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

1929 Flight of Mennonites to Moscow and Reception in Germany

At the core of the attached video are some thirty photos of Mennonite refugees arriving from Moscow in 1929 which are new archival finds. While some 13,000 had gathered in outskirts of Moscow, with many more attempting the same journey, the Soviet Union only released 3,885 Mennonite "German farmers," together with 1,260 Lutherans, 468 Catholics, 51 Baptists, and 7 Adventists. Some of new photographs are from the first group of 323 refugees who left Moscow on October 29, arriving in Kiel on November 3, 1929. A second group of photos are from the so-called “Swinemünde group,” which left Moscow only a day later. This group however could not be accommodated in the first transport and departed from a different station on October 31. They were however held up in Leningrad for one month as intense diplomatic negotiations between the Soviet Union, Germany and also Canada took place. This second group arrived at the Prussian sea port of Swinemünde on December 2. In the next ten ...

Plague and Pestilence in Danzig, 1709

Russian and Prussian Mennonites trace at least 200 years of their story through Danzig and Royal Prussia, where episodes of plague and pestilence were not unfamiliar ( note 1 ). Mennonites arrived primarily from the Low Countries and in large numbers in the middle of the 16th century—approximately 750 families or 3,000 refugees and settlers between 1527 and 1578 to Danzig and Royal Prussia ( note 2 ). At this time Danzig was undergoing tremendous demographic, cultural and economic transformation, almost tripling in population in less than 100 years. With 80% of Poland’s foreign trade handled through this port city ( note 3 ), Danzig saw the arrival of new people from across Europe, many looking to find work in the crammed and bustling city ( note 4 ). Maria Bogucka’s research on Danzig in this era brings the streets of the maritime city to life: “Sanitation facilities were inadequate … The level of personal hygiene was low. Most people lived close together: five or six to a room, sle...

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 ...

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...

“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 ...

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 ...

Ukraine Independence--Russian Aggression--German Interests (1918)

The semi-autonomous Ukrainian People's Republic was established shortly after Russia's February Revolution in 1917. Much was still fluid, however. After the October Bolshevik Revolution the Central Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv declared full state independence from the Russian Republic on January 22, 1918. The Ukrainian People's Republic negotiated an end to its participation in Great War, and on February 9, 1918 signed a protectorate treaty in Brest-Litovsk. On February 17, Ukraine appealed to Germany and Austria-Hungary for assistance to repel Russian Bolshevik “invaders,” to detach Ukraine from Russia, and to establish conditions of stability. The World War had not yet ended. Imperialist Germany was desperate for grain and natural resources from Ukraine, eager to end the war in the east while containing Russia, and determined to establish post-war markets for German goods, technologies and influence ( note 1 ). For its part the Russian Bolshevik regime was eager to save ...

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...

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...

The Selbstschutz (Self-Defence Units) and Benjamin H. Unruh

Abram Kröker, editor of the Molotschna (South Russia/ Ukraine) -based Mennonite Friedensstimme , wrote that Mennonites are “predestined to foreshadow … even in an imperfect way, the great peace among nations in the Thousand-Year-Reign [of Christ].” And among all denominations, “it has pleased God,” according to Kröker, to “present and manifest” through the Mennonites this “pearl of evangelical truth gained at great cost by our fathers” ( note 1 ). And it is because of this theological hope and inheritance that “our youth are raised differently,” Kröker reminded his readers; “not military bravery or fighting are presented as the highest civic virtues, but rather sacrifice, suffering and renunciation for the sake of others. In all our schools, non-resistance is explicitly taught and impressed [upon students] according to the Mennonite catechism” ( note 2 ). But taking up arms in self-defence was nuanced differently by his colleague and influential 37-year-old teacher and theologian Benja...

History of the Russian Mennonites

Search This Blog