Father: Konrad Konradovich Engelgard (Engelhard)
Mother: Amalia Kondratevna
Sister Amalia, born in 1923
Brother Konrad, born in 1925
Sister Emma, born on the 16.04.1930, lives in Yeniseysk
Children:
daughter Elvira, born in 1958, lives in Germany
son Vladimir, born in 1960, lives in Germany
son Eduard, born in 1966, lives in Ust-Kem
Before the deportation they lived in the Saratov Region, in the village of Grimm. The father worked as a tractorist, the mother was engaged with the preparation of ice cream. They had their own house and a big garden with pear, apple and current trees. Apart from this, they were keeping a cow, chickens and geese.
In August 1941 the government passed the ukase according to which all germans were to leave their place of residence within 24 hours. They were not allowed to take alongmore than the clothes they had on their backs. The entire family was transported away. At first they crossed the river Volga by motorship. Then they had to board a train which took them to Krasnoyarsk; from there the trip continued to Yeniseysk by barge and finally up to Malobelaya by horse. There they lived together. They had to sleep on plank beds. In 1940 the elder brother was fetched to join the labour army in Kuibyshev. Friedrich himself stayed in the settlement; he seeded, ploughed and harrowed.
They were forced to exchange all they had taken along from home against potatoes. At the beginning they were not permitted to grow potatoes. They lived according to the principle: “They harder you work, the more you will get to eat”. They worked from daybreak till nightfall. Their daily bread norm amounted to 350 grams.
In 1942 they removed to Yalan. In 1943 father Konrad Konradovich died. I 1948 sister Amalia died from hunger and pneumonia (she had worked in the forest district just like Friedrich).
Every now and then it happened that repressed individuals were assigned briadiers. Yakov (Jakob) Karlovich Schtol (Stoll), for example, was working as a brigadier leader for many years.
In 1947 they came to fetch Friedrich to join the labour army. At first they sent him to Podtyossovo to work for a dam vuilding project, afterwards to North-Yeniseysk; during the winter they had to fell trees, in the summer the transported foddstuffs to a place called Bryanka.
He received his very first wages in Yalan in 1947 (45 rubels). For a loaf of bread you had to pay 300 rubels at that time.
Released from special resettlement in 1953 (A.B.: he is probably mistaken, should be 1956).
They were not permitted to return to their previous home towns or villages. The village where thy used to live before the beginning of the repressions had meanwhile been leveleed to the ground.
Interviewed by Kristina Polysalova, Tatyana Korotkikh and Veronika Gimranova.
(AB – comments by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk “Memorial”)
Forth expedition of history and human rights, Ust-Kem 2007