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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, 

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