Source: Das Nordlicht, 12 May 1921 · 📰

From: Balmas, Bendery District, Bessarabia
8 April 1921

Dear Nordlicht:

I received a letter from Kasimir Reis from Anamoose, North Dakota last December 2nd. He told me that he had ordered a subscription to the newspaper for me. He did not mention which one. Shortly after, I received the Nordlicht Issues 44, 45 and 47, which had been mailed to my former address in Larga. Some time passed, and then I received Issues 51 and 52. I still assumed that I received the Nordlicht courtesy of Kasimir Reis. Today I received the correspondence that I am getting my Nordlicht subscription courtesy of the editor of the Nordlicht. So it is still a mystery to me which paper Mr. Reis has ordered for me.

The weather is still dry, like it has been the entire winter and up till now. All the seeds are in dry soil. Our health here in Balmas is satisfactory.

On April 1, a horrible story began here in Balmas, which will probably end in horror as well. In 1918, the Russian scouts of Anania captured a soldier in our neighboring village, Anania near Nowo-Nikolajevka, when the Romanians approached from the north. The prisoner was supposed to be taken to the district town of Bendery. At the time, the Russian people did not want to be annexed to Rumania. As was revealed today, the soldier was brought to Nowo-Nikolajevka under guard. From there he was brought to Balmas and delivered to the village office for transport to Bendery under threats by the Russians. The village officials received the prisoner, ordered a wagon, driver and a guard to deliver the prisoner to the Russian village of Forletan. Driver Johannes Ziegler and guard Ludwig Mack arrived. They delivered their prisoner to the village officials of Forletan just as a crowd was gathering and thought nothing more of it, as their duties had been fulfilled.

Then in March, perhaps even earlier, a young man deserted from the army in Anania and fled to the Cherson district. Search parties looked for him without a clue all over Anania and surroundings. The deserter didn’t seem to like the Cherson region either, so he came back to Anania where he was immediately placed under arrest. In anger about his arrest, he told the officials that some farmers from Anania had murdered the man sent as a prisoner to Bendery in 1918. The police ordered a criminal investigation and allegedly found a bayonet, an ax and a wire cutter cemented into a brick oven in an Anania farmhouse.

The accusation of the murder, however, proved unfounded. The village office of Nowo-Nikolajevka could prove that the prisoner was delivered to the authorities of Balmas. The former village officials, village elder Johannes Moser and Secretary Martin Matern, stated that they had no recollection of such a prisoner transfer. The investigation backtracked to Anania and Nowo-Nikolajevka, back to Balmas in vain.

The mayor of Balmas was then ordered to call a meeting and find out who transported that prisoner three years ago. The police returned after verifying that the prisoner had been brought to Balmas. When they arrived, Ludwig Mack and Johannes Ziegler happened to be at the gathering and told the police that they had, indeed, transported the prisoner to the village office of Forletan. Mack and Ziegler were then placed under arrest and taken to Forletan to find the men to whom they had delivered the prisoner.

Fortunately, Ludwig Mack recognized a farmer there who had been present at that transfer. Mack was then asked to identify the former mayor, but could not do so as he could not remember what the man had looked like. He did mention though, that the farmer Pavlo had been present back then. Pavlo was then questioned and stated that the former mayor and the secretary had taken the prisoner into their custody. Questioned about what had happened to the prisoner, he said that some Forletan people had gotten rid of him and even indicated where the man was buried. So Mack and Ziegler were vindicated. The Forletan man then was pressured to testify where the prisoner was buried. Night fell and the investigation was postponed.

On the following day, Pavlo retracted his former statements. He said he had no recollection of any prisoner being delivered. When asked further why he had said that the prisoner had in fact been delivered, he said that Mack had stepped on his foot at that point to get his attention and offered him 1,000 Lei if he would say so. Mack and Zeigler were arrested again as well as Moser and Matern and taken to Bendery. Farmer Pavlo was taken there as well as several others from Anania. This kind of investigative incarceration is much feared because of the atrocities committed there. They were questioned for three days, and then Matern was let go. The others were questioned further until farmer Pavlo finally confessed that he had been coerced to say what he did because Mack stepped on his foot and offered the 1,000 Lei. Mack and Zeigler were let go after a week in prison. Poor Moser is still there, and is adamant that he cannot remember the transfer of any prisoner. Now we all wait for him to be freed. Attorney fees are not cheap, so we hope for a quick solution. More as this develops.

All is well in Balmas. We are healthy. Since I have been here, there has not been a single death. We may not be as well off as we could be, but looking at the news, things are bad all over. Even where there was no war, there is discontent and misery. Some say it’s the devil, but people who don’t believe in the devil, then ask, “Have you ever seen a devil?” One cannot answer such a question, especially with secret police everywhere trying to trip one up. So it is with the devil that is always eager to capture another soul. But let’s change the subject and close on a different note.

While I was writing this report, Gottlieb Gabert, the village elder came back from Hirtenheim (Chebanovka) and asked me to write a few lines for him. He would like to know where his brother-in-law Christian Schock and wife Louisa nee Gabert are in America. Schlock is originally from Alt-Arzis and if he is still among the living, a sign of life would be much appreciated. A subscription to the Nordlicht would especially be great. He states, “Well, the Staats-Anzeiger is read here, but for the Nordlicht we travel as far as Balmas as the Nordlicht is not available in Hirtenheim.”

Sincerely,
Romuald Dirk