Showing 104 results

Archival description
91 results with digital objects Show results with digital objects
Interview with ...
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c242 · Item · 1976
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains an interview with a group of interviewees. It is poor sound quality. They discuss Government support to cultural ethnic organizations (?), University of Alberta relation with the community, Multicultural Centre vs Conventional Centre debate(?). The group is discussing the budget and approaching the Government about funds regarding heritage projects(?).

[Ukrainian voice starts from 11:26, sounds of a Jackhammer in the background ]
Various professions the man had to come through
Came to work on a farm. Since 1942 was looking for a job in cities

Sokolovski, J.
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c277 · Item · October 3, 1976
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item is a recording of an interview conducted in English on October 3, 1976 with Algis Dudanavicius and Mrs. Birzagalis. Mr.Dudanavicius is a 51 year old telephone technician who arrived in Canada from Lithuania on July 25, 1949. He discusses his career and the Lithuanian community in Edmonton.

Dudanavicius, Algis
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
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c226 · Item · May, 1976
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item contains one interview with John Liss of Sangudo.
Introduction by the interviewer: John Liss is in a hospital in Edmonton after surgery, he is an activist not only in Polonia matters. He talks at the beginning about Norman Louis, the interviewer should write to him. Mr. Louis is an expert on a kind of wheat which came to Canada from Poland. He (Liss) wrote an article on that. The wheat came probably from Gdańsk to Scotland and later to Ontario, probably not from Ukraine, he had to clarify that. Mr. Liss continues to talk about Karol Horecki, but the interviewer intervenes as she has written a book on him.
The interviewer asks Mr. Liss when he came to Alberta for the first time. He came from Milwaukee to Winnipeg to work and to get acquainted with horticulture. He wanted to get a "preemption to British Colombia". In 1911, he worked as a printer for the "American Echo", then as a journalist for the "Kurier Polsko". He mentions Michał Gruszka who fought a battle for equal rights for the Catholic Church as German and Irish bishops discriminated the Polish clergy. M. Gruszka was the brother Wacław Gruszka, the author of book on Poles in America. M. Gruszka was sent to the poorest Polish colony (in Wisconsin), as German and Irish bishops boycotted the Polish clergy. They asked what newspaper they were reading. If they read the "American Echo" they couldn't get a job. He talks about the Bankhead parish and a priest called Seal. Polish miners from Bielsko-Biała who were reading the Kurier were told by Seal the the paper was "godless". The miners were nice people. Liss wrote an article on the priest Seal, he was told afterwards that he will end in hell.
When he went to Alberta prior to WW I - did he meet Poles in handicraft, trade, or not at all? Liss says that he met Franciszek Hraby, a mechanic of machines used in banks, an important position. He was of Polish descent but a part of his family were Czechs in
Winnipeg. He identified as a Pole, was a Polish patriot. A second person, he met him only once, had studied at Polytechnic University of Gdańsk, he had a German name, but spoke pure Polish, he was an honest Pole. He forgot name (later he recalled the name: Hartwig). His man sold agricultural machines to Poles and Ukrainians, he met him in Edmonton in 1914 after the outbreak WW I.
One of the Poles in West Lake had a business, he forgot his name, his daughter is still living there. I was a long, old-Polish name.
The interviewer asks about the second wave of migration in the 1920s: Did he meet Poles who weren't peasants or laborers? He mentions Andy (Adolf) Solikowski of Edmonton, he was a "contractor"and the owner of apartment houses, he had a building business. Mr. Majewski (May) was active in the mining business, he is an intelligent man and attending Polish activities. The interviewer suggests that there was a huge difference between the first and second wave migrants. Mr. Liss corroborates that. The first wave migrants came from Galicia, were illiterates. In the second wave, there were no people in sheep skins, there was a difference in clothing, and the majority of them settled in cities. The first wave migrants wanted re-migrate and buy additional land in the old country. Mr. Liss recalled how he went from Athabasca 700 Miles by foot with a backpack. He supported himself by hunting and cooked the game in a pan. He bought bread in stores, it was in 1912. He didn't meet any other Poles on the way, but he met at the East River a man called Peters (a Latvian). That man was in Russian service as a sailor, he was good athlete and swimmer, he helped him, pulled him out of the East River when they crossed the river, saved his life. Peters was a Bolshevik, Liss was a social democrat. Peters was the most ardent Bolshevik - Liss thinks that the man is identical with Jakov Peters, a Latvian revolutionary (he saw his photograph in a newspaper). They walked together for one week.
When was the farm founded? In 1915 but he arrived in 1912. His father joined him from Calgary. He built a stable for horses. Later, he went to a soldier's camp at Niagara Lake. What was his most important success among his activities? To support his family. He planted trees at this farm, explains his attachment to the soil with his family history, he had found some documents in the archives of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Mr. Liss continues to talk about cooperative stores and the building of grain elevators. The farmers were at the mercy of large enterprises, they acted in self-defense. They were also at the mercy of large dairies. In the 1920s and at the beginning of the 1930s he founded cooperatives in the whole county, he organized the delivery of flour and apples. He was the only Pole, there were not many Poles in the area, and those who lived there were not interested. They came later, after WW I. There were also some Galician Poles, 7-8 Polish, some sent their children to higher education. They laugh at the American Polonia sitting in their ghetto. Mr. Liss thinks about the Polish Jokes: Many Poles are limited, they don't have ambitions. Asked about the relationship between farmers of different national backgrounds, Mr. Liss states that many have the tendency to 'clannishness'. In mixed areas, with Hungarians, Latvians, Americans, Germans, people have to cooperate and help each other. Asked about the relationship between Poles and Ukrainians prior to WW I, Mr. Liss says that they were very amical. He learned very quickly the Ruthenian language, almost like a
Ukrainian. The visited each other's church at holidays. The interviewer asks why the relationship became so hostile afterwards, in the 1920s and 1930s? The Ukrainians did everything to give their children an education, the Poles did this only later. But there was a
feeling of superiority - I'm Polish and he's Ukrainian. The Ukrainians from Galicia brought hostility towards Poles, there was much propaganda. Any reactions of the Poles? There were no organizations, they ignored it. In a slaughter house in Edmonton where many Poles worked there, the Ukrainians were hostile. It was the same in mines. With Slovakians it was easier but with Ukrainians unbearable. What was the role of Greek Catholic and Orthodox priests? Mr. Liss had no contacts. During WW I, in 1914/15, there were Tsarist agents who disseminated Russophile propaganda among Orthodox Bukovinians. Mr. Liss spoke Russian as he went to a Russian school for 2 years. Who did Sangudo look like? At the beginning a railroad was built in 1912. The hamlet didn't exist, but a few houses - a store and a post office. The inhabitants: Americans of different descend (Swedish, Scottish, English, German). In 1914 there was no train station. The foreman was a Kashubian called Dietz. He collected money for a Polish church with him. In 1912, Dietz' nephew called Piesik (from North Dakota) founded an insurance firm, his Polish was weak. Poles were meeting there, the Parochial committee had its seat there.

Liss of Sangudo, John
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
CA BMUFA UF1994.023.c274 · Item · February 9
Part of Central and East European Studies Society of Alberta collection

This item is a recording of an interview conducted with Maria von Rosenbach, the daughter of Colonel Orest Durnovol, a writer and philosopher. He wrote a book in Russia, but his interpretation of religion was different than the State's and was therefore forbidden. This book was published in 1913 in Germany. The family left Russia in 1918 and Maria discusses this journey in the interview. She talks about her life and meeting her husband. Her family's occupations during the Depression are also discussed.

Rosenbach, Maria von