Maria Schmidt & Daughters
In processing my grandparents’ correspondence, I came across a letter written in November 1950, sent from Gronau, Germany. It appeared to me that it was likely just another one of their former acquaintances in Orenburg, informing them that they would soon be departing for Canada, after having fled the Soviet Union at the end of WW II.
Last week, 140 persons were processed. 105 made it through, including us. You’ll be happy about that. We got through the commission smoothly. There was a lot of joy that so many got through. We don’t yet know exactly when we will be leaving here, possibly the ship will depart on the 14 of November, maybe later. We are slowly packing up.
It was signed – In liebe, eure Tina mit Mutter und Mariechen (With love, your Tina with mother and Mariechen).
My interest was suddenly piqued. A mother, who was likely of an advanced age, along with two daughters, about to depart for Canada, having spent the previous seven years in Germany, presumably after having evacuated with the retreating German army in 1943. The letter’s tone suggested these were more than just former neighbours from their home village of Pretoria. I had to learn more about this emigrant trio.
I did a scan of GRanDMA, quickly perusing any Katharina Schmidt I could find, who had both a mother and sister with the name, Maria, and an Ontario destination in 1950 as per their letter. It did not take long before I had my likely subjects identified. Corroborating evidence would be found in the 1950 Immigrant lists, the Canadian Board of Colonization cards, and EWZ files, which provided a full, but familiarly sad, background story of these three women.
As I continued to read through these sources and put the pieces together, I began to understand why this letter would have been among my grandparents’ correspondence. In fact, having immersed myself in the family history for some time by now, I should have recognized familiar names.
Maria Rempel was born in Schoendorf in 1873, the fourth child of Aaron & Katharina (Loewen) Rempel. When Maria was only 1 year old, her father died. Her mother remarried to Jacob Schellenberg, relocating to Heuboden, Borozenko Colony, where Maria spent her years of childhood and youth. At this point, her story begins to intertwine with mine in that my paternal grandfather, who was orphaned at age 9, came to live with his aunt and uncle, Jacob and Katharina (Loewen) Schellenberg1. Maria and Abraham Loewen were one year apart and would therefore have spent their later childhood and years of their youth together in the same household, and would likely have regarded each other as a sibling2. Abraham became their oldest “son”, who would assume important farm-related responsibilities.
In 1894 Maria married Peter Schmidt3 (Ebenfeld), whose first wife, Maria’s older sister, Katharina, had died. She bore him 12 children. Katharina was their third oldest4. It is her story we now follow.
Jacob & Katharina (Loewen) Schellenberg
I was a comfort to my parents, as both my older brothers died shortly after each other from the nasty Scarlet Fever. My parents were wealthy and so I enjoyed a sunny, carefree childhood and youth until I was 21 years old. Then came the tsarist storm in Russia and hard times for us. Robbers and murderers often visited us day and night. In the end we had to flee. It was in the month of June. Our salvation was the tall grain in which we hid for two weeks, after which we were able to visit our house and farm again for a short time. We found an empty house; we only had the clothes we were wearing, but we had all survived and would get over the material things.
In December 1919 in two German villages, both young and old were murdered, including my father’s brother and his three sisters’ families – a total of 18 were murdered. That was horrific. Father suffered particularly badly. Soon after this, typhus broke out. There were sick people in every house. We all fell ill almost at the same time. Although we didn’t receive any care, we all got better except for my father. He died on 22 March 1920. The next year there was a total crop failure. Many died of starvation. We had to suffer a lot, but we all survived.
Maria (Rempel) Schmidt
Maria continued to live in Heuboden until 1941, while her daughter Tina, trained for midwifery in Halbstadt and Odessa, and worked as a midwife-nurse in German and Ukrainian villages between 1937 and 1943. Their last place of residence was Eigengrund (1941-43). It appears that Tina’s sister, Maria, lived separately and worked in Zaporozhye from 1932 – 1942.
In 1937 there were still five Schmidt children alive, three sons and two daughters. The sons were arrested by authorities as political criminals, sentenced to 8-10 years, and sent to Siberia. On 23 October 1943, 6 o’clock in the morning, Maria and her two daughters started the long and difficult journey of escape to the West. Tina writes,
Again we had to leave everything behind and set off on an unknown journey. Our loved ones stayed behind with the Bolsheviks – three brothers. On 23.1.44 we arrived in Lissa safely.
Maria and her two daughters spent the next seven years in Germany, living with an uncertainty about the future. The girls found work and the family of three appear to have managed a reasonably worry-free life in Germany, but obviously, Canada was their ultimate destination where they hoped to be reunited with family. Approval for emigration came; Tina writes,
This work will now come to an end for me because I don’t know the language over there, don’t have hope either that I will learn it well. We will just work on what comes about. We still have strength and joy for work, despite being homeless for the past 7 years.
Even mother says that she wants to do this and that when we are in Canada, and have a very modest home, yes, you only understand what “home” means when you haven’t had it for seven years. We have met some very lovely people here, and it is hard to say goodbye to them and yet, we’re still missing a place that we can call home. Whether we will find this in Canada or whether we will feel like strangers we do not know. But then the wandering back and forth will stop.
Three weeks after this letter was posted, on 26 November 1950, Maria Schmidt and her two daughters set sail from Naples, Italy aboard the S.S. Neptunia and arrived in Halifax on 7 December 1950. They settled in St. Catherines, Ontario, where Maria’s brother, Wilhelm Schellenberg lived and served the church as minister.
Six years after arriving in Canada, they were able to purchase a small house. They rented the top floor to assist in meeting their financial obligations. Both daughters found work – Maria, in a stamp collection office and Tina, found household employment such as nanny and cleaning. In 1960, Maria died of bone cancer and her mother died the next year. She had not been well in her last years and was suffering severe shortness of breath in her last weeks5. Tina continued on alone, taking on a variety of jobs, including weekly assistance for a relative with a young family of six.
Eventually, Tina sold the house and rented a basement suite for many years, until moving into a senior’s home and eventually long term care. She died 23 August 1994, in St. Catherines, Ontario.
Sources:
Canadian Board of Colonization records
EWZ Files – H047-746; 2882 and H048-274
Fransen, Christine, email exchange, 7/09/2024
GRanDMA – #482937
1947-1950 Immigrant list
Notes:
1 The Schellenbergs fostered 21 children in total, including my grandfather.
2 The Schellenbergs fostered a grandson, Peter Schellenberg, who eventually emigrated to Canada and took up residence in Abbotsford, approximately 1 mile from my grandfather’s house. It was a daily ritual for my grandfather to walk to Peter’s home for a visit.
3 Peter Schmidt’s mother was Anna Eitzen, an aunt to my paternal grandmother, Maria (Eitzen) Loewen.
4 GRanDMA lists Katharina as the second oldest, however, she writes in her own story found in the EWZ files, that her two oldest brothers died of Scarlet Fever.
5 Die Mennonitische Rundschau, 14 June 1961, pg. 9