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.
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 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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