Skip to main content

Purge Sampler: Arrests of Kliewer brothers, Schönsee, Molotschna, 1937

Schönsee is a small but typical Molotschna village; see map (note 1). This story is of four Kliewer brothers arrested in the 1937 Stalin purge: Aron, Johann, Gerhard and Cornelius Kliewer.

Their mother Elisabeth’s 1960 obituary in the Mennonitische Rundschau (GRanDMA #477382) notes that she had “four sons who were exiled and lost without trace in northern Russia. Two of these sons were married” (note 2). These were my grandmother’s cousins.

With the opening of the NKVD-KGB archives in Ukraine a few years ago, files of thousands Mennonite men and a few women arrested in the 1930s have been identified, summarized and catalogued. It is now possible say more about the Kliewer brothers and events in Schönsee, 1937-38.

In brief, Aron, Johann and Gerhard were not “sent to the north” as assumed, but like so many others (including my grandfather and his brother) were shot shortly after their arrest. Brother Kornelius, however, was sentenced to 10 years forced labour.

On October 29, 1937 Kornelius was the first Kliewer brother to be arrested. Six men from the village had already been arrested that months (Oct. 10: Abram Vasyl. Neufeld and Gerhard Gerh. Born; Oct. 22: Johann Franz Goerz [minister] and Jakob Erd. Brauer; Oct. 24: Jakob Joh. Becker; Oct. 27, Johann Joh. Bartel). The pattern of singular arrests continued, except that on October 29 dozens of men were arrested from a variety of Molotschna villages. It was a night of terror—extreme even for the Molotschna at this time.

The charges against fifteen of these Mennonite men (listed below) were trumped up to fit the indictable offence of espionage. All were charged with conducting counter-revolutionary nationalist propaganda and agitating in favour of fascist Germany among the population.

Those arrested included: Pankratz (Tiegenhagen), Balzer (Marienthal), Wiebe (Tiegenhagen), Harms (Friedensruh), Hooge (Friedensruh), Dueck (Elisabeththal), Koop (Elisabeththal), Friesen (Lichtfelde), Friesen (Grossweide), Hildebrandt (Grossweide), Epp (Friedensruh) Nickel (Prangenau), Peters (Rudnerweide), Peters (Rudnerweide), Hildebrandt (Grossweide), Thiessen (Fuerstenwerder). Their median age was 38; the oldest was 54 and the youngest: 27.

On November 16 Kornelius Kliewer sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Others were tried on November 27, and the fifteen above were shot on December 5, 6 and 7 in Melitopol. Other Mennonites from Molotschna (including my grandfather) were executed the same week in Dnepropetrovsk. Women were not told why their husbands or sons were being arrested, nor did they know their fate. Most assumed that the men were exiled to correctional labour camps (Gulags) in Kazakhstan or Siberia.

Another two Kliewer brothers were arrested on November 12, 1937: Johann and Gerhard. If in October arrests in the village were singular on a given night, on this evening in Schönsee nine men were arrested, including: Jakob Jak. Neufeld [Nov. 14] and his son Johann; brothers: Abram Anton Schellenberg and Johann; Johann Peter Wiens [Nov. 14]; Jakob Abram Martens, and Nicholas Gerhard Born.

On December 9 brothers Johann and Gerhard Kliewer were found guilty and sentenced to be shot; together with J. P. Wiens, J. J. Neufeld and others. They sat imprisoned until January 14, 1938 when Kliewer brothers Johann and Gerhard were shot, together with Martens, Neufeld (father), Neufeld (son), and brothers Abram and Johann Schellenberg,

On December 13 Aron, the fourth Kliewer brother, was also arrested. It was another night of mass arrests in Schönsee, which included: Jakob Franz Dyck, brothers David and Gerhard Gerh. Schellenberg; Anton Anton Schellenberg; Heinrich Jakob Franz; Willi [Boris] Abram Rempenning; and Johann Andreas Peters (Peter Peter Wiens was arrested Dec. 9).

On January 27, 1938 Aron Kliewer and the others in the group were sentenced and a month later on February 28 Aron was shot in Melitopol, together with Peters, Franz, Schellenberg; brothers Gerhard and David Schellenberg.

Further individual arrests continued in Schönsee until the end of the purge in Fall 1938: December 20, 1937 (Becker); January 28, 1938 (Wiens), February 18 (Neufeld), May 12 (Regier), June 17 (Schellenberg); June 21 (Peters), July 10 (Born, Brauer [son of Brauer above], Neufeld). All were shot.

The attached map graphically illustrates the Schönsee families (marked in yellow) that were directly impacted by the purge. This pattern is comparable to other Mennonite villages.

Three years later, immediately prior to German occupation, a new wave of arrests occurred in Schönsee. Gerhard Aron Kliewer, b. 1925. son of Aron Kliewer above, was arrested on September 6, 1941. Charge: “socially dangerous element.” After removal from Ukraine he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.

The full 30-plus page arrest, trial and execution files typically include standard forms for the charges, a search warrant, a health certificate ("healthy enough to be sent to the north"), a summary of the trial by a three-member "Troika" in Melitopol (or Dnepropetrovsk) and a verdict with confirmation of date when it was carried out. The file always contains a multipage confession with other alleged crimes, supported by the confession. In all cases the confessions are handwritten by a secretary but signed by the accused. Three testimonies against the accused are also included, normally written or signed by other Mennonites in the village.

These files are very difficult for the children of victims to look at and examine. For most, the summary facts are sufficient for closure—but even this can be traumatic. The larger file requires more emotional investment, and that can be too much for the now-elderly children of victims. The signature at the bottom of each page of the confession is the last sign of life from the individual, and something the children and grandchildren have never seen.

The confessions may contain a new piece of information—a previous arrest, possible activity in the White Army or Deniken’s army during the revolution. They may indicate that a sibling had sent letters from North America, or note that another family member was a minister or deacon—all of which supported the charge against the individual. The greatest part of each confession is wholly fabricated: repeated claims about Hitler (in 1937!) and the overthrow of the communist regime, typically with a statement “overheard” that the accused was intent on shooting all communists, etc. when Hitler would arrive. These or similar confessions are found in each file and are needed for the charge. The confession is always in question-and-answer format written by a recording secretary. The truthfulness of any claim or statement or accusation in the confession is highly questionable.

As a grandson of someone executed in December 1937, I cannot help but connect the Easter promise of resurrection with the archival rediscoveries of long-lost loved ones. Their names are called again, signatures seen for the first time by children and grandchildren, their profiles brought to light from the silencing, brutal executions eight decades ago. The executioner does not have the last word—a small foretaste of even fuller participation in the resurrection to come.

One of the Molotschna survivors of interrogation and torture in 1933 was Jacob A. Neufeld. His translated memoirs /diaries include his prayers during those experiences. I have taken the liberty to make a composite prayer/ psalm of lament, based on his Path of Thorns (pp. 57; 59; 60; 61; 65; 67; 69; 74f.; 80; see note 1). It helps me to think that the Kliewer brothers, my grandfather and his brother, together with thousands of other Mennonite men may have prayed like this as well.

"Dear God have you deserted me? With frayed nerves and crushed hopes, my soul grows faint and everything around me turns dark and empty. Merciful God, be gracious to me. Why do my captors condemn me? I have done no wrong. My soul, tortured, flayed, and buried in dust, is in pain and outrage and on the verge of fading away. My heart is empty, on the edge of despair. Dear God, speak to my despairing soul. Let me hear your voice and feel your strong arm. Have we all been delivered into the hands of monsters from Satan’s underworld? Yet I remain convinced that you, my God, will not abandon me to such iniquity, though the noose around me seems to tighten. Almighty God, keep me from betraying anyone and from plunging others into grief. Is there no deliverance, above all for my loved ones? A shadowy void seems to draw me down into a bottomless pit. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? … Then in stillness and in your mercy I hear your voice. I feel a hymn of utter surrender rising up in within me: 'Take Thou my hand [So nimm denn meine Hände …], O Father, and lead Thou me, Until my journey endeth, eternally.' I submit myself to you afresh as the Lord and Shepherd of my soul and the immovable pole of my existence.” (Note 3)

For broader background and analysis, see my published essay on Stalin's Great Terror (note 4).

                              ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

The names of those above arrested in Schönsee and elsewhere come from Rehabilitated History: Zaporizhia Region, Books II and III (Zaporizhia: Dniprovskij Metalurg, 2006) [РЕАБІЛІТОВАНІ ІСТОРІЄЮ: Запорізька область], Bk. II, www.reabit.org.ua/files/store/Zaporozh-2.pdf; Bk III: http://www.reabit.org.ua/files/store/Zaporozh-3.pdf. See the Mennonite extraction list: "Verbannte Mennoniten im Gebiet Saporoshje," https://media.chortitza.org/pdf/Pis/Sapor.pdf.

  • KLIEWER, Aron Petrovych, born in 1902, vol. 2, p. 326. 
  • KLIEWER, Ivan [Johann] Petrovych, born in 1904, vol. 3, p. 434. 
  • KLIEWER, Gerhard Petrovych, born in 1907, vol. 3, p. 433.
  • KLIEWER, Kornelius Petrovych, born in 1898, vol. 3, p. 434.
  • KLIEWER, Gerhard Aronovych, born in 1925, vol. 2, p. 326.

Note 1: For the map and more information on Schönsee, see: https://chortitza.org/FB/D0701.html.

Note 2: See Elisabeth Dueck Kliewer's obituary, Mennonitische Rundschau, 1960, https://archive.org/.../die-mennonitische.../page/8/mode/2up. One Kliewer brother successfully immigrated to Canada in the 1920s. See Abram Kliewer's obituary, Mennonitische Rundschau, 1967, https://archive.org/.../sim_die.../page/11/mode/2up.

Note 3: Jacob A. Neufeld, Path of Thorns: Soviet Mennonite Life Under Communist and Nazi Rule, edited by H. L. Dyck, translated by H. L. Dyck and S. Dyck (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014). https://books.google.ca/books?id=sD6WAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Neufeld%2C%20Path%20of%20Thorns%3A%20Soviet%20Mennonite%20Life%20Under%20Communist%20and%20Nazi%20Rule&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false Original: Tiefenwege. Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse von Russland-Mennoniten in zwei Jahrzehnten bis 1949 (Virgil, ON: Niagara, 1958).

Note 4: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "A new examination of the 'Great Terror' in Molotschna, 1937-38," Mennonite Quarterly Review 95, no. 4 (2021), 415-458, https://digitalcollections.tyndale.ca/bitstream/handle/20.500.12730/1571/Neufeldt-Fast_Arnold_2022a.pdf.

---

To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "Purge Sampler: Arrests of Kliewer brothers, Schönsee, Molotschna, 1937," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), June 11, 2023, 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons!

Turning Weapons into Waffle Irons:  Heart-Shaped Waffles and a smooth talking General In 1874 with Mennonite immigration to North America in full swing, the Tsar sent General Eduard von Totleben to the colonies to talk the remaining Mennonites out of leaving ( note 1 ). He came with the now legendary offer of alternative service. Totleben made presentations in Mennonite churches and had many conversations in Mennonite homes. Decades later the women still recalled how fond Totleben was of Mennonite heart-shaped waffles. He complemented the women saying, “How beautiful are the hearts of Mennonites!,” and he joked about how “much Mennonites love waffles ( Waffeln ), but not weapons ( Waffen )” ( note 2 )! His visit resulted in an extensive reversal of opinion and the offer was welcomed officially by the Molotschna and Chortitza Colony ministerials. And upon leaving, the general was gifted with a poem by Bernhard Harder ( note 3 ) and a waffle iron ( note 4 ). Harder was an inf...
Post a Comment
Read more

What is the Church to Say? Letter 1 (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 accuarte and carefully considered. ~ANF American Mennonite leaders who supported Trump will be responding to the election results in the near future. Sometimes a template or sample conference address helps to formulate one’s own text. To that end I offer the following. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Mennonites in Germany sent official greetings by telegram: “The Conference of the East and West Prussian Mennonites meeting today at Tiegenhagen in the Free City of Danzig are deeply grateful for the tremendous uprising ( Erhebung ) that God has given our people ( Volk ) through the vigor and action of [unclear], and promise our cooperation in the construction of our Fatherland, true to the Gospel motto of [our founder Menno Simons], ‘For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.’” ( Note 1 ) Hitler responded in a letter...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Anti-Menno" Communist: David J. Penner (1904-1993)

The most outspoken early “Mennonite communist”—or better, “Anti-Menno” communist—was David Johann Penner, b. 1904. Penner was the son of a Chortitza teacher and had grown up Mennonite Brethren in Millerovo, with five religious services per week ( note 1 )! In 1930 with Stalin firmly in power, Penner pseudonymously penned the booklet entitled Anti-Menno ( note 2 ). While his attack was bitter, his criticisms offer a well-informed, plausible window on Mennonite life—albeit biased and with no intention for reform. He is a ethnic Mennonite writing to other Mennonites. Penner offers multiple examples of how the Mennonite clergy in particular—but also deacons, choir conductors, Sunday School teachers, leaders of youth or women’s circles—aligned themselves with the exploitative interests of industry and wealth. Extreme prosperity for Mennonite industrialists and large landowners was achieved with low wages and the poverty of their Russian /Ukrainian workers, according to Penner. Though t...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

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

Anti-Jewish Pogroms and Mennonite responses in Einlage (1905) and Sagradovka (1899)

Below are stories of two pogroms and of the responses in two Mennonite communities in Ukraine/Russia. The first location is Einlage (Chortitza) in 1905, with two episodes. The rage of peasants and the working class exploded with strikes, bloody revolts, chaos and plundering across the land, especially on the estates early in 1905. The Greater Zaporozhzhia-Alexandrovsk economic zone, with larger Mennonite manufacturers of agricultural machinery in Einlage as well, was a centre for some of that labour unrest ( note 1 ). In the shadows of the larger March 1905 Russian Revolution, there were so-called provocateurs named the "Black Hundred" ( note 2 ) who organized pogroms across Russia, but especially in ethnic Ukrainian and Polish areas. “Jewish stores, shops, and homes were broken into, robbed, and plundered; Jewish women and girls were raped and brutally murdered. Many Jews lost not only their belongings in Russia, but also their lives. And all with impunity. The police ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catherine the Great’s 1763 Manifesto

“We must swarm our vast wastelands with people. I do not think that in order to achieve this it would be useful to compel our non-Christians to accept our faith--polygamy for example, is even more useful for the multiplication of the population. … "Russia does not have enough inhabitants, …but still possesses a large expanse of land, which is neither inhabited nor cultivated. … The fields that could nourish the whole nation, barely feeds one family..." – Catherine II (Note 1 ) “We perceive, among other things, that a considerable number of regions are still uncultivated which could easily and advantageously be made available for productive use of population and settlement. Most of the lands hold hidden in their depth an inexhaustible wealth of all kinds of precious ores and metals, and because they are well provided with forests, rivers and lakes, and located close to the sea for purpose of trade, they are also most convenient for the development and growth of many kinds ...
Post a Comment
Read more

1873: First Russian Mennonites leave for North America

On February 4, 1873, ministers and elders held a special meeting in Elder Isaak Peters’ Pordenau Molotschna church ( note 1 ). It was a larger building with balcony, constructed in 1860 after the original 1828 stone church building had been torn down. They had put down deep roots in Russia; nonetheless Peters spoke strongly in favour of emigration and supported a decision to send land scouts to America. The team was given a mandate to negotiate for the possibility of some 50 to 60,000 Mennonite immigrants ( note 2 ). Eager to compete with the United States for settlers, the Canadian government passed an Order-in-Council on March 3, 1873 to create a Mennonite reservation of nine-and-one-third townships ( note 3 ). The twelve-member deputation—including two Molotschna elders—which had been sent to North America returned in September with a favourable report ( note 4 ). Despite divergent opinions on the ground, the first hundred Russian Mennonite agriculturalists arrived in the United...
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

Why Danzig and Poland?

In the late 16th century, Poland became a haven for a variety of non-conformists which included Jews, Anti-Trinitarians from Italy and Bohemia, Quakers and Calvinists from Great Britain, south German Schwenkfelders, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian, and Greek Catholic Christians, some Muslim Tatars, as well as other peaceful sectarians like the Dutch and Flemish Anabaptists. Unlike the Low Countries and most of western Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a “state without stakes,” and as such fittingly described as “God’s playground” ( note 1 ). In the view of 17th-century Dutch dramatist Joost van den Vondel, it was “the ‘Promised Land,’ where the refugee could forget all his sorrow and enjoy the richness of the land” ( note 2 ). Over the next two centuries an important strand of Mennonite life and spirituality evolved into a mature tradition in this relatively hospitable context ( note 3 ). Anabaptists from the Low Countries began to arrive in Danzig and region as early as 15...
Post a Comment
Read more