6.2 Accidents, brutality, robbery and attacks

As is the case everywhere else, accidents, brutalities, thefts, robberies and attacks did happen in Krasna, as well. We do not know about all of these events, since there are no police reports, if there were any made back then. Beginning in 1914 such occurrences were reported in the German language newspapers in North Dakota, where residents sent regular contributions.

There were a relatively large number of accidents in Krasna. In part, this was due to the equipment used, but also because of insufficient preventive measures. There were no complicated measures to safeguard against accidents and there were no regulations in place. Most accidents happened in the use of horses, (such as on rides, in the stables, with the wagon or farm machinery). Horses shied and threw their riders, they bolted and the riders lost control, were thrown from the wagons and ended up under the wheels. Horses kicked and struck a person with hooves.

Here are two examples as reported by North American newspapers

• The Staats Anzeiger of November 1, 1920: A few days ago a young lady drove a car. Children played in the street and one ran out and landed under the vehicle, was run over and died immediately. The parents sought out a doctor’s help, but it was too late.
• Dakota Rundschau dated 27 December 1929. A short time ago Erasmus Matthias Ruscheinsky was taking a load of grain to Beresina. At the ditch, the horses bolted, began running and he was thrown from the wagon. The rear wheel ran over his chest…People in vehicles behind him stopped and carried him home. The doctor was called. Unfortunately, the man died on October 6, 1920.

Other accidents also happened:

• A note in the Dakota Rundschau of 25 October 1929: On September 14 Gottlieb Haag had an accident when he was taking down his old barn. When the walls were mostly down, he attempted to tear up a part of the roof still standing. The roof fell and hit his legs. He lost his left foot to the ankle. It is possible that he will lose the entire leg..
• The Staats Anzeiger reports on November 15, 1929: The widower Mathias Volk, age 8,7 died a horrible death in the night of 29/30 September. The old man was burned down with his house. It is unclear how the fire started.
• Dakota Rundschau, July 1, 1932: An accident happened on May 27. The 18-year-old son of Albertus Riehl and his 13-year-old sister went to the clay pit to fetch clay. The 18-month-old child of Reinhold Koch was with them. After young Riehl began loading the clay, a wall collapsed and buried the wagon. The falling clay crushed the wagon and the young man was buried under it. The scared horses broke their harnesses and were not harmed. The baby was buried, but the 13-year-old, who was not badly hurt, managed to free the child. She could not free her brother and yelled for help. Other people, who were at the pit at the same time hurried to help. They uncovered the young Riehl, but he lost consciousness. The baby was also unconscious…. The doctor from Tarutino came as fast as he could and cared for the wounded. The results of his efforts are not known, yet.
• Old people of Krasna tell that in 1936 or 1937 lightning struck the wife and a child of Jakob Ihli. People buried them to the neck in the ground to avert the lightning. It sounds like a miracle, but when they were uncovered, again it was noted that they were not hurt.

Disagreements also happened between community members of Krasna and they sometimes escalated into violence. Fights among the youths sometimes had tragic endings. A welcome occasion for a fight was always the oath taking of the recruits.
Adults also occasionally fought. There were fights between neighbors and also among relatives. American newspapers also report about this:
See also Village Life, 7.1, Krasna Colonists and their Relationships with Others.

In the initial years after the founding of Krasna, the settlers were constantly in danger of robberies from the surrounding Russian, Moldavian and Bulgarian villages.
The frequent road trips to Odessa carrying wheat in the first decades [later to Akkerman (Cetatea Alba) and Kilia] were extremely dangerous, since the colonists were frequently attacked on the return trip by roving gypsies. Therefore, people travelled together to be better protected.
Traveling on the steppe remained a problem later, as well, as in the 20th century. Wagons were robbed on the roads. It cost the colonist the freight as well as the wagon and team. Two examples:

• On September 28, 1920, the Staats Anzeiger reported: Today I have to report a heavy robbery, which took place on July 31. Simon Engel and Oswald Wagner had bought cloth in Kasna for 10,700 rubles to sell for profit. The traveled along the Dnjesr River in the morning, not far from the colony of Roskejezi. Suddenly, there were robbers. They absconded with the driver and the wares. Simon and Oswald managed to escape into the bushes at the shore, although they were shot at. They remained unhurt and managed to hide until 8.00 o’clock at night. They looked for protection in Roskejezi village. Three days later, they returned home empty-handed. The whereabouts of the coachman and the wares is unknown.
• Alois Leinz reports about a similar incident. Frequently, robbers waited for passersby on the road at areas with visual restrictions and robbed them. This happened on 26 August 1924 to Philipp Hinz, Valentin Kopp, Zachäus and Valentin Herrmann, when they wanted to take wheat to the mill in Lichtental. Leinz describes the event in detail, including a pursuit, which was quite exciting: Thanks to the assistance of other German colonists helping fellow colonists out, the Krasna farmers got their stolen items back and went back home happily. This event was not talked about back home and it remained their secret. If one of them brought it up, the other would silence him with the words: “They will never steal again,” which was the end of the discussion. ¹⁾

Measured by the newspaper reports, there was a lot of stealing happening in Krasna. It is remarkable, that much food was taken, from the houses and from the fields, even in the gardens. (Wine, sausage, ham, sheep from the pasture or from the stable) Animal feed was also taken, even the wash off the clothesline.
Josef Braun mentions in a submission to the Dakota Rundschau dated September 12, 1928, that the petty thefts were the results of extreme need.

Money was also taken as the Staats-Anzeiger of May 10, 1921, reports: A short while ago, we had robbers in the village. They tied up the policeman and took 50,000 lei from one person and 5,000 lei from another. The police investigated with no resolution.
In order to safeguard against such thievery, many Krasna people carried their money on their person when they left the house.

Break-ins also happened, for instance at the association store on December 7, 1929. In order not to be announced by barking dogs, these robbers did not hesitate to poison all the dogs in the neighborhood as it happened on December 24, 1929, near Nikolaus and Valentin Plotzki’s place. (Report in the Dakota Rundschau, dated January 24, 1930)

Horse thievery was also a bad plague, perhaps comparable to car theft today. Horses were stolen in Krasna every year. The horse thieves were mostly “foreign nationals.” When thieves or their fences were caught, they not only faced judicial retributions, they could also count on it that the upset Krasna people would provide a thorough threshing. The gendarmes were tough; the robbed farmers were without mercy. It has happened time and again that a court trial was not needed, because the accused did not survive their arrest. Tales and rumors persist of lynching.
Otto Engel reports of a horse theft ²⁾ People with fine horses had to be careful as well. There were criminals among us, too. Thieves once stole two mares from a Krasna person, a bay and a black. Those were gorgeous horses, I have to say! In bright daylight three thieves took the horses right at the tavern in front of the Tarutino market place. The foals were left home in the stable. The farmer had left his hitched wagon there. The thieves jumped on it and hitting the horses, they galloped through the village. Up and way they went. From Tarutino, phone calls were made to the villages where the thieves would have had to pass through. The man got his horses back. His black mare died then. The thieves over-exerted the horses. But what gorgeous horses they were! “Pretty as flowers,” people used to say. The man had to make several trips to Akkerman court in this matter. They caught only two of the thieves, the third one escaped.

From the beginning of the settlement of Krasna, a watch was put on duty to protect the village from criminal mischief.
See 4.9, Judicial Practices, Public Order and Safety