June 2003 GRHS News.pub - GRHS Home Page

German German Letter Letter Translations Translations on on Otto 

Otto 

by Roger Ehrich 

There has been much interest in translations of letters that have appeared in the 

German-Russian newspapers such as Eureka Rundschau, Dakota Freie Presse, 

and Der Staats-Anzeiger. These newspapers have published thousands of letters 

from writers both in North America and overseas. GRHS has established a 

working group dedicated to the translation and publication of these letters. Key to 

the effort is a retrieval system that makes it easy to retrieve letters from the 

archive by writer, year, writer location, subject, and by surnames referenced in 

the letters. 

The letter archive is member-accessible from the Archives page of the GRHS 

website, http://www.grhs.org/docs/letters.html. The archive already contains 

several hundred letters and is targeted to hold at least 10,000. 

In the archive you will find a search form. Terms entered into the fields will cause 

returned letters to be restricted to the specified terms. For example, if you enter 

Stroh into the writer field and politics into the topics field you would get all the 

letters written by Stroh which addressed politics. To find out which writers have 

submitted letters and what terms are valid for the other fields, the lexicons for 

each of these categories can be viewed by clicking on them beneath the form. A 

special page explains which topics are supported in the archive: 

http://www.grhs.org/docs/lettertopics.html 

If you have translated letters that you would like to contribute to the archive, or if 

you would like to help translate and format letters for the archive, please contact 

Roger Ehrich or the webmaster. Letters are formatted in html according to the 

format given in http://www.grhs.org/docs/formatting.html. 

Current members of the letters group are: 

Ed Bischoff Roger Ehrich Jim Gessele 

Irma Katz Margaret Rehwalt Mike Rempfer 

Curt Renz Dale Wahl Elli Wise 

Inside Inside This This Issue Issue 

Issue 

GRHS GRHS Headquarters Headquarters Need Need Need List List List 

6 

Family Family Query Query 

9 

Chapter Chapter News 

News 

Volume Volume 2003, 2003, Issue Issue 2 2 

June June 2003 

2003 

10 

Germans Germans from from Russia 

Russia 

Heritage Heritage Society 

Society 

1125 West Turnpike Ave 

Bismarck, ND 58501-8115 

Telephone: 

(701) 223-6167 

Internet Addresses: 

Headquarters: 

rachel@grhs.org 

Heritage Review: 

hr@grhs.org 

GRHS News: 

news@grhs.org 

Who is Otto? 

Many times we refer to Otto 

when we speak of the 

GRHS website server and 

some have asked: 

“Where did you come up 

with that name?” 

The Society’s web server is 

named after the first 

Chancellor of the former 

German Empire and 

namesake of Bismarck, ND 

Prince Otto von Bismarck 

And now you know... 

the rest … of the story.

2 

GRHS GRHS News News 


GRHS News Publishing Guidelines 

Items acceptable for publication: 

• Your stories - oral histories, Chapter histories 

• Chapter events and activities 

• Family search inquiries - Charges: Members, no charge; non 

members from overseas, no charge; non members from North 

America, membership in GRHS 

• Folklore, folk medicine 

• Food recipes 

• Computer tips; genealogy computer program reviews 

• Book reviews 

• Items regarding the day to day operations of GRHS, its 

committees and Chapters 

Submission Deadlines: 

March issue - February 1 st 

June issue - May 1 st 

September issue - August 1 st 

December issue - November 1 st 

Submit items to the Editor via 

e-mail: news@grhs.org 

Postal mail: Randy Heinz 

810 Steffanich Dr. 

Billings, MT 59105 -2534 or GRHS HQ 

Have You Sent in Your Registration Yet? 

33rd Annual GRHS Convention 

September 4-7, 2003 

Ramkota Inn 

2111 LaCrosse St 

PO Box 1795 

Rapid City, SD 57709-1795 

Phone: 605-343-8550 

For more information visit: 

http://www.grhs.org/convention.html 

GRHS no longer accepts checks issued for anything 

other than U.S. funds. Checks issued in foreign 

currency will be returned to the sender. GRHS has 

always had this policy but because of the rising currency 

exchange rates we are now compelled to enforce it 

without exception. 

Thank you for your cooperation. 

2003 2003 Convention Convention Workshops 

Workshops 

Workshops 

• Archival Acquisition By Frances Feist & Curt Renz 

• At Home On The Russian Steppe And The Dakota Prairie By Shirley 

Wegner Nitschke 

• Beginning Computer By Judy Huber 

• Beginning, Intermediate & Advanced Computer Labs By Roger Ehrich, 

Judy Huber & Staff 

• But Grandma, I'm Bored - Using Today's Technology To Bring Your 

Heritage To Life By Tove Hoff Bormes, JD 

• Dedication Of The Gliickstal Monument By Margaret Freeman 

• Family Tree Maker - Part I -Exploring The Basics Of FTM By Val 

Ingram And David Kilwein 

• Family Tree Maker - Part 2 - Advanced Uses Of FTM: Charts, Books, 

Reunions By Val Ingram & David Kilwein 

• Genealogy: Researching Our German Russian Heritage By Gwen 

Pritzkau 

• German Dialects & The Language Of Our Ancestors 

• Germanic History Before 1850 - Why Did Our Ancestors Leave The 

Homeland? By George Hoff 

• Germans From Russia - The Baby Boomer Generation - Passing The 

Heritage By Paulette Tobin 

• How 80 Years Of Communism Affected Ukraine - Transition From 

Soviet State To A Republic By Inna Stryukova 

• Inside The GRHS - How Does This Huge Body Function? By Walt 

Rehling 

• Insights Into Life In The Soviet Union - Personal Experiences From 

Those Who Were There Panel Discussion 

• Intermediate Computer By Judy Huber 

• Letters From The Homeland By Curt Renz 

• Maps & Information On Polish Settlements In 1793-1794 By Reuben 

Drefs 

• Meet Inna Stryukova An Informal Meeting With The Ukrainian 

Professor 

• Memorial - Rehabilitated By History - What Is Happening In The 

Ukrainian Archives? By Inna Stryukova 

• Religious Changes In Ukraine By Inna Stryukova 

• Strategy Meeting For Expanding Our Membership By Val Wangler & 

Del Beck 

• Technology In Action By Roger Ehrich 

• The Story Of Our Ancestors' Epic Journey - Part 1 By Gary Schorzman 

• The Story Of Our Ancestors' Epic Journey - Part 2 By Gary Sherman 

• The Story Of Our Ancestors' Epic Journey - Part 3 By Gary Schorzman 

• Today's German Russian In America -What About The Future? By Dr. 

Thomas Fricke 

• Village Group - Beresan Colonies Research By Valerie Ingram & 

David Kilwein 

• Village Group - Bessarabian Research By Dale Wahl 

• Village Group - Crimean Colonies Research By Wanda Hopkins 

• Village Group - Ghickstal Colonies Research By Margaret Freeman 

• Village Group - Grossliebental Colonies Research By Gayla Gray 

• Village Group - Hoffnungstal Research By Dale Wahl 

• Village Group - Kutschurgan Colonies Research By Robert Shuh 

• Village Group - North & South Caucasus Research By Bonnie 

Anderson 

• What Is Happening With The Clearing House Project By Dale Wahl 

• What's Happening With The Village Research Project By Dale Wahl 

• Where Do I Fit Into This Picture? - Helping Children Find Their Roots 

& Learn About Their Ancestors By Bonita Ley

A A A Hero's Hero's Hero's Flag Flag Flies Flies Over Over HQ 

HQ 

The U.S. flag which is currently being flown at GRHS 

Headquarters is a flag donated to GRHS by Leo Bell in honor 

of his brother George Bell. 

George entered the U.S. Navy at Great Lakes, Illinois, on 7 

February 1940. He was transferred to the destroyer USS Buck 

on 1 May 1940, with the rank of AS. He was subsequently 

promoted to EM1 by December 1942. 

He served aboard the USS Buck, losing his life when the ship 

sank on 9 October 1943, near Salerno, Italy. Ninety-five of 

250 crewmembers survived. The ship sank as the result of a 

direct hit by an acoustic torpedo fired from the German 

submarine U 616. 

Ukrainian Ukrainian Professor Professor Professor to 

to 

Keynote Keynote Keynote Convention 

Convention 

Convention 

By Bob Schneider 

A Ukrainian university professor, Inna Stryukova, former 

head of the Foreign Language Department at the Agrarian 

University in Mykolayiv, will be a featured speaker and 

workshop presenter at the 2003 International GRHS 

Convention in Rapid City. In addition to her career as a 

teacher, Inna has served as an interpreter for American and 

Canadian professors who lectured at the University, for 

businessmen, agricultural specialists who started the 

Extension Service for farmers in the Mykolayiv region, and 

for Christian missionaries. Inna holds a position as a senior 

teacher of English at the University. She is a member of the 

Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Christian Students 

Fellowship whose headquarters are in Kiev. Through her 

work as a translator, Inna has become friends with members 

of GRHS. She brings an interesting and exciting perspective 

to this Convention. 

Inna is familiar with Memorial, a human rights society, and 

their work in the former Soviet Republics called 

“Rehabilitated by History”. In other words, she is 

knowledgeable about what is happening in the archives, and 

why being “rehabilitated” is important to the people whose 

relatives were “repressed”. She has lived in Ukraine during its 

transition from a Soviet Republic to an independent state in 

the world, and understands the political, social, and economic 

changes that are taking place. 

The status of the land in Ukraine has always held questions of 

interest for Germans from Russia. Who owns the land in 

Ukraine now? What happened to the collective farms? Do the 

people living in the villages farm the land? Religion is 

another topic of interest to Germans from Russia. What is 

happening with the former churches in Ukraine? Is there a 

religious revival in Ukraine and Moldova? Inna Stryukova 

will address these questions, and provide a Ukrainian 

perspective that will make the 2003 International GRHS 

Convention informative and interesting. 

GRHS GRHS News News 3 

Schoch Schoch Family Family History 

History 

Available Available Soon 

Soon 

In June of this year, “The Schoch Family History”, by Diane 

J. (Decker) Wandler will be published. It will be going “to 

press” in the early part of June and will be done by the first 

part of July. If anyone is interested in this book as a member 

of the family or to share information for the book or in 

purchasing the book, please contact Diane very soon. The 

book is expected to have about 500 pages and lots of pictures, 

complete with a table of contents and an index. 

Some of the families included in this book will be: Schoch, 

Berger, Heidt, Emmil(Immel), Braunbeck, Frank, Friedrich 

(Freidig), Heidt, Hirsch, Huschka, Lantz (Lanz), Michel 

(Mischel), Miller, Reisenauer, Sticka, Wandler and Wanner. 

The immediate Schoch family lines that the book will be 

centered around are the Schoch’s who settled in the 

Dickinson/Schefield (St. Pius) area in southwest North 

Dakota. Some of the family moved out west to the Montana 

and Washington area. 

Some of the ancestral names are: 

Jakob and Gertrud (1st wife) Schoch, (2nd wife Katharina 

Reisenauer) Schoch from Malsch, Karlsruhe-Baden, 

Germany. Their son Jakob and Elizabeth (Lanz) Schoch from 

Karlsruhe, South Russia had these children: Cyriak, Joseph, 

Phillip, Marianna, and Katharina. Cyriak (Zyriak) Schoch and 

Katharina (Braunbeck) Schoch's son Anton Schoch married 

Isabella Berger. And that is the stem of this book. Isabella 

Berger was the daughter of Franz (Frank) and Rosa (Heidt) 

Berger who came from Landau, South Russia to North 

Dakota. And it goes on from there. 

Diane would appreciate hearing from anyone who fits into 

this family. If more information is needed, please contact her 

by email (preferably): dwandler@yahoo.com. 

Or snail mail address: 

Diane Wandler 

8601 Briardale Drive 

Bismarck, ND 58504, or phone 701-258-7874. 

FYI: FYI: New New New GG-R 

G R Website 

Website 

There is a new Germans from Russia web site on the Internet. 

It is 

http://14ushop.com/Krasna 

This web site is of particular interest to those who have a 

special interest in the villages of 

Krasna, Bessarabia, Russia, 

Emmental, Bessarabia, Russia, 

Karamurat, Dobrudscha, Romania, as well as a number of 

villages in the Dobrudscha region of Romania in which there 

were Roman Catholic Germans in residence. 

Check it out!

4 

Dear GRHS member, 

GRHS GRHS News 


HFGR 

Heritage Foundation for Germans from Russia 

1125 W. Turnpike Ave. 

Bismarck, ND 58501 - 8115 

(701) 223 - 6167 

hfgr@attbi.com 

HFGR was organized, incorporated and its tax exemption [501(c)(3)] approved in 2001, to be the fund raising vehicle 

to support, among its other activities GRHS in a financial capacity. 

HFGR is NOT a part of GRHS; it operates independently with a separate eleven member Board of Directors selected 

from the GRHS membership with the sole purpose of receiving and managing monetary assets and to provide 

assistance to GRHS and related programs. 

HFGR has been referenced in the GRHS Newsletter and in a separate mailing to all GRHS members in 2002. At the 

August 2002 GRHS convention a brochure was made available to all attendees along with a FREE pen. 

HFGR has specialized to provide general gifting answers by its Executive Committee, to invest your gifts by its 

Investment Committee, all the while trying to give you maximum charity deductions and tax credits and to help you 

arrange bequests, gifting, etc. by its Fund Raising Committee. 

HFGR Board members are volunteers and available for your assistance at no expense to you. Planning you or your 

loved one's estate to maximize your lifetime investments while supporting your favorite organization with monetary 

gifting is our purpose and our area of assistance. 

HFGR would like to encourage you to contact us at any of the above listed addresses and telephone number. We will 

respond in a timely manner and attempt to answer your specific questions. We can provide you with an additional 

brochure, which provides you with more information and a form on which to submit a description of your gift(s). We 

are available to help you gift money for the long term. 

Membership Membership Committee Committee Asks 

Asks 

For For Your Your Help!! Help!! 

Help!! 

The GRHS Membership Committee will conduct a 

membership seminar during the Annual Convention in Rapid 

City. We ask that all Chapter Presidents and Membership 

Committee Chair persons plan to attend this important 

session. 

Our overall membership is down substantially for 2003. We 

are down on new members and have over 400 members who 

have not renewed their membership for 2003! It is the 

responsibility of each of us to keep in mind the need retain 

current members and to make every attempt to recruit new 

members. 

See you at the Annual Convention!! 

Professor Professor Neifer’s Neifer’s Neifer’s 2002 

2002 

Convention Convention Convention Speech Speech available 

available 

available 

Copies of Leo Neifer’s 2002 GRHS Convention speech 

“Drang Nach Osten” are now available. 

If you left your name and address with Leo at the convention 

to receive a copy please contact Leo again as he has 

misplaced the list. 

He has expanded on the material presented at the convention 

and added some maps. 

For ordering information please contact Leo at: 

Leo Neifer 

P.O. Box 43 

Hosmer, SD 57448

GRHS GRHS News News 5

6 



GRHS GRHS HQ HQ Need Need List 

List 

by Ted J. Becker 

Chairperson, GRHS Building Committee 

Below you will find a list of various items needed for your GRHS “Home of Record”. If there are specific items you would wish 

to purchase for the Society’s headquarters, please let Rachel at GRHS know which they are and how many you wish to pay for. 

The number preceding the item is how many are needed. Your financial gift will be credited to the Society’s Equipment Fund and 

“restricted” for the purchase of those items. If you wish to give your gift in memory or honor of someone, please indicate the 

name(s) of the individuals. If you choose to not “restrict” your gift, let Rachel know this. Your name will be published in GRHS 

News as donor. 

A - V ROOM Price each ($ US) 

1 Cabinet to store audio tapes 1,600.00 

1 Cabinet to store CD’s 715.00 

4 Instructor’s chairs (special height) 143.00 

LIBRARY 

Computer upgrades 5,000.00 

Computer software upgrades 3,000.00 

3 Computer monitor upgrades 720.00 

1 Photoshop program 600.00 

1 PageMaker program 500.00 

1 Omni Page optical character reader (OCR) program 400.00 

1 Adaptec SlimSCSI 1480 cable 200.00 

(card to connect a Kodak 2500 scanner to a laptop SCSI cable 40.00) 

(this card is needed to connect to the Adaptec SlimSCSI cable) 

1 Hewlitt-Packard 4500 color laser printer 2,000.00 

or 

1 Hewlitt-Packard 8550 color laser printer 5,000.00 

1 Winnebago Spectrum Suite and Spectrum Web Catalog program 5,995.00 

(to place the Society’s library online) 

4 Microsoft Office Professional XP program (full version) 400.00 

or 

4 Microsoft Office Professional XP program (upgrade version) 300.00 

1 Copy machine 15,000.00 

(which connects to the network and is capable to do 

duplex printing from the computer) 

1 Dot matrix printer (wide carriage) 500.00 

(for printing membership lists, library listings, etc.) 

4 Computer work stations 400.00 

6 Library tables – wood 775.00 

42 Chairs for library tables and computer work stations as 

well as the conference room table 143.00 

12 Cabinets to store Obituary Collection 1,323.00 

2 Cabinets to store catalog index of library 1,350.00 

2 Cabinets to store catalog index of pedigree charts 1,350.00 

6 Cabinets to store pedigree charts – legal size 180.00 

1 Plain paper fax machine 200.00 

OFFICE MANAGER’S OFFICE 

1 Desk with computer and storage compliments 1,450.00 

People who donated to the Equipment 

Fund between 10 February 2003 and 

7 April 2003 

Donald and Agnes Heidt 

Doris M. Schaff 

North Star Chapter of AHSGR 

Calvin K. Fercho 

Shirley Nitschke 

James E. Knoll

• Cemetery Records 

• Cheyenne County Historical and Genealogical Society. 

Cheyenne County Burials 1885-2002. Donated by Jacob 

Samler. 

• Church History 

• Centennial Book Committee. Celebration of God’s 

Grace: 100 th Anniversary, Zion Lutheran Church, Ashley, 

North Dakota, 1903-2003. Purchased. 

• Centennial Book Committee. Celebration of God’s 

Grace: 100 th Anniversary, Zion Lutheran Church, Ashley, 

North Dakota, 1903-2003. Donated by John L. Gale. 

• Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Beiseker, Alberta, 

1908-1958. Donated by Ann Schmaltz. 

• Peace Lutheran Church (Bessie, Oklahoma). 

Anniversary Peace Lutheran Church, Bessie, Oklahoma, 

1893-1993. Donated by Michael Rempfer. 

• Peace Lutheran Church (Bessie, Oklahoma). Peace 

Lutheran Church, Bessie, Oklahoma 2002. Donated by 

Michael Rempfer. 

• To God Be the Glory: A Century of Service, 1882-1982, 

Salem Reformed UCC, Menno, South Dakota. Donated 

by T. J. Schmierer. 

• Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (Bridgewater, South 

Dakota). Golden Jubilee of Zion Evangelical Lutheran 

Church and Ladies Aid, Bridgewater, South Dakota. 

Donated by T. J. Schmierer. 

• Family History 

• Asmus, Lorraine. The Martin Family. Donated by 

Gloria Martin. 

• Blumhagen, Marie Ehrman. Family History of Jacob and 

maria Ehrman. Donated by Marie Ehrman Blumhagen. 

• Goehring, Hiller. 1770 to 2000, Mein Stammbaum, My 

Family Tree and Goehring Families. Donated by Hiller 

Goehring. 

• Goldade, Peter. The Goldade Family History with 

Memories of the Village Selz and Russia. Donated by 

Peter Goldade. 

• Mardian, Rose (Schmaltz). One Schmaltz Tree In 

Canada. Donated by Ann Schmaltz. 

• Sattler, Arnold & Donald. The Sattler Story. Donated by 

Arnold & Donald Sattler. 

• Smith, Anna (Unser). Doll Footprints. Donated by Anna 

(Unser) Smith. 

• Speers, J. Alvin. Depression Parents of Seven – Nine 

Against Dirty Thirties. Donated by J. Alvin Speers. 

• Local History 

• Centennial Book Committee. Hope Through the 

Library Library Additions 

Additions 

Compiled by Rachel R. Schmidt 


Century: Hope, ND 1882-1982. Purchased. 

• Clifford Centennial Committee. Prairie Portraits: A 

History of Clifford, North Dakota. Purchased. 

• Diamond Jubilee Historical Book Committee. Ashley 

Diamond Jubilee, Ashley, North Dakota, 1888-1963. 


• Footprints Across the Prairie: Galesburg Centennial 

1882-1982. Purchased. 

• Golden Jubilee Book Committee. Golden Jubilee, 

Gackle, 1904-1954. Donated by T. J. Schmierer. 

• Grafton Centennial Book Committee. A 100 Year Look 

At Grafton, North Dakota, 1882-1982. Donated by Joel 

Schneider. 

• Hannah History Book. Hannah 100 Years, 1896-1996. 

Purchased. 

• Langdon Centennial Book Committee. Langdon, North 

Dakota, 1888-1988. Purchased. 

• Park River Centennial Book Committee. Park River ... 

100 Years, 1884-1984. Donated by Joel Schneider. 

• Steele County Historical Society. Steele County 1883- 

1981, a Centennial Commemoration. Purchased. 

• Wales and Surrounding Area, 1897-1997. Purchased. 

• Wishek Golden Jubilee 1898-1948. Donated by T. J. 

Schmierer. 

• Miscellaneous 

• “Ai, was ist die Welt so schön!” (cd). Donated by 

Alexander Rupp. 

• Albert, Everett C. & D. Jerome Tweton. The Way It Was, 

The North Dakota Frontier Experience: Book Four, 

Germans from Russia Settlers. Donated by Joel 

Schneider. 

• America, America: A Gazetteer of the First 48 States 

(CD). Donated by Victor Knell. 

• Bei uns, Ihr Leit, ist Hochzeit heit (cd). Donated by 

Alexander Rupp. 

• Bergen, Lydia. Kindheit in der Dobrudscha. Donated by 

Andreas Bergen. 

• Colourphoto Guide: The Rhine From Mainz to Koblenz. 

Donated by Reuben Baisch. 

• Däs, Nelly. Kochbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland. 

Donated by Alexander Rupp. 

• Dirk, Michael. Our South Russian German Heritage, the 

Rhineland, South Russia – Bessarabia, America, 1700- 

2002 (2 copies). Donated by Michael Dirk 

• EWZ51 A098 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 

• EWZ51 D055 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 



• EWZ51 D098 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker.

8 



• EWZ51 E036 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 


• EWZ51 F103 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 

• EWZ51 G036 (microfilm). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 






• Frankel, Andrew. The Eagle’s Nest From Adolf Hitler to 

the Present Day. Donated by Reuben Baisch. 

• Freter, Hans. Niedersachsen und Bremen. Donated by 

Reuben Baisch. 

• Gackle All-School Reunion July 7-8, 1979, Gackle, North 

Dakota. Donated by Rachel Schmidt. 

• The Genealogy Magazine Heritage Quest on Compact 

Disc 14 Years – September 1985 to December 1999. 

Donated by Victor Knell. 

• GRHS & AHSGR. Glückstal, Odessa, 1858 Census. 


• Giesel, Joachim. Schönes Hannover. Donated by 


• Great American Monuments: The White House (VHS). 


• Hermann Thiessen Collection (29 microfilms). Donated 

by Tim Janzen. 

• Hetz, Robert & Richard Wolf. München Report: 248 

Farbfotos. Donated by Reuben Baisch. 

• History Undercover: Nazi POWs in America (VHS). 


• Johannes Niermann: Bibliographie der Dobrudscha- 

Deustchen 1945-1993 (CD). Donated by Ted J. Becker. 

• Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. Heimat 

und Diaspora. Donated by Alexander Rupp. 

• Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. 

Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 2003. Donated 

by Victor Knell. 

• Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. 

Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 2003. Donated 

by Alexander Rupp. 

• Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. Zwischen 

den Kulturen: Russlanddeutsche gestern und heute. 

Donated by Alexander Rupp. 

• Massie, Robert K. Nicholas and Alexandra. Donated by 

Sherrie Guenthner. 

• Neifer, Leo J. Our German Drang Nach Osten. Donated 

by Leo J. Neifer. 

• North Dakota Historical Society of Germans from 

Russia. Songs We Love to Sing. Donated by LaRose 

Ketterling. 

Library Library Additions 

Additions 

Compiled by Rachel R. Schmidt 

• The Obersalzberg and the 3. Reich. Donated by Reuben 

Baisch. 

• Oliver County Atlas Directory 1934 (2 copies). Donated 

by Marilyn (Schwab) Jacobson. 

• Österreich Mein Heimatland (5 cassettes). Donated by 


• Prairie Public Broadcasting. The Germans from Russia: 

Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie (VHS). 

Donated by Rae Bloom. 

• Prairie Public Broadcasting. Schmeckfest: Food 

Traditions of the Germans from Russia (VHS). Donated 

by Rae Bloom. 

• Rempfer, Michael. World War I Registrants Sheridan 

County, North Dakota. Donated by Michael Rempfer. 

• Richter, Joachim. Munich and Its Surroundings, Guide 

with Photo-Motifs. Donated by Reuben Baisch. 

• Der Rhein von Mainz bis Köln. Donated by Reuben 

Baisch. 

• St. Petersburg Archive (16 microfilm – filmed by Dr. 

David Rempel). Donated by Tim Janzen. 

• Schatz, Brian. Parish Records for Bobrowyj Kut/ 

Nikolajew/Russia From 1861 to 1885. Donated by Brian 

Schatz. 

• Schmaltz, Eric J. An Expanded Bibliography and 

Reference Guide for the Former Soviet Union’s Ethnic 

Germans: Issues of Ethnic Autonomy, Group Repression, 

Cultural Assimilation, and Mass Emigration in the 

Twentieth Century and Beyond. Donated by Eric J. 

Schmaltz. 

• T81 739 (microfilm). Donated by Dale Lee Wahl. 

• T81 740 (microfilm). Donated by Dale Lee Wahl. 

• Schulz, Norman. Twas The Night Before Christmas in 

German (VHS). Donated by Al & Dorothy Feist. 

• Spurgin, Sandy (Braun). Emmons County, No. Dak. 

1900 Census. 

• Television Under the Swastika: The History of Nazi 

Television (VHS). Donated by Victor Knell. 

• Tourist Guide: Michelin Germany, West Germany and 

Berlin. Donated by Reuben Baisch. 

• Ulrich Dueck Collection (microfilm). Donated by Tim 

Janzen. 

• Wiebe, Marie. Experiences of My Flight and Captivity in 

the Russian Concentration Camp May 1945 - October. 

1946. Donated by Maria L. Wiebe Allison.

The following article appeared in the March 2003 issue of 

"Weg und Ziel" (Way and Goal), the monthly published by 

the Aid Committee of Evangelical Lutheran Germans from 

Poland. 

The evening of song in Vancouver was established in 

Vancouver by Mr. Ewald Wuschke, a genealogist of Germans 

from Poland and Volhynia about 10 years ago and has 

become a regular event. Wuschke also prepares the program. 

Pastor Juergen Schmode of Martin Luther Evangelical 

Lutheran congregation gave his assent for the evening of song 

to held once a month in the lower level of the church. The 

third Saturday of the month has been set for this event. The 

evenings are opened with a prayer by Pastor Adolf Manz and 

end with a prayer by P. Daniel Neumann. 

During the first hour many of our very beloved German folk 

songs are sung. After a break with coffee and home-baked 

cake, which our ladies prepare, we start the second part of the 

program and sing Christian songs. Beautiful hymns and 

songs, which edify are chosen. We have very talented singers 

and musicians who often please us with their presentations 

during interludes. Many of the folk songs originate from 

Poland and Volhynia and are often very jovial. Very often 

poems and interesting stories are also recited. 

Mr. Robert Gretzinger is our announcer and director. Erwin 

Polinski accompanies us on the piano. Max Weber plays the 

Evenings Evenings of of Song Song in in in Vancouver 

Vancouver 

A Regular Happening Among Our Compatriots In Canada 

by: Irene Neitsch nee Jaworske Translation - Horst W. Gutsche 

I am soliciting information about my ALBRECHT, ROTH, 

and TOBLER ancestors and descendants who immigrated to 

the Dakotas, USA, and Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Details known: Wilhelm "William" and wife, Christina 

(Fregien) Albrecht immigrated to Kulm, North Dakota, USA 

(via Bremen, Germany, to New York City, New York, USA 

aboard the SS Trava) in December 1897, with their first child 

Emma. Wilhelm was granted United States citizenship in 

1902 in Logan County, North Dakota. They later immigrated 

to Canada, settling near Walsh, Alberta, Leader, 

Saskatchewan, and Medicine Hat, Alberta. 

John Roth was born in 1899 at Ciucurova, Dobrudscha, 

Romania, the son of Karl and Wilhelmina Roth. In 1912, the 

couple, with 11 children, immigrated to the Forestburg area of 

Alberta, later moving to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Paulina 

Roth was born in 1906 at Lehr, North Dakota, to August and 

Elizabeth Rott. 

In 1912, they moved to Hatton, Saskatchewan by stagecoach 

via Fargo, North Dakota. In 1931, John Roth and Paulina Rott 

were married. 

Family Family Family Query Query 

Query 


accordion. Franz Nickel plays the mandolin, Marvin Steinway 

(Steinke), Monica Steinway (Steinke) the guitar and piano, 

Luise Steinway the mandolin and Georg Bergen the guitar. 

Mrs. Marta Bayer nee Jeske and Eva Hoffmann nee Schmidt 

give regular presentations. Almost all come originally from 

Poland and Volhynia. After almost 10 years the evening is 

still, as always, attended by 50-80 people (most of them are 

ethnic Germans). 

Five years ago Mr. and Mrs. Wuschke started a second 

evening of song in Peace Lutheran Church in Abbotsford, 

B.C. (my note: about 50-60 minutes distant by car). The 

singers in Abbotsford meet on the last evening of the month 

(my note: I believe that this may have changed to an 

afternoon now.) Mrs. Annaliese Johannsen is the leader of the 

group in Abbotsford. 

A meal is planned for the Tenth Anniversary. We invite you 

to come to this event, which will be held on June 14, 2003. It 

will be held at Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran Church, 

505 East 46 Avenue, Vancouver, B.C.. 

The German congregations and the people who attend the 

evenings of song are very grateful to Mr. Wuschke and his 

wife for their work and for introducing the evening event. It 

has brought us a lot of joy. The next evenings of song in 

Vancouver will be on: March 15th, April 26th, May 17th and 

June 14th, 2003. 

Ferdinand Roth was born in Romania on 8 June 1901, another 

son of Karl and Wilhelmina Roth. On 19 March 1925 he 

married Teenie Winter who was born in 1910 at Harvey, 

North Dakota. 

Wilhelm Roth, Sr., was born at Ciucurova, Dobrudscha, 

Romania, in 1856, to Johann and Christina Roth. 

He married Frederika "Freda" Sperr who was born in 1863 in 

Romania, to Johann and Louisa Sperr. 

They immigrated to Anamoose, North Dakota, circa 1901. 

Wilhelm's brother Adolph had immigrated in 1891 to Cathay, 

North Dakota. 

The Tobler ancestors immigrated from Neu-Elft, Bessarabia, 

Russia, to Fox Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada around the turn 

of the 20th century. 

If anyone could help provide any information about these 

people or their descendants and relatives, please contact 

J. Alvin and Esther Speers 

204 Millbank Drives, 

S.W., Calgary, AB T2Y 2H9, Canada. 

Telephone: 403-256-4639

10 



Black Hills Chapter 

Rapid City, SD area 

Reported by Bob Schneider, President 

Hilda Sieler, Marilyn Hovland and Vera Hoff were elected to the 

Black Hills Chapter Board of Directors at the annual meeting held at 

Faith Lutheran Church on April 13, 2003. Marilyn has been serving 

as an appointed member of the Board and as secretary of the Chapter 

for the past year. Hilda and Vera will be serving their first terms on 

the Board. President Bob Schneider thanked the outgoing board 

members, Zee Kruger, John Hirning, and Alpha Braunsreither for 

their service and dedication to the Chapter. 

Thirty-seven members and seven guests, present at the meeting, 

enjoyed an interesting program presented by Alexej Sesterheim, a 

former teacher from Germany, about the psychological significance 

of our heritage, or roots. Alexej made his point by quoting from "The 

Need for Roots," by Simone Weil, who said, "Uprootednes is by far 

the most dangerous malady to which human societies are exposed. 

Whoever is uprooted himself uproots others. Whoever is rooted 

himself doesn't uproot others. To be rooted is perhaps the most 

important and least recognized need of the human soul." 

Refreshments were served at the end of the meeting. 

Editor’s note: Written while Simone Weil worked at the French 

Headquarters in London, "The Need for Roots" was published in 

1949 posthumously under the title "L'Enracinement." She had been 

commissioned by General de Gaulle, head of the Free French forces, 

to write a report on the duties and privileges of the French after the 

liberation. 

Weil became concerned by the idea of uprootedness; she wrote this 

study on the need for security. Her report called for her fellow 

French to recover their spiritual roots. 

An intensely spiritual person, Weil felt it an obligation to experience 

life as others had to, working on factories and on farms. She was to 

die of tuberculosis a year after being commissioned to write this 

book, having refused to eat more than the rations of those suffering 

Nazi occupation in France. 

Dakota Pioneer Chapter 

Bismarck, ND area 

On June 24th at Buckstop Junction come and leisurely stroll through 

the grounds before the meal and meeting at 6:00 p.m. 

Watermelon and refreshment will be furnished by the chapter. 

After the meal we will be listening to a few numbers from a quartet 

consisting of Carl Wagner, Lester Leno, and Wilbert and Maynard 

Weisenburger. Then Wilber and Maynard, who have been 

performing professionally will play and sing a duet. They also play 

the guitar and mandolin. All are from Tuttle, ND. They weren’t able 

to perform in February, but are glad they can be with us for the 

picnic. 

Bring a dish of your choice to share. 

Serving will be Liz Scheider, chp., Gert Sailer, Gert Younker and 

Louise Heupel. 



Deutsche Leute Chapter 

Dickinson, ND area 

Reported by Placid Gross 

For our February meeting we continued the tradition of celebrating 

"Fasenacht". This is the dialect word for "Night Before Lent". This is 

our opportunity for an evening of fun and games before the 

penitential season of Lent. 

The potluck meal was absolutely the best. It is at these potluck meals 

where among many other things we see the different kinds of 

German Russian noodle dishes. Some come with sauerkraut and 

others with pieces of homemade sausage and several other 

variations. 

Several members presented humorous and entertaining readings. 

Three "frauen" (women) put on a comical skit in German with each 

speaking in her native dialect. 

The highlight of entertainment were Ernest Schafer and Norman 

Schulz from the chapter at New Leipzig, ND who delighted us with a 

variety of old and new folk songs. 

Our regular meeting was held on April 28. We had election of 

officers which went quickly and smoothly as everyone was agreeable 

to taking the same job for another term. 

Two guest speakers gave short presentations on health related issues. 

The part of the evening that brought the most laughs was when we 

all took our turns in demonstrating how we used to call the farm 

animals at feeding time. Some of the sounds that were used for calls 

cannot be spelled very well in the English language. Unfortunately 

we did not have a tape recorder on hand as that would make an 

interesting recording. We called the horses cows, calves, pigs, 

chickens, cats and dogs. 

The next meeting will be our potluck picnic on June 29 at the Stone 

House. There will also be a business meeting and installation of 

officers. 

Die Deutsche Stammhalter 

Beulah - Hazen, ND area 

Reported by Malvin Miller 

Die Deutsche Stammhalter Chapter held its 18th Annual German 

Advent service on Sunday, December 8, 2002 at the Salem United 

Methodist Church in Hazen, ND. About 160 attended with a free - 

will offering donated to the Senior Suites in Hazen. Pastor Elden 

Zuern led the German - English worship. 

Sixty-six were in attendance for our chapter's President's Day party 

on Sunday, February 16, 2003 at the Hazen Senior Center. All 

enjoyed a history of our ancestor’s religious beliefs, given by Edwin 

Zuern of Bismarck. We also had German singing, various readings, 

and a pot - luck lunch. 

On Saturday, June 7, 2003 we will hold our 33rd Annual German 

Musikfest at the Beulah Middle School. Kaffee und Speisen will be 

served at 12:30 p.m. MDT. German - English worship and memorial 

service will begin at 1:30 p.m. MDT. The "Larson Brothers" of 

Taylor will highlight the evening program. The drawing for our 

chapter raffle will be held during the Musikfest. Prizes include a 

quilt, a diamond willow cane, a 2004 GRHS membership, a gift 

certificate at the Outpost 1806 Steak House, 2 "Iron Cross" videos, 

(Continued on page 15)

Irene Rath from Bismarck, ND shares a game that she played 

a long time ago. 

Button, Button 

Remember when little and big girls wore dresses which were 

fastened from just below the chin to the waist, or even to the 

hem with a long row of small buttons? 

In addition, there were buttons on the cuffs of the long 

sleeves, and buttons were often used for trimming on collar or 

pockets. 

Some girls even wore buttoned shoes. 

Remember when these buttons were the basis of a favorite 

fortune-telling game? 

It began with the familiar rhyme: 

"rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief: 

doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief." 

The girls chanted this refrain over and over, counting off their 

buttons as they went, until they had discovered the occupation 

of their future mate. 

Then they set about foretelling the material of their wedding 

dress, again counting and chanting: 

"silk satin, calico, rags; 

gingham, linen, burlap bags." 

Next, their wedding date was set by: 

"this year, next year, sometime, soon; 

January, February, never, June." 

The number of buttons they were wearing then told them the 

kind of residence they would have as they solemnly intoned: 

"palace, shack, pig-pen, barn; 

big house, little house, to" house, farm." 

Then, finally, the size of their family was decided by; 

sixteen, seventeen, a dozen, one; 

ten, three, eight, or none." 

All these refrains were grave rituals, to be recited religiously 

at the first recess every day. The girls scrutinized each other's 

attire minutely to be sure that no button had been overlooked; 

and they were not above sewing an extra button under a flap 

or collar to have in reserve in case the outcome of the 

"fortune" was not to be their liking. 

After all, who wanted to live in a pig-pen, or marry a thief? 

The outcome of this fortune telling would be different each 

day if you wore clothing with a different number of buttons. 

Therefore the game would always remain exciting from one 

Folklore Folklore Forum Forum 

Forum 


day to the next. Bro. Placid adds that this can also be played 

with a deck of cards. As you turn over one card at a time say 

one of the words. When an Ace shows up that is the word that 

counts. 

****** 

From Bro. Placid Gross:" Des ish blos a Hanna Schritt" (It is 

only a rooster step). If a person went to get something and 

came back in a short time it could be said "it was only a 

"Hanna Schritt". Or is a child is asked to get something but 

the child does not want to go the adult might say "it is only a 

"Hanna Schritt" (Rooster Step). 

****** 

Randy Heinz of Billings, MT was told by his mother that if 

all of the food at a meal is eaten and there is nothing left you 

will have company coming to visit in a short time. 

****** 

Charles Hoff Richardton, ND has used this home remedy 

many times. If you get dust or anything irritating into the eye 

put a flax seed under the eyelid. For the same treatment for 

horses you can use several flax seeds. (The flax seed is 

smooth-and oily and will not irritate the eye.) 

****** 

From Fischer history book by Bernard Fischer. 

Wo Glaube, da Liebe = Where there is Faith, there is Love. 

Wo Liebe, da Friede = Where there is Love, there is Peace. 

Wo Friede, da Segen = Where there is Peace, there is 

Blessing. 

Wo Segen, da Gott = Where there is Blessing there is God. 

Wo Gott, da ist keine not = Where God is, there is no Want. 

****** 

John A. Baumstarck of Mandan, ND remembers that his 

mother fed the family a lot of garlic to keep away contagious 

diseases such as the flu, mumps, whooping cough, etc. 

****** 

Leo Neifer from Roscoe, SD has this to add to our running 

commentary of interpretations of the meadowlark song. In the 

Neifer family farmyard the bird would call "zeit fer in der 

Hof" (It is time to get out in the yard). (Which means get to 

work). Leo knew the bird as "Pfeiffer Vogel". (Whistler bird).

12 



Missing Missing From From Our Our Library 

Library 

Unfortunately several more volumes from our library 

came up missing during the convention. If the missing 

volumes could be returned so the other members can 

use them then we would be most appreciative. 

Thank you. 

•Stark County Heritage and Destiny, by Stark 

County Historical Society 

• • 50th Anniversary of the German Congregational 

Association of Montana 

• • Grandfather Stories, by Lester Harsh 

• • Die Schweitzer Freundschaft, 1776-1992, by Karl A. 

Lacher 

• • From Catherine to Khrushchev; the Story of 

Russia's Germans, by Adam Giesinger 

• • Odessa Archives Fond 252 Inventory 1 File 666; 

About Recovery of Land Taxes and Other Duties 

From Colonists of Odessa Area 

• • Beresan District Catholic Index, by Anna M. Smith 

• • Bismarck 100, by David Blackstead 

• • • The Descendants of Johann Kopp 

• • The Schwahn Family Tree by Tammy Jochim 

• • Diamond Jubilee, 75 Years of Orrin, North Dakota, 

1912-1987 by Grace Gross 

• • Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 

1763 to 1862 by Karl Stumpp 

• • Katherinental, Beresan District Odessa, 1858 

Census 

• • Landau, Beresan District Odessa, 1858 Census 

• • Landau Roman Catholic Church Deaths, 1860-1872 

• • Landau Roman Catholic Church Register of 

Baptism: Begun 1860 Ended 1866 

• • Russian-German Settlements in the United States 

by Richard Sallet 

• • Speier, Beresan District Odessa, 1858 Census 

• • • Sulz, Beresan District Odessa, 1858 Census 

Photo by Bob Schneider 

Members of the Black Hills Chapter met at Dan’s Super Market on 

April 26, 2003, in Rapid City to prepare the registration packets that 

will be mailed in May for the GRHS Convention registration. Shown is 

Vera Hoff, Registration Committee Chair, giving instructions to Crystal 

Krein and Cindy Horning. Shown at the next table are Linda Severson, 

Georgia Byram, Holly Christianson, and Stephanie Thibault-Veilleux, 

newcomers to the Black Hills Chapter, helping with the mailing project. 

The registration packets are delivered to Headquarters by left to right: 

Dick Hoff, Rachel Schmidt, Vera Hoff, Del Beck & Milt Kramer (The 

Black Hills Chapter Convention Committee) 

Author’s Author’s Author’s Corner Corner Returns 

Returns 

Returning by popular demand at the 2003 

convention will be the Author’s Corner in the 

library area of the convention. 

All of the authors in attendance will be available 

to discuss their work and sign copies of their 

books.


Germans from Russia Heritage Society to Meet in Rapid City 

“Arbeit macht das Leben süss ... In Amerika durch Gottes Gnade” 

("Work makes life sweet … In America by the grace of God") 

Reprinted from MDU Community Matters 

Inscribed onto a forged iron cross, this simple German phrase 

expresses the deep gratitude of a proud, hardworking people. 

The cross greets visitors at the Germans from Russia Heritage 

Society (GRHS) center located on the west side of Bismarck, 

just south of Interstate 94,. The GRHS celebrates the 

successful journey of the German speaking immigrants who 

left the Black Sea area around the turn of 20th Century and 

settled in the northern Great Plains. 

Schmiedeeiserene Grabkreuze "Forged iron crosses," like the 

one at the GRHS center, stand as icons in rural cemeteries 

across much of North Dakota, South Dakota and eastern 

Montana. While some are the work of Ukrainian or Bohemian 

artisans, most iron crosses mark the graves of German 

immigrants, They, were forged by German smithies who 

brought their trade from the old country. 

"We're very proud of our heritage," says Dick Hoff. "Imagine 

the courage - the grit - our parents and grandparents had to 

muster to leave their homes and families and take a chance on 

a new land a half a world away. The GRHS keeps that spirit 

alive." 

Dick and his wife, Vera, are both of Germans from Russia 

stock. Retired now and living in Rapid City, they grew up in 

Richardton, North Dakota, where their grandparents settled 

after leaving the Black Sea villages in Ukraine. Dick and Vera 

have, visited their ancestral homes in Germany and in what is 

now Ukraine. 

"Keeping the spirit alive is why Dick and I are active in our 

local GRHS chapter," Vera says. "We are the children of a 

I grew up in with practical parents -- a Mother, God love her, 

who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused 

it. She was the original recycle queen, before they had a name 

for it. 

A Father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying 

new ones. 

Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them 

now. 

It was the time for fixing things -- a curtain rod, screen door, 

the oven door, the hem of a dress. Things we keep. 

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. 

All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to 

be wasteful. 

Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you 

knew there would always be more. 

But then my Mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in 

What’s What’s it it Worth? 

Worth? 

Author Unknown 

very unique people. We have a unique heritage with a unique 

story to tell. If we let our heritage and our story fall by the 

wayside, we will lose a small part of what has made our 

country so great - we will lose part of the story that tells why 

America will always be such a magnet for people who want 

freedom and a better life." 

Dick and Vera are members of the Black Hills chapter 

organizing committee that will host the annual Germans from 

Russia Heritage Society 2003 convention, which will be held 

in Rapid City on September 4-7. Dick says they hope to have 

700 people in attendance. 

Our conventions are so much fun," Vera says. "German food, 

German sing-alongs and dancing, lots of fellowship - who 

wouldn't have a great time!" 

The convention agenda will include workshops that help 

people appreciate their Germans from Russia heritage. Family 

tree research, using on-line resources and German language 

tips will be available. The winners of the "Pride in Your 

Heritage" student essay contest will be honored at the 

convention as well. The contest focuses on why it's important 

to be proud of Germans from Russia ancestry. 

"The convention general session will feature speakers on 

Germans from Russia historical and cultural topics," Dick 

says. "The convention will close with a non-denominational 

memorial service, conducted in German and English, in honor 

of members who died since the last convention" he adds. 

"Our convention theme is 'Living our Grandparents' Dream,"' 

Vera says. "How fitting - it's really what we're all about." 

the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of 

learning that sometimes there isn't any 'more.' 

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and 

goes away never to return. 

So while we have it, it's best we love it and care for it and fix 

it when it's broken and heal it when it's sick. 

This is true for marriage and old cars and children with bad 

report cards and dogs with bad hips and aging parents and 

grandparents. 

We keep them because they are worth it, because we are 

worth it. 

Some things we keep. 

Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up 

with. 

There are just some things that make life important, like 

people we know who are special and so, we keep them close!

14 



"Hey Dad," my son asked the other day, "what was your 

favorite fast food when you were growing up?" 

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up." 

"C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?" "We ate at home," I 

explained. 

"My Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from 

work, we all sat down together at the table, and if I didn't like 

what she put on my plate I had to sit there until I did like it." 

By this time, my Son was laughing so hard I was afraid He 

was going to suffer some serious internal damage, so I didn't 

tell him the part about how I had to get my Father's 

permission to leave the table. 

Here are some other things I would have told him about my 

childhood if I had figured his system could handle it. 

My parents never: wore Levi's, set foot on a golf course, 

traveled out of the country, flew in a plane or had a credit 

card. 

In their later years they had something called a "revolving 

charge card" but they never actually used it. It was only good 

at Sears-Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears and Roebuck. Either 

way, there is no Roebuck anymore. 

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was 

because soccer back then was just for the girls. 

We actually did walk to school. By the time you were in the 

6th grade it was not cool to ride the bus unless you lived more 

than 4 or 5 miles from the school, even when it was raining or 

there was ice or snow on the ground. 

Outdoor sports consisted of stickball, snowball fights, 

building forts, making snowmen and sliding down hills on a 

piece of cardboard. No skateboards, roller blades or trail 

bikes. 

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 12. It was, 

of course, black and white, but you could buy a piece of 

special colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was 

blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. 

The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had 

scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny 

day. 

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza. It was a Sam's Pizza at 

the East end of Fruit Street in Milford. My friend, Steve took 

me there to try what he called "pizza pie." When I bit into it, I 

burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung 

down and plastered itself against my chin. It's still the best 

pizza I ever had. 

Pizzas were not delivered to your house back then, but the 

milk was. I looked forward to winter because the cream in the 

milk was on top of the bottle and it would freeze and push the 

cap off. Of course, us kids would get up first to get the milk 

and eat the frozen cream before our mother could catch us. 

I never had a telephone in my room. Actually the only phone 

in the house was in the hallway and it was on a party line. 

Before you could make a call, you had to listen in to make 

The The The Fabulous Fabulous 40's 40's And And 50's 

50's 

Author Unknown 

sure someone else wasn't already using the line. If the line 

was not in use an Operator would come on and ask "number 

please" and you would give her the number you wanted to 

call. 

There was no such thing as a computer or a hand held 

calculator. We were required to memorize the "times tables." 

Believe it or not, we were tested each week on our ability to 

perform mathematics with nothing but a pencil and paper. We 

took a spelling test every day. There was no such thing as a 

"social promotion." If you flunked a class, you repeated that 

grade the following year. Nobody was concerned about your 

"self esteem." We had to actually do something praiseworthy 

before we were praised. We learned that you had to earn 

respect. 

All newspapers were delivered by boys and most all boys 

delivered newspapers. I delivered the "Milford Daily News" 

six days a week. It cost seven cents a paper, of which I got to 

keep 2 cents. On Saturday, I had to collect the 42 cents from 

my customers. My favorite customers were the ones who 

gave me 50 cents and told me to keep the change. My least 

favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be 

home on collection day. 

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut on screen. 

Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French 

kissing and they just didn't do that in the movies back then. I 

had no idea what they did in French movies. French movies 

were considered dirty and we weren't allowed to see them. 

You never saw the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers or anyone else 

actually kill someone. The heroes back then would just shoot 

the gun out of the bad guy's hand. There was no blood and 

violence. 

When you were sick, the Doctor actually came to your house. 

No, I am not making this up. 

Drugs were something you purchased at a pharmacy in order 

to cure an illness. 

If we dared to "sass" our parents, or any other grown-up, we 

immediately found out what soap tasted like. For more 

serious infractions, we learned about something called a "this 

hurts me more than it hurts you." I never did quite understand 

that one.... 

In those days, parents were expected to discipline their kids. 

There was no interference from the government. "Social 

Services" or "Family Services" had not been invented (the 

ninth and tenth amendments to the constitution were still 

observed in those days.) 

I must be getting old because I find myself reflecting back 

more and more and thinking I liked it a lot better back then. 

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you 

may want to share some of these memories with your kids or 

grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they wet themselves 

laughing.


Hide Me Within Thy Wounds: The Persecution of the Catholic Church in the USSR 

Osipova, I. I. Trans. from Russian by Malcolm Gilbert.. Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State 

University Libraries, Fargo, North Dakota. 2003. 

Book review by Edna Boardman 

A second subtitle of this book is “From Material in Criminal 

Investigation and Labor Camp Files.” Russian researchers 

named Serebranniye Niti and I. I. Osipova, working under the 

auspices of a group called Omemorial’s’ Research and 

Education Center on ORepression of the Clergy in the Period 

1918-1953,’ have combed through an impressive number of 

long-secret files and archives to document the systematic 

persecution of Catholic clergy during the communist era. 

They add material from personal accounts to flesh out the 

stories. The result of the researchers¹ diligent detective work 

and the translation by Gilbert is an account with good reading 

qualities for the average reader. Quotations in boldface 

alternate with plain text narrative; some of the quoted material 

is also in plain text. 

At the beginning of the communist era, in the 1920s under 

Lenin, many priests were summarily executed. “Churchmen 

were invariably accused of spying on behalf of foreign 

powers and, one has to admit, that the Chekisty were 

managing to extract confessions from those they arrested. The 

campaign was particularly virulent in the Ukraine.” As time 

went by, the government decided that evidence and trials had 

to be part of the process of condemnation and so created a 

paper trail that the researchers were able to follow. An 

astonishing amount of energy went into building cases against 

priests who were just doing their ordinary work. 

The reader gasps as the Chekisty, a name used as a kind of 

generic for the secret police, systematically accuse and 

condemn nuns and priests of all rank. Their “crimes” include 

foreign spying (sending ordinary annual reports to Rome 

counted here), being anti-soviet, converting members of the 

Orthodox Church to Catholicism (this even while Orthodox 

clergy were being similarly hounded), using foreign money to 

provide aid to impoverished persons, using a chapel at a labor 

camp too much, and trying to build a Uniate Church under 

papal leadership. “Confessions” are obtained through 

aggressive, nonstop interrogation and sometimes outright 

torture. Some are sent to labor camps in the far north, then 

condemned and sent again, and some join the gray hordes 

who are marched onto the steppe and executed in batches. 

Finally, there are but two Catholic priests, kept for show, in 

all of Russia, and these are foreigners, not Russians. 

The persons who accumulated this information are good 

scholars and writers. They sort out the periods in the ebb and 

flow of the persecutions and let the reader surmise when the 

priests and nuns were falsely accused and when they knew 

they were doing something illegal in Russia but did it out of a 

sense of mission. They are also aware of how the Vatican 

struggled to aid those persecuted but had a hard time doing 

anything that didn¹t enmesh its people in further trouble. The 

courage of many was impressive. 

This is the first of a projected series of books that will 

document the repression of religious groups under 

communism. The researchers do not tell of the fate of 

ordinary believers, but surely that is another story. 

(Continued from page 10) 

and 2 "Sie Unser Gast" cookbooks. 

Our chapter business meeting will be held at the Beulah Senior 

Center on Sunday, April 6, 2003, beginning at 5:30 p.m. MDT. 

Red River Chapter 

Fargo, ND area 



The program of the June 24th meeting will help get us in the spirit of 

the coming Bicentennial Celebration of the Lewis and Clark 

Expedition (1804-1806). This expedition on the Missouri River to 

the Pacific Ocean will be enjoyed by viewing a video; “Lewis and 

Clark Pathways,” which captures the natural beauty of today’s North 

Dakota landscape, and explores the region’s history and folklore. We 

will relive some of the “Corps of Discovery” experiences as they 

stayed and traveled in the upper Midwest. 

The meeting will be at the Moorhead Center Mall, Lower Level 

Meeting Rooms at 7:30 p.m. Please attend to see this interesting 

video, and to help make final plans for the July 19 German Folk 

Festival.

16 

Book review by Edna Boardman 



A People’s Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution 

Figes, Orlando..Viking. 1996. 

This is a whopper of a book--824 pages of text, several inserts of 

black and white photographs, plus almost 100 pages of notes, 

bibliography, and index, but it is well worth the work of wading 

through it. It is the story of the 1905 and 1917 revolutions that shook 

Russia to its core. It begins with the reign of Nicholas II, the czar 

who, with his family, was murdered in a farmhouse basement and 

ends at the time that Joseph Stalin became the communist dictator. 

This book has the expected military campaigns of World War I and 

the Civil War, fought in part simultaneously. But Figes sees very 

clearly that Russia, in addition to experiencing a change of 

government, also endured a social/ cultural revolution of mythic 

proportions. He tells about what was going on with Lenin, Trotsky, 

Gorky, and a huge number of others in St. Petersburg and Moscow. 

The revolutionaries hated the czars and their determinedly autocratic 

government even while they emulated them in many ways, and 

sought to implement high-sounding but untried socialist ideas. 

Figes comments that, during the revolution's formative period under 

the czars, censorship was so tight that only ideas here and there 

filtered in from the west (like Karl Marx’s Das Capital). The result 

was that the intelligentsia, who mulled revolution for years, were not 

exposed to the ferment and discussion which softened rigid opinion 

in the west. They’d grab onto something and embrace it as if it were 

the absolute truth. They rarely saw many sides of an issue and it 

never occurred to them that something that sounded marvelous in 

theory might not work in practice. The result was that they moved 

the country from one hard-line system to another. 

The author also considers the people in the countryside and what 

their experiences were, and this is what makes it an excellent choice 

for German Russian readers. He takes the reader into the Russian 

peasant villages for a look around. The peasants, many of them serfs 

freed only in 1861, had for centuries been terribly abused and, yes, 

exploited by the wealthy classes. They weren’t too unhappy when 

Lenin proclaimed “loot the looters,” and gave them license to kill, 

destroy, and take whatever they wanted from their neighbors. 

Though there was not a sharp division of classes within the villages 

(communist theory notwithstanding), they took glee in destroying the 

nobility and kulaks, those they saw as wealthy and privileged, for the 

sheer pleasure of bringing them down to their level. They did this 

whether or not they received any benefit from it. The soldiers in the 

armies, most of them also peasants, misinterpreted the idea of liberty 

and pillaged both their officer corps and the villages through which 

they passed. Poorly trained, led and equipped, they died by the 

thousands in the battles and of disease. 

Figes humanizes the movements covered by the book by focusing in 

a storytelling fashion on a number of real individuals-revolutionaries, 

a writer, workers, a man of the gentry who adjusted 

to the new realities, and several peasants who broke the mold (and 

some who didn’t). 

This was a terrible time to be alive in Russia; some ten million 

persons died across the revolutionary period, and there was great 

suffering. Lenin’s Cheka, the secret police, ran rampant, torturing 

and killing those they saw as counterrevolutionaries. Prisons 

overflowed. Again and again, villages were attacked. Jews, pegged 

as scapegoats for shortages and things that went wrong, were the 

victims of pogroms that involved horrible suffering. Peasants, forced 

to give up produce without pay, struck back in the way they had 

always dealt with their oppressors. They dragged their feet, reduced 

production to subsistence levels, kept to their old beliefs and 

superstitions, and held to their conviction that the land belonged to 

the people who labored on it. Lenin and his co-rulers didnt 

understand them and applied the blunt tool of force to try to get them 

to do what they wanted. 

Somehow, simultaneously, elementary schools were established in 

the villages and more people than ever learned to read and to raise 

their expectations. Soldiers (those who survived) returning from 

European campaigns had seen a better way of life and sought to 

abandon the land for jobs in the cities. People survived through 

primitive trading even when it was totally forbidden, as per 

communist theory. 

An interesting element in the book is that Figes notes many points at 

which the worst aspects of the revolution could have been averted 

across the whole period. Several of the czars, including Nicholas II, 

could have instituted a constitutional monarchy, with a constituent 

assembly, as did countries in western Europe, and they could have 

relinquished power to the zemstvos, and soviets, the regional and 

local governing bodies that existed in the countryside. They could 

have moderated policies and treated their people with more respect. 

The Bolsheviks could have paid the peasants for their grain instead 

of requisitioning it, and they could have reined back their secret 

police. It was almost as if the leadership of the country under both 

systems had a death wish, time and time again choosing the most 

destructive options in defense of some abstract principle. 

Figes often inserts a note indicating that other historians interpret 

events in ways other than his and gives his reasons for saying what 

he does. The pictures, black and white photographs, are excellent, 

taken during the events treated in the book. A weakness of the book 

is that Figes does not bring the Orthodox Church into very sharp 

focus. While he refers to it often, and it is clear that it was always 

around having a say, one feels that, somewhere in the background, it 

must have been a stronger player in what was going on. 

So where do the German colonies fit into all this? The author 

frequently mentions non-Russian nationalities, not including 

Germans in the lists. Only once does Figes mention Germans 

specifically, and then he makes just an incidental reference to the 

people in the Volga colonies. The reader feels that he always knows 

that they were there, wanting to govern themselves, pressing to 

retain their culture and language, the target of attacks because they 

were relatively wealthy, and “sitting on” supplies of grain. It almost 

seems that he doesn¹t want to call attention to colonial Germans 

because readers might not readily differentiate between them and the 

Germans attacking during World War II. The reader with some 

background in the history of the Germans in Russia will readily 

know where and when they were affected by what was going on. 

So, get this book from your library, put a bigger bulb in your light 

fixture, grab a couple of sofa pillows to brace it up on your lap, and 

get some cooling gel to treat the strain in your shoulders (we’re 

talking commitment). But do not be put off by its size and length 

because, at the end, you will have an excellent feeling for the “buzz” 

behind some significant experiences of the Germans in Russia; 

you’ll understand many things better.

June 2003 GRHS News.pub - GRHS Home Page

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