From: Mangeapur, Rumania
15 September 1920
I am sending happy greetings to all of you. I am letting you know that all of us are still healthy. But what all did I have to experience during the sad war!
On 15 August 1916, Rumania entered the war, which caused my son Christof also to enter the war. Suddenly on 5 September, the police took my husband and my oldest sons away and no one could find out where they had been taken. I was left alone in the house with my 8 children. Then the enemy neared our region and a big battle unfolded so that no one could remain here. I had to flee with my children and leave our belongings behind just to save our lives.
We went to Karamurat where we stayed for about 6 weeks, until this town was seized on 10 October by the German and Bulgarian army. Now I could go back to my home, but at home I found nothing but an empty yard and the house in ruins and empty. I had to spend my life there in mourning.
During the next two years, I could not get any information about my husband. On 15 March 1918, my son Ignatz returned. I found out from him that my husband and my son Johannes had been dead for more than a year. They perished in an internment camp due to bad nutrition. In the same year, my son Christof also came back unharmed. Then I set everything into motion to make a living for my 10 children.
This year the harvest was very nice and good, even though only a tenth of what used to be sowed here was sowed this time.
In closing, I am greeting all of you sincerely.
Walburga F. Ereth
From: Krupp, Saskatchewan, Canada
21 October 1920
Honored Editorship!
Since I am already a long time reader I will dare to write to the dear paper.
The weather is nice. We had received a little snow.
I am asking my brothers-in-law Rudolf Dirk and August Wingenmach to please write.
I have already tried by letter to contact them. But it is in vain.
Now I am greeting the readers here and there and also the editorship.
Adolf Steinke
From: Kronau, Saskatchewan, Canada
25 October 1920
Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!
We have already received a lot of rain here this fall so that we are looking forward to a good harvest next year. Our crops yielded: Wheat 10 to 35 bushels, oats 15 to 40 bushels and barley 20 bushels per acre.
(*Editor: We received the money. You will receive the paper for 1 year.)
Perhaps I could find out through the readers where my Aunt Martha Miller, nee Kuhn is living. Enclosed is a letter from my brother in Germany.
I am heartily greeting everyone.
J. Brosinsky
Here is the letter to Mr. Brosinsky from Germany.
Encampment Lockstedt, 21 September 1920
We arrived in Germany on 15 August, but it is sad, since first of all we have no job and no lodging. Now we are living in a camp. We receive good food but for how long God only knows. If it had gone to my liking, I would already be in America. But now I don’t know where to go.
There are only the five of us. God took three children from us during the imprisonment. Also my father-in-law is no longer alive. Dear brother, we have been through a lot.
We all had typhoid in the Cossack village. Then came 6 years of imprisonment; 1 year in Kusendorf in Siberia, 3 years in Baschkiria and in a Tartar village, 1 year in Orenburg and 1 year in Samara.
Here in Germany the Russian money is worthless. Now you get 1 pfenning (German currency) for 1 ruble. For 1,000 rubles you receive 100 marks (German currency). I have already traveled through half of Germany at the expense of the Red Cross, but there is no work to be had. The only places I have not been are at mother’s and brother-in-law Loewe’s. They now live in Poland and right now it is hard to go there. My brother-in-law J. Wald lives in Berlin. Johann Thomas lives in Danzig. He went through the whole war and was wounded 3 times. He has a good job at a gun factory.
Please write to me and let me know how it is there and how the earnings are there. For now Germany is in ruins and has terrible obligations. In Russia, they are still fighting for freedom.
I am greeting you heartily.
Your brother,
Otto and Katharina Brosinsky