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 at the “Deutsches Auslandsinstitut” (DAI) in Stuttgart.

With Germany’s occupation of Ukraine, Stump was commissioned by Alfred Rosenberg’s Reich Ministry for Occupied Lands of the East to create an official registry and historical overview of each occupied ethnic German village in Ukraine. A key ethnographic task of Stumpp’s commando was “to provide a genealogical and racial-biological assessment of the ethnic Germans in Ukraine.”

In 1942 administrators for “Special Commando Dr. Stumpp” entered Mennonite villages and, with the assistance of local ethnic German teachers and newly appointed officials, completed extensive questionnaires to document the population, history, and cultural and physical assets of each ethnic German village, including detailed registers of those who were deported, starved, and murdered in the 1930s.

The Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives) copies are in batches of multiple reports. The date given refers to the month the forms were drafted ("abgefaßt").

---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

Source: Karl Stumpp, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp.” Prepared for the German Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1942.

Adelsheim, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/621, Mappe 82, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, slide 712).
Alexanderfeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 48, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 258; slide 533).
Alexanderkrone (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 44, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 176; slide 357).
Altonau (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 38, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 313).
Blumenfeld, Rayon Nikopol, BA R6/622, Mappe 136, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 57; slide 114).
Blumengart, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 97, July 1942, (Bundesarchiv, slide 381).
Blumenhof (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/702, August 1942, Mappe 160 (Bundesarchiv).
Blumenort (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 47, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 236; slide 485).
Burwalde, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 98, June 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 405; slide 843).
Chortitza District (Summary for arrested, deported, in Red Army, families without head, mixed marriages, etc.) BA R6/626 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 49, slide 101).
Chortitza (Village), Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/621, Mappe 81, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 1).
Deutschendorf, Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 28, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv)
Dnjepropetrowsk, Petrikowka, Werchnja Dnjeprowsk (Berislav, Kherson), 10 village summaries, BA R6/626 (Bundesarchiv).
Eigengrund (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/623, Mappe 166, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Einlage, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/621, Mappe 83, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 415; slide 843).
Felsenbach (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/623, Mappe 127, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Franzfeld, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/621, Mappe 84, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 380; slide 780).
Friedensfeld, Rayon Nikopol, BA R6/622, Mappe 137, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 230).
Friedensfeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 46, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 211; slide 437).
Friesendorf, Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/623, Mappe 169, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv). (Previously a Jewish village, like Rotfeld)
Gnadenfeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 45, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 193; slide 401).
Gnadental (Baratov), Rayon Sofiejewka, BA R6/623, Mappe 182, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Grünfeld, Rayon Kriwoj-Rog, Dnjepropetrowsk, BA R6/624, Mappe 199, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 272)
Heuboden (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/623, Mappe 170, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Hindenburg (Kudaschewka), Rayon Boshedarowka, BA R6/623, Mappe: 192, June 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Hochfeld (Borosenko), Rayon Kriwoj-Rog, BA R6/624, Mappe 200, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, slide 399).
Hochfeld, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 85, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 1; slide 4).
Kathrinowka (Borosenko), Rayon Boshedarowka, BA R6/624, Mappe 193, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 4).
Kronsgarten (Chortiza), Rayon Dnjepropetrowsk, BA R6/703, Mappe 14, December 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Kronstal, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 99, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 441).
Kronsweide, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 86, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 322).
Lenintal (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/623, Mappe, 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Miloradowka (Borosenko), Rayon Boshedarovka, BA R6/706, Mappe 194, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv [scans start at 125 of 259]).
Münsterberg (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 50, June 1942 (Bundesarchiv, slide 655).
Neu-Chortitza (Baratov), Rayon Sofiejewka, BA R6/623, Mappe 184, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Neu-Halbstadt (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 35, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 203).
Neu-Schönsee (Sagradovka) Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 42, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 99; slide 190).
Neuenburg, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 87, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 352).
Neuendorf, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 88, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 89; slide 180).
Neuhorst, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 89, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 142).
Nieder Chortitza, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/705, Mappe 100, May 1942, (Bundesarchiv, sheet 1).
Nikolaifeld, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/705, Mappe [?], April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 44).
Nikolaifeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 39, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 348).
Nikolaital (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/702, Mappe 176, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Nikopol Gebiet (District). Population overview /totals for Blumenfeld, Friedensfeld, Katharinental, Nikopol (city), Steinau. BA R6/706 (Bundesarchiv).
Orloff (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 45, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 432).
Osterwick, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 107, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 189; slide 393).
Reinfeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 40, 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 416).
Rosenbach, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/705, Mappe 91, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, ssheet 81).
Rosenfeld (Borosenko) Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/702, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Rosengart, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 103, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 467).
Rosenort (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 36, February 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 231).
Rotfeld, Rayon Sofiejewka, BA R6/623, Mappe 185, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv) (Like Friesendorf, previously Jewish).
Schönau (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/620, Mappe 37, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 264).
Schöndorf (Borosenko), Rayon Friesendorf, BA R6/702, Mappe 180, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv).
Schöneberg, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 102, July 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 31; slide 65).
Schönhorst, Rayon Chortitza, BA R6/622, Mappe 92, May 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 159; slide 339).
Steinau, Rayon Nikopol, BA R6/622, Mappe 138, August 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 259). (See also Nikopol above).
Steinfeld (Borosenko), Rayon Kriwoj-Rog, BA R6/624, Mappe 207, April 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 629).
Steinfeld (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 43, March 1942 (Bundesarchiv, sheet 124; slide 248).
Tiege (Sagradovka), Rayon Kronau, BA R6/621, Mappe 49, 1942 (Bundesarchiv, slide 595).

---

To cite this page: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp, 1942: List and Links,” History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), August 7, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/08/village-reports-commando-dr-stumpp-1942.html.

Comments

Swiss and Palatinate Connections

Sometime after 1850 Andreas Plennert and his family immigrated to South Russia from the Culm Region of West Prussia. Though there was at least one Mennonite “Plehnert” who had already immigrated to Russia in 1793, it is not a very common Prussian-Russian Mennonite name. As such, however, it is easier to trace than many and offers a minority narrative and identity within the longer and broader Russian Mennonite story. The account below is adapted largely from information in Horst Penner, Die ost- und westpreußischen Mennoniten , vol. 1, though I have expanded upon his work to offer a slightly different narrative. In 1724 there was a group of Mennonites forced out of the Memel region in East Prussia for political and religious reasons and were given assistance to resettle back to West Prussia in areas populated by Mennonites. Among the 23 households that went to the Stuhm region there is one Plenert listed, namely Christian Plenert. We know that Mennonites entered the Memel region ...

Fraktur (or Gothic) font and Kurrent- (or Sütterlin) handwriting: Nazi ban, 1941

In the middle of the war on January 1, 1942, the Winnipeg-based Mennonitische Rundschau published a new issue without the familiar Fraktur script masthead ( note 1 ). One might speculate on the reasons, but a year earlier Hitler banned the use of the font in the Reich . The Rundschau did not exactly follow all orders from Berlin—the rest of the paper was in Fraktur (sometimes referred to as "Gothic"); when the war ended in 1945, the Rundschau reintroduced the Fraktur font for its masthead. It wasn’t until the 1960s that an issue might have a page or title here or there with the “normal” or Latin font, even though post-war Germany was no longer using Fraktur . By 1973 only the Rundschau masthead is left in Fraktur , and that is only removed in December 1992. Attached is a copy of Nazi Party Secretary Martin Bormann's official letter dated January 3, 1941, which prohibited the use of Fraktur fonts "by order of the Führer. " Why? It was a Jewish invention, apparent...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

Mennonite-Designed Mosque on the Molotschna

The “Peter J. Braun Archive" is a mammoth 78 reel microfilm collection of Russian Mennonite materials from 1803 to 1920 -- and largely still untapped by researchers ( note 1 ). In the files of Philipp Wiebe, son-in-law and heir to Johann Cornies, is a blueprint for a mosque ( pic ) as well as another file entitled “Akkerman Mosque Construction Accounts, 1850-1859” ( note 2 ). The Molotschna Mennonites were settlers on traditional Nogai lands; their Nogai neighbours were a nomadic, Muslim Tartar group. In 1825, Cornies wrote a significant anthropological report on the Nogai at the request of the Guardianship Committee, based largely on his engagements with these neighbours on Molotschna’s southern border ( note 3 ). Building upon these experiences and relationships, in 1835 Cornies founded the Nogai agricultural colony “Akkerman” outside the southern border of the Molotschna Colony. Akkerman was a projection of Cornies’ ideal Mennonite village outlined in exacting detail, with un...

Mennonites in Danzig's Suburbs: Maps and Illustrations

Mennonites first settled in the Danzig suburb of Schottland (lit: "Scotland"; “Stare-Szkoty”; also “Alt-Schottland”) in the mid-1500s. “Danzig” is the oldest and most important Mennonite congregation in Prussia. Menno Simons visited Schottland and Dirk Phillips was its first elder and lived here for a time. Two centuries later the number of families from the suburbs of Danzig that immigrated to Russia was not large: Stolzenberg 5, Schidlitz 3, Alt-Schottland 2, Ohra 1, Langfuhr 1, Emaus 1, Nobel 1, and Krampetz 2 ( map 1 ). However most Russian Mennonites had at least some connection to the Danzig church—whether Frisian or Flemish—if not in the 1700s, then in 1600s. Map 2 is from 1615; a larger number of Mennonites had been in Schottland at this point for more than four decades. Its buildings are not rural but look very Dutch urban/suburban in style. These were weavers, merchants and craftsmen, and since the 17th century they lived side-by-side with a larger number of Jews a...

"Motherhood of the People": Halbstadt Midwife Helene Berg and the SS

Recently Benjamin Goossen posted an important piece on the “well-known” Halbstadt midwife Helene Berg. Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler had taken a special interest in “old Mrs. Berg” and had publicly recognized her for helping birth some 8,000 Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) babies ( note 1 ). Goossen and I have shared archival materials in the past years. Below I would like to continue the exploration of Taunte Bojsche (or "Aunt Berg") and the surprisingly broad interest in her by Nazi officials as icon. I begin with a family story as a window onto the times. Some 35,000 Mennonites were evacuated out of German-occupied Ukraine in Fall 1943. After a grueling trek west the survivors landed in German-annexed Wartheland (previously Poland) where they were naturalized as German citizens. My grandmother Helene Bräul had eight children, and Helene Berg may very well have been her midwife for one or more of them. Like many Mennonite mothers in Wartheland, my grandmother was ...

Invitation to the Russian Consulate, Danzig, January 19, 1788

B elow is one of the most important original Mennonite artifacts I have seen. It concerns January 19. The two land scouts Jacob Höppner and Johann Bartsch had returned to Danzig from Russia on November 10, 1787 with the Russian Immigration Agent, Georg von Trappe. Soon thereafter, Trappe had copies of the royal decree and agreement (Gnadenbrief) printed for distribution in the Flemish and Frisian Mennonite congregations in Danzig and other locations, dated December 29, 1787 ( see pic ; note 1 ). After the flyer was handed out to congregants in Danzig after worship on January 13, 1788, city councilors made the most bitter accusations against church elders for allowing Trappe and the Russian Consulate to do this; something similar had happened before ( note 2 ). In the flyer Trappe boasted that land scouts Höppner and Bartsch met not only with Gregory Potemkin, Catherine the Great’s vice-regent and administrator of New Russia, but also with “the Most Gracious Russian Monarch” herse...

Jews and Mennonites Together in Danzig's Suburbs

There has been very little reflection on the relationship of Jews and Mennonites in the suburb of Schottland (or Alt-Schottland or Stare Szkoty) where Mennonites first settled in the mid-1500s. Here Mennonites and Jews lived in the small community together for two centuries, quite literally on the margins outside the gates of the city of Danzig. Many historic maps that include Alt Schottland have become available in recent years ( note 1; pic ). H.G. Mannhardt’s book on the Danzig Mennonite church community plus some archival membership lists are our best sources for the Mennonite experience, while illustrations from the day bring many of those episodes of prosperity, repressions, war, plague, emigration, flooding etc. in an urban environment to life ( note 2 ). Peter J. Klassen’s writings on Mennonites in Poland and Prussia also present newer research on Mennonite life in and around Danzig in helpful ways ( note 3 ). There is one small sentence in Klassen’s larger volume that sugg...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog