I can't imagine....

Imagine you hear a news report....some obscure group of people, thousands of miles away in Russia, are being sent to Siberia.

Accused of being "spies", they are "Germans" who live along the Volga River.  The world is facing war...with Germans.

You probably shrug.  Who cares?  Right?

But what if you used to live there.  You know these people.  Your own parents, whom you have not heard from for almost 10 years..are in this group.  Your brothers, your sisters, aunts, uncles....all farmers...just trying to live their lives.

That was the situation of my grandparents.  I can't even imagine the pain they must have felt when they heard this announcement?

Spies?  Hardly.

Here's what the official announcement stated:

"According to reliable facts, which were obtained by the military authorities, among the German population residing in the districts in the Volga Region, there are thousands and tens of thousands of diversionists [saboteurs] and spies, who, at a signal given from Germany, must commit sabotage in the districts which are populated by the Germans in the Volga Region.

Concerning the presence of such a great number of saboteurs and spies among the Germans in the Volga Region, none of the Germans residing in the Volga Region informed the Soviet leadership that the German population of the districts in the Volga Region is hiding in its vicinity the enemy of the Soviet people and Soviet regime.

In order that acts of sabotage and bloodshed do not take place, which were planned according to Germany’s order given to the German diversionists [saboteurs] and spies in the Volga German republic and adjoining districts, the Soviet government, according to martial law, will adopt punitive measures against the entire German population in the Volga Region.

In order to avoid such undesirable occurrences and for the prevention of serious bloodshed, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR deems it necessary to resettle the entire German population residing in the districts in the Volga Region and other districts, and that the resettlers be allotted land and receive state assistance in the new districts.

For this purpose, the abundance of arable land in the districts of Novosibirsk, the Omsk Region, the Altai Region, Kazakhstan, and other neighboring regions is to be distributed to the resettlers.

In connection with this, the State Committee of Defense is instructed to execute urgently the removal of all Germans in the Volga Region and to allot land in the new regions to the resettled Germans of the Volga Region."

Here's a Western report giving you a better idea what the deportation meant.

Of course, what is not stated, is that these "Colonists" were thrown into the Soviet GULAG. Many will never be heard from again. Two of my grandfather's brothers will perish in these labour camps. But of course, because of the Iron curtain, our family will not know this. There was only silence. Imposed silence. We will finally discover what happened to our family in 1984.