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

“Justina what are you doing? Leave everything and start packing! We all have to leave!” “Don’t talk such nonsense, the Germans are soon here, " I replied. “But Justina don’t you know anything? Gerhard just returned from the village soviet. Peter Dick, the chairman, said that we must get ready because all of us have to leave.” 68 JOURNEYS Then Klara came to the door and said: “Justina we are to come to the village soviet. Lets go and hear what they will tell us.” We had only gone a short distance when we met Mrs. ??? She held her head with both hands and said, “My God we re all supposed to leave, but where to?” I went back immediately for I knew it was true. “I’m not going anywhere,” I told Klara, “what shall I do with the children if the women don’t return home?” Peter Dick told us to pack things in sacks since suitcases were forbidden. They had already sent trucks to pick up women dig¬ ging trenches, since that was now useless work. I started to get ready and made dough for zwieback and bread — but how to bake it? The oven was in the yard and had to be heated with straw. I had filled the baking tins and was ready to heat the oven when the soldiers came and prohibited me from doing so because it would attract the bombs of German aircraft. I waited until evening in order to bake inside, but was not allowed to light a fire inside either. I took all our bedding and pillows and closed up the win¬ dows and baked everything during the night. In the morning many Russians arrived from the neighboring village. They had heard that the Germans were being deported and wanted to buy everything from us as cheaply as possible. I sold [several] chests of drawers and the sewing machine so that I at least had some money. Several lady acquaintances helped me stuff everything into sacks; clothing, beds and food were of course most important. Whoever wanted to could get chickens or geese from the collective in order to kill and roast them. I killed five chickens. We also had two pigs in the pen but we could not butcher them since there were no men about. I was concerned about Neta. The children simply stood on the street and waited for her. It was evening and we were to leave the next morning. The villages of Neukirch and Prangenau had already been deported. When it was completely dark Neta sud¬ denly arrived. She was pale with fright. “What is going on here? Why is everything in such a frighful state?” Neta had no idea what was happening to us. She, together with Greta Bartels and Greta’s sister-in-law had been working in the trenches. Finally a soldier had told them: “Ladies, stop and go home. This is useless work.” And so they decided to leave secretly .... We were glad to be together again. We baked and packed during the night. In the morning we had to say goodbye to every¬ thing we had aquired by hard work. I milked our cow and made MEMOIRS OFJUSTINA MARTENS 69 hot chocolate but no one wanted