The area in Ukraine where we work was once the home for many
Mennonites. These all left in the many
migrations from the area but mostly during the forced evacuation of the area in
World War II when they were either sent east to Kazakhstan by the Soviet
authorities in 1941 or moved west with the retreating German army in 1943. I have often wondered if there was a small
remnant of Mennonites left in the area. It
turns out there were but they are hard to identify. After the war there was understandably a
strong anti-German feeling in the area. This
made any German speaking Mennonites in the area hide their former
identity. They were very reluctant to
talk about this for many years.
One of the best known Mennonites left living in the area was
Rita Pankratz. She had married a
Ukrainian and was allowed to stay when the Soviets were evacuating other
Mennonites. She also chose to stay when
the Mennonites had a chance to move west with the retreating German army. It became a tradition for recent Mennonite
tours in the area to stop at her place and hear her story. Mary and I met her on our tour through here
in 2006. She has since passed away. There
were other Mennonites also. One of our
staff revealed a few years ago that she had a Mennonite grandmother. Several years ago one of the seniors
attending our lunches at the Mennonite Centre acknowledged that his real name
was Heinrich Neufeld. He had taken his
wife’s Ukrainian name in order to hide his real identity. He has also passed away by now. In my last blog I reported that one of the
ladies attending the Kutuzovka Mennonite Church revealed to my uncle that she
was also of Mennonite background. We have followed up on the story.
My aunt and uncle from Edmonton, Victor and Helga Suderman,
are interested in Mennonite history. My
uncle in particular is actively working with the Grandma database, which is
recording Mennonite genealogy records. They
were very interested in connecting this lady’s ancestry with the data base and
determining if she had relatives in Canada.
Wednesday afternoon we drove out to her place. Her name is Suzanna Shranko. Her maiden name was Janzen. She greeted us warmly and we were invited
inside to talk. She had a unique
story. She was born in 1935 in the
Mennonite village of Ladekop, which has now been absorbed by the city of
Tokmak. Her area was not evacuated by
Soviet authorities in 1941 and lived there during the German occupation. In 1943 she fled westward with her family
into Germany. As happened to many
others, her family was re-captured by the advancing Soviet army and her family
was forcibly repatriated. Here her story
differs from many others. Instead of
being loaded onto cattle cars and shipped to Siberia or Kazakhstan, her family
was forced to drive a herd of cattle from Germany to a country we now know as
Belarus. She would have been 10 years old at this time. On completion of this assignment, there were
no further orders and her family managed to slip away and make their way south
to their former home in Ladekop.
They were immediately recognized as German speaking people and
life was not easy for them in their home village. Their original house was still standing but
had been occupied by another family brought in from western Ukraine. They were not allowed to reclaim their house
but had to rent a place in which to live.
She also talked about barely surviving a local famine which lasted from
1946 to 1948. In 1959 she married a
Ukrainian. They had 4 children. Her husband has since died and the children
are all grown but live close by. She has
not had anyone to talk to in Low German for over 40 years. She has maintained her language skills by talking
to herself. While my Low German is quite
limited, I found her easy to understand.
The current political crisis was also disturbing for her. She started crying when she talked about
it. She had an irrational fear that all
German speaking people would be the first to be shot if Russia took over. This fear obviously came out of some trauma from
the past.
I was interested in knowing why she revealed her Mennonite
background to my uncle. She explained
that when my uncle and aunt were introduced in church and it was mentioned that
they had been exploring the area to find their ancestral home, she thought they
might have something in common. I did
not find this explanation totally satisfying as the same thing would have
applied to any of us Canadians working at the Mennonite Centre. My uncle however was quite touched by her
story. As we were leaving, he gave her a
lengthy hug which she readily accepted.
She followed us out to the van.
My uncle was sitting in the front passenger seat with his wife directly
behind him. She stood by his window
continuing the conversation in Low German. At the end she gave my uncle a coy smile
followed by a wink. Suddenly I knew why
she had revealed her identity to my uncle – she thought he was kind of cute.
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| Victor & Helga Suderman wih Suazanna Shranko (Janzen) |
The work at the Mennonite Centre continues. Last Friday we had a distraught lady applying
for assistance in purchasing medications.
Her husband had been diagnosed with a tumour of the spine. He had undergone 3 operations and was now
bedridden. They have been prescribed
medications that cost 1200 UAH per month (around $100US at the current rate of
conversion) while they have a monthly combined pension of 1140 UAH. We agreed to provide the medications for one
month, but the family does have some very difficult decisions to make in the
future.
On Sunday as we came out of church we were greeted with the
news that there had been gun fire in one of the cities of eastern Ukraine. The local news media was reporting that
Ukrainians had been killed. One could immediately
sense the heightened concern on people around us. The Mennonite Centre has been preparing to
assist the local area if the political situation deteriorates. If supplies of natural gas are cut off by
Russia, many local people and institutions will be unable to prepare food. This week we finalized and tested the
installation of a stand-by generator and electric stove. All food preparation is usually done by
natural gas. In emergencies we can now
prepare meals for all seniors in town and also help out with supplying hot
meals for the local hospital and senior’s home.
As Dema our manager said, “The Mennonite Centre is ready for Putin.”
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| Dema with diesel generator |
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| Electric Stove at Left |
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