History of the Russian Mennonites

Chortitza was the first Mennonite settlement in "New Russia" (later Ukraine), est. 1789. The last Mennonites left in 1943 ( note 1 ). During the Stalin years in Ukraine (after 1928), marriage with Jewish neighbours—especially among better educated Mennonites in cities—had become somewhat more common. When the Germans arrived mid-August 1941, however, it meant certain death for the Jewish partner and usually for the children of those marriages. A family friend, Peter Harder, died in 2022 at age 96. Peter was born in Osterwick to a teacher and grew up in Chortitza. As a 16-year-old in 1942, Peter was compelled by occupying German forces to participate in the war effort. Ukrainians and Russians (prisoners of war?) were used by the Germans to rebuild the massive dam at Einlage near Zaporizhzhia, and Peter was engaged as a translator. In the next year he changed focus and started teachers college, which included significant Nazi indoctrination. In 2017 I interviewed Peter Ha...

The following is a Holocaust-related story of the South German Mennonites and Kristallnacht , the Night of Broken Glass, November 9/10, 1938. The well-known leader Prof. Benjamin H. Unruh, the representative of Russian Mennonites in Germany, is a key figure in the German churches at this time and also in this story ( note 1 ). The Night of Broken Glass occurred a week before the German national and religious holiday for “Prayer and Repentance” ( Buß- und Bettag ). The Conference of South German Mennonites met annually on this holiday at their Bible and retreat centre Thomashof in Baden. They come closest to what we might call “evangelical” Mennonites today, with an emphasis on personal piety, small groups and Bible study. On the night of November 9, 91 Jews were murdered across Germany. Jewish homes, stores and offices were vandalized, and 170 synagogues set aflame, including the synagogue in nearby Karlsruhe—Benjamin Unruh’s place of residence ( note 2 ). Three days later a decr...

In 2022 I asked Katharine Bräul Fast (b.1937), if she had any memories of Christmas 1944 in Warthegau--Nazi German annexed Poland. She turned 7 just before the Advent season began. The “1 millionth ethnic German” resettler in Warthegau had arrived earlier that year from the east, and to accommodate them hundreds of thousands of Warthegau’s Poles had been disenfranchised or removed, while 385,000 Jews from the region were placed in ghettos and eventually sent to concentration camps.  Katharine's family had been evacuated from German-occupied Ukraine together with some other 35,000 ethnic Mennonites. In March 1944 they were resettled in Waldtal/Schwarzerde in Warthegau, and here she had her first experience of school. Her teacher was a Mennonite, Aron Becker--now officially "Arnold," a non-Jewish sounding name--but by the Fall he too was conscripted. School continued, but she does not recall the details. They had a Christmas celebration in the school; she remembers walkin...