This week we
had the opportunity of exploring one of the local myths about Molochansk
(called Halbstadt in Mennonite times).
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| Molochansk Sports School formerly the Mennonite Credit Union Building |
It all
started off innocently enough. We were
off to the Molochansk Sports School to look at some completed projects and to
talk to them about their requests for assistance. We have been a faithful sponsor, enabling many
of their athletes to attend major sporting events. Even though they have a relatively equal
number of boys and girls in their program, the requests have often favoured the
boys. We wanted to encourage them to give
equal opportunity for girls to attend major sporting competitions. In the process we got to see the steps we had
paid to repair as well as an energetic workout by their gymnastics class. In this class I recognized the daughter of
Tanya, one of our employees. After many
years of working for us, Tanya reluctantly acknowledged that she had a
Mennonite grandmother with the surname of Peters.
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| Top Steps Showing Repair with Ben and Lil in Background |
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| Gym Class with Tanya's Daughter in Front |
The
Molochansk Sports School is located in a former Mennonite building – namely the
Mennonite Credit Union. The rumours of
tunnels always focus on this building and we took advantage of our visit to ask
if we could examine the basement to see if there was any sign of tunnels. The staff was quite obliging and went to get
the keys for the basement doors. We
toured every room in the dark basement and heard many stories from the staff.
The main
rumour in town was that there was a tunnel from the Heinrich Willms mansion all
the way to the credit union building and then on to his flour mill located in
what we now call Alt-Halbstadt (Old –Halbstadt). This seems like a long distance and needs to
be illustrated by a map.
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| Map of Halbstadt in Mennonite Times |
The points
of interest on the map are:
1. The Franz and Schroeder machine
factory. This is now the location of a
major furniture factory.
2. The Heinrich Willms mansion.
3. The Mennonite Girls’ School – now the
site of the Mennonite Centre.
4. The Mennonite Credit Union building –
now the Molochansk Sports School.
5. The approximate site of the seven
story flour mill owned by Heinrich Willms.
It has subsequently been used as a milk canning factory.
6. The site of a former Mennonite House
where we went underground to examine some tunnels.
The map was
not drawn to scale and distances can be deceptive. After our tour I decided to get some
“accurate” measurements. I got out the
Mennonite Centre van and drove to a location between the Willms Mansion and the
old Franz and Schroeder factory. I set
my trip odometer and started driving in as straight a line as I could on the
pot-holed roads. When I got to the
Credit Union, I had driven a distance of .8 kilometers (.5 miles). I kept going and reached the old flour mill
at a total distance of 1.9 kilometers (1.18 miles). That is a long tunnel.
The story from
the staff at the Sports School was that many tunnels converged on the Credit
Union Building. There definitely was one
that came from the former Mennonite Boys’ School (Central Schule) across the
street. It was big enough to hold a
carriage. The staff told us of an
incident in 1982 or 1983 when some young boys decided to explore these
tunnels. The tunnels had already been
filled with sand but the boys found a way of digging through the sand. One boy got lost and was not found for a
number of hours. After that, the local
authorities decided to get rid of the potential problem. The tunnel entrances in the Sports School
were sealed with a brick wall.
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| Ben Standing in Front of Sealed Wall |
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| Sealed Wall that has been Broken with Sand in Behind |
The Sports
School staff told us of another tunnel entrance that was built as part of a
Mennonite house. It had its own unique
gate and entrance. It was common for
Mennonite homes to mark their entrance into their yard with large pillars or even
a brick gate. A large ornate gate gave
some indication of the wealth of the individual residing at that
residence. This residence had an old
brick gate just marking the entrance to the tunnel.
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| Gate Marking Entrance to Tunnel |
Everybody
seems to know everybody else in Molochansk and our guide ran off to get the
lady of the house to come and unlock the gate.
She soon appeared with her key but the old large padlock would not
budge. This was not seen as a problem as
they summed a man from another residence who came with a large set of
pliers. He gave the rusty old lock a
couple of whacks and soon the key did its job and the gate was open. We stood there at the top of the stairs
wondering who among us would be stupid enough to venture down into this
crumbling infrastructure.
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| View of Tunnel from the Entrance |
I guess I
assumed that I was the most expendable and was the first to venture down the
staircase. I looked back and could see
that others were also tempted. Everyone
else in our group soon followed. Nobody
wanted to miss this unique opportunity.
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| View of Entrance from Inside Tunnel |
The stairway
led to large chambers that were totally underground. They were completely lined with brick - even
the ceiling. One room had a sort of
chimney that the local person referred to as an elevator. One could use that chimney to directly raise
or lower goods into the chambers. It was
a large underground storage facility. We
did not explore every room and I cannot say with certainty that this did not
lead to other tunnels but suspect it did not.
What amazed me was the expense the owner had gone to in creating this underground
storage space. The large rooms were dry
with no sign of flooding. It was an
amazing discovery.
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| Small Entrances to Other Underground Rooms |
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| Massive Underground Storage Facility |
What was
most amazing about our exploration that day was the cooperation of the local
people in Molochansk. When the Mennonite
Centre opened 15 years ago, we were met with suspicion and some hostility. Now we are openly welcomed and people accommodate
us as best they can. The lady who owns
the former Mennonite house on the property we were exploring was very
open. She claimed to have documents on
the house going back to 1905. I asked to
see these and hoped it would give some clue as to who had lived there. At one time this request would have been met
with the suspicion that we were trying to reclaim the house. Now she just went and got her papers. Unfortunately she could not find any papers
going to Mennonite times in her file but promised to come see me if she did.
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| Ben, Lil, and Oksana with Vera (second from right) the Owner of the Underground Storage |
On our walk
home from this discovery, we met Vitally, our former maintenance man. We told him of our exciting adventure and he
started sharing his own stories of tunnels.
He told us of two former Mennonite homes which had stood right bedside
the Mennonite Centre but have now been demolished and replaced by a large
apartment building. These homes had been
connected by an underground tunnel. He
also told us of a tunnel connecting the Willms mansion and the former Franz and
Schroeder factory. He claimed to have
walked this tunnel himself.
Is there a
tunnel running from the Willms mansion all the way to his floor mill 1.9
kilometers away? I still do not know for
sure but am starting to believe it could be possible. I would love to examine the town with ground
penetrating radar (or whatever it should be called) and see what we can
find. I would love to understand why our
Mennonite ancestors made this large investment in underground structures. Was this also done elsewhere in Ukraine? There are many questions still to be
answered. The underground existence of our Mennonite forefathers needs to be
brought to light.
If you wish
to know more about the work of the Mennonite Centre, you can check out our web
site at: http://www.mennonitecentre.ca/
or follow our daily activities on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Mennonite-Centre-Ukraine-735361069838076/
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