43. Peter is Blacklisted

            Now that Peter and Anna were free to leave Russia and join their relatives in Canada, they could not leave because the Russian government refused to issue passports and exit visas to any Mennonites who applied. 

            Betty remembers that Anna's sister Marie's widower husband Hein Rempel was a high school teacher who was forced to become a communist.  He secretly told Peter that Peter was blacklisted and should leave.  So now they had to go or Peter would be sent into exile as so many others had been, and his precious wife and children would be forced into laboring on a communal farm.  Peter knew his days were numbered.

This family picture was taken in front of their home in Ebentahl.

            This same man, Hein Rempel, who told Peter he was blacklisted was willing to buy the family farm.  Mr. Rempel had remarried and maybe thought that being a communist would protect him.  Unfortunately the days ahead would get much worse for everyone in the Ukraine.

A complete summary of the situation in the Ukraine at this time can be read at:
Articles from "Mennonite Quarterly Review" April 2009
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=218401267
"Separating the sheep from the goats: the role of Mennonites and non-Mennonites in the dekulakization of Khortitsa, Ukraine (1928-1930)"
and
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=218401268
" 'Liquidating' Mennonite Kulaks (1929-1930)"