When the 9 members of the Dietrich Rempel family of Alexanderwohl, Molotchna in the Ukraine left in April 1922, they had strong hopes of setting up a new life in America. They were prosperous Mennonites, kulaks, and the many threats made against Dietrich by Bolshevik officials warned him that his death or deportation was imminent. Requisitioning of food supplies had reduced the family to near starvation and aid sent from America via the Mennonite Central Committee was inadequate to the need. Also, they rightly feared, it was temporary. After mulling their emigration choices, the Rempels decided to go to Batum, a city located at the far eastern end of the Black Sea, and there await the visas and other authorization that would permit them to emigrate to America. Relatives and co-religionists stood ready to arrange their travel and send them aid. They were among 300 persons who gathered their few possessions and what food they could and made this trek.
Beginning March 31 until November 30, 1928, Henry Remple (he changed the spelling of his name later in life) kept a diary. His entries, which he didn't write every day, were mostly simple statements about what was going on in his life and sometimes how he felt about events. When he stopped writing, he put the diary away and rarely thought about it. In recent years, at the behest of family and others, he translated it and typed it into his computer. He formed it into a manuscript, adding comments and anecdotes of his own and inviting his sisters Agnes and Agatha to write their recollections also. The result is this excellent personal record of deep faith and an improbable escape from the revolution that swept Russia.
This is a heartwrenching story. Batum was a most unhealthful place to live, and it seemed someone in the family was either injured or very ill of diseases such as malaria and typhus most of the time. There were doctors and hospitals, but care was marginal. One by one, beginning with the baby, the family members died. By the time they left for America, only three remained. Of the 300 who left Molotchna, 200 got on the ships 18 months later. Remple continues by telling of his and his sisters' lives among the unrelated Nebraska Mennonites who gave them homes and work, then about their lives to the present day. This part of the account bristles with advanced degrees and achievements. One wonders how it was that Russia failed to retain and cultivate the talents of such conscientious and productive people. The book contains lots of black and white pictures.
Review © 2003 by Edna Boardman
| GRHS Home Page |