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

never to complain about the food even if it is not tasty. I always think about how thankful we would have been if we had it at that time .... With Gods help we survived the long and terrible Siberian winter of 1944-45. My sister-in-law Neta also had a very difficult time in the virgin forests of Siberia. She had to saw wood in the deepest snow at temperatures of minus forty. If the thermometer dropped to minus fifty, they were allowed to stay in the barracks. 82 JOURNEYS They were only given five hundred grams of bread with a thin fish soup, mainly cooked from stale fish. Each person got a fish head. Many women collapsed because of the difficult work and simply lay on their hard bunks, little more than skin and bones. Instead of getting more food in order to build them up, they got less. Many, many died and many children never saw their mothers again. These mothers lie buried somewhere in these vast forests. Neta wrote very seldom, but then what would she write about? Things were the same day after day, working in the deep snow and going to bed hungry. We too had little good news to report. She was always concerned about our well-being and so we did not tell her about the stolen suitcase of clothing. As the winter of 1944-45 drew to a close we had to change residences again. Then came the eventful May 9, 1945, which marked the collapse of Germany and the victory of the Russians. Our Rus¬ sian landlord, a party member, told me that the war was over and that all men and women could go home. Well that was music to our ears! He said we did not have to work and that everyone should come to a meeting. I also attended. It was announced that all the Red Army personnel were to be discharged. I asked if that in¬ cluded the German women. “Naturally,” said the commissar who gave the address, “all will come home.” But it was still a long and difficult struggle for our women. Neta only returned in June, 1946.... I was now appointed as a watch person [for the collective]. There was a straw hut three kilometers from the village. For a door it had a small hole into which I had to crawl. I had to re¬ main here day and night. During the day there was a brigade of fifteen to twenty women who worked here hoeing and watering the vegetables, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. It was my job to see to it that nothing was stolen and that nothing hap¬ pened to the cattle. I had a straw mattress, a blanket and a pillow, but lay on the ground. It was pitch dark in the hut and there was no window. I hung a blanket in front of the door opening be¬ cause it was so cold. Though I was the watch person I rarely went out at night and only listened to the whereabouts of the cattle. Naturally as a woman I feared being alone so far from the village and implored Gods protection which He marvelously provided. Sometimes Heini and Marta, who were alone, visited me, but there was hardly room for three persons in the hut.