LETTER WRITTEN TO CONRAD FRICK IN MONTROSE, COLORADO, FROM HIS BROTHER JACOB FRICK IN THE U.S.S.R.

(Transliterated by Adam Kindsvater from longhand Gothic script into Latin script. Translated from German to English by R.G. Reider, April 1992, with annotations added in brackets, [])

Today, the 17th of January [1932], Sunday.

Today, I must write a letter to my dear brother Conrad.

Dear brother, I live no more in Huck, but in Middle Asia, about 600 kilometers from Tashkent. I will tell you why.

I am here with my wife and the three youngest children, two girls and a boy. Because we have no money, no earnings, and no longer any property, there is not much to live for. But we are determined to make the best of it. We can do it if we try.

My second son Jacob came here earlier and has made a place for us. Here we must start all over again because we no longer have a home. We were deported on the 7th of December 1930 and arrived here on the 26th of December. We stayed with brother Johannes' wife for a whole week in Saratov. She did not come with us. We traveled on without her. I can tell you that I am lost without my home.

In the autumn of 1928 a letter was received from you where you said that you had sent $5.00 to Johannes Michel that should be given to brother Georg. I was there when Michel received the money. He gave it to Georg, along with some produce. In the meantime, I have not lived in Huck.

We were driven out of Huck on October 1, 1929. We were sent to a barren land. This place, Erdhitten or Semljanka, was in a broad valley in our region. Here we had to find shelter just as our forefathers did when they left Germany to settle on the Volga [Jacob Frick had to dig a hole in the ground and cover it with wood and earth for shelter]. We were one of 15 families. Only seven stayed while the others fled. I can tell you who the remaining seven were.

1) The Ekkert-Kremer's two sons. Their parents died a long time ago. They did not stay long in Semljanka but soon went to other places to find work.

2) The second was Johannes Wilhelm. I can tell you something about the others. There was old fat Conrad (you remember him) and his oldest son Hanjech and his son Johannes. The son Johannes soon left and went somewhere else. The eldest Wilhelm lived here until Christmas [1929] and then went back to Huck to his youngest son's place. This youngest son had been permitted to remain in Huck.

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3) Also here were brothers Georg and Philipp Niederhaus and their wives. They both were Feuerphilipp [a nickname] in their younger days. Their grandfather was an old Ostwalde-Hanesche [a nickname].

4) Then there was me, my wife, and three children.

5) Also there was the son of Peter Schwabauer, but he did not stay and went elsewhere to find work.

6) Here also was Philipp Leichner, the son of old Konrad Leichner.

7) Then, there was your brother-in-law Loren [Lorenz, who married Anna Maria, a sister of Eva Elizabeth Niederhaus Frick]. He did not have a house. He was arrested but came back on October 18. I offered him a place to stay. His wife died there in February [1930].

In early March 1930, 70 families from Huck were gathered together in a great troop to begin their departure to unknown places, at which time they were driven out of Huck as kulaks. Your brother-in-law Lorenz did not go because he owed money to banks in Balzer and Frank. So he was detained the whole summer in Huck and then in Perewosinka. As I understand it, he then was taken to the area of Tula [south of Moscow] to work on the railroad.

I also was not involved in this deportation because I no longer owned a house. Later, in April 1930, 12 additional families were gathered together and deported, including my son Johannes. My wife, three children, and I would have been included at this time, but we were held back because I became sick. We stayed with my oldest daughter Eva Katarina [Kindsvater] who was allowed to stay in Huck. We stayed with her family.

Now [in 1932], everything has been taken from us, our business siezed, and we have been forced to move. We have been taken here [to Kasachistan] along with many other Germans in an area having a circumference of 350 kilometers. We have work and enough to eat.

Now I must tell you that our sister Cristine [Weber, born Geier from the first marriage of Oswald Frick's second wife] died in the autumn of 1929. She was sick for only three weeks. She was buried on November 19th. I attended the funeral alone.

I will now tell you where everyone is. Brother Georg [Johann‑Georg] was sent to Siberia. Brother Philipp is somewhere in Russia. Johannes is here where I am. He had four children, all well educated and good children.

Sister Lilis [Leolora‑Elizabeth, or Lolis] and Georg

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Heinrich (Koch] are no longer together and Johannes was taken to Moscow. Lilis lived with her oldest son and then the youngest son. The oldest son went looking for work. When I was in Saratov, I learned that his son Philipp needed help because he had no money and was sick.

So, I will close my letter. I can tell you that one cannot be happy in this new home because of all that we have been forced to undergo. I myself have become sick and hope again for better times.

The greatest of love from all of us. Also Johannes sends his love. I have also given your address to Johannes so that I can write you again. Also a kiss from Peter and Johannes with their families.

In the old days one wished for peace. In the life such as we now find ourselves, without a home, one desires only to leave this world. I know many old people who long for their homeland as their final resting place. That reminds me of a saying which we learned as youngsters, Prediger, Kap. 12‑1 [Lesson, Chapter 12‑1], "Think of your creator while you are young, before the days and years pass by. Then you can say, whatever happens to me does not matter."

Here is my address [in Russian], the same as my son Jacob.

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Annotations added by Adam Kindsvater, April 1992:

This letter was written by my grandfather (Ellervoter as they would say of the elders in Huck) on the 17th of January. The year in not given. I think it was in 1932, the same year that he died. The letter is very hard to read and one must guess a lot. There are many persons mentioned whom I do not know. But this letter, which you have sent to me and which I now return to you, is a great joy to me.

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Additional note by R.G. Reider:

A check of a "Perpetual Calendar" reveals that January 17, 1932 was indeed a Sunday. Therefore, the letter was written in that year.

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