JOURNEYS Mennonite Stories of Faith and Survival in Stalins Russia, John B. Toews, 1998

e. They wished to survive and return to their chil¬ dren. Naturally they looked for support, for a chance to preserve their sanity, for the opportunity to assuage a terrible existence filled with grief, misery and suffering. Epilogue New directors were constantly coming to the camp. The new head of the NKYD section disliked me and insisted that I, a German, leave the camp ... and so I was discharged on June 14, 1944 .... I obtained the necessary documents in the head office and left for Karaganda. It was a very difficult time. Karaganda was literally surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. This was the camp for German prisoners of war, the slaves of the Trud Army and all freed [political] prisoners, who were not allowed to leave Karaganda. Many Germans, Chechens and Ingush were designated as “special settlers” in perpetuity. Most of the Germans came from the Caucasus and the Ukraine. After May 1945 many Germans who had fled as far as Poland and Germany were shipped to this region. No one could travel twenty kilometers from ones resi¬ dence without special permission. The situation moderated after Sta¬ lin's death (1953) but the restrictions associated with “perpetual exile” were only lifted in 1956 .... When I think back over my long years in the Karaganda camp I can still visualize the thousands of work slaves who endured hunger, cold, terror, ridicule, humiliation and performed the most difficult work without any time off. Yet, amid the criminality of all this terri¬ ble evil, there were always noble persons who clearly understood the injustices of such mass oppression. Wherever possible they tried to ease the fate of these disenfranchised and suffering people .... In the Karaganda camp many specialists of every kind were employed as free persons. The majority were party members. Some of these respected the dignity of the prisoners. They were not arrogant or domineering and demonstrated empathy and tact. One can finally write and report about what happened. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to open the entire archive of the camp and uncover the whole story? Aron 139 A ron Warkentin was born on October 28, 1903, in Nikolaifeld, a village in the Suvorovka Mennonite settlement in the North Caucasus region. Aron recalls a carefree and happy child¬ hood which included a rigorous education in the village elemen¬ tary school. He had the good fortune of having a teacher, Johann Toews, who combined a sound biblical spirituality with a deep love of German language and literature. In his words, “On Friday we usually held a reading evening, and eventually our teacher man¬ aged to introduce us to all of the works of the German classical writers.” (p. 39) This exposure had a strong impact on young Warkentin. Excerpts of classical poetry punctuate his memoirs. They reflect a philosophical mindset undergirded by a great deal of native intelligence. Young Arons sense of security was gradually