Born in the hamlet of Vorogovo, Turukhansk District, Krasnoyarsk Region, in
1953.
Mother – Maria Ivanovna Zohl (Kramm), born in 1927
Father – Aleksander Emmanuilovich Kramm, born in 1927.
They lived in the Saratov Region, District of Balzer, in the settlement of Saratov. After their dekulakization they experienced a terrible time of famine. Nadezhda Aleksandrovna’s grandmother – Amalia Adamovna Brening – had 11 children, only four of them survived.
In 1941 they became victims of political repressions. They were given just 24 hours to pack up their belongings; they had to leave all their cattle behind. They decided to take along foodstuffs and a few personal belongings (such as bedclothes, sewing machine).
They left their home by train. During the trip nobody provided them with food. During the first time they scratched a living by eating the food they had taken along; afterwards they swapped their belongings for comestibles (until the only objected that remained in grandma’s possession was – the sewing machine); she was an outstanding seamstress). Pangs of hunger and a miserable sanitary conditions were accompanied by an epidemic of typhoid fever. Many people died during the trip. Their corpses were wrapped into bed sheets and thrown out of the window while the train was going at full speed (AB – not really authentic that they were thrown out of the window, the more since the apertures were not only quite small, but even barred; it is more likely that the dead bodies were carried out of the waggons during train stops and then buried on the spot).
They reached Vorogovo in October 1941. At first they lived as a kind of subtenants with some family, later they were assigned a little house to live in. The first winter was very hard to bear; they fed upon frozen fodder beets.
Both parents were hard-working: the father had been working as a shoe-maker
since the 15th year of his life; every now and then he was paid in kind.
Grandfather Emmanuel Georgievich Kramm attached a horse stable to the house.
Mama found herself a job with a farm as a milkmaid. In the course of time they
began to breed cattle, go fishing and work in their vegetable garden. Dad was a
blacksmith by profession. Mum was very skilled at painting and sketching; she
even portrayed icons.
The local residents met the resettlers with benevolence and friendliness. Apart from the Germans there were resettlers from Lithuania. From time to time there were mixed marriages.
Nadezhda Aleksandrova was confronted with the question about what she was feeling regarding the repressions. She replied: It is a great unjustness, a great mischief. Grandma was all the time intending to return, to go back home. She was always thinking about her garden, where all the sugar melons were growing”.
Amalia Adamovna used to speak German with her relatives, while they always gave their answers in Russian. She liked to read the German Bible.
The parents died in Vorogovo: her mother in 1980, her father in 1999.
Interviewed by Anna Tarkhova and Svetlana Aliseyko.
(AB – comments by Aleksei Babiy, Krasnoyarsk “Memorial”)
Fifth expedition of history and human rights, Novokargino 2008