hunts

Political leaders have long used the term "witch hunt"--and there is an historical connection to Mennonites. Anabaptists and so-called “witches” were arrested and tried for related reasons in the Low Countries in the 1500s: namely, as a means to divert God’s wrath. The late-Medievals feared that heresy—in this case ana-baptism and the challenge to other sacraments—invited the wrath of God, and was an instrument for the devil’s own hellish apocalyptic assault. The assumption: the devil's tactics to destroy Christendom included the use of both heretics and sorcerers. Gary Waite writes convincingly that both were seen as “polluting” the community and thus both had to be "excised." "This fear of pollution, or scandalizing God or the saints, also explains why small numbers of peaceable Mennonites were so harshly treated during the second half of the sixteenth century. Plagues, fires, and economic and social crises were often blamed on the presence of even a smal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mennonites and the Crimean War (1853-56)

Martin Klaassen was traveling through the Molotschna Mennonite Colony when the Crimean War broke out in 1853 ( note 1 ). His diary notes that the following hymn was sung before the sermon: December 1853 . With regards to the war which broke out between Russia and Turkey, the song, No: 723 “O Lord, the clouds of war are threatening now, above our heads we see them roll” was sung before the sermon” ( note 2 ). As the war effort grew, thousands of troops came through Molotschna: January 14, 1854 . Today our colony has received billets: in Halbstadt about 1,000 soldiers. It is said that Joh. Neufelds have offered liquor ( Branntwein ), naturally without charge. The soldiers are supposed to have marched in with jubilant singing and much hilarity. They had been very happy for the wonderful reception they got, and promised to accomplish great things. In March, England and France also declared war on Russia. March 26, 1854 . At noon today there was suddenly a military transport at ...
Post a Comment
Read more