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Remember Us: Letters from Stalin's Gulag
"Remember us as we remember you" – the plea from a father for his family in a prison camp in Stalin's Gulag empire. Jasch Regehr's letter is a criminal offence. Documents of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's secret police agency, confirm that "correspondence abroad" is punishable by arrest and imprisonment without trial.
Yet this father's letter was delivered to a tiny prairie town in Canada. From 1930-37, other letters written by Russian Mennonites – a nine-year old girl, her mother, brother and sister, extended family and friends – arrived in Carlyle, Saskatchewan. Most of the 463 letters traveled by covert means and circuitous networks. Aggressive prison guards, hostile censors and informers were obstacles to secure delivery. Once safely in Canada, the letters were stored in a Campbell's Soup box. They moved from attic to attic for nearly 60 years, and were finally discovered in 1989 by Peter Bargen, son of the recipients.
For the author, Ruth Derksen Siemens (a first-generation Canadian of Russian-Mennonite descent) these letter writers are not faceless, nameless people from the past. They are her blood, her kin. From the position of an "insider," the author guides us through the accounts that depict not only death and horror – but also the hope that sustains the prisoners in their darkest hours.
The letters gathered in this publication (Volume One) have been written by one family: Jasch and Maria Regehr and some of their children.
Yet this father's letter was delivered to a tiny prairie town in Canada. From 1930-37, other letters written by Russian Mennonites – a nine-year old girl, her mother, brother and sister, extended family and friends – arrived in Carlyle, Saskatchewan. Most of the 463 letters traveled by covert means and circuitous networks. Aggressive prison guards, hostile censors and informers were obstacles to secure delivery. Once safely in Canada, the letters were stored in a Campbell's Soup box. They moved from attic to attic for nearly 60 years, and were finally discovered in 1989 by Peter Bargen, son of the recipients.
For the author, Ruth Derksen Siemens (a first-generation Canadian of Russian-Mennonite descent) these letter writers are not faceless, nameless people from the past. They are her blood, her kin. From the position of an "insider," the author guides us through the accounts that depict not only death and horror – but also the hope that sustains the prisoners in their darkest hours.
The letters gathered in this publication (Volume One) have been written by one family: Jasch and Maria Regehr and some of their children.
407 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 11, 2019
Difficult reading as the translation feels choppy, and repetitive writing but the message of the letters makes the reading even harder. How could humankind do such horrible things to another human? My grandparents were one of the lucky ones to get out and make it to Canada. However some of their family did not and were never heard from again. The probability of more people being executed and murdered than even the Jews is horrific! The book is aptly named- Remember Us!
May 24, 2013
Our family has some old letters from the USSR as well. Sadly many of them died in 1933 from starvation.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews