Germans from Russia Heritage Collection

Springtime and Easter Greetings to each of you. Only a few more weeks until many of us experience our historic tours of Germany and the Ukraine in June.

We appreciate the wonderful reception and impressive attendance at the NDSU Libraries' outreach programs in Apache Junction, Sun City, Scottsdale, and Mesa, Arizona. Joining me at the Arizona events were John W. Beecher, Director of Libraries, and Charlotte Cox, Director of Development. "The strong interest people showed in our German from Russia Heritage Collection, as well as in the Libraries' outreach activities was a revelation to us, "said Beecher. "Given such a welcome in the Southwest, we are sure to make plans to be back next year."

In Sun City on February 29, fifty persons attended the gathering, including German-Russians born in the Kutschurgan and Beresan German villages. At the Mesa Regal Resort on March 2, we expected about 40 persons. However close to 150 attended the event! We also had memorable home gatherings at Apache Junction (hosted by Betty and Chris Maier), Scottsdale (Leo and Delores Sitter), and Redondo Beach, CA (Margaret and Bob Freeman).

According to Margaret Freeman, Coordinator of Glückstal Colonies Research Association, "The NDSU Libraries events in Arizona provided quality contacts and the pleasure of seeing many of our relatives in such pleasant surroundings. Bob and I were impressed with how NDSU is reaching out to North Dakotans who ordinarily have no contact with the university."

The Mesa program featured an inspiring presentation of her escape from Russia by Elvera Reuer, author of the book, The Last Bridge. Elvera also presented her hand-made dolls, "Depression Babies," as gifts for us to take to Odessa in June for the Ukrainian children. To order a copy of The Last Bridge, contact Elvera Reuer, 1872 West Keating, Mesa, AZ 85202 (602-839-9735).

Elvera presented other beautiful dolls for future exhibitions to the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection. Elvera plans to prepare special historic wedding dolls detailing the dress worn by our German-Russian people in the former Black Sea and Bessarabian German villages. We will use the wedding dolls with our 1998 traveling exhibition, Traditions of German-Russian Weddings: From the Steppes of Bessarabia and Ukraine to the Prairies of the Dakotas.

Close to 3,000 people attended the North Dakota Picnic on Sunday, March 3, with at least 300 visiting our NDSU Libraries display tables. There were many people who expressed an interest in future tours to Odessa and in other forthcoming Germans from Russia activities. The 1997 North Dakota Picnic will be on Sunday, March 2. Join us next year!

The NDSU Libraries' current traveling exhibit, The Kempf Family: Germans from Russia Weavers on the Dakota Prairies, is on display at the City Hall in Beulah, ND, until May 15.

After Beulah, the exhibit travels to the McIntosh County Museum in Ashley, from June 2 to August 2, with the grand opening reception and program on Sunday, June 2 at 1:30 pm.; then to the Southwest State Bank in Oakes, from August 4 to September 15 with the grand opening reception and program on Sunday, August 4 at 1:30 pm; and then to the Public Library in Harvey, from October 6 to December 31, 1996 with the grand opening reception and program on Sunday, October 6 at 1:30 pm.

The 1996 spring edition of North Dakota Horizons features a color photo article about the Kempf exhibit and the heritage of the Germans from Russia. For a copy of this special edition, send $6, payable to the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, P.O. Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599.

Boris Moser of Tiraspol, Moldova, arrives in Fargo on April 6, the day of his 18th birthday. He is a high school exchange student living in northern California. Boris returns to Tiraspol in June. He wishes to learn more about North Dakota's German-Russian community. His brother, Sergei, will be an English translator in Odessa for the June tours. Boris spoke to the German-Russian chapter meetings in California. My thanks to Doris Dickenson of Guerneville,CA, for introducing Boris to our German-Russian people. Tour group members will meet Waldemar and Natalia Moser, Boris' parents, when they visit Odessa during the tours. Waldemar, a banker is of Crimean German ancestry. Natalia is well known for her professional embroidery work. Her Bessarabian and Moldovan embroidery has been purchased for future exhibits and for the archives of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.

Paul Krüger, who immigrated to Siegen, Germany, from a village near Omsk, Siberia, in 1994, will visit his relatives in Tennessee, Arizona, California and North Dakota this spring. Paul and Anna Krüger will visit Fargo, Fessenden, and Harvey, ND, on May 2-7.

Although most of the Krügers of Volhynian German ancestry immigrated to the Fessenden area in the 1910s, Paul's father decided to stay in Russia. Paul's uncle Otto Krueger became a U.S. Congressman from North Dakota from 1951-1955. Ironically, while his Uncle Otto was serving in the U.S. Congress, Paul's father was serving in a slave labor camp in Siberia. In 1991, Paul read in Neues Leben, the German newspaper published in Moscow, an article I had written about the Germans from Russia. He wrote to me seeking his Krueger relatives on the Dakota prairies.

In June, 1994, at the Bundestreffen, we met Paul Krüger who presented a heart-rending account of his life at the Amerika Haus für die Schwarzmeerdeutschen. Now a resident of Germany, Paul will join us again at the Bundestreffen on June 22, 1996, in Stuttgart. I look forward to hosting the Krügers when they visit NDSU, Fargo, and the homestead near Fessenden. Paul, who was a teacher in Siberia, is writing his autobiography, which we plan to publish for our North American readers.

The outstanding new book, The German American Family Album, by award-winning authors Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, includes many photographs and oral interviews of the Germans from Russia community. Published by Oxford University Press, the book is the ninth in a series of volumes on ethnic cultures in America.

In a March 3, 1996 letter Dorothy Hoobler writes, "We both felt that the reading and pictures of the Germans from Russia section were among the best in the book. Before we started this series, I knew little about Germans from Russia as part of America's melting pot. But I found both the achievements and hardships of the Germans from Russia pioneers particularly appealing. We thank you, in addition, for your kind help while we were working on the book. Tom and I look forward to meeting you in person in New York City this summer. I felt as if I made a new friend in North Dakota while doing this book."

I will meet the Hooblers at the American Library Association Conference in New York upon returning from Frankfurt on July 5. The Hooblers will autograph their new book at the ALA Convention. To order the book, send $20 plus $3 postage, payable to the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, P.O. Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599.

James Brooke at the Denver office of the New York Times wrote an interesting article titled, "Spanish Is the 2d Language of Choice In North Dakota, With German Roots: Preference Reflects Trend Among Students Elsewhere in U.S." (March 2, 1996, page 6). A forthcoming article in the New York Times will feature the Germans from Russia Discussion Group on the electronic mail Internet. Leading German-Russian genealogists were interviewed. The article focuses on family research via electronic mail and the World Wide Web as well as on the reunification of families.

Joyce Reinhardt Larson, a native of Zap, ND, living in Fargo, and Ann Braaten, Curator of the Emily P. Reynolds Costume Collection at NDSU, will join me in interviewing the sisters of German-Russian heritage at the Convent of St. Francis, Hankinson, ND, on April 10. Joyce has been a volunteer interviewer and transcriber since 1995. Betty and Chris Maier of Linton, ND, and Apache Junction, AZ, joined us as interviewers in August. They have completed interviews in Linton, Bismarck, and Apache Junction. Leo J. Neifer of Roscoe, SD, becomes a volunteer interviewer in April. We are also recruiting interviewers in Bakersfield, CA, but we need to identify many more. Detailed questions are already prepared, and tape recorders and cassette tapes are supplied, so contact me if you are interested.

We need to locate black and white photographs of German-Russian experiences for the photo archives of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and for traveling exhibit. We would like to borrow photos to prepare negatives of weddings, homemaking, agriculture, military, and village scenes of the South Russian German villages and those taken in North America. We are especially interested in wedding photographs for the forthcoming exhibit.

On March 26-27, I traveled to Chicago to deliver passports and visas for the NDSU Libraries-sponsored June tours, Journey to the Homeland: Germany and Ukraine. I met with Irena Klisz of Northwestern Travel Bureau, Chicago who has 25 years leading tours to Russia and Ukraine. We have tentatively established the dates for the two 1997 tours for the following: May 14-31, 1997 and late August or September, 1997 including seven days in Odessa and the former German villages, three days in St. Petersburg, Russia and three days in Kiev, Ukraine. There may also be a stop in Germany. There continues to be an impressive response from the German-Russian community wishing to visit the homeland of their ancestors. To be placed on the wait-list for future tours contact Journey to the Homeland Tours, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, P.O. Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599.

When I traveled in December to Odessa and the former German villages in southern Ukraine, I saw shoratage of basic everyday amenities. I shall never forget the moment in the village school of Novosamarka (formerly Sofiental) when I realized that I did not have enough pencils for all the children. A second grade student broke her pencil in half so her classmate could also have part of a pencil. She later asked me if I could bring her another pencil when I returned in June, so she "could have an eraser too". In June 1996, tour group members of the Journey to the Homeland: Germany and Ukraine Tours, will bring suitcases full of school supplies for the children. The project is called "Caring Hearts and Sharing Gifts: For Ukrainian School Children". Supplies most needed include maps, tablets, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, chalk, erasers, tape, scissors, and water color sets. Anyone interested in donating supplies (or in making a cash donation) should contact me at 701-231-8416; or send donations to Helping the Ukrainian Children, c/o Michael M. Miller, NDSU Libraries, P.O. Box 5599, Fargo, ND 58105-5599.

	Persons attending the 1996 North Dakota Picnic on March 3 in Mesa visit the NDSU Libraries tables.
	Margaret Freeman, Redondo Beach CA, speaks at NDSU Libraries event in Sun City AZ on February 29.
	Many German-Russians attend gathering in Sun City.
	Elvera Reuer, Mesa AZ, author of the, The Last Bridge, speaks at Germans from Russia event at Mesa Regal Resort on March 2.

Newsletter prepared by Michael M. Miller
Design by Center for Writers, NDSU
North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo

Upcoming 1996 and 1997 Dates for Germans from Russia Events Sponsored by the NDSU Libraries

NDSU Libraries traveling exhibit The Kempf Family: Germans from Russia Weavers on the Dakota Prairies
March 31 - May 15, 1996, City Hall, Beulah, ND
June 2 - August 2, 1996, McIntosh County Museum, Ashley, ND
August 4 - September 15, First Southwest Bank, Oakes, ND
October 6 - December 31, 1996 - Public Library, Harvey, ND
May 13 - September 1, 1997 - Bismarck State College Library
Summer, 1998 - National Buffalo Museum, Jamestown, ND
March 2, 1997, 10 am - 3 pm, North Dakota Picnic, Pioneer Park, Mesa, AZ

June 8 - 24, 1996, Tour Group I, NDSU Libraries-sponsored tour, Journey to the Homeland: Germany and Ukraine

June 17 - July 2, 1996, Tour Group II, NDSU Libraries-sponsored tour, Journey to the Homeland: Germany and Ukraine

June 22, 1996, Bundestreffen, Stuttgart, Germany (large German-Russian gathering)

June 12 - 16, 1996 American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Convention, Bloomington, MN; presentation by Jage Gage, Exhibits Curator, on the textiles and clothing of the German-Russians

July 18 - 21, 1996, Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention, Grand Forks, ND; panel discussion on July 18 by June tour group members of experiences in Germany and Ukraine; presentation by Jay Gage on Germans from Russia textiles and clothing

For further information, contact:
Michael M. Miller
Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies
PO Box 5599
North Dakota State University Libraries
Fargo ND 58105-5599
Fax: 701-231-7138
Tel.: 701-231-8416
E-mail: Michael.Miller@ndsu.edu

April, 1996 No. 5