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

und an excuse to go to the river in the hope of finding some of my brothers and bidding them farewell, but found the barges heavily guarded. Apparently Harms and I were the only ones of over one hundred Germans who stayed behind. Naturally we wondered whether it was better to stay or to go. It is fortunate that we as humans know so little about the future. As far as we knew those who left were going to a camp some one hundred kilometers away to do forestry work. Our situ¬ ation clarified itself a few days later when a new camp administra¬ tion arrived .... Now all living and dead inventory had to be accounted for. I spent almost a month accounting for everything related to the horse operations. Every detail was recorded. Natu¬ rally there were quarrels. The outgoing administration wanted to 206 JOURNEYS appear in the best possible light while the incoming one mini¬ mized everything .... I was interested in what would happen to us prisoners. I was soon to find out. After I finished giving a written account of all my activities the head of the new administration called me in and asked whether I would be willing to continue in my old job .... I agreed on the condition that Harms and several others continue to work with me. The administration agreed .... As a result I continued to work with both prisoners and free men as before .... Several months passed and we became accustomed to our new circumstances. Change came all too soon. One of my new tasks involved bringing visitors into our camp .... On one occasion I sent one of my lads with a light sleigh to pick up the representative from a neighboring camp. He asked the young man whether there was anyone in this camp who had experience with horses .... Two days later I was called into the office and introduced to our visitor .... He wanted me to organize a special contingent of horses and men for his camp .... I had little choice but to com¬ ply .... There was no purpose in appealing to my own adminis¬ tration. I had in effect been “sold.” We left our camp on April 11, 1940 with enough hay and foodstuffs to last us twelve days .... We split into two groups each in turn divided into ten teams headed by a foreman. I and my driver broke the trail .... Towards the end of April the increasingly warm days began to melt the snow .... When we began, the snow was often over a meter deep, now it just covered the roadway .... Our journey was charted while the snow still lay deep, now the thaw uncovered many tree stumps .... The most serious problem involved find¬ ing water for the horses — we found no free running streams .... Fog, rain and snow added to our difficulties. Regular meals with soup or hot tea were out of the question and the men got weaker and weaker. Cold, frosty nights were also difficult for the poorly clothed prisoners. Initially we were encouraged by the roadmarkers but when these disappeared ours became the journey of the damned. On