After the Germans moved away in the fall of 1940, the few non-Germans, who were very few, 89 as of the last count, and a handful of Germans remained behind. Soviet life developed and the German character of the village soon disappeared.

The deterioration of the village happened with a bang so to speak. A terrible earthquake happened on November 10 of 1940. It measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and led to a massive destruction in all of Bessarabia.

Alex Hein reports that Eduard Ruscheinsky visited Krasna one more time before his departure from Bessarabia on November 13. ¹⁾ The impression there is unconceivable. The earthquake destroyed the church, meaning that the tower, the roof and the main part of the building had collapsed. The destruction of the houses was similar. The earthquake damage was visible everywhere. The village was vacant and the livestock were at pasture. Foreign nationals had begun to settle there from the surrounding villages into the empty houses. We were allowed a last visit to the cemetery. There, the earthquake had also taken it’s toll. Thus we bade farewell to Krasna, our former home village, now marred by the earthquake. Iit was a sad and disturbing sight.

At the end of 1940 the land vacated by the Germans was annexed to the newly founded Sowchoses and Kolchoses. Documents confirm that the Soviets made great efforts to Sovietize Besssarabia. A year later, aready, the village looked unkempt for the most part and only a third of the fields grew crops. The Rumanians hardly made any changes after they occupied Bessarabia during World War II between the fall of 1941 and the summer of 1944.

There are eyewitnesses from the first period.

• In September of 1941, the consul of Galatz reports: Only a third of the farms in the German settlement regions are planted with crops. The villages look dissheveled, the beautiful churches no longer have their towers and they now function as club halls. The fruit orchards and vinyards of the German settlements can be considered a loss due to neglect.
• Father Philipp Leinz, a priest born in Krasna, gives his impressions of Krasna two years after the German residents moved out: ²⁾ What happened to our Krasna? I was there in 1942 after the retreat of the Russians. It was a nightmare of destruction. Church, school and mill were in ruins. The houses close to the church had burned to the ground. The cemetery is desecrated and left to ruin. Homes, farms and gardens are filled with weeds. Evenings were especially spooky because there was no light, there were no illuminated windows, but much vermin and no person in sight….Our Krasna is no more.

A few photos bear him out.
See also 3.1, The Village of Krasna, its Location and Appearance

Image 116: The Cemetery

Image 117: The Destroyed Church

Image 118: The Destroyed House of Josef Dirk

Image 119: The Destroyed Mill

Aside from the eyewitness accounts from the 1940's, there is not much in existence concerning the post-war period. Until about 1990 there is a blank space since during the Cold War trips to or connections with Krasna were almost impossible.

Attempts were made back then to get a glimpse of the old homeland. Max Riehl writes in an unpublished text: Since 1980 we tried a number of times to obtain permission to visit Krasna, but the answer was always a gruff “nyet”. After numerous refusals we accepted the permission to visit Kischinev with the permit to move around in the perimeter of 20 kilometers from there. The two of us (Georg Söhn & Max Riehl) went across the Carpathian Mountains, through Jassy to Kischinev to the hotel where we had reservations. We found a local driver near the hotel who wanted to take us sight seeing around Kischinev in his rusted out Lada model car. We agreed to pay him a certain amount of German currency for “getting lost” in Krasna. Wearing our oldest attire, and unshaven, we left in the direction of Krasna. We arrived there shortly before 9:00 a.m. The village we came to looked strange. We already suspected that the driver had taken us to the wrong village in order to quickly earn his pay. We went searching through the village, under the suspicious looks of the locals. We could not ask anyone whether we were truly in Krasna, since we did not want to give ourselves away. We had almost given up, when we saw a familiar building. As in one voice, we exclaimed: “The Boys’ School! We are in Krasna!” The hours passed quickly. A cloud of dust approached us at 1:00 p.m. and a police car came to a screeching halt. With the shout “Stoi!” our Krasna visit ended. The driver took us in separate trips to the police station in Tarutino, where we were questioned for several hours, before being expelled from the country as undesirable persons under the threat if we should show our faces again we would be placed behind bars for a number of years.

We were glad to have glimpsed the old homeland once more after fifty years, but we were also saddened that our reunion had ended so abruptly. Back home we soon forgot the threatened jail time as we tried to find a way to get to Krasna legitimately.

Max Riehl later obtained a permit. The end of the East-West confrontation made this possible. He reports of the first assistance convoy carrying supplies, which he and others took to Krasna in May of 1991. On May 28, 1991, an aid convoy got underway, protected by the German Red Cross. It consisted of Red Cross vehicles and a private truck with about 30 tons of supplies and 15 people, heading east. On May 31 we were greeted by the people of Krasna in a friendly yet reserved manner. There was a dispute with the officials concerning the distribution of the materials, since they did not want to begin the distribution until after our departure. We resolutely refused. The director in charge gave in only after we threatened to leave and take our aid to another village. I could hand each family a banana box filled with clothing and other items.

As a thank you for our assistance, people wanted to give me the lot of the former parish. After I refused this and other generous offers, I noted some dischord. In order to repair the damage, I asked for a small memento in the form of a threshing stone, which I had seen lying around as we approached the village. When we made ready to leave, there was still a surprise gift. The convoy driver was presented a wrist watch. The threshing stone was well packed and loaded on the truck and we left Krasna for home, in the knowledge that we had made new friends there.

We made a second supply trip to Krasna in 1991 and a third one in 1993.

Meanwhile, many people of Krasna have visited their former home, some of them more than once. Max Riehl, one of the first and certainly one of the most engaged visitors, said in 2006: During the first fifteen years since we are permitted to visit the old homeland again, many former people of Krasna from Germany, the USA, Canada and Australia have found their way back to the roots of their ancestors and found them. No matter the size of the group, large or small, we were housed and fed there. Guests were offered their own beds, the last crust of bread, just to make them feel safe and sound. I myself have been able to visit Krasna 16 times by 2006 and I often expereience people calling to from across the street: “Max, Spasiwa, Spasiwa” (Spasibo = thank you - the translator), before inviting me to family suppers, a glass of wine or a glass of Vodka.

We know from these visits that matters in Krasna and South Bessarabia have changed a lot. After World War II systematic tree plantings took place alongside the streets and fields to combat soil erosion. This changed the looks of the landscape, even transformed the climate. Canals were built on the Kogälnik river, which reduced the stork population. Changes in the landscape make it difficult to get oriented. The fields have changed as well. They are no longer the fields of the Bessarabian farmers, but huge Kolchose and Sowchose plantations, wine plantations, and fruit plantations, as far as the eye can see. Development did not come to a halt in Bessarabia. It leads back further from the times when the German Krasna population was there.

Alex Hein talks about his impressions from 1991: ³⁾ Today, Krasna has between 1,600 and 1,700 residents, 210 students, a new school near the old one and more than 20 teachers. See also: 3.1, The Village of Krasna, its Location and Appearance

The church, the chancellory, the mill, the “Home” and the cemetery no longer exist. Remnants of the rectory are still recognizable. Where the church once stood there are now new houses. The path to the boys’ school is gone. On the former farm of Erker (Flechstens) is now the street leading to the school. The girls’ school still exists but is no longer in use. The Totengasse Street is gone and so is the house that used to be behind it.

A new road with houses exists now where the road from Christostomus Fleckenstein to the cemetery used to be. The Lower village has a few isolated houses but it is difficult to get oriented there. Today, the center of Krasna is in the Schigurgasse and the warehouse (store) is on the old Arnold property. The former Lafka is the messhall and club house of the Kolchose now. The post office is at Fenrich’s home. The Upper Village now starts at the Peter Ruscheinski place and there are no more houses beyond that now. Toward central and lower village are houses now but it is almost impossible to assign these to the former residents.

Mühlengasse Street still exists. In the Upper Village are the Kolchose buildings, administration buildings, stables and other buildings. At the Isidor Leinz corner are many houses, too, making orientation dificult. The Lower Village ends roughly at the former Gottlieb Haag place, and here orientation was also a problem. The water pump is still there at Johannes Schlick’s place. Dorusgass Street and Markusgass Street are still there. At the place where the former ice cellar was is now a village sauna. It is also difficult to recognize our old Krasna from the east. The river has been straightened and is now closer to the village. A stone bridge spans it now. Behind the former Matery-Fenrich garden is now a new row of houses with a road. A portion of the meadows behind the gardens is still there.

One can say about the former farms that walls and entrance gates are gone, only a few walls still remain in the old style. One can say that Bessarabia has changed much in the past fifty years. Many trees were planted and there are new lakes, which influence the climate, it rains more today and failed harvests are virtually unheard of…

Ernst Schäfer was not born in Bessarabia himself, but is married to a woman from Krasna. He related his impressions of a journey from August 29 to 5 Sepember 2001. ⁴⁾ Here is a short excerpt: Our first day trip took us to Krasna, our actual destination. It is between 95-100 kilometers distant from Akkerman. Outside of the city we first experienced the expanse of the Bessarabian steppes. Endless fields as far as the eye can see, interrrupted and bordered only by hedges and tree plantations, meant to prevent the wind of the steppes from blowing away the soil. These hedges and trees did not exist before, they were planted later… We journey on through the old German villages and then we see a broad valley, bordered by gently sloping hills on both sides. It is the Kogälnik Valley. We are close to our destination and can soon see the farm village of Krasna on our left side. We cross the almost dry Kogälnik river and I can envision a photograph from our newsletter, called “Cows grazing on the Kogälnik river near Krasna.” This is reality. I am not a Bessarabian and my wife was also not born here, but my heatr beats faster and anticipation grows. What will it be like?…We are prepared for anything and pass the village sign, before heading to Main Street. We turn left and find a lot with rubble, of what was once the pretty church and the rectory. Here we first touch the soil of the once proud community of Krasna…

Olaf Schelski reports about a journey to Krasna in a filmed report called Begegnung mit der Vergangenheit (Meeting the past) in August of 2004 for the 190 year celebration of Krasna. The film can be purchased through the Kulturkreis der Deutschen aus Bessarabien (Cultural Circle of the Germans from Bessarabia).

Not only are journeys made to Krasna, there are also itensive contacts made with the current residents there and new friendships develop in the old home village between the former Krasna people and the current residents there.

Max Riehl, Alex Hein and others have done much to preserve the memory of the former German village.

• As a memory of the founders of Krasna, the Bessarabian Germans' Association has erected a commemorative memorial stone there.

Image 120: The Commemorative Stone, Erected in 2001

• A chapel was built at the old cemetery under the initiative of the Kulturkreis der Deutschen aus Bessarabien (Cultural Circle of the Germans from Bessarabia).

The current resident of Krasna have created a place of honor with this chapel, commemoating the German settlers, who founded Krasna in 1814. The chapel, a replica of the cemetery chapel of the Koblenz district of Güls, seems to stand watch over the flattened graves of the German colonists there. The sides of the chapel bear four commemorative plaques containing the names of the settlers who left Krasna in 1940.

See also 7.13, Resettlement Families of Krasna

Image 121: The Chapel at the Former Cemetery of Krasna

• A small homeland museum has been created in a large room of the school. There are handwritten displays and photos from the time of 1814-1940 and after. Typical implements, such as spinning wheels and costumes of the Ukraine as well as handwoven cloths are also there.

A recent development was the visit of a folklore group from Krasna to Germany. Invited by the Kulturkreises (Cultural Circles) ⁵⁾ in August of 2007, they came to Ochtendung near Koblenz. Reasons for this invitation the cultural circle described in a newsletter of July 207 to the fellow countrymen:
…as the roots of our solidarity to the Ukraine of today are based on the events of yesterday, spearheaded by the hard labor of our forebears, so have we tried to enliven the situation with our many visits and relief actions for the current residents, not just the residents of the former Krasna.
With this invitation of our club to the folklore group we are trying to pave the way into the tomorrow.
We view this as a contribution to the memory of the Bessarabian Germans, not just here in Germany but also in Bessarabia.