Uncle Vanya: Recollections 1941 onwards...

 

Then in 1941 the war began and by decree of August 28, 1941 from the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, thousands and hundreds of thousands were accused of sabotage and all Germans from all over the country were arrested and exiled to Siberia and Kazakhstan. They lost all their property and livestock. Only two or three remained at the collective farms, just a few. Everyone was evacuated to areas away from the front. This was at the end of August, beginning of September. Harvest of grain was going on in the fields, stacks of grain lay at the collection points. Almost all the implements, combines and tractors were taken for the war. Everything else was thrown to fate. People were taken on tractor carts pulled by horses to the railroad stations. My brother tried to take clothing and bedding and other property without the bed. Even the chairs were left. At the railroad station we were loaded into box cars which had carried grain and livestock. Fifty people in one car, without any conveniences. They took us to Omsk. Ten days we were on the road. From Omsk they took us to collective farms where they gave us a place to stay in dug-outs without windows and doors. We had to work at the collective farms until January 1942.

In January 1942 we men were mobilized by the Military Committee into the “Trudarmiya.” Only families with children and the elderly remained. In such conditions many died from the cold and starvation, but in the summer they gathered the women and children older than 3 years. There was a woman who had to leave 5 – 6 children to the winds of fate. We men were taken to Omsk in horse drawn carts to the closest radio station. We were sent to a club where we waited for 13 days in railroad cars. Then we were transferred to wooden cars and transported to the northern Ural mountains in the Trudarmiya to build the atomic factory.

On the way, which was 12 – 13 days, they kept us in barbed wire prison camps under military guard towers. They put us in two storey barracks, where we worked day and night almost naked and shoeless on the trees. In the camp were 13 barracks, but there was one bathhouse. People from only one barracks could go to the bath at a time and for sanitizing clothing. One evening we had to go to work. The bath house didn’t operate during the day. All 13 barracks had to go and eat for 13 days without disinfection.

We were first fed 600 grams of bread, then the rations were reduced to 500 grams. We had to go to work at 6:00 am. There was also only one small kitchen in the camp. In the morning, we had to wait 3 hours to get soup from this kitchen. To get soup fed to all the Trudarmiya people, the first barracks had to get up at 3:00 am to go to the kitchen. 

At 6:00 am we went through the gates under a strict count of everyone in the brigade. The counts had to be given to the office. We went to work under guard. It was 5 km to the site of construction. The rest of the people worked on dirt excavation, digging trenches 3 – 4 meters deep. It was winter work, and the temperature went to 40 below. The ground was frozen and the tools, like shovels, picks, mattocks, were iron and they broke.

The brigades were told how many cubic meters they had to excavate per day. If the brigade didn’t excavate as much as they were told, the “desyatnik” [brigade leader] would not give them the note, and without the note from the desyatinik, the brigade would not be allowed back in the camp in the evening. Literally after a month people began dying along the road on the way home in the evening. We had to leave them lying along the road in the snow until a cart pulled by a horse could collect them.

The brigade wouldn’t be allowed back in the camp until the watchman knew how many people were left. He would ask where the man was, and we would wait until they brought him. That is how people began to die.

At the end of 1945, at the end of the war, the Trudarmiya was finished. But then came the “spetskomandatura,” [Office of Special Populations] where we all had to be listed. They read to us and gave us a decree of permanent exile to sign where every month we had to report to the special office. We were forbidden to leave town without permission from the special office. Without permission, we could not even go to the railroad station, which was 3 kilometres from town, or to the next town, which was 15 km away. In 1965 the special office was eliminated, and we were given passports without the notation of “special population.” But we were forbidden to go to our homeland. Then it was determined that we had no claims on our home at our homeland.

In 1971 I went to my homeland, to my village of Josefstal. There wasn’t anything at all there. The village was completely liquidated. I found my father’s large wooden house in another village named Novo-Nikolaevka, which earlier was Marienfeld. It was turned into a club, and was locked. Many villages in our republic have been completely liquidated today.

Those villages which still exist are in sorry condition. We Germans were removed from the special population, but that special population gave us obstacles and under the special population department there were Germans who were not allowed to get any work. For example, we worked temporarily for one steam electric station, and attached to our factory was a permanent steam electrostation. Because this big electrostation worked all the time, they closed our temporary station and tore it down. All the bosses and technical workers were all transferred to the big station, except for us Germans. They didn’t give us any work. They wouldn’t let us work at the electrostation, but moved us from the factory. Only now are German workers given responsible positions at various factories. 

My memories about daily life.

I am Gerk, Ivan Georgievich, born February 22, 1911 in the village of Josefstal, ASSRNP, into a farming family. My parents were: father Gerk, Georg Georgievich, born 1868 in the village of Josefstal. He died on February 10, 1925 in Josefstal from intestinal cancer.  Mama was Gerk, Anna Margaretha Heinrichovna, born 1868 in the village of Josefstal. Her maiden name was Rowein. She died on September 16, 1957 in the city of Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk oblast after a stroke. The parents had 11 children, 7 sons and 4 daughters. I was the youngest of those brothers, having been born in Josefstal, ASSRNP on February 22, 1911.

I spent my childhood in Josefstal, I studied in the village 4-year school, which was also in Josefstal. After school I worked on my parents’ farm. On October 24, 1929, I married Barbara Gerk, born 1909 in Josefstal. Her maiden name was Dieser. Until 1929 I farmed, then in 1930 I joined the collective farm, which sent me to courses at the tractor school. I completed courses at the tractor school in 1931-1932, and at the end of 1932 I went to the courses for the tractor brigade. At the end of 1933 I was drafted into the Red Army, where I was sent to school for junior commanders. I finished the courses with the rank of sergeant I served in the cavalry units until the beginning of 1938, when I was then chosen as the chairman of the collective farm where I worked until the end of 1939. Then I was chosen as the brigadier of a tractor brigade until the deportation in 1941. I was deported to the Omsk oblast in September 1941. At the beginning I worked as a combiner, then worked at a machine tractor station, as the brigadier in charge of tractor repair. On January 20, 1942, I was mobilized into the Trudarmiya, and went to work at the aluminum factory in the northern Urals. First I worked as a mechanic at the diesel electrostation, then I was transferred to the steam station as the master for repairs of the turbine department. From 1945 to 1953 I worked as the head of the turbine shop. In 1953 I was transferred to the aluminum factory where I worked as a master of repair work. I worked there until I retired in 1971.

In 1937 we had our daughter Valeria. She died at the age of 15 months in 1938. In 1939 son Volodya was born. Our second son, Eduard, was born in 1941, and he died in Siberia in 1942. When we were taken into the Trudarmiya, my family, mother, wife, and two aunts remained in the Omsk oblast at the collective farm. Later my brother Gottfried took my family to his place, because he lived in a different region 130 km. The move was made in February, on sleighs pulled by horses. On the way our second son Ewald contracted pneumonia and he died at the age of 16 months. In 1943 I was sent to the Omsk oblast section for the Trudarmiya, where I picked up my wife. My mother and son stayed with my brother. In 1946 I built a home in the city of Krasnoturinsk and brought my mother and son to the Urals. We lived there until August 1974, then we moved to Uzbekistan, to the city of Angren where we have lived until today. (Written Summer, 1989)

 (Thanks to Rick Rye for his translation)

Uncle Vanya: Recollections Continued...

My recollections about the suffering of Soviet Germans during de-kulakization, collectivization, deportation to the Trudarmiya, and the komendantura, beginning in 1929

At the end of 1929 and beginning of the 30s, de-kulakization and collectivization began. Who were the “kulaks?” The workers in the villages, the farmers who worked day and night in the fields and who took care of their livestock so they could improve their village lives. Thanks to their tireless work they began to live well. But the other peasants who were not kulaks also had two horses and one cow on their farms were soon arrested and sent to jail. Their property was all confiscated, even the clothes they wore. All members of the family were sent to the northern Urals and the Komi ASSR in the north. Then in the forests the men were united with their families. They were given [sleeping] pallets, axes, saws, shovels. It was in the winter and the guards said that they could use these tools to make their own living quarters. The guards took over what had been built. They threw the pallets into the fire. Some began to live with their families, including children and the elderly.

Then they began to build barracks. Most of them died from starvation and the cold, especially children and the elderly. Then the criminal collectivization began. They forced all the farmers into collectives, seized all the livestock and the farm inventory. They gathered the livestock in groups during the winter, and because of the bad cold and the bad food, most of the livestock died during the winter. That next spring the collective farms didn’t have enough livestock to plant the crops. Then the collective farmers took their own cows away and added them to the village collective in order to have enough for spring planting.

All the churches were closed and the clergy was sent to prison. Churches were used for warehouses, clubs, and dance halls.

Then in 1931-32, they began to replace some of the horses with tractors and the planting went better. Harvests weren’t too bad in 1932 and they gave the collective farmers a little grain for their labours. Then in the winter it was taken away from them because they said they didn’t have enough for planting in the spring. There was famine among the collective farmers and whole families died. They rationed food to 500 grams of bread per woman. In the spring they gave the men ten years prison for keeping grain during the spring planting. Most of them never returned. Then in 1937-38, repressions began again. People were arrested and sent to prison even though they were not guilty. Again, none of them returned.

Next up: Deportation & the GULAG (Thanks to Rick Rye for his translation work)

Recollections of Uncle Vanya

In the July/August 1989, we were fortunate to have a visit by our great-uncle...the youngest brother of my grandfather, Johannes Gerk. We called him "Uncle Vanya".   Traveling all the way from Uzbekistan, USSR, our time was spent showing him around and reconnecting with him, as well as listening to his stories. Because there was so much to digest,  I asked him to write down some of his thoughts as to what happened to the family during "the Great Silence". And so he did. As he handed it to me, he also stated "I am not going to sign it.  I still have to go back there."

And so, here is the first part of that amazing account.  This was what life was like with our family in our little village in the USSR. (Thanks to Rick Rye for his kind translation)

"Before the revolution, the parents had their own farm 12 km from the village of Josefstal. They had a wooden house on the farm, and all necessary farm buildings. They were farmers and raised livestock. There was a lot of working livestock on the farm: horses, bullocks, camels, cows, young calves, sheep. There were a lot of implements, plows, carts, sledges, harrows, mowers. Of course there was the plot of land. After the revolution, the land was taken away according to the rules of the Soviet Regional Committee of the USSR. After that they had to sell one of the two houses, so one was liquidated. After they moved to a home in the village of Josefstal. The house in the village was mostly of wood, but had all the necessary structures and workers, but then World War I came. All the horses were taken for the Army, almost all the livestock died of disease, and the farm became poor. There remained only 2 colts and 4 working bullocks on the farm, and two cows.

In 1921, there was no harvest and people in the village died from starvation. Oldest brother Mikhail and his wife Margaretha in the summer of 1921 took one horse from father, took one cart and a saddle, and the brother and Margaretha left for Germany. Brother Jacob separated from our family. He received one horse. In 1922 brother Paul also went to Germany. At the beginning of 1922, sister Katya married, and in 1923 sister Maria married. Only four bullocks remained at our family. In 1924 brother Georg left the family, he received one working bull and a cow. Only four of us remained in the family with brother Gottfried and our parents. On February 10, 1925, father died, so it was just me, my brother Gottfried, and  Mama alone at the farm. We had two bulls and one horse. In 1926 he married, so Gottfried stayed on the farm until 1929, the year I married. Only two horses remained, and we divided them between us, one horse each. At the end of 1929 – beginning of 1930, the collective farm was founded, and in 1930 we entered the collective. Brother Georg didn’t enter the collective, but left for the neighbouring village where he became the elder and built a house. Then our village authorities came and took his horse and cow and he had nothing. He and his son went to Stalingrad to work in a tractor factory. Then the rest of the family went to Stalingrad. From there he moved to the Kuban, and got set up at a collective farm. He lived there until he was exiled to Kazakhstan. Then in 1942 with his older son, he was taken into the worker’s army and both of them didn’t return.

Brother Jacob entered the collective farm and joined the communist party. In 1933 he was kicked out of the party and fined. He was sent to a tractor brigade as a student, and at the end of 1933 he was sent to the tractor course, where he worked as a tractor driver until 1937, when he was arrested and sent to prison. He never came back.

Brother Gottfried, after these events, was sent by the collective to study as a veterinary assistant, which he completed, and worked as a veterinarian at the veterinary station, first in the village of Josefstal, then in the village of Marienfeld, where he lived until the deportation. He then went to work after the deportation in the collective farms in the Omsk region until he retired.

A little information about those brothers and sisters who remained alive:

1.           Sister Anna had a son and a daughter

2.           Brother Georg had two sons and a daughter

3.           Brother Jacob had one son and a daughter

4.           Brother Paul had two sons and a daughter

5.           Sister Katy had two daughters

6.           Sister Maria had two sons and five daughters

7.           Brother Gottfried had four daughters

8.           From me, Ivan, there is one son, Volodya."

Next Up: The period of 1929 to the deportation of September of 1941.