There are a number of reports and narratives, etc., pertaining to life in Krasna and the time afterwards, produced over the years and published. Added to these are texts which are not specifically reports about Krasna but are pertinent to life in Krasna, as well. Important excerpts of these reports and narratives were already covered in the previous material ad verbatim and with notation of the sources. The printing of these texts in their entirety would be too volumnous here. There are three reports ad verbatim which are important for Krasna:

1. The reports by Pastor Conrad Keller from 1911 (First publication about Krasna overall, aside from statistics and official reports)
2. A report about the visit of the bishop in 1921 at the transfer of the Bessarabian parishes to the diocese of Jassy.
3. Report of the dedication of the rectory and parish home from 1938

The colony of Krassna (Gouvernement Bessarabia)

¹⁾ The colony of Krasna was founded in 1814 on the right shore of the valley rive Kugelnik-Kunduk by Polish, mostly Catholic, settlers. The colony of Krasna is 95 werst distant from the district city of Akkermann, 100 werst from the government city of Kischinev and 140 werst from Odessa. Here, in the center of a valley of a width of 4 werst, overgrown by reeds, thorny shrubs, man-high grasses and Burjan plants, home to wolves and other wild animals, the settlers arrived, exhausted from their lengthy journey. When they arrived, most of them had no capital and depended on the the government support. Land designated for fruit cultivation was not level and overgrown with thorny shrubs, which made it difficult for the settlers to work the land, whereas the water-rich valley floor made an excellent livestock pasture. Therefore the settlers paid more attention to livestock production and trade than farming.

In the first decades, the develpment of the colony was hindered by various events and disturbances: diseases popped up, killing any of the new settlers, plagues occurred, killing cows and draft animals as well as trading stock. The few agricultural products also did not bring decent prices, since they were too far away from the markets. Lack of cash often led to trading in wares.

In order to sell grain, one had to travel to Odessa, 140 kilometers away. Such a round trip took a week and was dangerous, as well, since one feared to be robbed by traveling bands of gypsies.

Some of the settlers were Catholics, others Lutheran and this led to conflict, quarrels and such, which came to an end when the community severed land from the western part and founded a new village, Katzbach, 8 werst distant from Krasna. There, the Lutheran colonists moved to. The Catholics remained in Krasna and peace in the village was restored.

In 1865. a new parish church was built in Krasna and a rectory, parish home, to the right of it was completed in 1885. Next to the yard is a vegetable garden and a fruit orchard. The school and teachers' quarters are to the right. The school is much too small for the current number of students. It measures 10 faden in length and 3½ faden in width and is supposed to house 200 students for classroom instruction. This shall soon be rectified. The community land of the colony of Krasna amounts to 6,910.2 desjatines and contains 114 farms. The village currently has 54 families without land, not counting the landless people living outside of the village. Up to now Krasna only purchased a small amount of additional land. People leaving the village are mostly moving out of the country and therefore a fairly large village, Caramurat, has been founded by people who left Krasna. Lately most of them moved to North Dakota and Canada. Many also settled in the Caucasus region.

Currently, Krasna has 1864 inhabitants, all of them of the catholic faith. There is one parish church, 1 school with 2 teachers, a third teacher is supposed to be hired this year, 225 students. There are also 14 smiths, 8 wheelwrights, 3 carpenters, 2 tailors, 8 shoemakers, 2 painters, 3 general stores, 3 wine shops, 1 windmill and 1 steam mill.

The last bishop of Tiraspol, Alois Josef Keßler initially moved his diocesan office to Odessa in order to escape the Bolshevists. After their victory, he fled to Krasna in 1921, which was back then still part of his diocese. Therefore, the last bishop of Tiraspol resided in Krasna from January 1920 until January 1922. On January 3rd, 1922, bishop Keßler went to North America to collect donations. After this journey, he retreated to the cloister of Nuns of the Holy Virgin Mary in Zinnowitz on the Baltic Sea, where he wrote the history of the Diocese of Tiraspol. He died there on December 10, 1933. The Diocese of Tiraspol was vacant during Soviet times. (See also 5.1, Church and Religion)

Rome reacted to the changes of statehood for Bessarabia since 1918 and demanded a severance of the Bessarabian District from the Diocese of Tiraspol in September of 1921 and annexation to the Diocese of Jassy, Rumania.

The bishop of Jassy visited Krasna in November of 1921 to receive the Bessarabian parishes for his diocese. There is a newspaper report about his visit.
Note: The guests arrived at the train station of Beresina, close to Krasna, which was called Anschiokrak in 1921. See also 4.5, Traffic Infrastructure, Postal and Telephone Service

The North Dakota newpaper “Nordlicht” (Northern Lights) reports on December 29, 1921 on page 2:
From Rumania. Original report from Bessarabia, Balmas, November 25, 1921

Dear Nordlicht!
Since so many people from Krasna, Bessarabia, left their old homeland to make a new home in the “New World,” it may be of interest to hear the following news from the old homeland. Most likely is it already known that at the end of World War II, Bessarabia was taken from Russia and annexed again to the Greater Rumania. Bessarabia contains 45,632 square kilometers and is situated between the rivers Pruth and Dnjestr. It has 2 million residents. Consequently, all of the Catholic parishes of Bessarabia were separated from the Russian diocese of Tiraspol and annexed to the Greater Rumanian neighboring Diocese of Jassy in Moldavia. Due to these changes, the bishop of Jassy, accompanied by a deacon, visited the Catholic parishes of Bessarabia, namely Krasna, Emmental, Bendery and Kischinev. According to his speaker, this journey will be long remembered, as it provided his first contact with colonists, he said: “I shall never forget the impressions of this journey. In the company of Bishop Dr. Alexander Cisar of Jassy, a remarkable, Holy Ghost inspired man and dignitary of the church, we traveled two hours by train and came to the train station of Anschiokrak. It was the middle of the night, but preparations had been made for our reception. Dr. Josef Kessler, Bishop of Tiraspol, who had to flee South Russia after his brother was murdered and came to Bessarabia where he has resided among his parishioners of Krasna for over a year, came to welcome us in person, although he is not well. He came all the way to the 12 werst distant train station of Anschiokrak near Beresina to escort us with many others into Krasna, where we arrived around midnight.
Krasna is a flourishing colony of German settlers with about 3,000 all-Catholic residents.”
According to his report, a strange celebration took place the following morning. The two bishops in their violet church vestments were ringed by the delegation of the Nuntius and with the church bells ringing they were led in a festive procession to the well-decorated parish church. There, the papal banner and flowers also made a festive decor. Afterwards, the high official read the Papal Decree from the pulpit, then Bishop Kessler gave his touching farewell speech. The New Chief Shepherd, Dr. Alexander Cisar, greeted his new community of the faithful in a moving speech and assured them of his fatherly love. He finished with a bishop’s blessing which ended this memorial service. At the parish a protocol was made of it and the two bishops and the village pastor, Bernhard Leibham, as well as representatives of the church community, signed the document. They were: Peter and Gottlieb Leintz, Maximilian Hein, M. Volk, S. Dirk, A. Sauterle and M. Ternes. After this, the dignitary also desired to mingle with his parish members outside of the church environment and in the evening, there was a social gathering at the home of the Justice of the Peace, where the officials spent a comfortable evening with a few glasses of wine. He talked about the Banat people and expressed his firm belief that the Suebian Farm Association would pay them a visit from Germany. He also listened to talk of the people and the land, Krasna customs, farming and wine cultivation, horses and livestock, sheep and commerce, ranging all across Bessarabia and all the way to the Black Sea. There they trade ware for ware and buy and sell as they see fit. Krasna farmers have much money, they are the richest farmers in the Akkerman district. They own from 6-60, some even over a hundred, desjatines of land, work with four to eight horses and have also 20-30 sheep. Just as in the old days, they still make their own cloth from home produced sheep’s wool and hemp or they take the wool to clothing manufacturers in Tarutino. One arschin of cloth of prime quality costs 100 lei, second grade 60-80 lei. The tradesmen are also well equipped with tools to perform their smithing and woodworking. There are many other tradesmen in the village: smiths, wheel wrights, shoemakers, carpenters, tailors, painters, coopers and artists, who can take a run down old wagon and refurbish it to look like it just came from the show room. Krasna people are deeply religious, love their beautiful church, which stands on its own lot next to the rectory and a cemetery. Krasna clothing is uniform. The men were decent, simple clothing and wear black caps instead of hats. The women are garbed without luxury, dressed in dark colors and they wear black head scarves. Each village has its own peculiarity and there are great differences. I could not describe the farm qualities of the colonists in Balmas and assume these would be the same in Krasna. Perhaps I shall get to the point where I can purchase many stamps and paper and then I shall write many letters.
Greetings to my son Zachäus Dirk and his wife Hermina. I am also sending greetings to my sons-in-law in America and to their wives, my daughters Amalia and Eugenia.
Romuald Dirk

Published in the Deutsche Zeitung Bessarabiens (German Newspaper of Bessarabia)
Reprinted by Richard Heer in his article Die alte und die neue Heimat der Bessarabiendeutschen (The Old and the New Home of the Bessarabian Germans), pages 631/632

Our parish home was dedicated on December 26, 1938. Afterwards, our priest, Professor Wilhelm Schumacher, celebrated a Christmas Eve with a varied program with the adult youths. The actual dedication had already taken place in the morning right after church in the presence of many men. It was the end of a difficult matter.
One can apply a proverb of Frederick the Great here: “Solid impressions are connected to the performance of difficult maters, the more difficult they are, the greater is the honor.” Our pastor had made a goal right after he began work in Krasna to create a place to cultivate matters of spirit and soul in a special place for the purpose. He was most likely aware of the difficulties he faced, since he remarked in his first speech that being called to Krasna gave him a sense of (Mount) Calvary. Indeed, he was plagued by envy, distrust and indifference and did indeed face his Calvary with the endeavour of building the parish home. In order to get a concept of the magnitude of this enterprise, I would like to sketch the situation of Krasna prior to this building of the pastorate. (Similar situations may have existed in other communities.) The indifference and the chase after earthly goods as a heritage of the times after the World War had people in a firm grip and led us astray. We were no longer like our fathers. They endured through the hard times. They were dirt poor at the settlement, and built the church, school and chancellery with their own sweat. They only achieved this through their faith, firm belief in God and willingness to make sacrifices. They were German in language as well as in character. German virtues such as hard work, simplicity, willingness to make sacrifices and faith were alive and well with them. Over time, these virtues of our fathers diminish. Wrong attitudes took over, such as “Do what you want, it does not matter what the old folks believed.” Thus we have deviated from our goals. Our goals were small goals and they were land and more land. It made us forget our cultural treasures, our German soul. The body was the main goal and even church and school faded into the background, let alone a club or association. We had forgotten the spiritual and soul well-being of our children, they were merely provided for. The external had conquered the internal. Materialism had conquered idealism. These and similar circumstances were the greatest obstacles for the building of our home. Our pastor worked hard and made an excellent pitch for the home and he succeeded. The indifferent attidudes vanished as did the distrust and this beautiful building came into being, through German industriousness and unity.

Getting back to our Christmas Eve celebration, I would like to say that the inhabitants of our village and the many guests from surrounding villages appeared in such great numbers, that our large hall was too small to hold them all, so the presentations had to be repeated on other evenings, such as January First.

Before the program began, the pastor performed a small blessing by reading the psalm: “Where the Lord does not build, the workers labor in vain, etc.” Then, accompanied by the horn orchestra, we all sang the hymn Grosser Gott wir loben Dich (Great Lord we Praise Thee). The pastor made a long speech in his introduction. He expressed his joy and his gratitude about the completed labor and explained his fight against misunderstandings and misinterpretations, pointed out that the building came into being through our own efforts and without any outside support. Religious, God-fearing people, who arrived here 130 years ago, had clung to their faith in all struggles, they were not inclined to change the world. For people of Krasna, religion is not a political emblem of life, not a worship of unknown fate, not the deification of second class values and objects, but knowledge of the mortality of all earthly things, the search and acceptance of a perfect and personal God, as J. Eberle once said, who is above the earth but also a power of providence and elation. Treitschke says: The Germans shall experience in their history that all their strongest and smartest men were all faithful Christian. Thus we are united in our general belief with those of the best thinkers, the greatest of the Germans, among them Ernst Moritz Arndt, who attracted the interest of H. St. Chamberlain. A long line of leading physicians shows the strong fortutude of the soul in their belief, an anchor in the babble of the times as no philosophy or ethics can offer.
Our national and homeland work is based on this foundation. Krasna people cling to their soil and their blood. This will continue wherever Krasna pioneers founded colonies worldwide. The work for our fatherland is based on our religion. Love for the fatherland, which is not anchored in the depth of the soul is isolated and not great enough. The more a person is anchored in his faith, the more faithful is he to his nation and people. In an expression of this homeland attitude, it was decided to send a congratulatory note to His Majesty, King Carl.

1st telegram
His Majesty, King Carol II
Upon the occasion of the dedication of our parish home in the community of Krasna, we the residents of this community wish to express our gratitude and respect in unity of thought to Your Majesty in the dedication and labor for the benfit of our homeland and our church.
Residents of the community
Krasna, district of Cetatea Alba

2nd telegram
His Excellency, the Roman Catholic
Bishop of Jassy
At the occasion of the dedication of our parish home in our community we wish to express our thanks for Your noble support and assure You of our loyalty and conviction for the elevation of our fatherland and the church.
Residents of the community
Krasna, district Cetatea Alba

Afterwards, the choir sang the national anthem, which our band accompanied very well. At the same time the national flag and the papal flag were unfurled. The poem Laβt die Banner wehen (Let the Banner Wave), recited by Michael Schlick in a gripping rendition in the purest German. Then the song Seht die bunten Fahnen fliegen (See the colorful banners wave“ followed. Josef Koch recited the poem “Straja.” During the remainder of the presentation, several people held speeches.

Praetor Varadiev spoke first in the name of the government. He pointed out that Krasna was a beacon for progress, as he had noticed on several occasions. It is founded on Krasna’s intellectual prowess. He wished Krasna a continuance in this spirit. The second speaker was our Primar, Mayor Josef G. Volk, who said the following words in the name of the community: “As leader of this community I believe it is my duty to express the feelings of my village community in a few words. First, I would like to thank our guests, whose coming here is an honor and a joy. On this evening we are rightfully proud of the product of our toil and sacrifices, the German Catholic Home. We are proud of our pastor, who went to great lengths for the benefit of the community. In the name of the community I want to especially thank him. This house is again an example of German work and unity. It is a treasure of our village. I know that many of you were skeptical at the beginning. Today this skepticism is no longer justified. Let us continue to make sacrifices to fully complete this work, since it is for the benefit of our community. In this sense: Courage, Unity and let the work continue!

President Isidor Leinz spoke in the name of the building committee and Samuel Heier in the name of the district consistorium. Doctor Erhard Haase spoke on behalf of Arthur Fink. The final speaker was our district leader Dr. Otto Broneske in the name of the district council. He gave us a congratulatory message from the district council for this national achievement. He stressed that Krasna was an example for idealism overcoming materialism.

The first part of the program ended with the song Hymne an die Nacht (Hymn to the Night) by Beethoven.
The second part was filled with many songs and poems, which were presented exceptionally well.
The third part was the crowning event, a Christmas Play by Franz Herwig in three acts. It depicted the fight of the Mother Earth for the people past, present and future, to lead them away from the faith of the Christ child. At the end the faith in the Christ child was victorious as Saviour of the World.

The fascinating content of the piece and the magnificent presentation left the audience spellbound. Very content did they leave around midnight, proud of the presentation by the Krasna youths.

Signed
A Person from Krasna