Skip to main content

Escaping Repatriation: Stalin’s Claw-Back, 1946

Like so many others, as Susanna Toews recalled in her little book Trek to Freedom that “[o]ur discussions always centred around the question, what the New Year had in store for us” (note 1).

The first Christmas after war’s end brought some early glimmers of normal life for those in the Western Military Zone of Germany. My Walter Bräul—a war-weary vet at age 17—attached wheels to the back of an old suitcase and made his “kid-sister” Käthe—my mother—a functional doll carriage. My grandmother found time and material to sew doll clothing. The joy was tempered by the fact that they had no word on the other boys: Franz Jr., Heinrich, or Peter. Though the war had ended seven months earlier, they did not know if and how long they would be able to stay in the village of Bonstorf (note 2), near Celle in the British Zone.

In February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met secretly in Yalta and agreed that after the war Germany would be divided into three zones of occupation. Moreover, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to Stalin’s demand that citizens of the Soviet Union in all parts of Germany were to be repatriated--without consent and by force if necessary.

Soviet agents moved freely to locate their former citizens—including Mennonites. British and Americans troops offered logistical support. A confidential German Mennonite (Vereinigung) report to MCC in August 1945 confirmed the dire situation, that Soviet commissaries were attempting to force Russian Mennonites to return to the USSR.

“In spite of the fact that the British commandants have not yet given their consent, they proceed very rigorously … But the Mennonites do not want to go at all and there is a distress of which the anxious women are not able to master. Some of them have been taken to camps against their will.”

After a meeting with the British Commandants, a report nine days later confirmed:

“There is a possibility that many will be taken back to Russia by force, especially those who cannot defend themselves of the tricky and inconsiderate measures of the Russians. [However, the local mayors were] lending willing help to the Russians. They are trying to get rid of extra mouths to feed.” (Note 3)

By the end of September 1945, some 2,034,000 Soviet citizens in the British, American or French zones in Germany had been repatriated, and 2,946,000 from the Soviet zone (note 4).

In October things changed, and Allied Commander-in-Chief, General Dwight D. Eisenhower “ordered the discontinuance of forcible repatriation of Russian national,” but as Frank H. Epp notes, “the US State Department, concerned about cementing or retaining Soviet friendship, overruled Eisenhower’s instructions” (note 5). As a result there was confusion on the ground well into the new year.

Katie Friesen gives a vivid summary of the experience of those in the British Zone:

“Even though we were [naturalized] German citizens now, the Russian soldiers and agents came to the German towns and villages to search for former Russians. Soviet commissars were busily travelling from place to place holding meetings and urging the people to be ready when the truck would come to pick them up. Already, earlier in the summer, when we returned from the fields, we feared that there would be a Russian army truck waiting at the farm. We lived with this nagging fear, although I am quite sure that the [German host family] would not have easily given us up into the hands of the soldiers. They needed us and appreciated us, and we were grateful that we could reside with them, even though we were paid very little. Money was quite useless at the time because there was so little to buy. We became alarmed when we heard ... that the Russians had come to nearby Garssen to pick up Russian refugees but had been unable to find any. That made them quite furious and they assured the local people that they would get their people yet.” (Note 6)

After one such meeting my 17-year-old uncle Walter Bräul told his employer he had to quit. When asked why, he said he had to go back to the Soviet Union. “Do you want to go?” “Of course not,” said Walter. “Then you don’t have to. You stay with us as long as you wish.” Ex-soldiers were in greatest danger of forced repatriation—as Peter J. Dyck reported—however even in such cases Dyck found that the US and British sides would intervene, that is, “if the man can conclusively prove that he was forced into the Wehrmacht and the SS against his will” (note 7). That of course would almost always require the truth to be stretched to the extreme!

Some Mennonite refugees were ready to collaborate with the Soviets, hoping to impress the commissars with the numbers they could gather. Soviet officials with translators promised Mennonites their old homes and more. Uncle Walter remembered one such meeting at a school in a neighbouring village in which young Hans Dahl was asked politely by the commissar, “Don’t you want to go?” Dahl replied: “Why should I go back to Russia? You took my father to Siberia and he’s probably dead by now. And you’ll do the same to us. Why should I want to go with you?” With this reply the Soviet commissar lost his temper and lashed out at Dahl.

In Bonstorf on the famous Lüneburg Heath, where Oma, mom and sister Sarah lived, there were regular meetings which all adults were required to attend, including Hans Hilmer—host family father--and the mayor, who hosted another Mennonite family. Before one of these meetings Hilmer helped Oma and the other two Mennonite mothers in the village hide their children in a shepherd’s hut on the heath, fearing that other Soviet agents could search the homes and snatch the children while the adults were at their meetings.

My then eight-year-old mother remembers how afraid she, her sister, her cousin and the Bergen boys were that evening; the little windows of the hut were closed tight and the five children seemed to hear every noise in the forest that night. The Hilmers were very protective of their refugees; more than once they offered to hide my grandmother and children in their attic during the visits of Soviet agents who claimed these as “their” people (note 8).

This mix of fear and hope shaped the start of the new year 1946.

In these months MCC's secret plans were also taking shape—a Menno Pass to Holland (note 9), and MCC’s larger (and questionable) so-called “Dutch-Strategy” (note 10).

Of the approximately 35,000 Soviet Mennonites who had been resettled in Germany during the war years, only 12,000 ultimately escaped Stalin’s claw-back (note 11).

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Susanna Toews, Trek to Freedom: The Escape of Two Sisters from South Russia during World War II, translated by Helen Megli (Winkler, MB: Heritage Valley, 1976), 38.

Note 2: See previous post (forthcoming).

Note 3: Cf. Ernst Crous, co-chair, "Association (Vereinigung) of German Mennonite Congregations," Minutes translated for MCC, August 21, 1945, 4, from Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_108/36%20Correspondence%20Special%20service%20and%20trips%20MCC%20Europe%201946/007.jpg.

Note 4: Harry Loewen, Road to Freedom: Mennonites Escape the Land of Suffering (Kitchener, ON: Pandora, 2000), 34; for the broader tragedy, cf. Nikolai Tolstoy, Victims of Yalta: The Secret Betrayal of the Allies, 1944–1947 (New York: Pegasus, 1977).

Note 5: Frank H. Epp, Mennonite Exodus (Altona, MB: Friesen, 1962), 366.

Note 6: Katie Friesen, Into the Unknown (Steinbach, MB: Self-published, 1986), 101.

Note 7: Peter Dyck, “Memorandum on Mennonite Refugees in Germany as on July 25, 1946,” 3, MCC-Akron archives.

Note 8: Toews, Trek to Freedom, 36. On the Hilmer family and Bonstorf in the war, see an earlier post (forthcoming).

Note 9: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/05/in-case-of-extreme-danger-menno-pass.html.

Note 10: See previous post (forthcoming).

Note 11: Ingeborg Fleischhauer, Das Dritte Reich und die Deutschen in der Sowjetunion (Stuttgart: Deutsches Verlags-Anstalt, 1983), 242, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1524/9783486703344/html. Harry Loewen, “Of Suffering, Forgiveness, and Closure: Reflections on Russian Mennonite Experience,” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology 8, no. 2 (2007), 48–54; 50, https://press.palni.org/ojs/index.php/vision/article/view/422/366.

--

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “Escaping Repatriation: Stalin’s Claw-Back, 1946,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), May 10, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/05/escaping-repatriation-stalins-claw-back.html.

Print Friendly and PDF

Comments

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, ...

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. ...

“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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...