They’ve Sacrificed Their Childhood

David Letterman interviews Volodymyr Zelensky in a Kyiv subway station-photo from Netflix

Last night I watched David Letterman’s interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Netflix. It’s a fascinating conversation. At one point Letterman asks the president about his family and Zelensky says it is only when he is talking with his wife and children on the phone that he feels normal, that he feels like he can actually breathe.

David Letterman asked the Ukraine president if he discusses the war with his children and he replied that it is impossible not to do so. The children of Ukraine, he says, know more about the war than their parents.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with his family before the war

“The children of Ukraine are deeply immersed in the war. My nine year old son knows the names of all the weapons and he didn’t learn them from me. Vladimir Putin has stolen childhood from the children of Ukraine. “

President Zelensky goes on to tell David Letterman that every Ukrainian has made sacrifices for their country. “Our children,” he says, “have sacrificed their childhood.”

And isn’t that the way it always is. War robs children of their childhood. I have seen that over and over again in different places in the world.

Photo by Yannis Behrakis. I took a photo of this image at an art exhibit in Dubrovnik.

A boy looks through a bullet hole in a bus window during the Kosovo War from 1998-1999 when the Albanian Kosovo separatists supported by the United Nations fought for independence from Yugoslavia.

War Dread of Mothers by George Roualt. I photographed this artwork on my visit to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

 George Rouault painted Wars- Dread of Mothers nine years after World War I when his country of France was already involved in two new wars one in Congo and another in Lebanon.  The painting alludes to the Madonna and the infant Jesus and a line from the Odes of Horace an ancient Roman poet who wrote that while some rejoice at the sounds of war mothers detest them. 

A child’s burned tricycle I photographed at the Peace Museum in Hiroshima

Tricycle ridden by a child in his front yard when the bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 during World War II.  Thousands of children died in Hiroshima that day and thousands more died later from the effects of the radiation they were exposed to.

I photographed Khom at a landmines museum in Cambodia

Khom was our guide at a landmines museum in Cambodia. He had lost his arm at age five from a land mine explosion. The landmines were planted during the Pol Phot regime after a 1975 conflict in which the Khmer Rouge took over the country from the monarchy.

I photographed these stumbling stones in Frankfurt Germany

These stumbling stones have been placed in the sidewalk outside the homes of Holocaust victims in Frankfurt.  You are meant to ‘stumble’ over them as you walk and then stop and read the names of people who died as a result of the Holocaust during World War II. The family remembered with these stones was deported to Auschwitz and included three children.

I photographed this sculpture in the Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi

This sculpture shows a Vietnamese man going off to war. His mother and his child hang onto his arms. The Vietnam war lasted for twenty years- 1955-1975. Thousands of children lost their lives and countless others became orphans because their parents were killed.

David Letterman and President Zelensky –photo from Netflix

David Letterman’s interview with President Zelensky of Ukraine was a good reminder that while adults start wars- it is children who pay the highest price for them.

Other posts……….

A Lifeline Then and Now

Ukraine- Exploring the Past- Mourning the Present

Thinking About Kyiv

The Russian Daughter- A New Book by Sarah Klassen

McNally Robinson Booksellers photo

Sarah Klassen probably best known as an award-winning Manitoba poet, has written a new novel called The Russian Daughter. The story opens in 1904 when baby Sofia is adopted by a Mennonite couple Amalia and Isaak Albrecht who live in the village of Friedental in Ukraine.

They are unable to have a child themselves and so they travel to the city of Kharkov and bring home the tiny daughter of a young unmarried Russian woman who dies giving birth to little Sofia.

Sofia will grow up in Friedental always feeling ‘different’ not only because of her adopted status but also because she has a crooked back. Sofia’s struggle to fit in and feel loved and accepted will shape her life and the choices she makes in profound ways.

Amalia and Isaak are good parents who love the daughter everyone affectionately calls Fia, but they often struggle to understand her. They do the best they can for her and try to find ways to support her and make her happy.

But they always feel a certain distance between themselves and Sofia no matter how hard they try to talk to her and get her to open up to them. Their relationship with a young niece and nephew they also take into their home serves as a stark contrast.

Installation at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum showing the aftermath of an invasion in a Mennonite home during the Russian Revolution. From the exhibition The Russlander.

Mennonite readers with family roots in Ukraine whose ancestors lived through the Russian Revolution will identify with many of the incidents and experiences of the characters in The Russian Daughter. That was certainly the case for me. When the Albrecht’s home is broken into and Isaak is beaten I remembered the stories my grandparents and my husband’s grandparents told us of similar incidents.

My husband stands on the tracks at the train station in Ukraine where his parents and grandparents left for Canada

When the Albrecht family is at the train station leaving for Canada I was reminded of our visit to the station at Lichtenau in Ukraine where my husband’s parents boarded the train that would eventually take them to Canada.

My husband’s grandmother Gertrude Enns with her four sons. Their nanny is behind the fence.

Sarah makes the local Russians who work for the Albrecht family important characters who play a vital role in the family’s life, especially the housemaid Masha and the farmhand Koyla. I was reminded of a photo of my husband’s grandmother Gertrude with her four little boys on their estate in Kowalicha in Ukraine. Behind them stands the Russian nanny who was indispensable to Gertrude when her husband and brothers-in-law went off to Moscow to work on the medical trains during World War I and she was left to run their estate on her own.

Sarah Klassen the author of The Russian Daughter

I liked the strong female characters Sarah features in her novel. Sofia’s cousin Hannah goes away to high school to further her education. Hannah broadens her worldview through the literature she reads and the new people she meets. Another cousin Annegret gets a job in Moscow helping Mennonites escape Ukraine. Sofia the protagonist is a force to be reckoned with whose prickly independence and determined self-sufficiency often make her life more difficult than it needs to be.

Of course when you are reading a novel written by a poet like Sarah Klassen you are often forced to stop in your reading to appreciate the beauty of her prose. Here’s one sample.

Once again trees and shrubs are exploding into colour as they always do before fall gives way to winter. The splendour of gold and red stirs human hearts to gratitude and wonder, and Lehrer Wiebe is more than willing to let his heart be stirred. When a wind from the steppe comes sweeping across the schoolyard chasing fallen leaves or when swallows swoop low, he urges his students to look. To pay attention. “It’s important,” he tells them.

The Russian Daughter might make the perfect Christmas gift for someone you know

I am the librarian at my church and The Russian Daughter will be a welcome addition to our shelves. It is published by Canadian Mennonite University Press and is available at McNally Robinson Booksellers, and the Common Word Bookstore at CMU.

Other posts………

The Tree of Life- Poems by Sarah Klassen

The Wittenbergs by Sarah Klassen- This Could Have Been a Teen Novel

Flyway A Captivating Family Story That Will Have You Asking Hard Questions

A Life Line Then and Now

On Saturday the New York Times Magazine ran a story about how vital the railway system in Ukraine has been to the war effort. The article was titled The 15,000 Mile Lifeline and talked about the heroism of the country’s 230,000 rail employees who often at great risk to themselves have somehow under the most challenging of conditions kept rail travel open as their country is under siege.

They have provided free passage to hundreds of thousands of evacuees fleeing war torn areas and brought 140,000 tons of food, and 300,000 tons of other relief supplies into the country distributing them to communities in need. They have moved weapons and goods and soldiers and kept Ukraine’s mail system in business moving over 3 million parcels.

My husband viewing the Ukrainian countryside from the window of our train

When my husband and I visited Ukraine we saw the country via that railroad. As we traveled from Kyiv to Zaporozhye to Lviv and Odessa we always went by train. Every train we took was on time and the service was efficient and pleasant. It was a great way to see the country.

It was also via train that some 20,000 Mennonites left Ukraine in the 1920s to immigrate to North America fleeing war and famine.

My husband’s mother’s family just before leaving Ukraine from the Lichtenau train station.

My paternal grandparents, my husbands maternal and paternal grandparents, and his own parents who were small children at the time, all got out Ukraine via the train.

My husband stands beside the tracks at the Lichtenau Train Station in Ukraine where his grandparents began their long immigration journey to Canada

Our relatives all left the country from the Lichtenau Train Station and when we were in Ukraine we visited it.

We sit on a bench outside the train station in Ukraine that served as our grandparents‘ departure point from the country

In the 1920s the railway system in Ukraine provided a life line to thousands just as it is doing now a century later.

Other posts……….

Ten Things I Can Do About the War in Ukraine

A Sad Memory At Winnipeg’s City Hall

Thinking of Kyiv

A New Winnipegger From Ukraine

“Can you help me find a grocery store?” A young woman with a slight accent stopped me as I was doing an errand in my Winnipeg neighbourhood yesterday. She wondered if I knew where she could find a grocery store. I told her that sadly there was no major grocery outlet in the downtown Exchange District Area.

I asked her if she was visiting Winnipeg from another place and she said she was from Ukraine and had recently immigrated here. I told her my grandparents had immigrated to Manitoba from Ukraine too and that I had travelled back to Ukraine to see their homeland a decade ago.

The young woman told me she was an engineer looking for work in the city. A few days ago she had a promising interview and is hoping she will be offered a job.

She sang the praises of our government for the way they helped her get a visitor visa and a work visa. As soon as she landed at the airport in Winnipeg a volunteer met her and she was taken to an office where they facilitated her obtaining a social security number and a medical number.

She is being housed in a nice Winnipeg hotel at the government’s expense and can have her meals there for free till she gets on her feet. She is very, very grateful.

Night at the Opera Le Boheme in Odessa

We chatted about the beauty of her hometown of Odessa, including their beautiful opera house, which I have visited and she told me about the bombings of the Odessa port and her fear of being on the streets alone at night now that so many criminals have been released from prison to fight in the war.

I did a quick sketch of the woman when I got home

Before we parted we exchanged first names and shook hands. Later I was able to find her on social media and sent her a message telling her she should let me know if there was anything I could do to be of help to her.

She responded by saying I was just like so many of the people she has met in Winnipeg, friendly and kind. It is nice to know our city has that kind of reputation.

Other posts………..

Feeling Sad About Odessa

Another Friend For the Moment

Ukraine- Exploring the Past- Mourning the Present

Ten Things I Can Do About the War in Ukraine

A Sad Memory at Winnipeg’s City Hall

Do you see the statue of the mother and child behind me and to my left?

I have been catching buses in front of Winnipeg’s City Hall for over ten years now and last week I noticed the monument behind me in this photo for the first time. It has been in this spot since June of 1984. I can hardly believe I was so unobservant that I had never noted its presence before.

I love the way the trees in front of City Hall are reflected in the base and side of the memorial

The memorial was created by sculptor Roman Kowal. It was a gift to the city from the Winnipeg chapter of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee and was unveiled by Mayor William Norrie during his time in office. It commemorates the deaths of millions of Ukrainians in the genocidal famine of 1932 and 1933.

This famine is often referred to as the Holodomor famine a term that comes from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (more).

The memorial was erected to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famine

Joseph Stalin instituted policies that caused the famine in order to consolidate his hold over Ukraine which served as the breadbasket of the nation but whose population was rebelling against Stalin’s collectivization measures and voicing notions of independence.

Note the mother’s one hand bracing herself to stand and the other placed protectively on her daughter’s back. Her head is bowed in despair. The women’s faces are gaunt and they have bare feet.

Since more than 100,000 people of Ukrainian descent make their home in Winnipeg it is not at all surprising that this catastrophic event in Ukraine’s history is recognized in a memorial in front of City Hall.

Noticing the memorial was a good reminder to me that although it has been over a decade since I moved to Winnipeg from Hong Kong there are still many interesting things to discover about this city.

Other posts…………

Famine

Thinking of Kyiv

Remembering the Holocaust in Winnipeg

Ten Things I Can Do About The War in Ukraine

1. Stay informed. Keep up to date with what is going on by reading the newspaper and listening to trusted media outlets. In this way at the very least we bear witness to what is happening to the people of Ukraine.

I volunteer at a Mennonite Central Committee Thrift Store and some of the income it generates will go to Ukraine.

2. Donate to a charity. Dave and I have been donating through Mennonite Central Committee a charity we know and trust but there are many reputable agencies providing relief in all kinds of ways to Ukraine.

Canada’s Deputy prime minister who is of Ukrainian descent addressing the country

3. Support the Canadian government. Although there are times to pursue political differences and doing so is very healthy, this is a time when we as a country need to stand behind our leaders as they work with other nations to stop the war in Ukraine.

Dave and I taking our granddaughter for a walk last week

4. Carry on with daily routines. Despite what is going on in the world and the possible threat of a nuclear war it is important for us as individuals, as families and as communities to carry on with life, especially so our children can have a sense of normalcy, well being and safety.

5. Pray. When I pray about the situation in our world I use a prayer I learned from political activist Stacey Abrams…….. “that good people, with good hearts and good intentions will rise up in positions of power to move humanity forward in a positive direction”

In Ukraine with the woman who now owns the house in the village of Rudnerweide where my mother-in-law was born

6. Make personal connections with Ukraine. There are two members of my church who have family in Ukraine and our congregation is being kept up to date on their situations. I have also been remembering my own travels in Ukraine and revisiting the history of my family which is closely connected to Ukraine.

7. Work at creating peace within your circle of influence. Peace begins within each of our hearts, extends to our families, then to our neighbourhoods and communities, then to our country and finally to the world. Creating peace within our circle of influence can make a difference.

8. Start thinking and planning for how you might support refugees who will come to Canada from Ukraine. Many people are already doing that.

9. Show interest and care by writing about Ukraine on your Facebook, Instagram or Twitter page, or in other places where you have an online presence.

10. Wear a ribbon. My father is a resident in a Ukrainian Catholic nursing home and they are handing out ribbons when you visit. I have mine on my purse so I don’t have to move it from outfit to outfit.

Other posts………

Checking Out- The Ultimate Privilege

In Praise of Sensible and Human Things

Ukraine- Exploring the Past- Mourning the Present

Ukraine Exploring the Past- Mourning the Present

My husband’s grandfather (third from right) with family and friends on the lake in front of his family estate in Ukraine in the early 1900s

A decade ago, we made the trip of a lifetime to Ukraine.  My husband’s parents were both born there as were my paternal grandparents. Dave and I grew up hearing stories about life in Ukraine. Family narratives about the years just prior to immigrating to Canada in the late 1920s were filled with terror, death, famine and loss of property and possessions.

But there were also stories of a previous golden age; tales of flourishing estates, large close-knit families, industrial success, community celebrations, educational opportunities, and religious freedom, including respect for our family members’ conscientious objector stance as Mennonites. 

Having a picnic on my great grandparent’s farm in the former Mennonite village of Gnadenthal in Ukraine

We spent much of our time in Ukraine around the city of Zaporizhzhia. Our excellent guide Victor Penner helped us find the buildings, still miraculously standing, where each of my husband’s parents had been born. We visited my grandparents’ village, discovered the school they attended, saw the church where they were baptized and had a picnic on the land that once belonged to my great grandparents.

My husband Dave in a wheatfield growing on his grandparents’ former property

I photographed my husband in a wheat field on his grandparents’ former property and by the artificial lake that stood just in front of his great grandparents’ large estate. I also photographed little boys swimming in the village pond where my grandfather swam when he bathed his family’s horses on Saturdays. We found the tombstones of numerous ancestors.  As a pilgrimage to discover our family roots the trip was everything we could have dreamed of and more. 

We travelled from place to place in Ukraine via train.

We travelled through the rest of Ukraine via railroad, viewing the country’s magnificent scenery through the window of our private rail car while sipping tea from a samovar kept filled by a tiny woman in a crisp navy-blue uniform who popped in regularly to serve us. We visited Yalta, Odesa, Lviv, and Kyiv spending several days in each city exploring its architecture, art, culture, history, and food.   

I was sad last week when I looked at maps online and saw that most of the cities we had visited were being bombed or attacked. I thought of all the wonderful people we met during our weeks in Ukraine.

The articulate young men and women, many of them university students, who guided us on tours through city streets and wineries and art galleries and historic sites.  The restaurant staff members who served our meals, including three laughing waitresses who had a lively discussion with Dave about where to find the best cabbage rolls in Ukraine.  

Listening to folk singers at a concert in Lviv Ukraine

The ballet dancers and musicians and singers, who entertained us in opera houses and concert halls and on seaside promenades. The women we watched doing the delicate work of pysanka egg-decoration or the street artists painting portraits. The sunbathers who shared the beach with us or the television reporters who interviewed Dave about our visit to Kyiv for a segment on the evening news.  

My husband Dave stand with the sculpture called The Disappeared by Paul Epp

Two sites we visited in Ukraine haunt me.  One was an artwork in Zaporizhzhia called The Disappeared. It looked like a family portrait set on a mantelpiece only the bodies of the family members were missing- they were empty cutouts.  They represented the countless Ukrainian citizens, in particular Mennonites, who disappeared due to famine, war, execution, overwork in prison labour camps or being sent into exile in Siberia. It is heart-breaking to think that the current conflict in Ukraine will add to the number of the disappeared.

My husband stands beside the tracks at the Lichtenau Train Station in Ukraine where his grandparents began their long immigration journey to Canada

We also visited The Station of Tears, a train depot where thousands of Mennonites departed Ukraine for a new life in North America, weeping because they were leaving family, friends, and homes behind. We know that the current conflict in Ukraine will also result in many people being displaced, fleeing their homes to find safety.  Hopefully, other countries will welcome them with open arms just as our family members were welcomed to Canada a century ago.

Other posts………

The Enns Family Story

Thinking About the People In Ukraine

The Station of Tears

The Disappeared

Thinking of Kyiv

Waking to the news that Russian troops had entered Kyiv made me think of the time we spent in that beautiful city. How will the fighting impact all these places and people?

St. Michael’s Cathedral and Monastery. The original, constructed in 1108, was destroyed by the Soviet regime in the 1930s for having no historical value. The reconstructed cathedral was completed in May 2000. 

Dave was interviewed on national television about our impressions of Kyiv. Where are those television reporters today? Can they still do their job? Are they safe?

A man feeding pigeons in a city square

Kyiv is full of unique and interesting public art

The Uspenski Cathedral built in 1073

Dave points to Ottawa on an art piece in Independence Square that shows the distance from Kyiv to other major places in the world. Especially today it is important to remember that in the global community we are all neighbours

A street musician who entertained us

Monument to the victims of the 1932 famine in Ukraine

The beautiful and intelligent university student who served as our guide on a walking tour through the city.

Museum in Kyiv that honours the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Russian troops captured Chernobyl yesterday.

We light candles and pray for our family in St. Michaels Cathedral

Today I will light a candle and pray for the people of Kyiv.

Other posts………

Thinking about The People in Ukraine

Dad’s Samovar

The Disappeared

Thinking About The People In Ukraine

I am thinking about all the people we met when we spent several weeks in Ukraine. I hope they will be okay.

This farmer in a field just outside the former Mennonite village of Tiege where my father-in-law was born.

The three waitresses in Yalta who laughed at my husband Dave when he asked them for help in his search for the best holopchi in the city.

The woman protesting in Independence Square in Kyiv

The friendly woman who now owns the home where my mother-in-law was born in the former Mennonite village of Rudnerweide.

My husband Dave with the vivacious university student who acted as our guide on a tour of Kiev

The military men on leave we saw in many different locations in Odessa

The folks we shared the beach with in Yalta.

The congenial couple who helped us find the location of the large estate in Kowalicha once owned by my husband Dave’s great grandparents and their children.

The woman selling poultry in Odessa.

The women’s string quartet we listened to on the Promenade in Yalta

The man who was living in what had been the schoolhouse my grandmother attended in the Mennonite village of Gnadenthal.

The bird lover who turned up every day to feed the pigeons in Independence Square in Kiev.

The women who lived in what had once been the high school in the Mennonite village of Schoenfeld where my husband Dave’s uncle was a teacher.

The ballet dancers who entertained us in Lviv.

These women near the former Schoenfeld Mennonite settlement who let us watch them milk their cows.

A knowledgeable young man who gave us a tour of the Massandra winery in Yalta.

We had an unforgettable time in Ukraine. We met so many wonderful people who helped to make our time there rewarding and enjoyable. What is happening to them now?

Other posts………

Thinking of Kyiv

A Station of Tears

Feeling Sad About Odessa

Introducing Visitors from Hong Kong and India to Mennonites

My Father-In-Law Was Born in A School For the Deaf

My husband Dave stands on the porch of his father Cornelius Driedger’s birthplace in Tiege Ukraine.

The sign by the front door says the building was a cultural centre for the people of Tiege, but when Dave’s grandparents Abram and Margaretha Driedger lived there at the time of his father Cornelius’ birth in 1921, it was an abandoned School for the Deaf and Mute which had been operated by the Mennonites.

Dave’s Oma and Opa Abram and Margaretha Driedger had been living on a farm in Schoenfeld but were forced to abandon it in 1920 because of the danger from roving bands of criminal outlaws led by a man named Nestor Makhno. 

Abram had already escaped the bandits’ bullets twice and so when a farmer in Tiege offered him a job he and Margaretha decided to move there.   Along with a number of other families they lived in the Mennonite School for the Deaf. With its kitchen and dormitories it was a suitable place for homeless Mennonites to find refugee and shelter. 

It was while Abram and Margaretha were living at the School for the Deaf that Dave’s Dad Cornelius was born in February of 1921. Sadly it is also where Oma and Opa’s first little daughter Kaethe died of pneumonia.

Marien School for the Deaf, Tiege, Molotschna. Source: Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, North Newton, KS

The Mennonite community had a well-developed infrastructure in Ukraine to care for vulnerable people in their colonies. There were orphanages, institutions for the mentally and physically handicapped, elderly homes and hospitals. The Russian Revolution forced the closure of most of these facilities because the ruble was devalued by the new Soviet government. The money that had been deposited in the bank to maintain Mennonite institutions like the School for the Deaf became worthless.

The school where Dave’s Dad was born was actually called the Mareintaubstummenschule. It was named after the Tsar of Russia’s mother Maria, a former Danish princess. ‘Taub’- means ‘deaf’ in German ‘Stummen’ means ‘mute’ and ‘Schule’ is ‘school.’

In an article in the Mennonite Historian published in September of 1982, Jacob Driedger writes about visiting the village of Tiege in 1917. He says,
“There was a stately two-storey building, a school for the deaf and dumb. It was a large complex with a number of auxiliary buildings. The students here not only learned to talk but were also taught a trade. The school drew its students from a wide range of communities. “

In an article in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia I learned that the Marientaubstummenschule, was granted a patent on December 21, 1881 by Alexander II during the 25th year of his reign. 

The school did not actually get started until 1885, and did not have its own building until 1890. Before that classes were conducted in a house in Blumenort owned by Gerhard Klassen, a great friend and supporter of the school.

Students at the Mennonite School for the Deaf in Tiege – Photo Source Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung

A Protestant Armenian, A. G. Ambartsumov, trained in Switzerland, was largely responsible for the idea of the school and was the first teacher 1885-1891. The school was established by the Halbstadt district civil government and later joined by the Gnadenfeld district.  The institution received moral support from the churches and the board of directors included a pastor or church elder. 

Children in the playroom at the Mennonite School for the Deaf- Photo Source Mennonitische Geschichte und Ahnenforschung

The school in its full development had a nine-year course equal to the regular elementary school curriculum with five teachers and 40 pupils. It was supported by freewill offerings coming from all Mennonite groups in Russia, and had a small endowment fund.  The school was a great success. P. M. Friesen said of it, “This first charitable institution of the Mennonites of Russia is a precious jewel and deserves all love and zealous support.”

In a blog post Rudy Baerg who worked for a number of years at The Mennonite Centre in Ukraine says, “In its time the School for the Deaf and Mute in Tiege was a state-of-the-art institution and had the reputation of being the best school for the deaf in all of Russia. Teachers were trained in places as far away as St. Petersburg and Frankfurt.”

Much of the evidence that Mennonites once made their home in Ukraine is disappearing. There are still some buildings left however, and one is the former School for the Deaf in Tiege which just happened to be my father-in-law’s birthplace. I am so glad we were able to visit it and see it for ourselves.

He Would Have Been 100