The Altergot family was compulsorily displaced from their comfortable home late in August or early in September 1941. Until then the Altergots had lived in the German village of Schwed, which is situated in the Saratov Region, not far from the town of Engels. Like most of the other people around they were not only quite wealthy, but very diligent and upright people, as well. At the beginning of the war fatality befell them – the authorities began to persecute them for political reasons. A couple of men arrived who told them to get prepared for their imminent removal, but that it was not necessary to take anything along; others came and, obviously pitying the forced resettlers, adimbrated that they should pack all mostly needed belongings without delay; and a third group yet whispered to them under the pledge of secrecy: „Take along as much as you are able to carry!“ What were they supposed to bundle up for their long trip in the dark? Thus, Yelena Christianovna, Andrei Andreevich and his mother Maria as well as their children: Emma, the eldest within the family who was just fourteen years old at that time, twelve year-old Emilie, six-year-old Dorothea (Yevdokia), three year-old Amalie and four month-old Victor set off – displaced from the own home country, where the laying of the foundation stones for privileged German villages which would later outlive centuries, had already taken place under the rule of Catherine II.
Those regions, as Emilie Andreevna Yegorova who lives in Bolshoi Ului, now
recalls, were something like the Promised Land. Since early childhood all
members of the Altergot family were well aware of the fact that the fertile soil
was their foster mother. In the steppes along the river Volga, children were
accustomed from child hood on to help the adults in the orchards and kitchen
gardens. Emilie Andreevna recollects the tomatoes, which would not already ripen
at the very bottom of the stipe, as if they were directly coming out of the
roots.
In her mind’s eye there are those striped water melons, and she once again
imagines the wonderful aroma of the apples that had fallen to the ground. The
people on the kolkhoz farm were not in need. In those times they received
fruits, vegetables, meat and milk for their daily work units. And when every
member of the family worked diligently without ever twiddling one’s thumbs, then
they felt confident that in the autumn they would be richly blessed by cereals
and other delicacies.
The resettlers were taken to Siberia on bulky waggons, which were not suitable for the transportation of people at all. They had been diverted from their intended use – the transportation of freight, i.e. cattle, lumber or coal. It was just in the middle of the so-called golden season ß the month of September. There was a suffocating heat and closeness inside the waggons. The people were penned up like canned herrings. Many children died en route, and even the adults were hardly able to endure the permanent feeling of hunger and closeness. In spite of many people passing away during the trip, the number of individuals inside the wagoons did not increase – quite the contrary: more and more displaced persons were forced to board the train at every station it stopped. The Almighty alone knows, how the Altergot’s managed to keep their five children together.
Having arrived in Achinsk, horse-drawn vehicles were already waiting for them. They were immediately informed that they were to be sent to the village of Novonikolsk in the Bolsheului District. After they had reache their new place of residence, the German family accepted all actual facts and circumstances as they were.
Half of the population of the village had gathered to take a look at the Germans: what kind of people were they? How did they look like? Only much later the Siberians realized that arrivals were just ordinary, very diligent and patient people – there only handicap was that they did not understand Russian very well.
The two elder girls – Emma and Emilia –, as well as their father, mother and grandmother, were immediately assigned jobs with the kolkhoz farm. They were compelled to perform any task that was coming up. dy dared to revolt – for they had nothing, were impoverished. They went from one farmstead to the next in order to dig out potatoes for those who were in authority; and those would pay them in kind – they received potatoes. Nobody can imagine how much children and adults famished and suffered from cold during their first autumn on this weird territory! Soonafter the father was called-up to work for the timber industry in the Kirov Region. And a couple of months later they also deported the eldest sister Emma, who was to be assigned to work for the labour front, too. The poor girl spent almost five years in Bashkiria. Nevertheless, she did not give up, persevered and returned to Novonikolsk after this long time of hardlabour and suffering. The family received a couple of letters from the father; then they learned that he had been killed when felling a tree.
Just a small part of the family stayed with the kolkhoz farm – mother, grandmother and Emilie … None of the women living in the village knew how to knit warm clothes as well as Yelena Christianovna and grandma Maria did, who – in the same elaborate and ornate way – were able to sew blankets. These specialized skills saved them from starvation. But how did they manage do do all this additional work? They were drudging on the kolkhoz farmsteads from morning to night, and then, in the late evening, yet sat down at the spinning wheel to spin lambswool, knit warm clothes or sew quilts. They always had a spark of hope that the moon would shine, for at clear moonlight they would be able to produce more useful things than in the darkness … The fingers of the tired, horny hands were zealously moving, raising the artful handiwork nearer to the tiny little window, for the moon would disappear so fast, much too fast. Many people from Novonikolsk used to go in woolen shawls, stockings or cardigans, which had all been knitted by Yelena Christianovna and grandmother Maria.
The family was in lack of bread. Trembling and full of hope the Altergots set off for the shop in Bolshoi Ului, which was responsible for the provisioning of the repressed: maybe, they would manage to by a little more bread than the allotted quantity!? A Russian woman called Nina was working for the shop; every now and then she would, in fact, reach out an extra ration to Yelena Christianovna. Next to the bread shop there was the building of the military commissariate, where a certain commandant Tronin comfortably sat on his leather chair – a viscious, utterly unpleasant man. Strange to say that any time Yelena Christianovna approached the shop at an unusual hour, he noticed her. One time he saw that Emilia accompanied her. He saddled his horse in a hurry and then chased mother and child almost up to Bazhenovka. Thus, they had to run home, all the way up to Novonikolovsk, without a single piece of bread and without the extra ration, which Nina had put aside for them…
Emma wrote letters from Bashkiria. She was starving. She asked her relatives to send her parcels. But what could they, who had nothing themselves, who were impoverished themselves, send her? Hence, Mum and Emilia decided to beg for alms – they wen to the farmsteads of their village and even walked up to Turetsk, Listvianka, Novaia Yelovka.
Many a people were willing to give them some of their foodstuffs, others got angry, affronted them, called them names or set their snappish dogs on them. They behaved in entirely different ways. The post office in Bolshoi Ului refused to accept parcels addressed to Germans. They either did not want to accept them as a matter of principle, or, maybe, there was a corresponding order from the part of the local authorities. Anyway, Emilia’s mother had to take a sleigh and go all the way up to Achinsk, in order to be able to post the parcel destined for her daughter. She succeeded to find accomodation with good people. In all Yelena Christianovna was on the way 3 or 4 days. Right in the middle of the winter she returned home almost frozen to death. Imagine the long way she had to make all alone on narrow paths, through the forests!
When the war drew to a close and the victory of Germany’s wartime enemies became apparent, the post-office in Bolshoi Ului suddenly began to accept parcels addressed to Germans. Life became slightly easier. The Altergots were allotted a small piece of land for the cultivation of potatoes, and although in the very first season after planting the village cattle trampled down parts of the harvest, the inhabitants of Novonikolsk were not in need.
The children grew up. After Emma’s return back home, she and Emilia began to provide thin trunks of aspen trees to build themselves a house of their own. The two girls carried the heavy timber, until their shoulders were all excoriated. Later they used to help the other villagers; and the Altergots built their first own small cottage with the aid of their neighbours in Novonikolsk. Till today Emilia Andreevna is very greatful to all those, who did not refuse help but actively contributed, who did not hesitate to share the little pieces of wartime bread with them. With good cause there is the saying that you will always find some good people in this world.
Later, early in the 1950s, life became easier. Dorothea, which is sister Yevdokia, went to work for the dairy farm as a milkmaid, and Amalia, the youngest found herself a job. Her borther Viktor worked as assistant of the cinema operator. Later he accepted a job with the kolkhoz farm as a driver; he is still working in this profession. He lives in Bolshoi Ului.
All five children of the Altergots are alive, using their best endeavours to stay in good health – all of them live in the district town except for Amalia Andreevna, who settled down in Suchkova. They have children, grandchildren and even grand-grandchildren. This is how the big family of the Altergots came about. Yelena Christianovna died in Emilia Andreevna Yegorovna’s house twelve years ago - at the age of 84. Yelena Christianovna was blessed by a long life, but she had to go threw a lot of hardship after having lost her beloved mother-in-law (she died at the age of 80), who was buried in Novonikolsk.
During my meeting with Emilia Andreevna I asked her:
- You endured all adversities, all misery with so much patience. You have German roots, you are a German by origin – aren’t you desirous of leaving for Germany?
- What for? – the woman replies in bewilderment. – Our home territory is the Saratov Region.
There is the place where we were born, just like our grandfathers and fathers. No, I have never been desirous to going to Germany one day. However, I would like to see the Volga once again. I was forced to leave there when I was twelve years old. We crossed the river by ferry. They say there is a nice bridge now. I would like to see my home region again, the more since I can now travel free; the problem is that my husband needs money to accompany me. Apart from this, my grandfather, Mikhail Pavlovich, is ill.
When Mikhail Pavlovich Yegorov turned up in their house (this happened late in the 1950s, when the Altergots still lived in Novonikolsk), the family’s daily life improved noticeably. Until that time the only male hands in the family had been the hands of minor Victor.
Our home region … Our beloved, huge, rich home region that fell in disgrace as did its sons and daughters! Why did it grind up human fate into misery, hardship, dust and ashes? We all have only this one earth, but the fatherland, the only one we have, has to protect its children – like a mother.
I wish to bow in front of Yelena Christianovna Altergot, who I never met personally, for I am deeply moved of her steadfastness and straightforwardness. Filled with affection towards her children she would not allow them to get crushed from all the cruel adversities of life. Today they lead a simple, communicative life. And to this day, the elder children of the Altergots have retained in memory all facts of the very first days of their displacement.
Nadezhda Stefanenko
„News“, N° 139, 18.11.1997