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This item is a recording about artist William Kurelek and author Myrna Kostash

This item is an interview with Fred Prybysh conducted in Ukrainian on February 19, 1976. In the interview Mr. Prybysh discusses immigration to Canada and the Russian Orthodox Church in Edmonton.

This item is a recording of an interview conducted with Lorna Wiklun on June 28, 1982. Her grandparent left Russia sometime after 1903, they were Mennonites. She discusses her family's immigration to Canada through Mexico to Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

This item contains 10 files of audio from an interview conducted by Art Stelter with his father Dan Stelter. Topics discussed include Dan's father coming to Canada, because he had to work for 30-35 rubles a month for a farmer (Polish or Russian) on a contract. A worker could not leave unless found another person to take over his contract. His father worked in Ukraine but was born in Poland. Was 12 years old when moved to Zhytomyr area. His dad was a Prussian. His father’s parents moved from Poland to Ukraine because Russians wanted German settlers to develop their land. Many German farmers were possessors of the land, but his father’s family had their land on a lease. Ukrainian farmers being backward comparing to Germans. Living in a village but having 2-5 acreages outside. Schools in villages. Father could not write but was able to read. Lutheran churches. His father married at 16. One child died. About 1886 he emigrated to Winnipeg at age 30. Grandmother Amalia. Women worked cleaning offices. German community in Canada His mother snuck from Poland to Germany on a false passport; left from Hamburg to Liverpool on a boat, then to Quebec. Rough trip on a ship. Marriage without love, just duty. Mother could write in German. In 1918 the family came to Bruderheim. Most Bruderheimers came from Zhytomyr. Moravians and their church in Bruderheim. Shwartz was the first church minister. Family had 25-30 horses, 250 acres of land. Sold everything in the fall of 1927 and moved to Bruderheim with a big sum of cash to avoid bank charge commission. Dan’s Russian background: grandfather Martin [Stuter] lived near Lublin, Poland. Called themselves Prussians but considered themselves German. But they could have been from Austria. Dan’s grandfather was the youngest in his family. Janott’s mother was Dan’s grandmother. Married a guy named Kobus. Came to Kelowna. Athabasca [Stulters]. Ludwig and Jastina moved from Lublin to Ukraine in 1867 to get a new life. Lutheran church was responsible for finding settlements. Not all families moved to Bruderheim after WWI. 100 years exempt from military service. Clergy: [Shwanke]. Martin was never a citizen of Russia, lived on rented land of a nobleman. Problem of leaving while having an understanding. When he was 12, they moved to Volyn area, in Zhytomyr. Does not know names of villages or family stories. Martin Dan’s family: Amalia born in 1863. Historical circumstances at that time with Russian occupying lands and leading wars against Poland. Polish reaction against the Germans. Family members were hanged. Family moving to Ukraine at that time. Amalia’s mother was still living when they left for Canada. Wendy, Dan’s mother’s sister, died in Bruderheim in 1951. Russian government pension. Amalia had a brother who went to South America (Brazil). Violence against the Germans in Russia. Mother’s side of family coming to Ukraine via Poland in 1857. School teachers having connection with Volga Germans. [Greenwert]. Danny coming directly from Germany. German accents of people from different areas, distinction of High German vs. Low German. Yiddish as German dialect. His family living in Ukraine for 20 years. His mother’s background: sold most of their belongings to come to Canada. When they came it was Spring. Mom’s father bought a cheap place to live. It turned out to be haunted house. Grandmother was the only one who saw the ghost and heard the steps. [Going back and force between moving to Ukraine and to Canada in his story]. Sold the house and the land for cash to a Polish couple on their way to Canada. The ghost was a man who hung himself. Arrived in March. Grandmother’s brother was in the army and that time and did not want to go to Canada. Came in 1905. Bruderheim. Germans in Medicine Hat. Grandparents speaking languages other than German. Naturalization papers of the family.

They then discussed Dan's life. Young years of Dan. Having typhoid as a child. School years of Dan: good at math. A year in Edmonton, Medicine Hat, another year in [Newberg]. Leaning English, prohibition to speak German on school grounds. Finished grade 7 in [Newberg]. Farm work on acres. Reading in German. Identifying birds through a book he got as a gift from a Bishop. Playing sports (baseball). Reading books on Canadian folklore (stories) and German literature (religions, war stories) at home (buying them from a travelling salesmen). Publishing house of Minnesota Germans. German newspapers in Canada.
Family raising cattle of different breeds. Father retired from [Newberg], bought a house in Medicine Hat in 1970. Population there was about 20K people. School in Medicine Hat. Selling the farm. School closed up. Churches his family visited. Moravian Brothers in Poland and Russia. Minister from a Moravian church came to the family to baptize Dan. No regular religious community. Dan stay home till almost 20 y.o., then went to USA and stayed there till 23 y.o. Dan in Michigan for 7 years (construction work mostly, for car companies). Laid off during the Depression. Dan applied for American citizenship. Visiting America, difference of American way.
Farming in Bruderheim. The estate was developed by a Ukrainian who did not built anything on it and was forced to sell the land because a cancellation was reported on his land. A story of a curse that Ukrainian had, broke his leg. Inside story was that he was drinking, fell of the truck and broke his neck. Building various buildings on the land (chicken house, barn, etc). The farm was bought in 1931 for $3000 (2 mortgages of 6%). In 1944 he paid off the second mortgage. The interest was cancelled. [Herman Hendrik] helped him not to lose the farm. A loan from a federal government to pay off the first mortgage. [Abraham] made a motion against the mortgages for farmers. When he started farming in 1931 he started with nothing (no equipment or cattle), married in a year. Then bought horses for $150, another for $50 (on a credit). In 1932, oats were about 6 cents a bushel. He bought a buggy. Got Ribbon (a horse) in 1933 who turned white when was about 6 y.o. Had several cows. Bought one for $16. A bull in the neighborhood for the cows. Returning to Canada broke, to a farm. Crop prices during the Depression (30 cents a bushel). Liberal views. Dan’s first voting in 1935 in Provincial Election. Listening to [Eibrahard] on radio. Major Douglas in Ottawa, socialist. Labor Movement. [Walter Cuhl] a member of Parliament. Uncle Fred involved in politics and Social Credit idea: government giving the banks power, giving national loans. Local leaders in Bruderheim in social credits: [Bas Wirsky] who had a hardware store, UFM members from Kuts, Baker, [Bill Tomski], Toman (a school teacher). Social Credit Board. Social Credit Party progressiveness. East exploiting the West. SCP as a popular movement, its influence on government and politics. [Peter Stefora].
Surface Rental Rights Owners’ Association, 1949-1951: Alberta, farms around Bruderhaiem – the government owned all the minerals rights. Leduc, Red Water area, Calmar. Oil companies paid 1%, the government expected 12% payback. Farmers’ Union went on 5%. Oil companies buying farmers’ lands. Saskatchewan farmers’ being paid too little. Pressure on the government from the oil companies.

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 file contains an interview with Tom Peterson that was conducted in English on October 4, 1976. Tom Peterson was 77 years old at the time of the interview. He immigrated to Canada from Latvia, arriving at the end of April 1928. He first settled at Pigeon Lake in 1929. During the interview he talks about his process of immigrating and learning English, and meeting other Latvians in Edmonton. He purchased his homestead from the CP and his wife joined him in Canada 6 months later. They farmed until 1951, when he gave his land to his eldest son and moved to Edmonton to become a decorator. He was very active in the Latvian community and discusses this involvement and the immigration and development of Latvians in Canada. Aside from his family and the Latvian community, Tom also discusses politics in the 1930s and 1970s.

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 two interviews with unknown females. The first interviewee was born in Russia in 1909. She talks about the place where she lived and family members that were starving and being deported to Siberia. She then talks about coming to Canada and what she and her husband did in Canada. She talks about the church and being Lutheran and Evangelic.

The second interviewee's parents came from Poland and she was raised in a Lutheran family. Her family left to Ukraine and then came to Canada in 1927 and moved to Alberta in 1928.

The tape also contains music recordings

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.

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.

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.