Letter: Krasna, Bessarabia
21 March 1922

Dear Uncle Adam and Aunt Marianne Zerr:

Thank you so much for your dear letter. I am so glad that my letter made it to America. I wish I could get there myself. It is hard to get out of Russia, but somehow I will have to unless I want to starve to death.

There are only a few German colonists left on the Volga in Saratov and Samara. Many there have already starved to death. People eat the carcasses of their livestock that died even cats, dogs and tree bark etc. Rumor has it that some desperate parents even ate their own children. What a horrible, awful thought. I pray that it is not true.

Here in Krasna the farmers have enough bread to last for two months, and then what? Starvation threatens us and we could only manage to plant a handful of desjatines. No one here has starved yet. Neighbor still helps out neighbor. I wish I could talk freely about all that is going on.

Our mother, Walburga, died on April 11, 1919 at the Lutheran Hospital in Odessa following complications from surgery. Aunt Magdalena, wife of Uncle Anton, died of typhoid on March 14, 1920. This horrible disease is spreading all over Russia.

Yes, I am the one who studied at the seminary in Saratov. I am a teacher, but there are no teaching jobs. Please let me know whether there is a chance of working as a teacher in America. I would not be afraid of moonlighting either.

Regards, your nephew
Joseph Ochs

Postscript: Greetings also from Father, the brothers and sisters, Uncle Anton and children. Mute Uncle Leopold is still of good health.

(*Editor: Rochus Zimmermann from Park, Kansas submitted this letter for publication.)