Date of birth: 23.09.1927
Deported from the village of Grimm, ASSR of the Volga-Germans on the 10.09.1941
Mother: Margarita Yakovlevna Kaiser (1905-12.12.1942)
Father: Filipp Abich (1907-1964)
The father served in Krasnoyarsk and Tomsk for three years; for that reason he was good at Russian. In contrast, the mother had considerable difficulties with the Russian language, even after their resettlement. The parents worked for the kolkhoz farm, they only earned little money. In 1933 they had to undergo a terrible famine. There were five children.
In 1941 the whole family was deported to the village of Malobeloe in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The trip to Malobeloe was extremely exhausting and dolorous, for they had to leave all their property behind in Grimm. Fortunately, their house was situated straight at the road’s end, so that their father succeeded to quickly run back and get the bacon. Apart from this, they managed to take along the iron chest containing various useful objects. They placed the tiles of their old stove on the bottom, in order to rebuiled it in the new place of destination. They had also been told to take along saws, axes and spades. The most horrible thing, however, was the fact that nobody told them the reason for this resettlement action, and they were not informed about where they would be taken, either.
Trucks of the ZIS-5 type and horses took them to the river Volga first; they had to board a wooden barge (lighter), which transported them to Saratov. On the train station they were “reloaded” in freight cars, and then the trip continued up to Krasnoyarsk. There they had to board a wooden barge once again, which took them to Yeniseysk, from where they set off to their final destination - the village of Malobeloe – on foot, by horse- and ox-drawn vehicles.
Life somehow gathered momentum. They were called fascists – who cares? What’s the difference? In spite of all adversities they managed to get their life straight. People began to treat them friendly showing goodwill, helped them with whatever they could. The German women were very good at sewing, weaving, knitting and spinning – i.e. they did everything related to handicraft and needlework excellently. Emma Filippovna’s mother was very skilled in such matters, too. She would be helpful to her neighbours quite often, and those, in return, did not refuse help, either. Just the contrary, they were always willing to barter. Hence, Emma Filippovna’s mum once exchanged a big down-filled headrest cushion, which she had devided into three parts before, against a pailful of potatoes. They were weak from hunger, and therefore they went to any lengths just to somehow manage to feed the family. There was a quite popular dish called “stewed fruit with dumplings”. How did this come about? Well, necessity was the mother of invention. However, Emma Filippovna says: “Horrible! You couldn’t eat it! If you want to drinkt the juice, then drink it, but without dumplings. In case you like dumplings, do ahead, eat them, but eat them without juice”. The people used to gather potatoes from the previous year, made a kind of flat cake from them, which they roasted in the oven. But although the Germans were very proficient in cooking, they were quite awkward in baking – a situation which soon marked the beginning of a brisk exchange of experiences. The Germans explained many cooking recipes to the local residents, who, in return, showed them how to make pastries in a more sophisticated way. Hence, Margarita Yakovlevna, for example, began to bake her bread in an entirely different way than she used to do all the time before. In the past she had merely been waiting until the yeast dough had risen, than formed a ball which she put into the oven. Now she practiced to bake bread in differenet wooden baking-pans with different designs.
They had to get accustomed to the language, as well. In the very beginning, they were not able to speak Russian at all, which made them continue to communicate among eachother in German. But this pleased the locals by no means at all. Every now and then you would here the question: “What are aou whispering and laughing about?” – And then, step by step, they improved their knowledge of the Russian language.
They had to cope with great difficulties regarding their dwellings. When the family arrived in Malobeloe, they first lived in a little two-room house: three families, 19 individuals. After two months, however, father found a little house with an iron stove for his family. They did some repair, tidied the house up and removed.
But then the family was afflicted by misfortune: father and his brother were called up into the labour army. Anna Filippovna’s husband said: “The labour army is worse than any concentration camp”. When he was asked “why do you think so?” he just replied: “It’s a nightmare”. The labour army was engaged in the construction of armament factories, watch towers (???), etc. During the winter the disfranchised people were sent into the woodlands to fell trees. and they were scorned and humiliated all the time.
Thus, the family stayed behind without any helping male hand. Shortly after they had come for the father, Little Yasha was born. This was on the 20 October 1942. Two months later a new mischief befell the family. The mother died.
All of a sudden a tiny pimple had emerged from Margarita Yakovlevna’s neck. Everybody though it was a furuncle. She pressed it out and cooled the wound. However, after a while, the spot got seriously infected and was followed by a sepsis. Finally, the abcess had become so huge, that her throat was all swollen and she choked on it. Literally, all this happened within three days only. Later, when the father returned home, he said: “ Why didn’t you restore her to health? All you would have had to do is to apply a tobacco leaf, which would have absorbed pus and pathogenic germs”.
These were the worst days in Emma Filippovna’s life. She spent three days with her mother, not taking her eyes off her. When the mother died, she left behind four children. Emma was the eldest, then there was a little brother and another sister, as well as the new-born boy. Since they had no mother, the kolkhoz farm provided them with milk.
All children were supposed to go to school. At the beginning the German children did not understand a single word, for the lessons were held in Russian. The teacher told Emma: “The lesson is over, and now I am sitting here thinking about what to teach them, when they do not know any Russian. What do I see when walking through the corridor? The Russian children are standing together in a group, the Germans – apart. In the cause of time, however, they began to team and communicate with eachother!” – No wonder, for they had to cover a distance of 7 kms and even cross the river Kem to get to school in Yelan. There was nothing one could do about it. And it did not take long until they finished the seventh term. Two years had already passed since Little Yasha had been born. They were years of terrible famine. During the winter Emma was working for the timber industry. It was very cold at home. One day, coming home from work, she discovered that the little boy had died.
Emma’s mother was from a rich family, she possessed a lot of nice garments., which Emma exchanged against bread bit by bit.
Being asked about traditions and public holidays of the Germans, Emma Filippovna replied: “ Holidays were quite similar those celebrated by the Russians; there were no specific differences”. After their resettlement they were also happy about the holidays celebrated by the local residents as well as the kolkhoz holidays. Nobody noticed any basic differences with them.
All that remained from the former culture of the Germans was the solemnity on the occasion of Christmas (this is what they had always been celebrating, even at the times when it was strictly forbidden, and they will continue to celebrate it in the future). And that’s it.
- It is a document of 20 x 20 cms in size, wich confirms the identity of an individual. It was used instead of a passport. Its colour – coffeebrown. Upon presentation of a wolves’ passport you would not have the slightest chance to get a job. People in possession of such a document were Mißtrauen entgegenbringen automatically gave cause for mistrust and it meant considerable legal restrictions. In 1956, when the Germans were released from the state of being special resettlers, the commandants brought along this kind of documents for them. They only received regular passports in 1967.
During the first time after their mother’s death, they dressed very poorly. But then everything turned for the better. They managed to trace out mum’s sister. She lived in Kemerovo and was well-off. She began to send them parcels containing clothes, including mittens, which were particularly convenient for them.
There was a sole commandant for the whole Yeniseysk District (??? – A.B.). He was totally overstrained with all the tasks he was supposed to fulfil. Emma Filippovna told about him that he was a very good and helpful man. Since he had such a great deal to do, he assigned an elder of every village. In Malobeloe Emma’s father held this office. At that time Emma several times watched the commandant come to her father’s house. He came to visit the village three times a month. And once a month the repressed people had to appear inside the building of the village council to enlist and get registered. But there were exceptions, so that they did not have to go there. Every now and then they would meet the commandant somewhere on the road, and then he would allow them to immediately getting registered with him. Thus, they did not need to get in touch with the village Soviet.
Unfortunately, Emma Filippovna does not remember, how the commandant was called and how he looked like.
One day, however, the commandant was displaced on the grounds that he had demonstrated too much benevolence and mercy. One time he delivered a whole kilo of bread to each family member. This very deed finally tipped the scales for his dismissal.
In 1964 new mischief befell the family: the father died from lung cancer. From now on Emma was to bear all responsibility. She worked for the kolkhoz farm, took care of the housekeeping, went to help with the hay-harvest. In the winter she was assigned to work for the timber industry – she was taken to some forest district to fell trees and chop branches and twigs. She did hard labour but was poorly paid.
Late in the 1960s two kolkhoz farms were subject to amalgamation – the farms in Malobeloe and Marilovtsevo. Emma’s husband to-be often came to visit her, but Emma did not have the intention to get married to him. Jakob Karlovich Stoll was four years younger than her. They brought up their children; nowadays they have grand-children, as well, the eldest of which is already 33 years old. They all live in Germany. Emma Filippovna and Jakob Karlovich often go to visit them. In 1997 they filed an application to leave the country for Germany, too. After a certain time they received the official invitation and began to look for a tenant for their house. After all this had been settled, the left for Germany. About one year later the tenants phonecalled them to inform them that they were going to move away. Hence, Emma Filippovna and Jakob Karlovich were forced to return to Russia.
Emma Filippovna is of the opinion that society has spiralled downward. She thinks that the period of the perestroika and general heartlessness of the people is to blame for this deplorable development. “There will be another war, but God grant that we do not need to witness it! Perestroika split up the people.!” – And then Emma Filippovna adds by way of explanation: “Today I am glad that they resettled us at that time, for life in the Volga region was much worse, and nobody knows , what had happened, what had become of us, in case we had not been forced to remove”. Nowadays Emma Filippovna lives in the settlement of Ust-Kem. She is making use of free of charge transportation and price reductions on communal services.
Interviewed by Pavel Kolesov and Ksenia Koncheva.
(AB – comments by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk “Memorial”)
Forth expedition of history and human rights, Ust-Kem 2007