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

alized due to malnutrition and died. By spring the brigade gradually dissolved. None of those courageous and brave men, who in their leisure time often sang German folk and nature songs, managed to keep going. I spoke with some of them personally, urged them to be courageous and fight against the decline of their bodies, but to no avail. Death had a rich harvest. Strong men in the prime of life, fathers, one-time heads of collective farms (Kornelius Fast of Kolentorovka and his brother Jakob, my friend Gerhard Harms, Kurz, Krammer and many others) lost their lives in that death camp. Except for Gods protecting hand I too would have died. I still shudder when I think back to those dark stories of the past. It was only thanks to Gods provision that a few survived those dark years. Only those who clung to life with every ounce of energy and strength, who sacrificed their last possessions for two or three hundred grams of bread, who struggled every second and minute and grasped at every straw of hope, only those saw the distant dawn of the morning. The last snow had not yet melted in 1943 . . . when all the weak who could still walk were collected and readied for a march. I, though pale, thin and emaciated, was still among the living. One morning, with a single German brother accompanying me, we commenced our journey accompanied by yelling soldiers and barking dogs. We moved very slowly but by evening reached the administrative headquarters of our camp, where we stayed for sev- MEMOIRS OF ARON WARKENTIN 215 eral days. Here we were separated. Those who could still work remained behind. The rest which included me, were taken to Vesselyana and placed on railway cars. We eventually arrived in Knyaz-Pogosti, then a growing city in the Komi SSR. Then we were moved to the camp, some four to six kilometers from the city. This was number twenty, a newly organized camp. There were thousands of prisoners who, with the help of special mecha¬ nisms pulled the thousands of cubic meters of wood out of the water as it floated down the Vytschegda River. Thousands upon thousands of worn-out workers helped load the wood onto rail¬ way cars .... Others cut fuel wood destined for all regions in Russia. Still others worked in mills which produced railway ties. Electrical power and strong locomotives powered the operation. There were also hastily constructed bathing houses, convalescent homes, hospitals as well as bakeries, kitchens and dining halls. There was also a horse park which housed about one hundred animals. Here the human being mattered. The sick and the weak in our group were granted several days for recuperation. Each per¬ son was asked what type of work they preferred to do. Personally I saw several different possibilities. Since this was a new site, peo¬ ple were brought here from many of the surrounding camps. Some of these knew of me and of my former activities .... I was placed in charge of a hundred-