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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).

This item contains an interview with Zdzisław Jan Krywkowski, conducted in Stoney Plain, AB on April 19, 1977. The
How did he come to Canada during the war? He came completely legally, from Switzerland where he had been a student. He studied political sciences at the international labor office. Then he came to France, where the so-called 4. Polish division was formed. He never took part in any battle as there were not enough people. He embarked a ship close to Bordeaux in 1940 and arrived in Plymouth. He English were much friendlier than the French from whom the had received no information. As he spoke some English, he went around with a colonel called Koszałkowski Marian. Afterwards, they were brought to Glasgow, then they were living in tents. He spent the whole war in Britain, predominantly in Scotland. He joined the 1. Corps of the Polish Army (the 2. Corps was commanded by General Anders). Among his superiors were General Maćko, his direct superior was Karol Kraćkiewicz (or Kraśkiewicz). In 1944, the worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Jewish matters. They countered the propaganda (also in the English press) that all Poles are anti-Semites and that they are persecuting the Jews together with the Germans.
His parents remained in Poland, they spent the war there. He calls Włocławek his native city although he was born in Warsaw, but he spent only four years there. His mother was the headmaster of a large school in Włocławek, a former student of her (an ethnic German) warned her after the German invasion in Poland, and his parents relocated to Warsaw. His father spent a part of the war in Żarnów close to Opoczno, his native village. He recalls a family legend that his ancestors came from Ukraine during one of the Cossack uprisings.
Why did he come to Canada? In Scotland, he worked a teacher but his salary was meagre. He had three specialties: history, political science and economics. When he talks about his experiences as a school teacher, the interviewer asked him to switch to English as it will have to translate the interview. He continues in English: He wanted to work in a secondary school. He received an offer from Alberta. In Ontario, he would have had to study for a year at a university, and BC was slow to answer.

This item contains an interview with Mrs. Gauss, who was born in 1898, her maiden name was Zeider (Cyder?). Her mother originally
came from Württemberg. Her family was working on the land, were not rich. There were the only Germans in their village besides one shepherd. There was also a Lutheran church and a German school (education lasted 7 years). Children started going to school when they became seven years old. At the age of fifteen there usually was a confirmation and then they were working for their father until they got married and created own family. Her village was in the Melitopol district and there was a school in Eichenfeld. In general there were 32 family entities in the village each of them were farming and producing goods. Collectivization started in 1917-1918. The relationship with Russian people was good. There usually were many seasonal Russian workers in the German village. German children learned German and Russian languages in the school. Most of the Russian language they learned from Russian workers. Not many girls extended their school education as mothers needed them at home for help. There were eight children in her family, some families had ten, some six. Russians usually were very poor, had many children and not much land. Pomeschiki had more land. Mrs Gauss remembers how people once all together bought land from pomeschik and created a village. Germans were forced to go to the Russian army as well. Tsar Nicolai was loved by Germans. There was a school which educated doctors as well. She was 16 years old when the war started, Germans were forced to join the Russian army, many were captured in Germany and afterwards returned back to Russia. Her village didn´t have problems during the war, they had a cooperative and the living was good. She visited Krym once many years later. Memories on her village during the revolution. People came from Moscow, took what they wanted and went further to other villages.

This item contains an interviews with Mrs. Lydia Kupsch (nee. Rosnal), a German Russian who was born in Volynia in 1896 before immigrating to Canada in 1902. She talks of life in Russia and then life in Stoney Plain and Bruderheim. She also discusses her husband and her wedding. For part of the interview, there is an older interview being played while people are talking over it.

This item contains recordings of three interviews. The first interview is with Petrea Mihalchan. Petrea was a Romanian From Boiani, Bukovina, born in 1892. He left Boiani in 1909 and came to Vegreville, Alberta. Petrea talks about immigration and his life in Canada.
The second interview is with an unidentified couple. The interviewer speaks Ukrainian and some English. The interviewed man is a Belorussian who speaks some sort of "Ukrainianized" Belorusian with many Russian words. The woman is Ukrainian but has been born in Canada. She speaks Ukrainian with her husband and mostly English with the interviewer. The first part of the
interview is apparently missing. In the interview they discuss language dialects, churches, and the Russian Federation.
The third interview is with 91 year old, Raveta Toma, who left her home of Boiani, Bukovina/Austria in 1899, when she was 13years old. She talks about coming to Canada and her life in Boiani.

This item contains an interview with Pastor Dusterhoff. Pastor was born on December 11, 1897, in a colony [Niedernstine] in the Novohrad-Volynsk district. Both parents were born there too. His great-grandfather settled there around 1855-1860 coming from Poland, from Radom. They were from Posen in Eastern Prussia originally. Polish nobility rented/sold them the land. His great-grandfather had 40 desiatyn of good land. They had mixed farming. He has been a pastor for 52 years in Western Canada, 51 of them in Alberta. He discusses how he came to Canada and how he became a pastor, as well as the German Moravian congregation in the Leduc area.

This item is an interview with Rob Androschuk and an unknown female. Mr. Androschuk discusses being an officer in the Russian Army and what it was like living during this time period. The unidentified female also talks about living through WWI.