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"Haste is Necessary!": Ukrainian Famine, 1933/34, and Canadian Mennonite Aid

It is a largely unwritten story—the massive Mennonite food aid sent to the USSR from Canada and the United States during the great famine in Ukraine, 1933 (note 1). The the following materials were photographed at the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg 

In a previous post, I examined a selection of thousands of petition letters sent to Mennonite offices from Ukraine (mostly), begging family, friends and co-religionists generally to help with food, lest they perish (note 2).

Between January and April 1933, for example, the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBC) received over 7,000 letters such letters. It was stunning for me to find a letter by my grandmother’s sister in the mix; if she and her family were starving in Schardau, I know my grandparents and their children would have been at the edge in Marienthal as well.

But the real alarm bells went off on February 15, 1933 with a telegram to David Toews (CMBC chair) in Rosthern from Benjamin Unruh in Germany. Unruh wrote:

“A shocking report has just come in. Molotschna has been hit by famine. Without miraculous help, everyone will starve to death in a very short time. The situation is more hopeless than in 1921. I am negotiating in Berlin. Mobilize the widest circles. Keep me informed. Give order. --Unruh.”

Unruh sent a copy to American Mennonites as well; Toews was on a train to Vancouver, but received the messages upon arrival.

His response was immediate.

“I am here in Vancouver on my way to Yarrow … and have just received the following telegram from Brother Benjamin Unruh, Germany. … What we were fearing is now happening: our people in Russia have been abandoned to starvation. Would that we would all do our utmost to save as many as possible! Haste is necessary! Gather whatever you can and send it in, it will all be forwarded immediately.”

Toews sent the urgent call to action via telegram that very same day, February 16, to Unruh in Germany, to the treasurer of the General Conference Mennonite Church in Kansas; to the Mennonite Brethren and Old Mennonite Church leadership; to the MCC executive, as well as to six different church papers.

Six days later Toews’ cabled message was on page 1 of the February 22, 1933 issue of the Mennonitische Rundschau. “Haste is necessary!”

In the meantime Unruh was meeting with the highest levels of the new German government, and on March 7 he shared the stunning news that:

“… delivery of rye for the entire population of German settlements in Ukraine is possible on the basis of repayable advances to denominational aid organizations. There is rye stored in southern Russian ports and belongs to the Reich, which they can offer to aid organizations for sixty marks per ton without freight and shipping costs if the church promised to pay off the debt. In view of the dire need, may I accept such an offer from Berlin on behalf of the Mennonite World Organization in the range of seventy-five to one hundred thousand dollars?

Distribution will take place under the direction of the Reich in connection with our local organization. … Communicate among yourselves by phone and send me an order immediately – Address: Hotel Stuttgarter Hof, Anhalter Strasse, Berlin.

Keep matter strictly confidential within executive. Avoid publicity until I report. –Unruh”

Again Toews does not hesitate or flinch at the large dollars involved. The next day (March 8) he cabled Unruh: “If aid to starving Mennonites can be secured, then we support proposed plan.” - Toews.”

On that day (March 8) Unruh helped to organize a high-level meeting of the German Red Cross and with Catholic and Lutheran representatives. The minutes make clear that Unruh is the guiding force in the room; the strategy received strong support of the regime-friendly German Red Cross and the umbrella agency, Brothers in Need. All donations from abroad would go through the Berlin shipping agency Fast & Briliant, who could ensure that every specific money donation reached its intended address in Ukraine (i.e., as a food aid package to be picked up at a government Torgsin foreign currency store, e.g., in Melitopol or Berdjansk).

Packages began to flow in larger numbers, even as special negotiations between the German Red Cross with Moscow (e.g., regarding the rye grain) continued. Hundreds of donors are listed in almost each issue of the Rundschau.

On May 21, 1933, Unruh cabled Toews: “Just received news that Torgsin [foreign currency stores] not averse to wholesale sale [of rye]. Inform states. Still avoid press. I am negotiating for the advance. Collect as much as you can. –Unruh.”

One month later, on June 29, 1933, the Mennonite Board in the USA cabled Toews to say that Unruh had cabled to inform that the German Brothers in Need aid organization “has begun a large-scale relief operation.” “Brothers in Need” was chaired by the German Red Cross and Benjamin Unruh sat on its board.

But there was more. Upon the recommendation of his Foreign Ministry, the new German Reich Chancellor and Führer Adolf Hitler donated 1,000 Reich Marks (RM) to “Brothers in Need” as one of his first official acts.

On July 15, the German Red Cross wrote to the new German leader:

“The fact that the Reich Chancellor and Fnhrer has placed himself at the head of the relief organization with a considerable sum of money will cheer the readiness of all Germans within the borders of the Reich to also give. Moreover, it will give a ray of hope to the hundreds of thousands of German Volk comrades far away—in Ukraine, Molotschna, Crimea, Caucasus and on the Volga—to be assured of your personal knowledge and readiness to help in their desolate misery. May I therefore thank you—also in the name of these hundreds of thousands.” (Note 3)

Hitler's regime had its own reasons for supporting "Germans abroad" and highlighting their misery on the international stage. Unruh was in factlisted as one of the representatives recommended by the Foreign Ministry to greet Hitler, though Hitler’s schedule apparently did not allow for the meeting. Unruh was not politically naive either. Sometime before January 1933, he had become a financial supporter both of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) and the right wing German National People’s Party (note 4).

In August Unruh wrote his counterparts in USA and Canada.

“Dear brothers! We continue to achieve more with Moscow. I know that a 25% discount was granted for the rye flour campaign, so that the rye flour prices will be below the retail prices in Berlin as communicated in my last longer report.

I have that sent an article to Editor [Dietrich] Epp [Der Bote], which will be published as soon as I telegraph and give a green light. The contract however must first be signed with Moscow. … The Moscow Torgsin headquarters has generally granted a strong discount on a wide variety of goods. .. For now a very interesting message from Berlin regarding the Torgsin packets. I enclose Mr. Fast's letter under number 341; It speaks for itself. Perhaps it would be good if you, dear Brother Toews, announced in the Canadian papers that the Moscow Torgsin 'Package A' is no longer RM [Reich Marks] 11.50, as the latest prospectus stated, but only RM 9.50; 'Package B' is now RM 14, instead of RM 18.50; 'Package C,' RM. 19, instead of RM 22.”

Again on September 10, 1933 Unruh cabled Toews with more good news. “Unexpected large new price reduction achieved with Torgsin. Report to follow. Inform USA. – Unruh”.

In 1933 Mennonites in Canada donated $21,377 for this effort. Donations went through the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization, and Toews then forwarded this money to Unruh in Germany.

The scheme had a verifiable high success rate; families in Ukraine sent letters of gratitude through Fast and Briliant to indicate that they had received the food aid packages. In this way, thousands of Mennonite families were saved from starvation in the great Ukrainian famine of 1933 to 1934—including my own.

Colin Neufeldt’s conclusion is fair—though the context was very complex.

“Although Unruh made use of various German and later Nazi agencies such as ‘Brüder in Not’ in coordinating his relief campaigns, political motivations did not play a large role in his relief work; his only concern was to provide food and money to his CO-religionists in the USSR, an activity that he and other Mennonite relief agencies, had been involved with since the late 1920s.” (Note 5)

With regard to the Canadian effort, there is still much write (note 6). While reviewing the cables first-hand, I was struck to see how such a large relief actions with excellent outcomes could be launched within days. Mennonites had strong connections; letters were not only going to Berlin and Moscow, but also to Ottawa and Washington. Complicated politics are part of any global Mennonite story. Moreover, this story shows how struggling Canadian Mennonite farmers were willing to give sacrificially even as the depression set in. Together, Mennonites moved mountains.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

---Notes---

Note 1: For a good start, see Colin Neufeldt, “The Fate of Mennonites in Ukraine and the Crimea during Soviet Collectivization and the Famine (1930–33),” PhD dissertation, University of Alberta, 1999, 243-248, 

Note 2: See previous post, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/01/ukrainian-famine-and-genocide-holodomor.html. The telegrams referenced in this post come from the Mennonite Heritage Archives in Winnipeg, vol. 1315, Unruh Correspondence, Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization.

Note 3: Cf. German Red Cross President to the Reich Chancellor (Hitler), July 15, 1933, “Die deutschstämmigen Kolonisten in Rußland,” November 1929–Februar 1935, p. 192, Auswärtige Angelegenheiten, Bundesarchiv BA R 43-I/141, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/8d143551-e334-41f1-aba3-0d630992139b. Cf. e.g., Ewald Ammende, “Eine Pflicht der Nation. Zur Tragödie des Rußlanddeutschtums,” Rigaschen Rundschau, Erste Beilage, no. 54 (March 8, 1934); “Der Untergang der deutschen Bauern in Rußland”—state press directive for June 30, 1933 in N-S Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit, I:1933, edited by Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert (New York: Saur, 1984), 45. Herr Stieve, German Foreign Affairs to the State Secretary for the Reich Chancellory, June 22, 1933, “Die deutschstämmigen Kolonisten in Rußland,” R 43-I/141, 185, BArch.

Note 4: “Fragebogen zur Bearbeitung des Aufnahmeantrages für die Reichsschriftumskammer,” Oct. 7, 1937, submitted by B. Unruh, MS 416, Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, KS, https://mla.bethelks.edu/archives/ms_416/unruh_harder_quiring_berlin_docs/SKMBT_C35108031809530_0001.jpg.

Note 5: C. Neufeldt, “The Fate of Mennonites in Ukraine and the Crimea,” 248.

Note 6: Very little of this story is told in Frank H. Epp's Mennonites in Canada, 1920–1940: A People’s Struggle for Survival (Toronto: MacMillan, 1982), https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/ca.grebel/files/uploads/files/mic_iir_0.pdf,, or in Helmut Harder's biography, David Toews was here, 1870–1947 (Winnipeg, MB: CMU, 2006), https://www.cmu.ca/docs/cmupress/CMU-David-Toews-was-Here.pdf. 

---
To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “'Haste is Necessary!': Ukrainian Famine, 1933/34, and Canadian Mennonite Aid,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), July 25, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/07/haste-is-necessary-ukrainian-famine.html. 

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