My husband and I and two children, and a third was born on the way. Then my old mother and two brothers with families. We arrived in North Kazakhstan, Kokchetai District, 180 kilometers away to a village. The men went to harvest the wheat, the women to dig and gather potatoes with spades. It was already cold, frost at night.

My husband was called in November to teach chemistry and biology to workers in a school because he was fluent in the Russian language and had completed the Russian college in Saratov. It lasted until 22 January, then the men from ages 15 to 50 were called. They were deceived. The young ones did not go to the Red Army at all‑ The Workers Army (trudarmiya) was founded. They were sent into the forest and to the mines.

They went to Vegebov, laying railroad tracks, in the forest Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Molotov District in the Ural Mountains. Then to mines in Karaganda, Kemerovo, Prokopevsk, Tula. They were housed in barracks surrounded by barbed wire, cold and without food. They were not permitted to leave the living quarters, for they were under supervision. A tower was built on which sat soldiers with rifles and German shepherd dogs. If someone left, he was shot. Because of the difficult work and poor nourishment, the older men died and then the younger ones also. Beginning in April 1942, the women between the ages of 15 and 50 were also mobilized. If the youngest child was 3 years old, the mothers were taken from their children. From 1948 on all were under special supervision. Whoever left the village without permission of the commandant faced 20 years imprisonment. So we were until April 1956. In that month we had to sign a paper that we would not disobey laws. From 1948 they allowed men in the trudarmiya to send invitations to their families to join them. My husband was working in the mine in TulaIn 1946 he had an accident. A coal car loaded with coal pinned him. He therefore had to endure much illness and could no longer work in the mines. He was given a job as translator with the prisoners from Germany until 1949. Then the camp was dissolved, the men who had been working in the mine went home. The German prisoners went back to Germany. In the Tula district we again were without work. When my husband applied for a job as teacher, he received the answer "We cannot use Soviet enemies . Hitler supporters!" So we had invitations arranged to go to our deportation destination, Kazakhstan. Because of illness, my husband was freed from working in the mine. We moved to the Kokchetau District 10 March 1953, accompanied by two people with weapons from the supervisor's office. In the raion (reforestation) as a construction worker with our fourteen year old son. In August he began to travel to the supervisory office to ask for permission to travel to the district educational department. There he received the same answer: “How can we trust a special resettler to work in the Soviet schools?” With certificates of poor health, entreaties

With certificates of poor health, entreaties and pleading, he was appointed to teach the foreigh language German and to instruce students. So he worked until he was pensioned in 1966. He never received his diploma as teacher of chemistry and biology. He was ill

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