Early in September 1941 the Communists deported the Volga-German family MELLENBERG from the village of DEGOT (DEGOTT), canton KAMENSK, Auronomous Republic of the Volga-Germans:
In the middle of the night the Communists came to take them away from the village straight to the landing place for ships. They were kept there for a week, then taken up the River Volga on barges and finally loaded on freight trains.
In ABAKAN (Khakassia) they had to get off the train, were loaded on trucks and taken across the River Yenissey to the district of KURAGINO. Heinrich Alexandrovich MELLENBERG and his family were exiled to a collective farm in the village of MURINO.
In January 1942 the Soviets forced Heinrich Alexandrovich MELLENBERG into the "Trud-Army" (= Labour Army), to the region of KIROV, to the VYATLag (= labour camp on the River Viatka, Kirov region), but already in February 1942 they sent him from there to the USOLag (Usolsk reform labour camp in the Sverdlovsk region).
From 22.02.42 he was imprisoned in the camp sub-sector of BONDYUG (on the River Kama), where he had to fell trees. On 27.05.43 he was shot dead by a watchman.
In 1942 his youngest son and daughter died in MURINO during the exile. In 1943 the Soviets forced his eldest daughter, Klara MELLENBERG, into the "Trud-Army" to the Autonomous Republic of Bashkiria, more precisely to the "Bashkirian Petrol and Gas Construction Project". After the war she remained in exile in the Autonomous Republic of Bashkiria.
Late in 1943 the Soviets sent Paulina (G.) MELLENBERG to the North for "fishing". There she grew seriously ill. In 1945 she was taken back to MURINO, then transferred her and her children to a dairy sovkhoz (= dairy State farm) to the village of MARININO. They stayed there until the end of their exile. The were freed on 13.01.56. On that occasion the documents for all the children received a false entry: they mentionned "Andrey" as their father's first name (in fact it was Heinrich).
Heinrich Alexandrovich MELLENBERG and his wife were rehabilitated by the Saratov UVD (administration of Internal Affairs) on 25.03.2000.
Elvira Heinrichovna MELLENBERG received her rehabilitation on 12.10.94 from the UVD Information Center of the Krasnoyarsk administrative district.
July 09, 2000, recorded by V.S. Birger, Krasnoyarsk, "Memorial" Society
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