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

itch and unhitch them, how to get the heavy logs on a sleigh with ease and how to best transport them .... In all the years I worked with him he never let me feel that I was a prisoner and he a free man. Whether winter or summer I could discuss any problem with him, sometimes for hours .... He also knew when to lend his support to my authority. To have such a friend when one is not a free man is a special grace .... Gradually the number of our horses grew to over one hun¬ dred and fifty .... It was no small task to have all of them ready in the space of thirty minutes when the brigades left for work in the morning .... Since the entire forestry project was run by the NKVD there was strict order in the camp. Every transgression or failure to fulfill the plan was duly punished. It became precarious working with newcomers who had little or no experience with horses. Sometimes I worked round the clock to keep on top of things .... MEMOIRS OF ARON WARKENTIN 193 Our work from 4 a . m . to 12 noon was mainly in darkness since [in winter] it only became light by noon. We worked by lantern light while in the forests large bonfires served the same purpose .... Our task was to make sure that nothing interfered with the ongoing rhythm of work. We had to supervise, evaluate and advise so that nothing would prevent the fulfillment of the norm .... If the quota was fulfilled a person received one kilo¬ gram of bread per day. If someone produced twenty percent over the norm he was given an extra four hundred grams of bread. If this was not the case [the unlucky prisoner received] only four hundred grams of bread (the so-called punishment ration) plus a watery soup. Naturally the workers were not productive with such rations .... Those of us who were drawn into this harsh and unexplain¬ able system knew how important it was to fight for life as long as we were able. When ones strength gave way, one was mercilessly trodden under and cast aside. The first German victim of this mass tragedy was Dietrich J. Warkentin from Nikolaifeld. Dur¬ ing his last difficult years of freedom he fulfilled the role of a church elder. When this became impossible he, like many others, tried to vanish as a worker among other workers. In 1930 I met him in the Memrik Colony. Until 1937 he fled from place to place pa¬ tiently and prayerfully accepting his lot. He was a well-educated man. In normal circumstances he would have remained a pillar of his people, yet he died lonely and forgotten amid the most dread¬ ful circumstances. During the first months of 1938 the medics of the camp brought his body to the morgue which stood across from the barn. From here the bodies were taken to the forest for burial. Every night several horses were used for this sad task. Many died in those days and he was not the only one who would never see his loved ones again. For Abraham Huebner and myself it was a dif¬ ficult good-bye. After all we grew up