Like one drop of water lokks like the other, the life of my grandfather Josef Filippovich Weit was similar to the life of the other Germans, who were deported from the Saratov region to the far-away, cold Siberia in 1941.
Whenever he recalls those years, tears are welling up in his eyes. I love him, he is my sole grandfather. I will never forget the story of his life as long as I live.
A car was approaching the house. All members of the family were put in this car and taken away to the train station; they forced them to get on a waggon and sent them away to the unknown. They had only taken a few things along; all the remaining belongings, everything they had acquired throughout the years, was left behind and passed into other hands. A terrible situation, hard hours of life: what for? They came to the Krasnoyarsk region, to the village of Ochury.
They were accomodated in an apartment, seven individuals altogether – excluding the landlord. My grandfather was still quite young at that time. He went to work for the kolkhoz, but in 1942 they called him up to the labour army. He spent there four years and had to work hard.
Once they gave him the permission to go home for a couple of days. Grandfather was so much longing for his relatives. He wanted to stay with them and help my mother. He did not want to go back to that frightful place, which was called a camp, and he had never thought that they would really convict him. But then they sat in judgment upon him. On the 13th of May 1947 he was sent up the river Angara to a camp. In August 1948, after his release, he returned to Ochury once again and found a job with the machine and tractor station. He worked there as a tractorist for 39 years, until he finally retired.
Josef Filippovich met his future wife, Erna Genrichovna, in Ochury in 1949. My grandmother, also a German, had been affected by the waves of deportation, too. They got married and brought up three children. Until today they help their children and grand-children, if their state of health permits. Grandmother and grandfather had a hard life. I feel great respect for them. They have shown so much courage, they are so kind and lovable. It is not many people’s nature to master so many difficulties, to resign to one’s fate and, in spite of all cruelties of life, remain so kind-hearted.
In December 2000 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Half a century they have been living together. Despite all reverse of fortune they have been living together in love and harmony for so many years. When I go back home from school, I always try to walk through the street in which my grandparents live. I like to see them sitting side by side on the little bench – their faces looking happy and full of the joy of living.
Olesia DOBYCHINA, village of Ochury, Krasnoyarsk region
Siberian Newspaper plus No. 8 (38) 8/2001 (newspaper edited in Novosibirsk)