Erna Ivanovna Panasenko was born in Marxstadt, the Saratov Region.
She was still a little girl at that time, but she recalls, how she and her entire family were resettled, when the authorities began to deport all Volga Germans in the autumn of 1941. In the end, Erna Ivanovna was first put away in the Kansk reception camp for children and then transferred to the children’s home in Beresovka. „We were all living together, attending the secondary school in Beresovka. Whenever winters turned out to be extremely cold, our teachers would not send us to school.
Erna Panasenko has been living in Beresovka since 1943. She finished several grades at the secondary school in Bolsheului. As from 1954 she was working for the children’s home in Beresovka. At first she acted there as a Senior Pioneer Leader, afterwards she occupied the post of a teacher. Sometime later the pedagogue left to gain more experience in one of the kindergartens in Krasnoyarsk; at the same time she managed to attend special courses of distance learning focussing on pedagogics. After having finished these courses, Erna Ivanovna was sent to the Simonovsk kindergarten by assignment. Later she was transferred back to Beresovka. „Hence, I have been working contemporaneously for the children’s home as a teacher and as a Pioneer Leader for the school for many years. The children attended lessons, reached a certain age and were then assigned to continue studies at different educational institutions. Some children were taken home to their families, in case their parents had returned from the front“.
The children’s home closed down in 1961. It was liquidated, because the building was very old and did no longer fulfill the requirements, in short – it proved to be completely unsuitable for further use. However, the district did not dispose of the necessary means for a new building; therefore all children were sent to other institutions. „They sent me and some of the children to the children’s home in Kuragino. I stayed there for a while, but neither the climate, nor the building itself, as well as the inner atmosphere suited to me. Having returned to the countryside I got into contact with the kindergarten in Krasnoyarsk, where I had already worked before, sincerely hoping that they would give me a job there again. The local administration accepted to employ mea t once“, Erna Panasenko told us.
Erna Panasenko fulfilled her pedagogic tasks in the regional center for a couple of years, but then decided to return to her little home village to henceforth teach boys and girls in the school of Beresovka. She taught pupils of the elementary school section to read and write and gave history lessons to the higher grades. In accordance with what is mentioned in her work-book, her working life officially started in 1944. She is now 74 years old and lives on pension. She has two daughters and a son. One of the daughters is a TV correspondent by profession and lives in Achinsk, the other one followed in her mother’s footsteps giving all her warmth and attention to the children of a children’s home.
Recorded by
Alena Tuyeva
„Bolsheului District Messenger“, N° 10, 05.03.2010