Celebrating the Meeting of Brothers 40 Years Ago

My Tante Lena, now 82 years old,

called me recently, inviting us for dinner

to celebrate their family's 40 years in Canada.

 

I thought is was sweet of her to include us!

At the dinner table we reminisced about the day they arrived and how it all came about.

Everyone involved, had their particular memory!

Oh, how our dads would have loved to have been part of the discussion 

to clear up all of the mysteries ...

but 40 years later now ... they are not with us any more. 

I came home and realized I have never shared the story of how
my dad and his brother were separated as children.

So from what I've been told, I will summarize uncle Abram and (my father) Peter's  story.

In eastern Russia (1929) Abram was one of twins, born to Abram and Anna (Epp) Janzen. Anna died giving birth, as did the twin brother. Abram Janzen gave his newborn son to his married sister who had no children and his name became Abram Funk. Soon after, Abram Janzen married Anna Niebuhr and my father, Peter Janzen, was one of three boys born to them.

As children, living in Lugowoje, they played together like cousins do. Little Abram remained with his aunt and uncle, whom he knew as his parents.  In 1937 Abram Janzen, like many others, was imprisoned for unknown reasons. In 1939 my grandmother found out that her husband had been shot. By then she had also lost two boys in the difficulties of not being able to get medical help. She took her only son, Peter, my father, across the country to the Ukraine area, where she had relatives she could live with. 

In 1941, when Germany invaded the Ukraine and found the German speaking Mennonites, they treated them well. My grandmother and father retreated with them, under their protection, to Germany. From there they got on a ship to meet up with extended family in Paraguay.

My father, was 15 years old when he came to Paraguay. I have always imagined that is when he was told that his cousin, Abram, who stayed in Russia, was his half brother. He did not know it as a child. What I do know is that knowing he had a brother became very special to him. It was sad that, because of Communism, communication was very difficult, if  not impossible. In those years, there was no way they could meet. 

Over the years, however, once government restrictions lessened somewhat, they were able to write; but even then, they knew their letters could be sensored. During this time they found out that they married in the same year and had their first three children in the same years!

After we moved to Canada, my father did all he could to get his brother and family to emigrate. When it looked hopeless, he flew to Germany to try from there. I do not know how that went, but one day he was contacted by the Red Cross, who noted that he had tried for years to get this family out of Russia. That is when things began to roll and the Red Cross negotiated with the Russian emigration agency. My dad bought a house and prepared for their arrival. 

So, finally, in 1978 the call came that they were arriving in Vancouver. In the end it happened fast! My dad, who seemed incapable of shedding tears, became emotional! He was going to meet his brother, and not only Abram, but his wife and five kids, after 40 years of being apart! It was a miracle!  We met our cousins on the Janzen side for the very first time.

I asked my Tante Lena now about how things were in the years after so many Mennonites left. She said that passports were taken away from everyone. They were sent north by train and for the next ten years they were put into forced labor in the cold. Everyone had to check in regularly with the police, she said. Church was forbidden. She was only a child at the time but she already knew Abram, who also was there. After Stalin died (1953),  people were given permission to travel within the country and they moved to the Kirghistan area. This is where my uncle Abram and Tante Lena had their children and lived until they came to Canada. 

It was in Vancouver, that they were introduced to church. She said that my parents went and so they went along. They were welcomed by a host of people who had come out of Russia decades earlier, so there were many connections and they were loved and accepted.

This photo was taken in 2000. You can see, even here, my dad is emotional. 

They both passed away in 2007

Brothers ... by the same father 

and brothers in the faith.