The village of Straßburg is situated in the canton of Pallasovka, in the south-east of the Wvolga-German ASSR. In 1941 there were 3 or 4 streets, about two kilometers in length. There was a kolkhoz farm called Kuibyschev.
The deportation took place in September 1941. The authorities schedulded three days in all for the departure of the people. They were taken to Pallasovka station, where they had to spend three days alongside the tracks under the open, until, finally, the whole party was ready to leave. They were all loaded on a train heading for Krasnoyarsk; in Krasnoyarsk they had do board a barge, where locked in the cargo hold and sailed down the river Yenisey up to a place called Atamanovo. They were dropped off at the riverbanks with their belongings and after a certain time taken to different villages by means of one-and-a-half-ton trucks. The following families from the village of Straßburg were exiled to the village of Podsopki, Sukhobuzimo District, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
David Andreevich Schmet (kolkhoz brigadier, 1897-1963), his wife Yekaterina (Katharina) Andreevna (kolkhoz farmer, 1898-1982), their children David (ca. 1917-1986), Andrei (born 1927, lives in Podsopki), Emma (born 1923, lives in Kasakhstan), Marta (born 1930), Frieda (born 1937), Maria (born 1932). Shortly before the time of their deportation in 1941 it was time for Maria to go to school, and they had just handed in her birth certificate to the school authorities. Hence, they arrived in Siberia without his document. When, in 1948, she needed to present some authority with this certificate, she was sent a wrong one from Straßburg , which was not issued in the name of Maria Davidovna but in the name of Maria Ivanovna. They had quite simply changed her father’s name.
Roman Rau (ca. 1900 – ca. 1948), his wife Yelisaveta (Elisabeth, ca. 1900 – ca. 1987), their children David (born ca. 1917, lives in Podsopki), Reinhold (born ca. 1923), Viktor (born ca. 1940), Mina (born ca. 1932), Elja (Ella, born ca. 1937) Frieda (born ca. 1930).
Maria Fritzler (born ca. 1900), her daughter Maria (born ca. 1931) as well as her sons Fritz (born ca. 1923) and Friedrich (born ca. 1927). Her husband was arrested late in the 1930s.
Amalia (Amalie) Wulf (born ca. 1895; she died in 1943 or 1944), her children Robert Andreevisch (born ca. 1925) and Irma (born ca. 1929), as well as the wife of her son Andrei (he probably served in the army) called Olga (born ca. 1908) an their children Rosa (born ca. 1938) and Olga (born ca. 1937).
David Wulf (born in 1905 oder 1906), his wife Yekaterina (Katharina, born ca. 1910), daughter Irma (born in 1937) as well as son Viktor (born in 1938 oder 1939). They live in Podsopki.
Aleksander (Alexander) Klowetanz (born ca. 1905), his wife Yekaterina (Katharina, born ca. 1910), their daughters Frieda (born ca. 1937) and Elja (Ella, born ca. 1929), their sons Aleksander (Alexander, born ca. 1933) and Viktor (born ca. 1940), as well as Alexander Klowetanz’ brother Edward (born ca. 1917) and his sister Marta (born ca. 1922).
David Davidovich Bauer (born ca. 1902), his wife Maria (born ca. 1902), son Viktor (born ca. 1929) and daughter Irma (born ca. 1939). Irma got married to Viktor Klowetanz; they live in Straßburg today.
Filipp Schpet (Spät, Speth, Späth, born ca. 1901), his wife Amalia (Amalie, born ca. 1901), his mother Maria (geb.between 1870 und 1880), his son Robert (born in 1921 or 1922), Viktor (born ca. 1926), Andrei (born ca. 1928), Arthur (born ca. 1932), David (born ca. 1937), daughter Maria (born ca. 1939). Filipp was a hunter; he loved his dogs so much that he managed to take along to Siberia to of his hunting dogs; however, he had to sell them soonafter in order to be able to support his family. One year later one of the dogs returned home.
Maria Miller (born ca. 1895), her children David (born in 1923 or 1924, lives in the Federal Republic of Germany), Alexander (born ca. 1925, lives in Podsopki), Natalia (born ca. 1929), Elja (Ella,born ca. 1934), Elsa (born ca. 1938). Maria’s husband was arrested before their deportation; he is missing, nothing is known about his fate.
D.A. Schpet (Spät, Speth, Späth) escaped the trudarmy for he was an invalid; they authorities wanted to mobilize his wife to the labour army, too, although she suffered from a serious heart disease. Doctors helped her, so that she was finally permitted to stay at home. David (son) was mobilized in April 1942; he was forced to work for the pits in Nizhnij Tagil; later they sent him to Buguruslan where he worked for the petroleum gas industry. Emma Schpet (Spät, Speth, Späth) was mobilized to Dudinka in 1942, where the prisoners of the „labour army“, standing in the ice-coldwater up to their hips, had to pull fising nets out of the water. Emma only returned home to her parents in 1948.
David und Reinhold Rau were also deported to the „trudarmy“. Reinhold did not return.
The entire Fritzler family was deported to the North in 1942.
Robert Wulf was deported to the „trudarmy“; he never came back.
David Wulf was sent to the „labour army“, too.
A. Klowetanz (father), his brother and sister were also in the „trudarmy“. Edward did not return home.
D.D. Bauer and his wife also spent many years in the „labour army“; there children were taken into a children’s home. When the parents returned home, they went to take their children back home, as well.
Filipp Schpet (Spät, Speth, Späth) and his son Robert did not return from the „trudarmy“.
David and Alexander Miller were mobilized into the „labour army“, as well.
11.05.1990
Recorded by V.S. Birger, Krasnoyarsk, „Memorial“ organization