"The wrought iron grave crosses of the German-Russians-with their unbroken hearts of metal, brightly painted stars, endless circles, banner-waving angels, exquisitely formed lilies, and rose blossoms that rust but never wilt-evoke the defiant spirit of their mortal makers."

Dr. Timothy J. Kloberdanz

Iron Crosses stand as sentinels on the prairie landscape, framed by huge expanses of grass and sky. Though they stand silent, behind each one is a story.

Prairie Crosses, Prairie Voices evokes these stories-memories of the Germans from Russia, a frugal and tenacious people whose blacksmiths used wagon-wheel rims and scrap metal to fashion markers for the graves of the dead.

Prairie Crosses, Prairie Voices follows the traditional iron art form that crossed continents and oceans and survived famine and war-to be reborn on the Great Plains in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

For more information about the Germans from Russia videotape documentaries, consult the following websites:

Prairie Public Broadcasting, Inc., Fargo, North Dakota
http://www.prairiepublic.org

Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, North Dakota at the Media section "Video Documentary and Other Projects"
http://www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/grhc