From: Emmental, Bessarabia
3 March 1920

Worthy Staats-Anzeiger!

Since I found out that letters from here once again are going to America, I have written to the Staats-Anzeiger already several times asking for the paper and hoping that my brother Joseph would pay for it. I also wrote several letters to my brother, but I have not received an answer from the editor or from my brother to this day. (*Editor: We received two of your letters and they have been published recently. Your brother Joseph has ordered and paid for the paper in the meantime. You should have received the paper by now. The paper is paid for until October, but if you correspond diligently to the Staats-Anzeiger then we will continue to send you the paper after the expiration date free of charge.)

Not long ago I received an edition of the Staats-Anzeiger sent by Romuald Dirk. In the paper was a correspondence from my brother Joseph stating that he didn’t know what to do and to send him my address. I have done that in the meantime, and hopefully, he has received my letter by now. If all my letters, which I have written since New Year’s day have been received, than you already know everything.

The snow is totally gone and if the weather stays good, we will soon go into the field. There are a lot of wolves in our fields this winter. You can’t feel safe with those beasts and one hardly dares to drive to the neighboring village. Perhaps now they will leave when the snow is gone. (*Editor: Romuald Dirk already reported the story about the wolf in Mathias Nagel’s summer kitchen.)

About Russia, I can report that the Bolshevists came back into the Cherson region. Many people fled from there to here. The bishop first had to flee from Sarata to Odessa. He had lived in Selz for a while. Now he and also Pastor Keller from Odessa live in Bukarest. We hear that they will soon come to Krasna. Pastor Hartmann lives in Kischinev and Pastor Nolt, Beilmann and Schoenfeld are expected to arrive. These men are living in Ackkerman as the word goes. Many people have been killed over there. In Selz last summer, 130 men were lined up and shot to death with machine guns. The women and children weren’t harmed. Pastor Nolt hid in the fields for two weeks wearing old tattered clothing. What all had happened there is indescribable. Now they are pursuing people there again and it is winter. Where would the people go now? And who is responsible for all the misery? He who conquered Germany! If Germany would have remained the conqueror, we would already have peace in the world. That’s what my limited brain is thinking.

I am greeting my friends in Dakota and I’m asking them to write sometime. I heard that my Uncle Jakob Kopp passed away. I also have an Uncle Johannes Kopp in Richardton. His oldest son’s name is Pius. I would have written to them already but I don’t have their correct address. (*Editor: Just write to Mr. Johannes Kopp, Richardton, North Dakota, USA)

I would really like to know why my brother Joseph writes Elardee and not Fox Valley. (*Editor: Because he now lives in Elardee, Saskatchewan, Canada.)

Respectfully,
Zachaeus Kopp