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CA BMUFA 0232 · Collection · 5 December 2013

On December 5, 2013, Oleksandr Pankieiev interviewed Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky at the Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta. The interview covered Dr. Medwidsky's childhood in Europe, his reunion with the family at the age of 12, his "becoming" a Ukrainian, their immigration to Canada, and life and activities in various religious and community organizations, as well as the establishment of the Ukrainian Folklore program at the University of Alberta. Later, the article based on this interview was published on historians.in.ua http://www.historians.in.ua/index.php/intervyu/986-bohdan-medvidskyi-meni-i-dali-tsikavo-shcho-take-buty-ukraintsem and on Prostir http://prostir.pl/journalism/богдан-медвідський-мені-й-далі-цікав/

Medwidsky, Bohdan
CA BMUFA 0089 · Collection · 2007-03-23

The collection consists of an interview conducted by Jeanne Ferguson with Dr. Bohdan Medwidsky. The Interview was recorded at the Ukrainian Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta.

Medwidsky, Bohdan
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c218 · Item · June 5, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains two recordings of interviews conducted in the summer of 1982 in Edmonton, AB. The first interview was conducted in English with Eugene Weber. Mr. Weber was born in Scott, SK in 1932 and the interview discusses the history of his family before and after his birth, and the importance of German community.

The second interview was conducted with Mr. and Mrs. Sommer in Polish, German and English. In the interview, they discuss Mr. Sommer's history of being born in Rivne (Volyn), where his mother also born. His grandfather worked as a basket maker, his father was a farmer in Volyn (Poland). The name of the village was [Maschk]. The father of Mrs. Sommer died after the WW1 and she grew up in another family. In the year 1914, when the WW1 started, Russians took all Germans from Volyn to Siberia. In the year 1916, at the age of 19 he was taken from Siberia to the Russian army. He had to fight at the Russo-Turkish war. In the year 1918, he came from the war to Kostanay after serving in the Russian army. In 1921 he came back to Volyn. His wife and him grew up in the same village and got married in 1923, first lived at her uncle´s place. His older brother lived in Canada and helped his brothers move there too. They came to Canada in June 1929. They came from Maschk to Rivne by train, came to Halifax from Danzig by ship. After they took the train to Edmonton and New Sarepta. After the arrival they stayed at the immigration camp. At the time of immigration they already had three children (born in 1924, 1926 and in 1928). Later they had one more baby (daughter) in Canada.

Weber, Eugene
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c216 · Item · January 19, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item is an audio recording of an interview conducted with Waldemar Hildebrandt on January 19, 1982. The interview covers the history of Hildebrandt's family living in Radomyshl and Kyiv area and his membership in the Komsomol Youth organization before the war (side a). The interview also covers his involvement in WWII, first as a member of the Soviet Army and then the German Army and then as a Prisoner of War, before becoming a cook for the American Army (side b).

Hildebrandt, Waldemar
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c241 · Item · June 15, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains an interview conducted with Mr. and Mrs. Sommer. Mrs. and Mr. Sommer are talking about the farm life and their lack of money until the end of the 1930s. They bought their farm taking out a loan with the help of his brother and it paid back step by step. It was a difficult time for them. Their children learned English quickly at school, but Mrs. Sommer mentions that she did
not have any lessons, and could only learn English by herself which took some time. Children went to a German school. Later the children and grandchildren were able to speak English better than German. Mr. and Mrs. Sommer say that they did not had any problems during their journey to Canada because of being Germans.
Mr. and Mrs. Sommer talk about going to church (Lutheran Church, later Protestant). Sermon was preached by a teacher because the German pastor came only once in six weeks.
They came to Edmonton in 1957. Mrs Sommer compares life in Russia with their life in Canada and says that they needed about five years to feel at home in Canada. Later they learned to enjoy their freedom and didn’t want to get back again. They became
Canadian after a few years living in Canada.
Mrs. Sommer talks about speaking German and learning English language. German remained her main language. Mrs. Sommer says that she still cooks the way she learned it in Russia (sauerkraut and borscht).
Mr. Sommer has one sister living in Germany and they have many grandchildren living in Canada.

Sommer, Mr.
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c269 · Item · February 13, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item is a recording of an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Fenske, recorded February 13, 1982. Mrs. Fenske discusses how a whole community came to Canada by boat because of the Depression and were pressed to join the Orthodox Russian Church, but did not want to. The church was the centre of all activities with service three times per day. They used the German language at home, and their parents went to German school back in Russia. Mr. Fenske's father came to Canada alone in 1893, Mr. Fenske was born in 1902.

Fenske, Mr.
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c221 · Item · August 25, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains an interview with Mr. Eichele and Mr. Louis Oel, conducted in Calgary, AB in German on August 25, 1982. Content of the interview contains discussion on their school years – walking about 3 km to the school. The important role of the priest and church – every morning had to go first to the church. On weekends, visited the church twice or even thrice, The Albert Cattle Association, paying big taxes while being unemployed, and taking over an agency in Calgary

Eichele, Mr.
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c222 · Item · August 25, 1982
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains two interviews, one conducted with Mr. and Mrs. German, and another with Mr. Eichele. M. German was born in 1909 in Odesa, although originally the family came from Germany and spoke German. His parents were farmers. They came on a steam boat from Liverpool to Halifax, they then came to Regina on a train from Halifax where he had an uncle, and moved to Alberta in the Spring of 1910, to Bow Island, an area with many Germans. His dad built a house, which was more like a shack, where they had some animals. His dad grew wheat. He took over his dad’s farm. During WWI, when they already lived in Canada, his family did not have problems because they were Germans, although they did experience tough times during the Depression. Mr. and Mrs. German got married in 1924, then bought the land. In 1940, they came to Calgary. Then sold it and bought the lot and built the place they were being interviewed. Retired in 1968. Have 2 children. Mrs. German's parents came from Russia, too ([Menheim] near Odesa). She was born in the USA, in Mackintosh, North Dakota in 1907. Her parents had a homestead over there. Then they moved into Alberta in about 1908. Her father got a homestead in Alberta. They moved together with a big German community. She had 6 siblings and was the youngest, 2 from the previous marriage of her dad. Her family was Catholic and spoke German.

German, John Lennard
Interview with Lydia Wagner
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c236 · Item · June 1981
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item is an interview with Lydia Wagner, conducted by Veronica Whitfield in Calgary, AB in May of 1981. Mrs. Wagner talks about becoming naturalized in Germany after Hitler’s troops had invaded. She got married in 1950 in Freiburg and in June 1952 they moved to Canada. Five years later they became Canadian citizen. Mrs. Wagner talks about school in Russia. Students had been supported well by the government.
She was born in Karlsruhe. Her uncle worked as a teacher then he got arrested and tortured to death. Her father and her (other) uncle had been persecuted when communism begun. Her uncle was the first family member who moved to Canada (Saskatchewan).
Her father was displaced in 1929. After the expropriation of the family and deportation of her father she, her mother and sisters flew to Siberia. Her mother worked and the children went to a German school. They lived in Slavgorod. Two years later the family moved to Landau. Mrs. Wagner talks about her great-grandfather who is supposed to be the first emigrant of the family.

Talks about her sisters and brothers in detail:
-her oldest sister: Felomena and her husband Karl Szaray (Munich) live in California;
-another sister: Rosa, died 17 years ago, was married to John Marin (Canadian) had two sons;
-another sister: Ida Anto died in a car accident, her husband was John Anto, she had one daughter;
-Mrs Wagner herself: her name is Lydia and she is married to John Wagner
-Regina Steve Marin (brother of John Marin) lived first Calgary then in Kelowna
-Elvira Carl, lives in Kelowna, has two daughters

Her Father was sentenced for 10 years prison but came back to Landau after 8 years and worked as a groom. After one year he was displaced again. When German troops invaded (1940) they lived in Nikolai (today Mikołów). In 1943, They moved to Czechoslovakia and then to Voralberg near Bregenz in Austria. They lived in Germany until 1950 where Mrs. Wagner met her later husband and got married.
In March 1952 her mother moved to Calgary and in June Mrs.Wagner came to Calgary.
At their beginning in Canada they borrowed money from her uncle because her husband could not find a job as a cook. They lived in the area outside of the city without water and electricity. After having built their own house, her husband became self-employed and started building houses for other people, for 20 years.
Talking about church.

Wagner, Lydia
Interview with anonymous
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c240 · Item · June 1981
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains an interview in German with an interviewee who wishes to remain anonymous.
Her father came from a rich family. In Russia rich people were prosecuted and displaced to the East Siberia to starve at the time of Bolshevism. The interviewee and her family moved to the next bigger city so her father was not displaced but he was unemployed for a long time. Interviewee went to a German school and was always afraid that her father might get arrested, because many people got arrested in this time. Thus they decided to move to Omsk / Siberia, where it was very cold. Her father could not find a job so they moved to Slavgorod a place where many Germans lived. She and her siblings were able to go to the German school again.
The family had a hard living and her father still was unemployed, then he got ill and died in the spring. After that her mother sold all personal belongings from her father (tools, violin) and the family got back to Ukraine. Her mother had to work and the interviewee lived with her aunt. When Hitler took power in Germany, Germans abroad were prosecuted and displaced again. One night her uncle got arrested and they never heard from him again. She lived in fear that her mother might get arrested too. After the WW2 they were living in West Germany until her uncle helped them to move to Canada. She is talking about deportations during the war. Her brother came to a concentration camp in Russia after the war and was arrested there for 10 years. When Stalin died he was set free. In the next ten years her brother has been taken for interrogation over and over again. He was living in a constant fear that he might get imprisoned again. The interviewee is saying that the church had no power in Communism. Later in Canada the interviewee was able to go to the Catholic church again.

She talks about arriving to Canada. Says that Canadians let her feel that Germany was the country who started the WW2. Talks about her husband (Canadian) who was injured in the war. She says her children are the real Canadians, she loves Canada as well and does not want to return.

Whitfield, Veronika