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

it. No one touched the food on the table. The wagon stood in the yard. We loaded some of our things. The rest was placed on a second wagon and we climbed aboard. Before we did so we threw a few beets to the pigs in the pen. Now we looked for Marta and called for her repeatedly. Finally she came out of the garden weeping bitterly and holding a few flowers in her hand. She could not bear to leave the yard. She looked back again and again until finally a soldier lifted her on the wagon. As long as she could, she kept looking back and crying. We all cried with her. We left our yard for the last time. We would never see it again. We drove through Rueckenau and Fuerstenwerder. The people in these villages had no idea of what was going on. One woman was hanging her wash on the line and so I shouted as we drove by, “Lady, butcher your pigs and get ready. We are all being deported.” She looked at us with bewilderment not really know¬ ing what was happening. We came to Gnadenheim. Jakob Reimer asked the driver to stop at a farm. We said they were relatives and and that we wanted to say goodbye. They knew nothing of what was going on in the other villages since not all of the villages were informed at the same time. Those nearest to the front were evacuated first. The entire Reimer family accompanied us to the end of the village and walked alongside the wagon. Finally we arrived at the railway station in Waldheim where there were already people from four villages. We were all taken into a large empty granary to await the things to come. They wanted to load us on trains during the night but no locomotive was available because the railway tracks had been blown up. It was a terrible night. No lights were al¬ lowed for fear of the air attacks. Everyone had been squeezed into one room. The children were screaming. In one corner one could hear praying, in another the soft strumming of a guitar and the sound of singing. It was the song: Wenn wir von dieser obern Erde zur Heimat ziehn , wird Kurnmer, Not , Beschwerde auf immer von uns fliehn. O su esses Heim , etc (When from this earth we journey To our eternal home From sorrow, want and burdens we are forever free. Home sweet home, etc.) 70 JOURNEYS It was rumored that someone had died, that another had given birth. There was no thought of sleeping. The guards screamed if anyone lit a match. “Do you want Hitler to drop his bombs?” Then a voice said in the darkness, “Whether Hitler or you destroy us makes little difference. We are lost in any case.” How we all waited for daylight! There was not enough to drink for the chidren. Nearby the freight cars stood empty, wait¬ ing to be filled. They were dirty and smelled of manure. They must have just been used to haul cattle. A locomotive finally arrived towards evening. Since we had only been allowed to fill sacks these were tossed in through the car doors until everything was full. Then the childre