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

Life in Exin, 1944: German-Occupied Poland

After the 1943-44 portion of the Great Trek ended with settlement of some 35,000 Mennonites in German-annexed Poland, the Gnadenfeld area trek members were scattered in resettler camps ( Umsiedler-Lager ) around Exin ( Kcynia ) and the Altburgund District administrative centre of Dietfurt ( Żnin ), including the hamlets of Kiefernrode ( Słupowiec ), Schwarzerde ( Malice ), Schmiedebach, etc. ( note 1) . Until World War I, the area was part of the German-Prussian Province of Posen, about 170 kilometres south-west of Danzig ( Gdańsk ) and about 400 kilometres east of Berlin. Almost all ethnic German resettlers from Ukraine arrived through Litzmannstadt (Łódź), one of two entrance points from the east into new German province of “Warthegau” ( note 2) . Here thousands were cleansed, deloused and processed daily. Some Gnadenfeld group members were brought to Janowitz (Janowiec) , near Hermannsbad in the District of Hohensalza for quarantine. Here fresh straw was laid out on the floor for ...

More Royal News! Mennonites give gifts of “Oxen, Butter, Ducks, Hens & Cheese” to new King (1772)

What do Mennonites offer a new king? The ritual ceremonies of homage to a new European king—as we see on TV these days--are ancient. Exactly 250 years yesterday, Frederick the Great became king over Mennonites in the Vistula River Delta where most of our ancestors lived. Here is how that played out. On May 31, 1772, Heinrich Donner was elected elder of the Orlofferfelde Mennonite Church, 25 km north of Marienburg Castle in Polish-Prussia; thankfully he kept a diary ( note 1 ). Only a few months later the weak Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth collapsed and was partitioned by powerful, land-hungry neighbours: Austria, Prussia and Catherine the Great’s empire. In the preceding decades Mennonites had lived with significant autonomy, felt secure under the Polish crown and could appeal to the king for protection . Now some 2,638 Mennonite families were under Prussian rule. Frederick II took possession of his new lands on September 13, and then invited four persons of nobility plus clergy from ...

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...

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...

From USSR to Cherrywood Station: Mennonites winter in Markham-Stouffville, 1924

On September 26, 1924, 126 Russian Mennonite passengers disembarked the S. S. Melita at Quebec City ( note 1 ). They were among some 20,000 Mennonites who could immigrate to Canada from the Soviet Union in the 1920s. A number of these families received train cards to Cherrywood (Pickering) and Locust Hill (Markham) stations, where they were received by Markham area Mennonites. The Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (CMBC) registration forms record each family's travel dates as well as their "first place of arrival" in Canada. The attached artifacts—a few pages from the financial records booklet kept by Markham-Stouffville treasurer J. L. Grove, plus some correspondence—profile concretely the level of support of this community north-east of Toronto for co-religionists fleeing the Soviet Union. Mennonites in Ontario had been well informed of the relief needs in Russia since 1921 and plans for mass immigration ( note 2 ). In April 1924 the local Stouffville Tribune ...

“The way is finally open”—Russian Mennonite Immigration, 1922-23

In a highly secretive meeting in Ohrloff, Molotschna on February 7, 1922, leaders took a decision to work to remove the entire Mennonite population of some 100,000 people out of the USSR—if at all possible ( note 1 ). B.B. Janz (Ohrloff) and Bishop David Toews (Rosthern, SK) are remembered as the immigration leaders who made it possible to bring some 20,000 Mennonites from the Soviet Union to Canada in the 1920s ( note 2 ). But behind those final numbers were multiple problems. In August 1922, an appeal was made by leaders to churches in Canada and the USA: “The way is finally open, for at least 3,000 persons who have received permission to leave Russia … Two ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway are ready to sail from England to Odessa as soon as the cholera quarantine is lifted. These Russian [Mennonite] refugees are practically without clothing … .” ( Note 3 ) Notably at this point B. B. Janz was also writing Toews, saying that he was utterly exhausted and was preparing to ...

A-Cases and O-Cases. After the Trek, 1944

Some 35,000 Mennonites evacuated from Ukraine by the retreating Reich German military in 1943-44 applied for naturalization /citizenship once in German-annexed Poland (mostly Warthegau). The applications made through the “EWZ” ( Einwandererzentralstelle ) are easy to attain today ( note 1 ). Much information may be new and useful for families; however just as much is disturbing, including the racial assessments, categorization, and separation of so-called “A-cases” from “O-cases.” What are they? The EWZ files contain the application for naturalization made by the head of a family unit, the certificate of naturalization, and sometimes correspondence/ claims regarding property and possessions left behind in Ukraine. Each form contains information about the applicant’s spouse and children, as well as a genealogy listing parents and grandparents, and those of their spouse as well; racial background is calculated by percentage (!). Applicants were asked about their citizenship, their e...

Outrage in Canada: Ukrainian in Waffen-SS honoured in Parliament. Mennonite Connections

As an historic peace church, Russian Mennonite congregations in Canada never celebrated “their veterans” who had volunteered with the Waffen-SS or Wehrmacht in complex times; hundreds did however volunteer to protect and defend their corner of Ukraine from a new era of Moscow-based Bolshevism. Some later self-identified as "The Lost Generation." German Prussian Mennonites in contrast understood that heritage differently and celebrated the “Heroes' Day Memorial” service anually until 1945. After 1945 Germany appropriately renamed their remembrance day as Volkstrauertag —the People’s Day of Mourning ( note 1 ). Many descendents live in Canada. A parallel Ukrainian story made the news in Canada in September 2023. The Speaker of the House of Commons invited a 98-year-old Ukrainian-Canadian war veteran to a joint session of Parliament for the visit and address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on September 22. Without good vetting by the Speaker, the guest was laud...

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...

“German Days” on the Prairie, 1930s

Recently an acquaintance shared a photo from a Saskatchewan picnic, likely from the late 1930s. Twenty-seven individuals, children, parents and grandparents, are dressed in festive but comfortable clothing. The group includes her grandparents—both children of Mennonites who came to the US from Russia in the 1870s—and other relatives and friends. In the middle of the photograph, spread out like a picnic blanket, is a large swastika flag with the iron cross—the symbol of the German veterans’ association ( Deutscher Reichskriegerbund ; note 1 ); a young boy holds one corner of the flag. There are good reasons to think that this photo was taken at “German Day” ( Deutscher Tag ) celebrations, which were held annually in the 1930s in each prairie province. Saskatchewan German Day rallies rotated annually between Regina and Saskatoon, between seeding and harvest time. Its first gathering was in 1930 which drew some 4,000 attendees ( note 2 ). In 1932, six months before Hitler’s seizure of pow...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog