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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 had a list of 3,000 emigrants finalized with exit visas who were prepared to leave. The previous year Janz had persuaded authorities in Kharkiv that a limited group emigration of “starving people” and “undesirables” (i.e., the formerly wealthy) would “substantially benefit” the rural areas and enable economic to begin (note 2).

The door was open but the plan still required capital. In Spring 1923 the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization reduced its goal of capitalization to $1 million and made the corporation a non-profit charitable organization (note 3). Still there was little appetite in southern Manitoba and in the USA. In May 1923 H. H. Ewert (conference leader in Gretna, MB; school principal and inspector) recommended letting the 3,000 applicants come that summer on the Canadian Pacific Railway credit, and the rest could come to Mexico later where land and settlement costs would be cheaper (note 4). David Toews and the Canadian Board of Colonization however pushed ahead.

MCC’s executive secretary and treasurer Levi Mumaw could report in 1923 that “43,000 out of the total 95,000 Mennonites in Russia have [already] registered themselves as anxious to leave at the earliest opportunity” (note 5). On the ground the selection process for who could leave in 1923 (and later) and who would need to wait was not transparent. It did however require health exams, and a family had to have the skills to farm in Canada, and references. Some form of community vote was also necessary (note 6).

“Dr. Buettner wants to have a look at all the prospective emigrants. … The Americans [sic] only want people who are able to work. Every emigrating family must therefore not only have two special references, but also the vote of the community. If 75 percent vouch for the family, it goes; if less, it has to stay behind. Five families have been struck from the list in this way.” (Note 7)

On June 22, 1923 the first group left Chortitza for Alexandrovsk, and on July 13 David Toews received a cable from England that the group had left Southampton on the Empress of France for Canada.

But in the midst of that larger good news story, many families were shocked at Riga when another medical examination by Canadian doctors became unavoidable. Hundreds failed and learnt that they could not proceed--and could in fact be turned back.

On August 2, B.B. Janz sent an urgent cable via German diplomatic mail to Benjamin Unruh in Germany informing him of the “catastrophe” at the over-capacity facilities in Riga; Janz feared the whole emigration movement was again at risk.

Unruh had a reputation for moving mountains. In cooperation with the Deutsche Mennoniten-Hilfe (note 8), Unruh convinced the German government to allow 1,500 Mennonite transmigrants to be housed at Lechfeld (Bavaria) to receive medical care until they were ready to proceed to Canada (note 9). German Mennonites had already been actively hosting “refugees” (vs. transmigrants) who had escaped via Crimea and Constantinople and were in Lechfeld since 1921.

The Mennonite Church’s Gospel Herald reported on September 13:

“Of the full quota of 3,000, as per the contract with the CPR Co. about 400 were rejected after they left Russia and could not be admitted into Canada. Therefore arrangements were made to care for them at Lechfeld, Germany, to which place they were sent. There are no available funds there to provide them with necessary food and clothing. An appeal has been sent by Bro. D. M. Hofer, a former worker in Russian Relief who is now in Germany, that we set apart some funds for their care for the present in Germany. Arrangements have been made to forward $1,000 at once and call for further donations for the work.” (Note 10)

A few months later Unruh wrote: “Of the 255 people in Lechfeld, we were able to move 232, and of the refugees (we distinguish them from the transmigrants) about 150. There is a lot of work, you can imagine. ..." (note 11).

In November 1923 Levi Mumaw reported that “there are about 420 Russian refugees on the Lechfeld in Germany who are depending on American Mennonites for support. They are awaiting permission to emigrate to Canada but may be detained there for the winter” (note 12).

Some years later Unruh recalled: In 1923, out of 3,000 emigrants, no less than 657 who had been deferred by Canadian doctors in Riga and Southampton were taken to the Lechfeld camp and treated there for their final emigration to Canada” (note 13).

It was clear that tens of thousands more Mennonites wished to leave. With the first group safely in Canada, B.B. Janz wrote Unruh: “the people have had enough. Now after they have seen a few leave they only want to depart. … The people are not concerned about the precious articles they leave behind, even if they must depart poor and naked” (note 14).

A year later in 1924 the Gospel Herald reported that the CMBofC signed a new contract April 14, 1924 with the CPR for another 5,000 immigrants and “after considerable difficulty two physicians entered Russia in order to make the necessary physical examinations before the prospective immigrants embarked. On their way to Russia these doctors stopped at Lechfeld to examine those who are detained there. 27 of these were given a clean bill of health. 68 are still remaining in Lechfeld” (note 15).

Between July 1923 and summer of 1926 when the Lecheld transit camp closed, Peter Letkemann estimates that “thousands” of Mennonite transmigrants from the USSR to Canada were temporarily housed at the camp (note 16).

As Mennonites celebrate 100 years since the release and settlements of thousands, it is important to recall not only that thousands more had wished to leave but could not, but that hundred who made it as far as Riga were almost turned back if not for the supportive role of the Germany and the support at the Lechfeld transit camp.

        ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: Cf. Benjamin H. Unruh to District Advisor (Gebietsreferent) for Latin America, [Ernst G.] Kienitz, Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland, December 3, 1938 (B. H. Unruh Nachlaß, Box 3, File 18; undated fragment, pp. 3-5, Mennonitische Forschungsstelle Weierhof (hereafter MFStW). Note: Missing 2 pages are in File 13, December 3, 1938, Unruh to Volksbund f. d. Deutschtum im Ausland.

Note 2: John B. Toews, The Lost Fatherland: The Story of the Mennonite Emigration from Soviet Russia, 1921–1927 (Scottdale, PA: Herald, 1967), 132f.; 140; https://archive.org/details/lostfatherlandst0000toew. Cf. “Minutes of the Union Board Meeting, May 7–8, 1924” in John B. Toews and Paul Toews, Union of Citizens of Dutch Lineage in Ukraine (1922–1927): Mennonite and Soviet Documents, translated by J. B. Toews, O. Shmakina, and W. Regehr (Fresno, CA: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, 2011), 215f.; also “Resolution of the Verband on emigration, Feb. 26–28, 1925,” ibid., 220f., https://archive.org/details/unionofcitizenso0000unse.

Note 3: Cf. David Toews to W. H. Ewert, May 1, 1923, letter, from Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College (MLA-B), MS 6, folder “General Correspondence 1922, May to September,” https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_6/024%20General%20correspondence%201922%20May-September/183.jpg.

Note 4: H. H. Ewert to Wilhelm J. Ewert, May 18, 1923, letter, from MLA-B, MS 6, folder “General Correspondence 1923, January to June,” https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_6/026%20General%20correspondence%201923%20January-June/140.jpg.

Note 5: Gospel Herald 16, no. 33 (November 15, 1923), 680, https://archive.org/details/gospelherald192316kauf/page/680/mode/2up.

Note 6: James Urry, “After the rooster crowed: Some issues concerning the interpretation of Mennonite/ Bolshevik relations during the early Soviet period,” Journal of Mennonite Studies 13 (1995), 45 n.9, https://jms.uwinnipeg.ca/index.php/jms/article/view/442.

Note 7: Diary of Anna Baerg, 1916–1924, translated and edited by Gerald Peters (Winnipeg, MB: CMBC Publications, 1985), 112.

Note 8: On Lechfeld, see: Harold Bender’s article on “Lechfeld” in GAMEO, https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Lechfeld_(Freistaat_Bayern,_Germany); Peter Letkemann, “Mennonite Refugee Camps in Germany, 1921-1951: Part I – Lager Lechfeld,” Mennonite Historian 38, no. 3, 2012, https://www.mennonitehistorian.ca/38.3.MHSep12.pdf; Peter Letkemann, “The Mennonite Refugee Effort in Lager Lechfeld, 1921-1926: Beating Swords into Plowshares?,” Mennonite Quarterly Review, 90, no. 3 (July 2016), 277-306; also Deutsche Mennoniten-Hilfe, ihre Entstehung und Arbeitsgebiete (Oberursel, 1924), 24-28, https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/books/1924,%20Deutsche%20Mennonitenhilfe/. For articles in the Mennonitische Rundschau that reference Lechfeld, see: https://archive.org/details/pub_die-mennonitische-rundschau?tab=collection&query=lechfeld&sin=TXT&sort=date.

Note 9: Cf. also Benjamin H. Unruh, Memorandum to Military Government at Buchen/Baden, July 20, 1945, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_295/folder_14/SKMBT_C35107061313230_0005.jpg; also Mennonitische Rundschau 46, no. 49 (December 5, 1923), 10, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1923-12-05_46_49/page/10/mode/2up?q=lechfeld.

Note 10: Gospel Herald 16, no. 24 (September 13, 1923), 504, https://archive.org/details/gospelherald192316kauf/page/504/mode/2up.

Note 11: Mennonitische Rundschau 46, no. 49 (December 5, 1923), 10, https://archive.org/details/sim_die-mennonitische-rundschau_1923-12-05_46_49/page/10/mode/2up?q=lechfeld.

Note 12: Gospel Herald 16, no. 33 (November 15, 1923), 680, https://archive.org/details/gospelherald192316kauf/page/680/mode/2up.

Note 13: Cf. Unruh to Kienitz, Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland.

Note 14: Cited in J. Toews, Lost Fatherland, 138.

Note 15: The Mennonite 39, no. 34, August 28, 1924, 8, https://archive.org/details/mennonite39unse_0/page/n142/mode/1up?q=lechfeld.

Note 16: Cf. Letkemann, “The Mennonite Refugee Effort in Lager Lechfeld,” 305.

---

To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “1923 Mennonite immigrants 'kept behind': Lechtfeld (Bavaria) transit camp,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), July 26, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/07/1923-mennonite-immigrants-kept-behind.html.


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