Remembering a Victim of Communism

I never knew my great-grandmother.

She was born October 26, 1873 in the Volga German village of Semenovka.

She will go to work for the Dieser family, in the village of Josefstal, as a maid, and then marry one of their sons, Johannes Dieser, on Novermber 8, 1894.

They will have 9 children.  One of these children, Elisabeth, born August 19, 1902, will marry Paul Gerk on September 15, 1920.

My grandparents, Paul and Elisabeth, will live through the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war.

They will experience life under a Communist goverment.  Because of the Red Terror and the first famine along the Volga, Paul will escape Russia and flee to Canada as a refugee.  Paul will bring my grandmother out to Canada in 1925.

The plan was always to get the rest of the family out as well.

But the Iron Curtain will slam shut.

There will be letters.

The families will try desperately to keep in touch.

 Then, in 1933, a letter will arrive, written by my great-grandmother.  It will say in part:

Dear children, conditions are difficult here with respect to food. Times are tough dear children. Yes dear children we are having a hard time getting food.  Some people have had money sent to them. For one coin (taler) one pound of flour can be bought in Kamyshin.  If you could come to my aid could you send me 5 (taler) which would give us five pounds of flour.  Perhaps then I wouldn't starve to death, dear children.  Again I ask if you can help me so that I don't have to starve.  Now I will close this letter and greet you again and ask you to write quickly.

The letter was dated January 5, 1933.

My grandparents sent as much money as they could afford.  It would never arrive.  It would be stolen by Soviet postal officials.

On August 2, 1933, my great-grandmother, Marie Eva Dieser, will die from starvation.

A victim of the forced famine along the Volga and in the Ukraine.

There will be no acknowledgment of her death. My family will not discover her death until 1984...51 years after the fact.

When I traveled to Russia and spoke with archival officials, trying to track down her death record, I was told that even if I found it, it would probably only state that she died from "stomach disease". In the 1930's...as famine raged along the Volga....telling the truth...even on documentation of a death...would get you shot.

Such was life under Communism.

And so our family remembers our great-grandmother.  A kind and loving Mother and Grandmother.  We never got to know her....we knew only of the kindness and gentleness of her daughter, our grandmother.