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

2 amid all our sorrow we experienced extra¬ ordinary joy — the birth of our only son whom we named Aron in honor of his grandfather. My father made the long journey and came to see his grandchild. It was a wonderful reunion. How parents love their children, cling to them, live for them! In the spring of 1933 the entire economic and political structure col¬ lapsed — many felt we could not go on. Most of the citizens were without bread. Thousands died. In some settlements almost no one survived. . . . Many tried to flee and died en route. It was not at all unusual to find starving or dead persons along the roadways. Our sovkoz had a special brigade whose job it was to look after collapsing and dying persons or to bury the dead. We drivers fared better than most, though one of my colleagues died while sitting on his wagon. Those of us who were working received one pud of flour and half a pud for our wife and children. As long as I worked I was able to bring home one sack of flour per month. . . . Occasionally we were obligated to spend the night in a village MEMOIRS OF ARON WARKENTIN 161 near Melitopol. Only a few of the homes were still occupied since most of the people had died. For our own safety we usually fed the people with a flour soup and then, with one person standing watch, went to sleep. Next morning we happily left this place of death. The Lord wonderfully protected us and our wagons for a number of years. Many families suffered a great deal and even in our German villages some starved to death. Many more would have died if the Torgsin , which dealt in foreign currency and gold and silver, had not existed. Almost everyone received a remittance in [German] marks or American dollars. We too benefitted in this way. Finally we were forced to leave Kleefeld. We managed to ob¬ tain one Torgsin remittance per month plus a few things here and there. When the local inspections became severe I usually left one or two sacks [of flour] under the wagon seat. We simply felt it was time to leave the German villages and settle among the Russians. In those days we were not allowed to work for ourselves during daylight hours. During the day we loaded our wagon in the stor¬ age shed and after dark we hitched our horses. We tucked our four sleeping children in the wagon and as quietly as possible left our house and yard never to return. In the hope of avoiding undue attention I drove along the back lane and on to a steppe trail. It was impossible to escape detection on the major roads. Initially all went well. The horses were used to a heavy load and the soft trail presented no difficulty. Thinking it was only soft ground I drove the horses into a snow drift. How would I get out without drawing attention to myself? ... I was almost in despair. Then Anna came to me in the darkness and quietly stood by me as if to say: “You are not alone!” I unloaded a sack of flour, took the reins and with a mighty tug