Today I Met Edward

The stories I hear while I go about Europe are fascinating.

Today I met 36-year-old Edward whose family manages the retreat center we are staying at for a leadership course in Germany. I had heard that his family of Mennonite faith came from Russia. I was especially intrigued since I grew up around Mennonites in my home state, particularly in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country. 

I asked lots of questions, and Edward was happy to share his family heritage, though he admitted that in his younger days he and his siblings did not especially like their family history, but expressed that they have grown to appreciate it. He wishes he would have had more interest in the stories his grandmother told, who died in 2000, just short of 100 years.

His story began 400 years ago, when his ancestors were a part of the movement of Menno Simons, a Catholic priest who eventually turned Protestant following the Anabaptist beliefs, also the man by whom the Mennonite church derives its name.

Listening intently to his thick German accent, I thought he said something to do with a Catherine. "Who did you say?" I asked. 

"Catherine the Great" as he wrote it out on a piece of paper so that I could fully understand. "She was sire of Russia. Do you know sire?" wondering if this was indeed an English word.

"Yes, I know sire." 

Apparently, Empress Catherine had gained a great deal of land after winning a war with the Turks and invited persecuted people of all faiths to come and settle on this newly acquired land (present day Ukraine). Edward’s family, along with many other German Mennonite families, moved to Catherine’s domain where she promised tax-free living, freedom of religion, and particularly for the Mennonites, freedom from military involvement, all in exchange for working the land. 

"She knew the Germans were hard-working people. They built buildings like no other in Russia.”

Then the conversation jumped to 1941 when Edward’s grandparents were caught in the tug-of-war between Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. When the tide of the war turned, Russians of German-descent fled with the German army, as did Edward’s father’s family. 

“You see” Edward explained, “we were treated better by the Germans than the Russians.” 

Edward told me they have a photo of his father as a boy with the Nazi insignia on his shirt during the time the family lived in Berlin. Though they received German passports, the duration of their time in Germany was short-lived. When the war ended, many German-Russian families were forced to relocate in Siberia and Kazakhstan. The Soviets saw them as collaborators with the Germans. This was true of Edward’s father’s family who ended up in Siberia for 10 years, and later in Kazakhstan.

Through contacts, his father became a part of the underground church. It was in these circumstances that he met Edward’s mother. Because of their German roots and the fact that they were Christians, these years were very difficult. His grandfather was in prison for 10 years because he was a teacher and for his faith. Often, those who were German did not make it out of prison, but Edward’s grandfather did, and lived to return to Germany for the last year of his life.

Eventually, the whole family - Edward's grandparents and immediate family - moved to Moldova (also a part of the Soviet Union), where Edward was born, and also where they heard it was easier for German families to flee the Soviets. In 1976, after 3 years in Moldova, the family was able to flee and move back to Germany when Edward was just one year old. The German passport that his father obtained in Berlin years before, proved to be an asset in their return. 

I listened to Edward's story with the curiosity of a child. To meet people with such history pulls me in and fills me with wonder as to what it was like to live in the realities of persecution and war. I learned new things today about the Mennonite history and Catherine the Great's gracious offer, but most of all, a lasting legacy of faith.