Thursday, August 27, 2009

Through the Red Gate

Though I once met Victor Herman (back in 1980) and have indeed read some Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, my actual, personal knowledge of such horrors remains extremely limited.

I imagine and hope that I am with the majority on this.

The fact remains though, both existentially, starkly and realistically, that we live in a world yet filled with great horrors.

This evening I came across an essay by Ruth Derksen Siemens, a first-generation Russian Mennonite who grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia.

After reading of Jasch's Letter From Hell - Russian Gulag History . . .

Excerpt:

Jasch's Letter (approximately 1931/32)

[illegible] ....when she will experience it. And so we are robbed of all our children. One often gets close to despair. But God always leads out of the depths onto the heights. Many thousands have starved. Yesterday we received the 9 dollars from you. Oh, I just cannot restrain myself out of sheer thankfulness. Yes, dear siblings, if you were not here we would no longer be here either. "Remember us at all times" is our cry to God as well as to people. When will things change? Hearty thanks to all those who have given. May God reward them. How are things with your Peter. Fritz, be rescued while there is time. Greetings to all the children. Oh what advantages your children have over ours! God be with you. Your humble, Jacob.

. . . I was directed across a dark, vast and foreboding abyss.

Suddenly, I found myself facing a wall that seemed to have no end.

I decided there and then to go --




In this live interview documentary, Peter Bargen recounts how as a seven-year-old he and his family narrowly escaped the Russian Gulag and almost certain death. The rest of his relatives were not so fortunate. In the former USSR during Joseph Stalin’s reign (1929–53), between 45 and 60-million people, among them thousands of Mennonites, perished through enforced exile, execution, famine and disease.

Now, in a story that crosses continents and binds together generations, the discovery of a cache of rare and long-forgotten letters reveals the terrifying details of the Bargen family’s fate.
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2 comments:

  1. onewomanstreasuresSeptember 2, 2009 at 9:40 PM

    Hi Edwin

    Yes, the letters are filled with the day-to-day horrors of the Gulag. But they are also filled with the strength and beauty of the human spirit. Little Tina (12 years old) looks out of her barrack window and writes: "The frost has melted off the window and it is beautiful outside." The letters give me hope that the human spirit can endure and even find beauty in the darkest of circumstances.

    Thanks for understanding the significance of these letters -- written in the moment before time can erode the memory.

    Ruth Derksen Siemens

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  2. edwinSeptember 4, 2009 at 11:55 PM

    Such work is important. I personally might even call it holy, but that's likely misunderstood in these times.
    Anne Frank, Victor Frankl and Little Tina do truly remind us that somehow, eventually, at least, beauty and meaning are within our grasp.
    Something higher, something more there simply must be.

    Keep up the Great work, Ruth.

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