Shaking the Family Tree

I wasn’t about to turn down a shot of “redeye!” The last one I’d had was from that batch my new father-in-law mixed for our wedding reception fifty years ago. And now at the 53rd annual Germans from Russia International Convention (GRHS) I even had the chance to learn how to make it. 

The organization claims over 1,500 members. A quick count of registrants attending the event in Mandan, ND, showed they came from twenty-five states, the provinces of Alberta and Saschatewan, and the country of Germany. They came to share history, stories, and memories of ancestors who immigrated here to escape broken promises and oppressive conditions in Russia. 

I come to an interest in GRHS through a grandmother who came to the U. S. from the Volhynian region of Ukraine with her family in 1904. She and her Menge family left Russia from the German port of Bremen on the SS Breslau and arrived at the port of Baltimore on May 5 of that year. Our knowledge of their life in Ukraine is minimal, but much can be deduced from our historical knowledge of the wide-spread political and social unrest which grew and culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917.

She was seldom willing to share facts of that life but remembered being told about the day she was born and her mother dug potatoes the following day to pay state taxes. She told of the times she herded cows, barefoot and cold, and waited for the cows to lift their tails so she could stand in the droppings to warm her feet. She told of when they paid a man $25 to smuggle them across the Russian border in 1904.  When reported to the authorities, he jumped to his death in front of a train to avoid arrest. 

Almost everyone at the convention could relate similar stories of hard times before emigrating from Ukraine. The compelling story of one family’s journey caught the attention of best selling author Mark Sullivan who spoke to a packed session about his novel The Last Green Valley. A member of that family, Walter Martel, was present and affirmed the story’s accuracy. When the family recognized they were being caught in a vise between the Russian army and the Nazi army they decided to leave. The book illustrates how the journey proved their mettle and resilience. 

Catherine the Great’s belief in the Germans had proven true when she invited German farmers and tradesmen to come to Russia and promote progress by example. For the most part those farmers were successful and raised good crops and livestock. It should have served as a model for the unproductive serfs, but the government saw their accumulating grain stores and herds and began taking it away, in spite of all previous agreements. These Germans from Russia began leaving for America and Canada where they have flourished. An anecdote was told about the Martel father who in his later years enjoyed driving around in his Cadillac with his fishing rods in the back.

 

I liked Ron Vossler’s humor so much I attended his session twice. Many of his stories centered around life in a cafe in Wishek and the older generation coffee drinkers who sat there analyzing the world through their cultural lens. But you only need to read his book Hitler’s Basement to understand he is a serious student of the Germans from Russia experience. For instance, a powerful image still lingers in me after I read of his visit to an area in Ukraine where he spotted children playing in dirt and ashes at a known spot where people were incinerated. While probing for answers to his relatives’ experiences in Germany, he was often met with reticence, such as his mother’s, “Ach, let it go child. Can’t you just forget about it?” He didn’t and has rendered a powerful book from his findings.

Brother Placid Gross, OSB, brings humorous pieces of folklore to every convention and recently compiled much of it in a new book Prairie Wisdom. Here is one example. Wer langsam, geht kommt auch ziel, which in English is “Whoever goes slow also comes to the goal.”

 German words were sprinkled throughout the sessions. One caught my attention: Umsiedlung which translated means resettlement, a particularly appropriate word for the GRHS group. For the most part sessions dealt with resettlement in varying degrees. For instance, the title of one of them was “Bessarabia Resettlement - June to October 1940.”  

Speaking of words and phrases voiced in the German language, whenever a presenter spoke  them and the audience started laughing, I laughed along with them to act polite. All the while, I hoped the term would be translated aloud; it usually was. My wife could laugh legitimately because she had heard those German words and phrases spoken while growing up in her childhood home.  As for me I grew up  influenced by the Scandinavian culture, lefse and all.  

I’ve picked up a few German words, though, especially when they refer to food. Take kuchen, for instance.  We all knew what it was and every afternoon we lined up at coffee break to claim a piece of it.  Choose your favorite: apple, rhubarb, prune, peach, or cottage cheese. Meal time brought more German food, and I have learned what to expect with knoephla, kraut, or spaetzle. 

The G-R organization recognizes that in its aging profile the need arises for younger people to take interest and join. My wife and I have decided to give our two sons gift memberships. Maybe it will instill and deepen a desire to participate by shaking their family tree to pick some fruit.