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

. The wives from Kleefeld brought clothing and food to their men. Then they were all sent away never to return. Rather late one evening we again heard cars driving about. Neta turned to me, “Something is up. I wonder if they have come to get more men?” Next morning Neta went to milk. Klara Willms came and said: “Do you know what happened last night? They took everything away from the wives and children of the arrested men and have taken them away as well. No one knows where they are.” Netas sister-in-law Greta was among them as well as her child of eleven months. There was also our neighbor Tina Wiens, preg¬ nant and with two children, and her sister-in-law, Tina Willms (nee Wiens), Mrs. Heinrich Regehr with three children and Mrs. Jakob Thiessen with six children. Later we learned that they had all been brought to ??? In the morning the women were told to go to the bathhouses without their children. The unsuspecting women believed this and found themselves in a dark prison. At night they were placed in autos. The women did not want to travel without their children, but they were forcibly loaded and vanished for three months. The children were placed in orphanages. When the Ger¬ mans (Mennonites) heard about this many went and got the chil¬ dren, at least those who could still be found. There were finally some good people who managed to free these wives and mothers. We could not find out who was behind all of this. One day we heard that the women were in ??? searching for their children. They reappeared as quickly as they had vanished. Finding the children was a problem. Some of them had died. The hospitals were searched. After days of searching Greta Bartels, Netas sister-in-law, found that little eleven-month-old Rita had MEMOIRS OFJUSTINA MARTENS 65 died of pneumonia. One woman related how the little one had always stretched out her hands and called “Mama.” Mrs. Regehr also found her fifteen-year-old daughter on the death list. After many weeks Tina Wiens located her daughter with a family in Pastwa. The women had been imprisoned in Melitopol some 40 kilometers from us. None of them knew where they were for they had been kept in total seclusion. They suffered a great deal and worried about their men and children .... The time came when my brother Jakob was also arrested. He had to leave his family with seven children which he found very difficult. There were five children from the first marriage and two from the second. He was most fortunate with his second wife. She was a good housekeeper and mother and made no distinc¬ tions between her own and the adopted children. Then Lenas husband was also arrested and she remained alone with her little Edi and her aged parents. Lena went to work, father watched the yard and mother helped where she could. Now all the men except Saras husband were gone. Everyone had to bear their cross and seek to survive. At times it was rather lonely. It was ni