100 years ago: A New Beginning

 

He was 22 years old.

Put in prison by the communists for crimes he did not commit. His father gave him a horse and he left Russia with his brother and wife, along with friends from his village.

On the way his brother will die of Typhus. He will work as a shoemaker in Minsk. In December of 1922, he will arrive, along with 900 other refugees, in a refugee camp located in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany.

There he will work to regain his health and work to support himself, all the while try to figure out where he should go.

2 years later, on March 25, 1924, he will board the SS Montrose, and leave for the one country that would take him.

SS Montrose

 

Paul Gerk Passenger List

Sponsored by a Canadian Catholic refugee organization, known as the "Volksverein", Paul Gerk will be sponsored by the Jack Eheman family in Holdfast, Saskatchewan.

Paul will arrive, along with best friend, Georg Stremel, at Saint John's, Newfoundland, Canada, on April 5, 1924. 

Passenger listing for Georg Stremel

Refugees were met at Saint John's by Father Kierdorf of the Volksverein.  There he will assist the new immigrants with their travel to farms in Saskatchewan.

Canadian Pacific Railway Docks, West Saint John, N.B. (1929)
Credit: Canada. Dept. of Interior / Library and Archives Canada / PA-049774

 

Paul Gerk, Holdfast, Saskatchewan, 1924

I never knew my grandfather, but my grandmother would often tell me how happy and thankful Paul was at the opportunities in his adopted land of Canada.

Paul was told after a year of work that if he stayed on with the farm work, his farm sponsor would pay for the passage of his wife, Elisabeth Dieser Gerk, to also come to Canada. She would arrive in Canada in 1925.

100 years. In so many ways our family has been blessed to live in Canada.  Arriving here with nothing, our grandfather taught us the principles of courage, faith and family. The hope was to eventually bring other family members here from Russia, but the iron curtain slammed shut and our family was taken from us....not to hear from them again for over 50 years.

Our family has much to be thankful for. Starting with the amazing bravery, 100 years ago, of our grandparents, Paul and Elisabeth Gerk.

Behind the scene negotiations for refugees to Canada

Behind the scene negotiations for refugees to Canada for April 2024

The Past....

 "A teenager has breakfast, then goes to the store to buy the latest CD of a new band.  The kid thinks he lives in a modern moment.  But who has defined what a 'band' is? Who defined a 'store'? Who defined a 'teenager'? Or 'breakfast'? To say nothing of all the rest, the kid's entire social setting - family, school, clothing, transportation and government.

"None of this has been decided in the present.  Most of it was decided hundreds of years ago. Five hundred years, a thousand years. This kid is sitting on top of a mountain that is the past. And he never notices it.  He is ruled by what he never sees, never thinks about, doesn't know. It is a form of coercion that is accepted without question.  This same kid is skeptical of other forms of control - parental restrictions, commercial messages, government laws.  But the invisible rule of the past, which decides nearly everything in his life, goes unquestioned."

 

-Michael Crichton, “Timeline”

100 Years ago....it begins....

 

Volga German refugees bound for Canada - March 1924

Paul Gerk (upper left), March 1924.

100 years ago, on March 23, 1924, my grandfather, Paul Gerk, began his journey to a new chapter of his life.

 Living in a refugee camp since December 1922, having escaped  from  the Volga River area of Russia, Paul Gerk would begin his new life in Canada.

I can't even imagine what his journey was like.  Leaving Russia after being imprisoned by the Communists. Paul left with his oldest brother, Michael, and his wife Margareta Stremel Gerk.  Michael will die, probably from typhus, somewhere near Minsk and the Polish border.

His hope seemed to be to connect with family in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

In his original transport list from Minsk to Frankfurt/Oder, lists Gottfried Winter as a potential contact.

"Der Wolgadeutsche", January 1923

Eventually, Paul Gerk will be sponsored by a family in Saskatchewan, near Holdfast.

His trek started 100 years ago this week. On March 22, 1924, a group of about 76 men will leave the refugee camp in Frankfurt/Oder, and travel to the Port of Hamburg.

We have a description of this first leg of the journey, written by S. Feist, in the May 1924 edition of "Clemens Blatt". 

Feist writes:

"After the Canadian Catholic Church Members Society had successfully arranged for the German refugees’ emigration from the Volga and Black Sea Provinces to Canada and their settlement possibilities amongst the Canadian farmers, it was then their most important duty to assemble and conduct their transport, departure, and the travel route. Among the first duties of the authoritative St. Raphael Society in Hamburg regarding the assembling of the first refugee transport was to place it under our care, namely the Catholic Social Welfare. It accordingly then became our duty to prepare the emigrants for emigration. On March 19th I went to the refugee camp located in Frankfurt on the Oder to get and prepare a full and complete list of the emigrants. Immediately upon getting acquainted, those representing the Catholic Volksverein in Canada, which had the prepared emigration requirements, declared that 76 persons were already listed for emigration; however, with the explicit wish that all concerned organizations might do their utmost to have the families of the emigrants soon follow them to Canada. The transport’s departure was firmly set for March 23rd. To lighten the parting of these emigrant heads of families, a wish was generally expressed that our Diocese Bishop, Cardinal Kessler, might conduct a solemn farewell Mass in the Frankfurt camp. Early in the morning of March 22nd Bishop Kessler and I traveled together to the camp, where we were cheerfully welcomed by the refugees.

In the considerably bleak and cold camp-church Bishop Kessler conducted high mass and at its end he gave a short speech. He stated that this approaching parting is a parting from wife and children, even though on unfamiliar soil. He further stated that he wanted the emigrants to always keep their holy faith and always keep in mind to be good Catholics in Canada just as they had been in their homeland diocese. In all necessities he urged them to take refuge in prayer and never give up hope, and that after the bitter hour of parting there will be a happy reunion. He also stated that the St. Raphael Society and the Catholic Social Welfare in cooperation with the Catholic Volksverein in Canada will exert every means possible to succeed in the shortest period of time to have their families soon rejoin them in Canada.

In the evening of March 23rd the emigrants, after a tearful and difficult departure, began their travel from the “Grube Vaterland” station, a branch depot of the Frankfurt-Cottbus line, in three already provided railway cars. Here, too, various speeches of comfort were spoken to the left-behind wives and children and the departing men.

At the railway station in Berlin via a telegraph notification the entire Board of Directors of our Catholic Social Welfare for Russia appeared. Here again the emigrating refugees received wishes for their infinite good, and were promised that everything will be set in motion so that their left-behind families can most quickly follow them. On Sunday, March 23rd, we arrived in Hamburg and were welcomed by a representative of the St. Raphael’s Society and an agent of the Emigration Office. Under the navigation agent’s escort we came to the emigration hall. After the completion of the usual formalities, a breakfast was served for the refugees. Then after a medical examination they were brought into two pavilions. At the suggestion of he emigrants a vesper and rosary service was conducted. On Monday morning the Rev. Dr. Kralewsky of the St. Raphael Society conducted a high mass.

Then the emigrants stepped into the usual completion formalities for emigration. It must be emphasized that the medical examination is strictly undertaken. Up to the examination time the emigrants had been cheerful and their humour also had not failed them. After the last medical exam, then the medical examination results were announced, resulting in a sad picture. Of the 76 persons examined, 27 were denied emigration due to illness. It must also be mentioned that our (Catholic Social Welfare) emigration transport was praised by the Board of Directors and the Navigation Association as having made a good impression. It can therefore be determined that our emigrants also will make a good impression upon the American farmers.

On March 25th, the Annunciation Day, the General secretary of the St. Raphaelsvereins (St. Raphael Society), namely Rev. P. Timpe came and conducted a high mass in the chapel on the (emigration hall) site. P. Timpe at the end of the mass, which he kindly had set up for the refugees, gave a short speech to give courage to the departing emigrant group. He spoke of his hope that by their good and willing work in Canada the farmers there will be ready and willing to also help bring their families to them. On March 26th we escorted the 49 emigrants to the train station, from which they were to go Rotterdam. Rev. P. Timpe likewise was at the train station and once again delivered his promise and pledge before their eyes. Then the train started on its way and everyone shouted, “Auf Wiedersehen”. (Till we meet again.)

That same evening we traveled back with the emigrant-denied people going through Berlin to the Frankfurt camp. To give the American friends an opportunity to help them get to know the emigrants individually, we gave them photographs, which eventually could help establish acquaintanceships or kinships. In closing, I point out with firm satisfaction that the people we selected for the first transport have in all concerns made a very good impression. I also hope that the American farmers will also be satisfied with them. In conclusion, the following request is also made to the Canadischen Katholichen Volksverein (Canadian Catholic Church Members Society): that in due course they will want to do everything possible so that the left-behind family members can soon follow to join their loved ones. "

List of Refugees to Canada March 1924
Richelhof, Friedrich	Abt, Kilian	Weisbeck, Johannes	Mildenberger, Jakob	Stankowitz, Johannes
Diel, Adam	Burgardt, Peter	Gerk, Paul	Blattner, Jakob	Rau, Heinrich
Rutzman, Josef	Stalldecker, Albinius	Frank, Adolf	Weichel, Georg	Schermer, Adam
Storm, Alexander	Zelbel, Reinhold	Okulewitsch. Leo	Eckermann, Johannes	Dandörfer, Jakob
Abt, Florian	Neitzich, Peter	Gottseltig, Johannes	Weichel, Peter	Markel, Georg
Martel, Sebastian	Wagner, Clemens	Weingardt, Johannes	Weichel, Peter	Wucheuauer, Georg
Meringer, Michael	Herlein, Anton	Stremel, Georg	Seelmann, Heinrich	Werner, Georg
Eberhardt, Johannes	Terre, Johannes	Schönberger, Josef	Rolsing, Andreas	Specht, Georg
Schowalie, Johannes	Wander, Johann	Schönberger, Dionysius	Specht, Josef	Rohleder, Johann
Schowalie, Adolf	Weisbeck, Johannes	Schamber, Raymund	Dandörfer, Peter	Rieth, Georg

Passport of Paul Gerk - March 1924

I never knew my grandfather.  But I do understand the courage it must have taken to leave all your family and come to a strange new land...and also remember the kindness of so many people that helped our family settle in the amazing nation that is Canada.

Good Friends....

This photograph was taken in June of 1954 at Saint Theresa's cemetery in Kelowna.

The burial is my grandfather, Paul Gerk, who died June 3, 1954 at the age of 52.

The lonely figure standing there is my grandfather's best friend, Georg Stremel.  Standing in an honour guard position, as both of the men were with the Knights of Columbus.

Georg Stremel was also from Josefstal, a little village near the Volga River, in Russia. Both the Stremel family, and my grandfather, escaped Russia at the same time, and even ended up in the same refugee camp in Frankfurt/Oder in Germany.

Both Georg Stremel and Paul Gerk will arrive in Canada at the same time, in April of 1924.  Georg will write my grandfather and tell him to move from Saskatchewan to the Kelowna/Rutland area.  In 1929 Paul Gerk, wife Elisabeth and their 2 children will do just that.

The Stremel and Gerk families would remain close all their lives. They had been through war, revolution, civil war, famine and escape, all together.

Best friends forever.

 

Another....

Another friend has passed away.  We were best friends around the age of 14 or so. Just attended the burial service.

Sigh.

Dancing in Limbo

 

I am really, really looking forward to this book.  The cancer journey is interesting.  When I was diagnosed, I was given a book and told to research it and then choose which treatment I wanted.

That's a big responsibility.

What if I choose "poorly", LOL.

Anyways, you have your treatment and then it's over.  To everyone.  You are supposed to think that way too.

The reality is I am not considered "cancer free" until around 5 years after my surgery, then it is really in "remission". My grade of cancer was quite high, which means it has a high rate of recurrence. I get checked every few months.

But no matter...I was wondering about my frame of mind...then someone on one of the cancer support groups recommended this book. I've bought it and hoping it will be helpful...although I am told by many it was so helpful to them on their cancer journey.

If you are on this journey, here's the link to the book.

40 years

 

Another mystery solved!

Although I can't comprehend all the years that have gone by.

I clipped this article from the Soviet German-language paper "Neues Leben" in 1980.

Searching for our family in the USSR, I would clip any articles that mentioned our family name of Gerk.

This one article was a congratulatory letter to Albert Gerk on the occasion of his 60th birthday.  Meaning, of course, that Albert was born in or around 1920 in the Volga German village of Koehler. I placed it in a file...hoping that one day the mystery of Albert Gerk would be solved.

Accessing more historical records the last few months, I was able to get a copy of Albert's birth record. Born September 5, 1920 to parents Johannes Gerk and Magdalena Immherr.

Albert passed away sometime in the late 1980's near the city of Karaganda...where thousands of Volga Germans were deported to in the fall of 1941.

40 years.

40 years

 Time marches on.  

Going through old files when I was actively looking for our family. I would write anyone who has ties to our village in hopes of finding a link for my grandmother. This family has the same last name as my grandmother, although spelt slightly different...started writing back and forth in 1980.

Finally, after receiving Church records we can confirm that Val Deaser's grandfather and my grandmother's grandfather were brothers!

Val passed away in 2003 at the age of 90.

All these people I wrote to through the years are all gone now. Sometimes this is a lonely hobby.

My grandfather's sister, Anna Gerk

 

Sigh.

Another sad story. I set out to determine what happened to everyone in our family. My grandparents escaped from Russia in the 1920's. Thinking they would be able to keep in touch with their parents and siblings.

They were wrong.

After 1933 there was silence.

My grandfather's oldest sister, born in 1896, would marry Michael Kisser on October 23, 1912.

This picture of them both, with 2 of their children (Beata and Isabella), was taken in 1917.

Anna will die in the USSR in 1983.

I always wondered what happened to Michael. Now word from family in Germany confirms what we did not know.

A relative writes:

"Anna's first man (Michael Kisser) was arrested during the Soviet famine of the 1930s. In order to feed his family, he fetched grains of wheat from the field. The wheat grains were fried and eaten to survive. Once the police caught him. He was sentenced to 10 years for stealing Soviet property. Michael had a very soft heart. Prison, imprisonment and being separated from his family have taken a toll on him. Anna Gerk regularly visited him in prison. But the prison officials told her that Michael will not survive his imprisonment. Prison has broken him and his psyche badly. One day he died. He spent in prison no more than 1 or 1.5 years."

That was around 1933-1934.

Some more photographs from family:

Anna will marry again, Konrad Arnold, a widower. They will have 2 children, Josef and Anna. Konrad will suffer the same fate and will be arrested in 1938.

The great-grandson of Anna writes:

"In fact, we don't know much about Konrad Arnold. My grandmother was 1 year old when her father (Konrad Arnold) disappeared. One day people from the state security came and took him from his family and home away. Apparently, he was sent to Siberia. After that, his wife, Anna (Gerk) Arnold received only one letter from him. Nothing was ever heard from him again. Anna (Gerk) Arnold said to my grandmother (Anna Arnold) that Konrad was a shoemaker by trade. While working, he sang Christian songs that were normally sung in church. And apparently this was not allowed. The Communist Party and Stalin in particular had opposed religion."

 I want to say that my grandparents would have been heartbroken to know what was happening to their family. But I know their hearts were already broken from not knowing.

I write these stories, as sad as they are, so our family never forgets...and to honour those who have gone before us.

Shortcuts

Walked through my old neighborhood today....and from there to my old elementary school.  Wow.  Walking there and back was about 30 minutes.  As a kid it seemed like an eternity!

I was amazed at my "shortcuts". Different ways through, in those days, "spooky" back alleys...all to save just a few feet. I had a paper route there as well.

Again, it seemed like a never-ending route!

It's funny, perspective I mean.  I can look at this area and so well remember where I walked.  It's such a little space, in actuality.  Yet as a kid growing up...the distance seemed huge.

The hard part was, naturally, seeing our old house.  With all my heart I wish I could just go open the door and say Hi to Mom & Dad.

Now other families live there.  Making their own memories that they can access years in the future.

Granny Gerk Remembers

 

My grandmother, Elisabeth (Dieser) Gerk was an amazing lady. Extremely kind, she was the pillar of our family for so many years.

In 1979, at the age of 18, I took some time to interview her about her life in Russia.

I kept those recordings and digitized them years ago. In hopes that they will always be available, I've placed them here as well.

Funny,  there are scores of additional questions I wish I had asked her....but in those days we never dreamed the USSR would collapse, and archives thrown open.

I'm just so happy we can still hear her voice after so many years.

 

The start of looking back

 

It was a year ago when I got the call. 

The call I thought I was prepared for....the call I was in denial about.

Let's face it. No one can ever really be prepared for THAT phone call you get from a Doctor.

I was out walking when it came.  I can even show you on the mountain where I was standing when it came.

A year.

Quite frankly, as I write these words, I never thought I would still be here. 

Now a year has gone by.  I survived my surgery. My first test has come back showing no recurrence. No spread. It will be a process I go through every 6 months for the next 5 years.

So what did I learn?  What was it all for?

I wrestle with that. I'm not "out of the woods", I realize that.

I am trying to number my days. Does my life count? Did it count? How can I change what I need to change for the future....a future that I can't assume is there?

These are my thoughts in the night.

Josefstal History Book available online

 

In 2009, my cousin Alex and I had a book published in the German language.

This was a labour of love....our grandmother's were sisters...and we both had listened to all their stories as we grew up.

On my many trips to Russia, I was able to compile a large archive of historical documents from former Soviet archives....all dealing with the history of our little village.

Now out of print, the book has been made available online thanks to special permission from Lora Dreiser, Alex's widow.

I post this for posterity here.

1946 Family Portraits

 Years ago my grandmother gave me this envelope with some family pictures from 1946. I later asked my Aunt Mary why they had never made them into prints, and I was told it was because everyone in the family hated them. I'll never forget the look of polite horror when I presented my Aunt with an enlarged copy of one of the pictures. She was very polite.

1946. My Dad was almost 13 years old. My grandmother does not look well, but that is not surprising given how many times both she and my grandfather ended up in hospital with serious health issues. All relating to their life in Russia and what they went through...revolution, civil war, uprisings and famine and disease.

Great-Grandfather's signature

 

I've been continuing my work on a project, documenting all the birth, marriage and deaths for our family village. A new item became available in one of the Russian archives, well, "new" meaning 100 years old. It was the "Book of Deaths" for our village of Josefstal, 1919 to 1922. This book is extremely important for my quest to document the starvation deaths in our village from 1921. 

Anyways, there next to the title "Vorsitzender des Standesamtes", or "Chairman of the Registry Office" is the signature, in Russian, of J. Dieser.

J. Dieser is Johannes Dieser. 

This means that this is the signature of my great-grandfather.

My grandmother's Dad.

Sadly, he himself will pass away from complications after surgery in 1933....during the next great famine in Russia.

Vorsitzender des Standesamtes or "Chairman of the registry office" "J. Дизер" - J. Dieser

Starting my search...

 

As I started my hunt for family history, I examined a variety of possible sources and ways to glean information.  There was no access to computers when I started, so it meant looking through old and current phone books, as well as looking for places to make appeals for more info.

One such appeal was printed in Everton's genealogical helper - v. 33, no. 3 May/Jun 1979. A copy of that ad is here. When it appeared I was still 18 years old, having just started my quest.

On the hunt for an old Church

It was August of 1992. Our group had been in the Volga city of Saratov for just a couple days.  It was early in the morning, before breakfast....so I set out.

I was hunting for a Church.

Not just any Church. This was Saint Clements Catholic cathedral. I had heard that it was still standing.  I was curious...but there were other reasons.

Saint Clements was the Church that my grandmother and her Dad (my great-grandfather) had attended in the summer of 1925. They were both in Saratov to pick up my grandmother's passport...the document that would allow her to leave Russia and join my grandfather in Canada.

While in Saratov, they had both attended Mass in the cathedral.

We were staying at an old hotel, the Hotel Volga, located on Kirov Avenue. The street had become a pedestrian walkway, and there was talk about changing it's name back to the original, "German Street".

I set out on my quest...it really didn't take long...it was just a few short blocks from where we were staying.

But there it was.

The facade had been changed...the twin bell towers had been taken down, but the front had remained.

Examining the side of the building, you could make out the actual original architecture of the Church.

 You can even make out where the original stain-glass windows once were, now bricked up.

It was moving to go inside the former Church.  The lobby filled with theater vending machines.  Knowing that my grandmother and great-grandfather once stood where I stood.

"Stalins Vandalism" they call it. Efforts to declare the building a historical site and examine the possibility of restoring the Church have been ongoing.  It is felt that the building cannot be restored to its former glory. But it stands as a testimony to the past...and man's attempt to erase that past.

I am so glad I took the time to complete my quest.