From: Emmental, Bessarabia
19 January 1920

Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!

On 2 January, I had written a report to the dear paper asking the editorship to send me the newspaper again, since my brother Joseph Kopp in Fox Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada will send the money. (*Editor: The Staats-Anzeiger has been sent to you for a long time already, and your brother Joseph also did pay for the paper. Therefore, everything is in the best of order. We assume that you in the meantime are receiving the newspaper on a regular basis.)

Once I receive the paper again, I will attempt to put together a little description of the war. (*Editor: You probably mean a description of the circumstances that existed in Emmental and elsewhere over the duration of the war. That will be welcome to us. Books about the war we don’t have yet. Those you should be able to obtain over there just as well as here.)

If we had only received the Staats-Anzeiger throughout the war, we might have been informed about the truth. (*Editor: We would have been overly happy, if we could have learned the truth.) In our newspaper you could only read lies. When ours had lost 15 to 20,000 men, then it was reported as if that many men had been captured.

I was in Bendery not long ago. There I received a letter from Pius Job in America. He wrote that over there you hear that a big turmoil still exists in Russia, but one does not believe it over there. Reason being is that the newspapers always exaggerate the size of a fire.

This well-meaning man is very much in error. What has happened in the recent past in Russia, no pen can describe and no tongue can express. If the Americans do not believe what the newspapers write, then that is easily understood and we want to forgive them. If we had not experienced it in real life, then perhaps we also would not believe everything.

The weather is really inconsistent. Sometimes it is raining, sometimes it is snowing, and then we have the nicest sunshine again. We only had a little snow and frost, but we have a lot of mud.

One worries that there will be a failing crop again next summer. The saying goes, as winter goes, so goes summer. In 1918 we had a failed crop. Last year the harvest was good. If we should get a meager harvest again, then we will be doomed. During the past year our cattle almost starved to death. Now there is no shortage of fodder, but it will not be enough for 2 years.

Last year a disease prevailed here in the village and within 2 months 40 people had died from it. From several homes up to 5 family members were carried out. There hardly is a family that did not have one or more that died. I myself was sick for 3 months and was thinking that I would never recover. The following people died from the disease:

Melchior, Kaspar Dirk, Telesfor Blotzki, Dominik Nagel, Mathias Müller, Jakob Gross, Rochus Gross, and Peter Paul.

During the entire time of the war there were no weddings because all eligible men ages 19 to 44 were inducted for war duty. Since then all have returned home again. Many a wedding was celebrated in a joyful and merry way. (*Editor: The names of the newlyweds have already been published in the Staats-Anzeiger.) Candidates for marriage now are Elias Dirk and the widow Rosina Miller, nee Hein. Her husband Christian Miller has been missing in action. So far there has been no certification of his death. Therefore the marriage does not proceed. These bureaucrats create problems.

Now I want to greet my mother and brothers in Fox Valley, Canada. On 2 January, I also wrote a letter to them and now I wait every day for an answer. They should have written to me already sometime ago because the address is as before. Now only add “Rumania” above the address.

From my sister Karolina I have not heard anything for a long time. I intend to drive to Krasna soon, and then I will encourage her to write.

In my next report, I will write about the rise of the cost of living, which prevails here at the time. Just imagine a pound of salt that before the war you could buy for a half kopeck now costs 5 rubles. (Note: 1 ruble = 100 kopecks) Sugar costs 22 rubles per pound.

I greet all my friends in America and respectfully remain,

Zachäus Kopp