Born in 1927 in the hamlet of Hussenbach, Autonomous Republic of the Volga-Germans. On the basis of the ukase of the 28 August 1941 she was deported to the Krasnoyarsk Terrritory, Sharypovo District. As from 1942 she lived as a forced resettler in the settlement of Ust-Khantaika, Dudinka Region. She worked as a fisherwoman, assistant of the veterinary and reindeer breeder. She did her job very well and became famous all over the Taimyr Peninsula. Today she lives in Dudinka.
- In 1941 I was fourteen years old, my brother sixteen. Our parents died very early. In order to be able to continue attending school, we removed to acquaintances of the family, who lived in the town of Engels; they were prepared to put us up, as if we were from among their close relatives. On August 31 we set off to school, in order to participate in some commemorative event; however, our sense of delight was all troubled. The school principal commanded: „All Germans two steps forward!“ And these two steps were the beginning of a long way of suffering and hardship. On September 2 vehicles approached all houses Germans lived in; the mostly needed belongings were loaded on carts, whereby it was not allowed to take along any objects made of wood. And then we had to say good-bye to our little homes for ever. In Siberia I worked for the kolkhoz farm; I had to fulfill exactly the same tasks as any adults: I dug out potatoes, helped during the harvest, herded animals and worked as a nanny. In June1942 it was announced that families, unless there were little children, were to leave for the far north for a period of four months.
On June 24 all Germans at the age of 14 to 30 years were dropped off on the banks of the river Yenisey – 105 individuals altogether.
Three things remained deeply engraved in our minds: the huge boulders lying along the riverbank, the broad river and the sun which would never set ...
The little Siberian settlement they had taken us to was called Ust-Khantaika. There were merely four houses and a little store. We organized the German „Northern route“ kolkhoz farm. The German Vladimir Andreevich Schott became ist chairman. We started to tidy up the terrain and build ourselves huts from all kinds of materials we were able to find, which were to serve as our future homes. Then we made up a fishing brigade. On the 9th of June the very first brigade headed for the fishing area, but the fishermen were soonafter afflicted by failure.
A severe storm came up over the Yenisey, and we did not succeed to cast the huge fish trap in time. Flaying insects tantalized us. There were so many mosquitos and swarms of blackflies buzzing around that it seemed as if someone was throwing them in bucketfuls at us. Our genitals geban to swell from all the bites; we were hardly able to move on, not to mention the swollen eyes. Everybody tried his best to resisit the biting insects. We rubbed mud into the skin of our legs and arms. As a consequence of such a procedure the skin soonafter began to burst open and became all fissured. Wind, water and dirt caused innumerous wounds. After the storm calmed down we casted the fishing net (500 meters in length), but we caught just a few little fishes. This is how our first „baptism of fire“ came to an end.
One of the Ences, Petr Spiridonovich Bolin showed us, how to properly cast the net, how to pull it out of the water and.how to mend it.
Towards the autumn, it become noticeably colder, winds were blowing more often from northern directions, but the river water still stored the warmth. In order to warm ourselves, we went into the water up to the waistline. While we were walking out of the water, back to the riverbank, our clothes got frozen almost to an instant. During the short breaks it did not become completely dry, but remained damp and moist all the time. Using the huge trawl net, the fishing season continued until October 5. The people worked without shoes, 12-18 hours a day.
In September the last party of special settlers was taken to this place – Germans, Letts, Lithuanians, Estonians. They were placed in attics or tents built along the banks of the Yenisey. There were now already more than 500 people living in the village. There was a great lack of living space. The poeple started to build themselves dugouts, making use of any natural hollow they could make out. The Finns found such a place near the cemetary, Germans and Letts – near the river. Soonafter, a big cluster of rafted tree trunks (the trunks had all driven apart) came drifting up the Yenisey. The women concentrated their efforts to grasp any piece of wood and pull it out of the water. What a pitiable sight! They were wrapping the trunks with whatever they had at their fingertips and dragged the heavy load to the bank – one after the other. „Wils net gein, so losen wir stein“, they said. („If you do not want to move, then stay where you are!“) Step by step the trees were being moved forward. And the children brought all smaller battens, planks and wooden frames.
The turn of the year 1942-1943. Wintertime, frostiness, hunger. Half of the inhabitants had already been seized by scurvy. According to fragmentary information, more than 80 people died in the months of March and April alone. They could not manage to carpenter such a big number of coffins within such a short time. During the day the funeral brigade removed all the coffins with mortuaries, at night the deceased were thrown into mass graves; afterwards the empty coffins were taken back to the village for the next corpses. It would happen that family members stashed a dead person away, in order to receive his food ration for another day. Parents died, leaving their children behind. Entire families died out. The people were at the end of their tether; they were so weak that they were unable to carry the orophaned children out of the dugouts. One time they evacuated one of these dugouts taking the little orphans out in baskets.
In the spring, when the villagers began to creep out of their dwellings again, you were hardly able to recognize them: they looked all pale, waxen, their bodies were all swollen by hunger oedema, their faces all dark from lamp black, and they were almost unable to keep standing on their legs due to scurvy.
Those who were still alive now began to somehow or other organize their daily life, but the local residents still treated us badly – as if we were, in fact, enemies of the people. They authorities would allow them to chase us into a huge wooden trough, ordering us to catch the popes which were swimming around in the water. Without salt the fish would soon decay. There was no salt at all, but they nevertheless forced us to catch it – even in bad weather. The red-coloured fish was piled up near the well and later buried. We were not even permitted to take some of the already rotten fish to feed our families. At night some isolated „daredevils“ terribly frightened dug up some of the fish at their own risk and took it home.
Once a month the speical resettlers had to go and get registered with the commandant’s office. And ever time they had to listen to the same words: „ Remember – you will be staying here forever! Upon the slightest attempt to escape you will be shot dead!“. But where should they go in view of their bad condition of health? They were hungry, weak and in lack of suitable clothes. We were well aware of the fact that the country was at war and that we just had to try hard and do a good job.
We were waiting for the war to end, we continued our life hoping for better times. During the night (May 8-9, 1945) we were supplying firewood. I do recall the severe cold. When we aopproached the village towards morning, Maria Groo came running to meet us. Swaying a red shawl she shouted to us: „Victory! Leave the sleigh over there! Go to the meeting!“ Our joy was boundless. We were deeply conviinced that we would now be able to return to our little home villages on the river Volga ....
Management of Culture and Art of the Administration of the Autonomous Taimyr
Region (Dolganes / Nences).
Museum of Local Lore of the Autonomous Taimyr Region.
„Museum Messenger“. Issue 1.
Dudinka, 2001