History of the Russian Mennonites

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 ...

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 ...

The surviving photographs of my great-grandfather Isbrand Janzen (b. 1863) consistently give profile to his cane. Our earliest photograph of Isbrand is about 1902, age 38 in Spat, Crimea. His cane or crutch is on prominent display and already part of his identity. He married late—age 32 in 1893; maybe because of his leg? His wife was the widow Elisabeth Plönnert Böse, and she brought three children into the marriage. In their fifth year of marriage the couple experienced a double grief: their two children died within nine days each other, ages 1½ and 3, January 1898 ( note 1 ). Both Isbrand and Elisabeth were born in the Molotschna Colony in the village of Petershagen; Elisabeth’s parents were more recent immigrants ( note 2 ). Isbrand’s grandfather was one of the pioneer settlers of the village. How and when Isbrand came to Crimea is unclear. In 1860 after the Crimean War, the Molotschna Colony purchased 40,000 desiatini of land in Crimea for a daughter colony. By the start of...

A deadly epidemic broke out in MCC’s new settlement in Fernheim, Paraguay in 1930. Settlers had been present for less than a year, and had recorded 20 births and 88 deaths by December 31 ( note 1 ). Health care remained a significant concern in Fernheim even after the epidemic was halted with the emergency medical intervention of Paraguayan military doctors. Mennonites were wholly responsible for their own health care. In 1933 and 1934 there was a malaria outbreak with 31 deaths and 30 deaths respectively, compared to 11 deaths in 1932 ( note 2 ). My father born in 1932 almost did not survive 1933: "He is very thin. It often seems to me that we will not be able to keep him by our side. He was such a happy and lively boy, but the illness has gone so far," my grandmother wrote family in Canada ( note 3 ). Early in 1934 the Fernheim Colony reported in the Germany Mennonite denominational paper that “the state of health leaves much to be desired. Malaria still hits the villages b...

In January 1930, the Mennonite Central Committee was scrambling to get 3,885 Mennonites out of Germany and settled somewhere fast. These refugees had fled via Moscow in December 1929, and Germany was willing only to serve as first transit stop ( note 1 ). Canada was very reluctant to take any German-speaking Mennonites—the Great Depression had begun and a negative memory of war resistance still lingered. In the end Canada took 1,344 Mennonites and the USA took none born in Russia. Paraguay was the next best option ( note 2 ). The German government preferred Brazil, but Brazil would not guarantee freedom from military service, which was a problem for American Mennonite financiers. There were already some conservative "cousins" from Manitoba in Paraguay who had negotiated with the government and learned through trial and error how to survive in the "Green Hell" of the Paraguayan Chaco. MCC with the assistance of a German aid organization purchased and distribute...

The first attached photo vividly depicts a meeting of conservative Mennonite elders in Saskatchewan and Manitoba in 1922 who intended to lead their communities to Paraguay. This was happening as hundreds of “Old Colony” Mennonites were leaving for Mexico. The “Old Colonists” from Manitoba’s West Reserve were in fact the first conservative Canadian Mennonites to scout out Paraguay for settlement land. In 1920 they were assisted in their search by New York financier and lawyer, General Samuel McRoberts, who had extensive holdings as well as political and business connections in Paraguay. The delegation travelled 90 km into the Chaco interior, west of the Paraguay River. They were however unimpressed with the land and ultimately recommended Mexico to their community ( note 1 ). Other conservative groups in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were however interested in sending their own scouts to assess the Chaco and the political climate in Paraguay vis-à-vis the list of privileges they were seek...

In February 1929—10 months before the “flight to Moscow" of thousands and the ensuing Mennonite refugee crisis—F. K. Hershey and A. Swartzentruber travelled to the colony of Canadian Mennonites in Gran Chaco, Paraguay to report to Mennonite Central Committee on conditions ( note 1 ). Below are some of the assumptions about the Indigenous Lengua people: "they own no land;" they "live on Mennonite land;" they are generously hard working for almost no pay; they have no culture. "... about 500 of the Lengua tribe Indians live on Mennonite land. They are a peaceable tribe and generally good workers. They work nine hours a day for the equivalent of 40 cents US. … they own no land live in huts made of weeds thrown over an extended limb of a tree … They are no trouble whatsoever to the Colonists, in fact they [the colonists] are glad for them, as the Indians are especially good at clearing off the land.” By January 1930 MCC was preparing to bring more than a t...