From: Emmental, Bessarabia
23 February 1921
Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!
I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the editorship for their help to locate my brothers-in-law A. Neibauer and G. Kuhn. I also want to thank my brother-in-law A. Neibauer for the great joy he gave me by having the Staats-Anzeiger sent to me. I wish that many people would follow his example, since almost everyone here has friends and relatives in the New World.
Now I want to report something about our experience during the terrible time of war. I have already mailed several letters to my brothers-in-law but up until today I have not received an answer. That is why I think the safest way is to report through the newspaper.
We fled from the Caucasus when after the revolution the unrest in the empire got bigger. The heathens especially got after us in the Caucasus. The only thing we could do is leave our bag and baggage behind and flee with our cash. I also did this and happily arrived here in Bessarabia. My escape happened during the winter.
On 18 January 1918, I said good-bye to everything I owned and also to my parents, brothers and brothers-in-law. I have not heard anything from anyone as of today except that they also fled. On 2 March, I arrived in Emmental with my family.
I often wondered why there was so little reported in the paper from all our friends and acquaintances from Krasna. There has to be many readers there also. (*Editor: Yes, we do have a whole bunch of readers in Krasna.) I also have brothers-in-law living in Montana. I am asking them to write sometime. I have already written to them and I also sent a letter to Mr. Thomas Ihli 4 months ago, but so far I have not had a reply. (*Editor: Letters sometimes take up to 2 months on the road so that you could hardly have a reply now.)
The health conditions here are satisfactory. Naturally, there are illnesses here and there. Our daughter Katharina was also sick, but she was able to get out of bed 3 days ago.
The weather has changed now. The snow is 3 feet deep. That snow gives the farmers hope for a harvest, which God in his mercy will grant us. The snowfall has also given the hunters great joy. The hunters are having great success, even though the authorities are going after them, since they are hunting without a license. But they seldom succeed in coming close to the hunters, since the hunters know how to hide when they are being followed. Not less than 40 rabbits are taken daily for butchering. That is a golden time for the hunters. There is a saying, “The dumbest farmer grows the biggest potatoes.” That means the hunters also reap what they didn’t sow. I was also a hunter for 14 years and I know how much fun it is. Now the circumstances are different and I had to give up that trade.
Once again I am encouraging my friends to write.
I am greeting everyone, as well as the editorship and the readers.
Respectfully,
Thaddaeus Deichert