GER-VOLGA-L Archives

From: Patrice Miller <>
Subject: [GV] Volga Germans Deportation in 1941
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:15:18 -0700

I am forwarding this message from Michael Miller.
Patrice Miller
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Victims of Germans' deportation commemorated in Volgograd

VOLGOGRAD, Aug 28, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) -- Events commemorating
the
victims of deportation of ethnic Germans in 1941 have begun in Volgograd
on Thursday with a commemoration service delivered in German and Russian
in a kirch at a museum in Staraya Sarepta - one of the first settlements
of ethnic Germans in Russia.

On August 28, 1941 a total of 23,000 ethnic Germans were forcibly
resettled from the Stalingrad region to Kazahstan, Siberia, the Altai
region and Russia's Northern territories. According to documents
available, many of the deported people died on the way to their new
"homes" or died later, unable to bear the conditions in the so-called
"labor armies" and special reservations. The number of ethnic Germans
who
have survived deportation and live in the Volgograd region now makes up
around 1,600.

The first German settlement appeared in a place named Staraya Sarepta on
the Volga river 236 years ago. The German colony was created under a
manifesto issued by Empress Catherine the Great in 1765. The German
missionaries were entrusted with a speacial mission - to bring Christian
religion to the Kalmyk people.

In a short while, Sarepta turned into a centre of German culture on the
Volga river, The German community has many deeds to its credit, such as
the grammar of the Kalmyk language, German- Kalmyk and Kalmyk- German
dictionaries and others. The German community opened a school for
children
of high-ranking people from all the cities in the lower Volga region.

In 1936, the German Lutheran community and its kirch shared the fate of
all Russian Orthodox churches and were demolished.

Nowadays, the German community has resumed its activities. Every Sunday
religious services are held in the two languages at the German kirch
which
has been restored.

On Tuesday, the ethnic Germans populating the Volga region and other
nationals who live in Volgograd are commemorating the victims of
Stalinist
repressions.

By Sergei Trofimov


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