My paternal grandfather was a German from Russia (see here for more info on that distinct group) who came to America after living thorough a number of years of post-revolution Russia. He never talked about this to anyone, until one day he produced this reminiscence which he shared with my father and me. We'd had no idea of his experiences, and he never talked much about it after writing this. I find it fascinating, and maybe you will too. (It's slightly redacted)
I was born in M, Russia in 1911.
My father was the second oldest of four living sons. His parents had nine children. Four girls and one boy died at birth. My mother was the youngest of five children. My parents were married on New Year’s Eve, December 31st, 1909. I had a sister born in 1910. She died two weeks later.
My father left for America in August of 1912, and arrived there in 1913. I was almost two years old when he left. My brother, John was born about 60 days after our father left for America.
My earliest recollection is when a black automobile came to our town. This was about the summer of 1917. Apparently something was broken and was being repaired in the blacksmith shop across the street from our house. This took almost all day. I believe the whole town turned out to see the automobile move without horses pulling it.
The old people of our town did not believe that a little scratch on the arm could prevent smallpox. We were experiencing an epidemic. My mother and brother John were visiting somebody in town when the doctor was making his monthly visit to M. They had themselves vaccinated. My little boyfriend across the street developed a case of smallpox. My mother told me that she wrapped me up in a bedsheet after rubbing some sort of salve all over me. She said I was unconscious for several days. John and I slept in the same room and he never developed the illness. I guess this proved a little scratch on the arm did prevent smallpox. No doubt the doctor was busy on his next visit.
I remember when we owned two camels which were used instead of horses. I tried to ride one and it bucked me off. That evening grandfather saw me with a whip. I was going to whip that camel. But grandfather talked me out of it. Because of our severe winters, the camels were no good in cold weather. We could not afford to keep and feed them. So grandfather sold them.
During the Tsars’ time all farmland was divided and allocated to male members only to every family in our district. Nobody lived on the allocated land. It was reallocated every ten years. The land that was allocated to us was several hours’ drive by horse and wagon from M. When checking our crops, we had to spend one night camping out. Father’s youngest brother, Sam, was considered somewhat on the lazy side by grandmother H. I remember, I was about 7 or 8 years old and went with him to check our crops. He woke me up first thing in the morning to gather firewood and water the horses while he prepared breakfast. Another time I went with Uncle Karl. He woke me in the morning after he had watered the horses and had breakfast ready. All I had to do was eat breakfast and help load the wagon and go home.
We had a barrel, about three feet in diameter and 5 or 6 feet long, mounted on its side on a wagon, a hole on the top side. This barrel was used to bring water from the well by the river. Uncle Karl would draw the water from the well and hand me the bucket. I was on top of the barrel and I would pour the water into the barrel. When the barrel was full it would be parked in the barn away from the sun to keep it as cool as possible.
I remember Uncle Karl and me taking the horses to the river to wash and bathe them. Uncle Karl would have me ride the horses one at a time into the deep part of the river to rinse them after he was done washing them. One horse would not swim and would raise up on its hind legs. I would slide off its back. Uncle Karl would yell to me to swim to shore. When I came to shore I saw he was barefooted and would have dived into the river if I would have needed help. That is how I learned to swim dog paddle style.
I remember when we slaughtered a pig. After it was killed it was dipped in hot water so that the bristle could be shaved off. Some meat parts were boiled. Some were saved for sausage and others to be smoked. Condiments were added after each boiling. Casings were cleaned for the sausage stuffing operation. The liquid was never thrown out after the boiling of the various meat parts. The neighbors would come with pots to get some of the heavy soup. It was the best tasting and most nourishing soup I ever ate. Baking was done twice a week.
I remember when the milk cows were let out into the street each morning. A family selected in town would herd them out to pasture on land not good enough for farming because, perhaps, it was too rocky. And when the cows came home in the evening, each went to their own home by themselves. They would wait for someone to open the front gate so it could go into the barn.
Then came milking time. The milk was stored in the root cellar. When the cream floated to the top it was spooned off. The churning of butter from the cream was a chore assigned to me when I was old enough.
I remember my grandmother at the spinning wheel, spinning thread from wool sheared from our sheep. Memories – some harsh and some wonderful.
One winter evening, I believe it was the fall of 1919, grandfather was reading the bible by candlelight. Grandmother, my mother and an aunt were busy sewing or knitting. A neighbor rapped on out front door and said the soldiers were coming. The light was put out and an hour later we saw the soldiers walking in the snow in the middle of the street. The soldiers entered those houses that had lights burning. The people were forced to sleep in their barns or attics, while the soldiers slept in the beds.
The next morning an elderly couple discovered that the soldiers had taken some pillows and a feather quilt when they left. The old man went to the courthouse to complain to the officer in charge. The officer called him a traitor, and for being unpatriotic he told his men to strip and whip him. The old man’s son was the commissar or mayor of our town. He talked the officer into stopping the whipping. However, the old man died within 30 days.
The officer had every family in town bring their horses to the town square. They selected what they wanted and left town. Uncle Sam was visiting somebody in a neighboring town at the time. He was using grandfather’s favorite horse. This horse was raised by my grandfather from a colt. He was a pet. When Uncle Sam came home after the soldiers were gone, grandfather decided to blind the horse before the next soldiers came to town. He knew he would not lose the horse then. He cried like a baby after the horse was blinded.
In the spring of 1920 Uncle Sam married the girl from next door. Uncle Karl went AWOL from the army. He and a friend hid out in a cave from which they chased some wolves. They brought home some baby wolves. We chained ours to a post. This permitted the wolf to stay under our grainary that was built on stilts about 18 inches off the ground. Too many chickens got too close to the wolf. Uncle Sam killed it. We could not afford to lose any more chickens.
The following August I was visiting my mother’s family. Grandfather S had died when my mother was only five years old. The S family was in the business of repairing windmills. Behind the S home was a creek. Across this creek was a windmill. The man operating this mill let me watch him. I believe I would have learned to operate a windmill after I was grown up. It was better than farming.
Uncle Johannes, mother’s brother, was good at working with wood. He made me a replica of a rifle. At this time another brother, Uncle Christian, died suddenly. I was elected to carry the cross and lead the procession to the cemetery. The following morning Uncle Sam came to pick me up. Grandfather H had died. Me being the oldest grandchild, I was again elected to carry the cross and lead the procession to the cemetery.
Some land was set aside near the town and the Karman river for every family in M for vegetable planting. These vegetable gardens were called Bach-choos. A couple of weeks after grandfather’s funeral, grandmother, john and I walked to our Bach-choo to check on our vegetables. We found the melons, watermelons, cucumbers, and other vegetables ready for picking. It was decided to go with horses and wagon the next day to pick them. Everybody was happy.
That night the soldiers came to town. The following morning they went to the bach-choos and smashed everything. They even dug up potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables and smashed them. After the soldiers left we went to see and pick anything we could find. There was very little to save.
The following winter was terrible. We ate horsemeat and nobody complained. Some cannibalism was discovered in our district.
Earlier, mother had received a letter from our father in America. It was answered at once. It seemed forever to get a reply from him. When a reply was received from him the following summer, it was decided to go to America at once. Mother’s family had all died of starvation.
Those of us who left for America were grandmother H, Uncle Sam with his wife and child, mother, brother John, and me. Uncle Karl, his wife and two children decided to stay in M. We heard later that they all died of starvation.
We packed a tube of about 12 inches in diameter and two feet high full of hard boiled eggs packed in straw. Also a pillowcase full of toasted bread or Zwieback. Uncle Karl drove us to the Volga river to catch a boat to Saratov. We boarded the same evening and sailed during the night. The following morning we docked in Saratov. We had to go to the courthouse to get permits to get on a train to take us to Moscow. We stayed and slept on the open dock. It took three days before we got our permits for the train to Moscow.
The first night on the open dock, the bag of Zwieback was stolen. Although we slept in a circle with our belongings in the center, we must have been pretty tired to sleep so soundly. Uncle Sam said it was probably good none of us woke up when it happened because the robbers probably would have killed us. I believe Uncle Sam did wake up and played possum and didn’t say anything for fear of being stabbed to death. The boiled eggs lasted almost three days.
The third day we received our train permits for Moscow. We had to walk across the city of Saratov. It is built on the side of a hill. In walking we took three steps forward and one step up about two-thirds of the way to the train station. John and I saw a train for the first time. It was a little scary.
It took almost three days for the train to reach Moscow. During this time we did not see any food. We never left the train except when it stopped every four to six hours in some wooded area for toilet reasons. Always at that time our papers were checked. We slept in our seats.
To get a little fresh air, I went outside of the train and sat on the steps. Along came two soldiers. One thought I was hitching a ride and wanted to kick me off. The other spoke some German and recognized me. He told me I had better get back into the car and stay with my mother.
When we arrived in Moscow we were assigned two furnished rooms on the seventh floor of an apartment building. This building was one block from the Red Square. We had to walk up seven floors. If there was an elevator it was not working. One toilet to share between two or three families. We were seven people in our two rooms. I don’t know how many people lived in the other rooms. It seemed like an awful lot when the toilet was used.
As soon as we were settled, mother went to a food kitchen and brought back a gallon pot of vegetable soup. We were hungry. That pot of soup did not last long. It was a chore to go to the food kitchen for every meal.
Each room had a light cord with a bulb hanging from the ceiling. I was tall enough to reach the light switch on the cord. Being curious I was turning the light switch on and off trying to figure out how the light bulb could light up. Mother slapped my hand and told me to let the light alone. There was a small triangle sink in the corner of the room, with one faucet. I had my hand slapped again because I was turning the faucet on and off trying to figure out how water could flow up seven floors.
A few days after arriving in Moscow, grandmother became very ill. Uncle Sam had her placed in a hospital. I understand she died there on August 18, 1921. she was buried somewhere near Moscow.
Because of delays in correspondence with my father in America, delays in getting our passports, and also being crowded in two rooms, John and I were placed in an orphan home. Our mother posed as our aunt or we would not have been admitted. This was a Russian-speaking orphan home.
The children were examined every week by a nurse. She found something wrong with my scalp. There were three spots from which my hair was pulled with a tweezer. Some green-colored salve was applied every morning. Uncle Sam did not believe there was anything wrong. As the children were permitted to visit relatives or friends on weekends, Uncle Sam took us home one weekend. He shaved my head. When we were returned the nurse could not find the spots and decided I was healed.
Because John and I could not speak Russian we were transferred to a Latvian orphan home. There the caretakers spoke German. Our mother was never notified. This was about September of 1921.
For the next 4 or 5 months our mother did not know where we were. John and I tried to run away once but the caretakers chased us and brought us back. One day in January or February of 1922, John and I were sitting in the wide windowsill in the home, when to our surprise we saw our mother walking in the middle of the snowy street looking for house numbers. We ran out of the building and through the gate of the enclosed yard crying for our mother. The head overseer of the home was a man six feet tall and a yard wide and had a heart just as big. He followed us out to the street. After watching us for awhile he determined that this was our mother and not our aunt. Mother explained to him who we were, also that we were waiting for our passports to go to America. He asked mother if she could cook. Of course she said yes. He hired her, adding her to the caretakers’ crew as a cook for the 40 or 50 children. She stayed listed as our aunt. I don’t know what happened to Uncle Sam and his family. We never saw him again. We assumed he went to work for the Bolsheviks. I guess he had to or starve.
In the orphan home, the older children were divided into work crews. The crews had to set tables, wash dishes, clean rooms, and help wherever they were needed. John was considered one of the younger children and was not included in the work crews. Once john did something that upset mother and she spanked him. The overseer saw this and told mother never to do that again. He was responsible for all the children.
The following spring the home was transferred to a vegetable farm on the outskirts of Moscow. We were to raise potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables to be shipped to the city. The girl work crews were assigned to chores in the home, such as helping in the kitchen, making the beds and cleaning the rooms. The boys’ work crews did the planting, weeding and watering of the gardens. Although we had chores to do we had our leisure time. We hiked and swam in the local river with the girls swimming about two blocks away.
Application for our passports had been made when we first arrived in Moscow. That was about a year before. After several weeks on the farm, the overseer of the home went to Moscow to check on ‘why the delay?’ The train station was only a block away which could be seen across an open field from the farm home. Mother, John and I were watching for the train on which the overseer would be on from Moscow. We watched for several hours. Finally, when the train came, the overseer came running from the station waving the passports and the train permits to Riga, Latvia. We had one hour to get ready and get on the last train to Moscow that day. That train took us to the Moscow train station. In Moscow we were put on a train to Riga, Latvia that afternoon. Two days later we arrived in Riga. We had to wait 3 or 4 days for the boat to take us to Liverpool, England. At least that is what we were told.
We were assigned a small room in an apartment building. We were told to wait, never knowing whether or when the boat would come. Finally it came. When we pulled away from the dock in Riga, mother said, “Thank god we are safe.”
In Liverpool all male and female members were herded into separate buildings. We were shaved on all parts of our bodies and showered. Later we were examined by doctors. I was found to have something wrong with my eyes and was to be sent back to Russia. Mother said if I were to go back we would all three go back. And she started to cry. The doctor gave her some clear liquid in a bottle with an eye dropper. I was to get some of this liquid dropped into my eyes three times a day. I took this treatment three times a day until our ship pulled out of Liverpool, England for America. I believe the medicine was distilled water.
We were in steerage on the ship. It took 14 days to cross the ocean. Mother was seasick all 14 days and stayed in her bunk most of the time. John and I suffered only one day and got our sea legs.
I can’t remember what else we ate besides bread and herring. The herring was in a barrel about two feet deep. It was messy when reaching for the herring at the bottom of the barrel. The barrel was half full of brine. John and I, having gone through a hunger period, ate anything that came our way and never complained.
During the 14 days John and I got acquainted with other boys our age. They did not speak German but we got along. We traded coins. I liked the Liberty head nickels. The last day on the ship John and I found we could buy oranges for a nickel. We gorged ourselves with oranges.
We arrived in New York on September 4, 1922. The Statue of Liberty looked great. The following day we debarked. On entering Ellis Island I saw my first black man. He was the gate watchman. Mother had to explain to John and me that there are black people on this earth. Not knowing when our ship would dock, father had a New York friend meet us. After our clearance we were bussed to a train station. The train we took did not go to Ohio direct. We had to change trains somewhere in Pennsylvania. We arrive about five o’clock that afternoon in this town. Our train to Ohio was due at six o’clock in the morning. We stayed all night in the train station. Mother slept on a couch. John and I each had an overstuffed chair to sleep on.
The train station attendant came early the next morning and made sure we got on the right train. By noon the next day we arrived in Ohio. Mother and father had not seen each other for almost ten years. Also this was the first time John saw his father.
We were taken to father’s rooming house. He had us strip and take a bath at once. He went to a neighborhood clothing store and bought us all new clothes. The old clothes went into a trash barrel.
- I have a Xerox copy of this, which he wrote maybe 25+ years ago (he died in 1995).
I'd be curious to read that.
