A sad family story: Peter & Ana Dieser

Peter Dieser was born in 1910, in the Volga German village of Josefstal.  His wife, Ana Benz, was also born around that time.

They married around 1930. Exact dates are unknown.

Peter was a younger brother to my grandmother, Elisabeth (Dieser) Gerk, born in 1902.

The last time my grandmother heard from her family, was in 1933, during the Soviet famine.

Peter and Ana would survive the famine, and then be deported to Siberia in September of 1941.

Having no children, Peter will survive labour camps and die in August of 1948.

My cousin, Alexander-Josef Dreser, once told me that Peter's death was pretty normal. He said that many of the people who might have survived labour camps were in such a weakened condition after their release, that they did not long survive after their release.

It's a sad story.  My grandmother had no idea until 1984 what happened to this younger brother. She would many times lament how she missed her siblings and her parents.

This post remembers Peter.

I promised my grandmother I would not forget them.