Secrets from archives...

 I love history.  When I was 18, I set out to record the history of our family, as well as the history of the village they lived in.

That culminated in two separate books.

One of the privileges I have had, is to work in former Soviet Archives.

The other is to work with incredible people who have had ties to our family or village.

One of the amazing discoveries was from a lady named Barbara (Wagner) Schaab. Born in 1914 in the Volga German village of Josefstal, she would write me long letters in old German...giving me her recollections of life in her village.

One of the amazing things she sent me was a photograph, taken about 1928, by the side of the Church in Josefstal.  This Church was were my grandparents, Paul & Elisabeth (Dieser) Gerk were married in 1920.

My cousin, Alex Dreser, was able to compile a list of who was in the photograph.  My grandmother's brother is in the photo.  The priest in the front row, Father Johannes Falkenstein, was sent to Siberia.

Actually, every single person in this photograph was deported to Siberia.

And the fate of this Church?  The Church in which my grandparents were married in?  Here is a document I discovered while researching our village history.  Dated June 25, 1937, it orders the destruction of the Church in Josefstal...its lumber to be used to build a theatre in the nearby village of Oberdorf.

To be fair, the Church was not used any longer for religious purposes.  Most of the Volga German priests had been arrested...most of them were shot later in 1937...Soviet propaganda warned about the dangers of religious faith.....