In the spring of 1941 the settlement of the Bessarabian Germans in the eastern regions began in force. After the citizenship rocedures, these settlers designated for settlement in the East, were grouped in settlement camps in Poland for 4-6 weeks.

The Krasna people were taken to Lodz (Litzmannstadt) by train to the camps of Tuschin Wald, Zdunska Wola, and Pabiance. At Camp Tuschin Wald, a former Jewish weekend retreat, most of our people were housed. At this camp the individual families were assigned to their farms and other formalities of settlement were taken care of. ¹⁾

The exchange for the farms left behind in Bessarabia was supposed to be for properties of equal size. In individual West Prussian villages, a farm roster had been established bearing the personal information of the farm owners, operation size, number of buildings, state of the buildings, inventory of objects and livestock, as well as estimate of the value. The farms the Germans had left behind in Bessarabia, had received the same kind of estimates. ²⁾ In order to find out who would be established at what farm, the Bessarabian cards were compared wqith the Prussian ones. A resettler was only allowed the kind of place his card qualified him for. As exact matches were not to be found, a relatively generous match was made and the differences of plus or minus values was supposed to be handled after the war. ³⁾ The resettlers were initially placed on the farms as caretakers.

Once the comparisons and check lists were completed, the resettlers in the Lodz camps were notified and taken per train to the district area of their settlement. Roughly half of the Bessarabian Germans were settled in West Prussia and the ‚Warthegau’ area.
Krasna was slated for Danzig in West Prussia. ⁴⁾ According to the news publication Deutsche Rundschau (H+German Review) of Bromberg, the first Bessarabian Germans arrived on March 1, 1941. Most people from Krasna were settled in many of the West Prussian districts between summer and late fall of 1941. By March 1, 1942 practically all the people from Krasna were situated on their new farms. They were sent to widely dispersed farms, which had been taken from their owners, Polish farmers, shortly before their arrival.
E. Ruscheinsky writes about this segregated lodging:“ People from Krasna were distribued over nine districts and it took families days to visit a brother, sister or other relative and friend.“

As far as could be determined, Krasna people were settled in the districts of Wirsitz, ⁵⁾) Zempelburg, Tuchel, Schwetz, Bromberg, Graudenz, Briesen, Neumark and Karthaus.

Image 114: See map at
http://www.danube-exodus.hu/en/main.php3?topic=2

It was a major concern for the people of Krasna to remain together as a village community; they wanted to remain in touch with family and friends. Like all other village communities, the people of Krasna had hoped to be settled together and in some cases, they had received promises of this nature.

Reality was different. The dispersed settlement was part of the settlement concept envisioned by Heinrich Himmler. The Bessarabian Germans were supposed to be mixed up with other national groups. Mixed settlements were supposed to create a melting pot of German nationals from the different eastern European resettlement areas.

This settlement procedure makes it difficult to obtain a general view of the situation of Krasna people in West Prussia: they were settled in various villages and districts; the farms were quite different in size and offices and party members had a varied influence, the relationship of the resettlers and their new fellow villagers differed from village to village, just to list a few difficulties. The settlement procedure can only be shown as a rough sketch.

⁶⁾ When they arrived in the settlement regions, the new settlers were usually met at the train station by Polish servants or buses, which brought them to the new farms.

Max Riehl relates: In the final days of October of 1941, we received the news to get ready for our departure to settle. We were picked up on October 31, early in the morning. After traveling day and night, making frequent stops, we finally arrived at the train station of Lobsens.
A coachman with a skinny team of horses waited there with a field wagon to transport us to the farm, which would become our new home. Our luggage was loaded on the rickety farm wagon and we sat on our suitcases. The horses strained to get underway with that creaking wagon on the rain-soft dirt road in direction of Schönrode. Our father tried to find out more about the farm from the driver, who spoke some German and was supposed to be one of our workers. He admitted that he had taken the prior owner and his family to the train station just the night before. Uniformed personnel escorted the family and others like them to the train that waited there. This train departed the Lobsens train station just shortly before our arrival.
The coachman only became more animated when questions were asked pertaining to the farm. When we finally had the bad road and the long trip behind us and arrived at Schönroden on the farm designated for us, a man clad in a black SS uniform greeted us with the Hitler salute and a “Heil Hitler,” symbolically handed over the house key to my father with the words: “German soil needs German blood.” We shivered at this first encounter. Our farm wagon was parked in a small courtyard, which was barely large enough to turn a team of horses around. In the center was a disorderly dung heap, from which leaked a dark liquid. The SS man led the way into the house, from which the former owners had obviously fled in a hurry. The house was tiny and not well cared for; there was not enough room to put down the items we had brought with us without clearing out space. A large cook pot, filled with a soup prepared for the Malig family at All Souls’ Day was still on the stove…It took us a long time to create a bit of order and fall into our beds in the late evening, dog tired.

Most of the people from Krasna received their compensation in the form of farms, which had been cleared shortly before of their Polish owner families. The state, sometimes using force, had confiscated those farms. The SS took the people living there from their beds in the middle of the night and insofar as they were capable of working, they were taken to the old country (Alt-Reich) or sent to the General Gouvernement; some of them were placed as workers for the new German owners. Some of the Krasna people found folks still there when they arrived. It made for difficult situations. Some made arrangements with the former owners and in some cases they were allowed to live in the largest and best parts of the houses.

When the newly placed settler was agreeable to the new place, he had to sign an agreement document. If not, efforts were made to find a better match, ⁷⁾ and sometimes he was threatened with return to Bessarabia because of “insubordination”. Once the farmer signed the paper, he was admitted into the local farm guild, which had settlement advisors and helpers to assist the new settlers in getting settled on the new farms.

The district settlement staff helped with restructuring and repairs at the settler’s farm and, to some extent, supplied furniture from its own warehouses. It did not always go as smoothly as foreseen. Max Riehl relays from his own experience: After requesting building materials for the most pressing repairs, several experts had to be consulted to justify the request. Shortly before Christmas we were advised that we would get materials and workers for this.

The district settlement staff also made sure that the larger luggage items that had been transferred from Vienna to Galatz arrived at their designations. See also 8.1, Preparation of the Resettlement and Transport to Germany A luggage receiving station had been established in Litzmanstadt, which forwarded the luggage to the owners after they were settled. Many Bessarabian Germans had to report the missing or the damage of the luggage. According to reports about 30% of the large luggage items of the resettlers were stolen. One has to assume that this was also the case for Krasna people.

The Bessarabians did not like their new areas, being on strange farms and in a strange climate. Even though they had German neighbors in West Prussia, who were not hostile to them, the newcomers remained strangers. The Bessarabians were and remained the bouncing ball for the Reich-German public, which was convinced of its economic superiority. The Bessarabians could not retaliate. The arrogant manner with which they were treated and the incorrect actions of the official commissioners was depressing. Resettlement advocates were in part female scientists from Berlin. The women looked morally inferior to the standards of the Bessarabians.

Krasna people were used to living among other nationalities. It was not their way to be domineering. They acted in their usual manner with the Polish people of West Prussia. In most families, the Polish servants had their meals at the table of their hosts.

This attitude led in some cases to confrontations with the village farm leaders, settlement helpers and other officials. Many Krasna people said: We have lived among Russians, Bulagarians and Moldavians and remained Germans. One has not dictate to to us how to interact with the Polish people. Although the Bessarabian operator was now the boss, matters remained much the same. There were some exceptins where new settlers became quite “bossy,” however.

Life after resettlement was not easy.

• The new settlers were told what they had to plant. Yields were supposed to remain stable and there was a requirement for the delivering of agricultural products.
• Beginning in March of 1942, the men were called into the military and forced more and more to serve in the Waffen SS. Older men were called into the Vokssturm units.
• Women, elderly and half-grown youths then had the responsibility for the farms in the strange land.
  The Germans were assigned Polish man and maidservants to help on the farm.

People from Krasna were worried, even homesick. The obstacles caused by the national socialists regarding church life created problems with the church oriented Krasna people. Ute Schmidt has an example of this: ⁸⁾ The Catholic resettlers from Krasna assigned to the Briesen district (Danzig-West Prussia area) who went to the Catholic church there, were strictly watched by the female resettlement official. It was not satisfactory that the Bessarabian Germans met Polish people there.

Max Riehl talks about the funeral of his mother, who had died at a fairly young age: She died on March 10, 1942 worried about the future of her children. The administration had tried to talk father into burying mother at the cemetery of Schönroden, where the Lutherans were buried. Only after father made it very clear that mother had wanted to be buried at a Catholic cemetery was he allowed to bury his wife in Gromaden.

Although the resettlers had longed to be newly settled, the reality created a long list of problems for them. It was difficult to get used to the area. (The climate was different from Bessarabia, the soil conditions were not suitable). Then being settled all over the village area apart from their old neighbors and friends also increased this isolated feeling.

The people of Krasna had to familiarize themselves with the ways to work the land, the planting of grain and produce, how to feed the livestock, etc. They had to learn a new system. In Bessarabia they had the best humus soil, which did not require fertilizing. There, they grew mostly wheat, corn and barley. Here, in West Prussia, they had to fertilize. They had to convert to grow rye and potatoes, just to mention some crops. The summers here were much colder than the summers in Bessarabia. There was no wine. People had to work hard in the winter cutting the seed stock and feed livestock and hogs. In Bessarabia, winter work had been limited for the farmers there.

The bread tasted different and the baking ovens were different from the ones at home. They had no paprika, olives, melons and Halva, but they still had their beloved flour dishes, chicken soups and other foods.

In spite of all difficulties, the people from Krasna managed to get used to the new situation, even though their new farms were not in the best of shape. They managed to run their farms well and the production increased. In spite of the lack of much material, they managed to make repairs to the buildings, the machinery and the wells.

After three and a half years of hard work to create an existence, the elderly, women and children were forced to flee when the Eastern Front collapsed in January of 1945. The men were in the war and could not help them.