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

sm for controlling suspect minorities, in another it provided forced labor to aid in the Russian war effort. After 1941 most of the Germans and Mennonites in the Red Army were discharged and conscripted into the Work Army. Most of the men still in the villages were drafted as were many single fe¬ males. Later most German women between the ages of fifteen and forty-five were inducted, with little regard for the welfare of their children. Their fate and treatment was often little different from that of the Gulag prisoner. Severe discipline, meagre rations and difficult work contributed to a high mortality rate. Many of the survivors remained under police surveillance until 1954. JOURNEYS MENNONITE STORIES OF FAITH AND SURVIVAL IN STALIN'S RUSSIA This book contains four stories of survival. The storytellers, two women and two men, believed in a loving God who cared about humankind. Thanks to Stalin's reign of terror they found themselves in many life-threatening circumstances where God appeared not to care. All four persons struggled with doubt, fear and despair. Like Job of old, they questioned God and like him they also affirmed faith. ISBN 0-921788-48-7 9 780921 788485 > KINDRED Printed in Canada ISBN: 0-921788-48-7