38. Peter and Anna in Ebenthal, Memrik

The Memrik settlement in the Ukraine continued to suffer during the struggle between the Soviet Red and White armies. Betty tells the story of a time when the Bolshevik soldiers came into their house and held the family at gun point. Betty was a little girl with no fear of soldiers because she had spent so much time with them on the long journey west. So, fearing no soldiers, she stood in the room stamping her feet wildly and screaming at the soldiers. Her mother Anna was helpless. Finally an officer said to her, "Stop stamping, I won't hurt them!" Peter was saved from being shot but many of their neighbors were not so fortunate. Soon drought and starvation were severe all over the Ukraine. At last in 1922 some help came from America through the Mennonite Central Committee.

Family Members Leave Russia
      Conditions improved somewhat during the next few years under the Soviets. Only some 30 families emigrated to Canada from Memrik in 1923-1927 when there was a mass exodus from other colonies. In 1923 Peter's brothers John and George left for Canada, and Anna's brother Aaron Wiens went to the US.
      John and Katarina Wiens and children and Abram and Justina Wiens and children went to Canada from Omsk in 1925. Those who left at that time were allowed to take money out of the country, so they were able to purchase land when they arrived in America.
      In 1923 Anna's older sister Agatha died in Ebenthal of "water on the heart". Her husband Nikolai Koop and 4 of their children had died of diphtheria in 1907, and two of her children died as infants.

Peter's brothers John and George (left standing and sitting) left for Canada in 1923.

Anna's brother Aaron Wiens went to the US in 1923.  This picture is of Aron, Elizabeth and their son John taken in 1944 in Ferndale WA.

Anna's brother John and Katarina Wiens in 1937 in Yarrow, BC.

Anna's brother Abram and Justina Wiens in 1937 in Yarrow, BC.