VOLHENIA         LYDIA GASCHKE, BORN 1917, PASSED 2007: Notes from a phone conversation with Lydia Gaschke on 19 June 2001: Dad’s father was a young boy when the Tomtschik family moved from Königsberg to the Ukraine, not his grandfather as I had originally thought. Lydia was certain that her father Gustav and aunt Augusta were both born in Königsberg since the fact that her father was born a German and had German citizenship papers was very important later as they were trying to get out of the Ukraine and back to Germany. This would put the family’s date of departure from Königsberg much later than I originally thought, somewhere around the early 1870’s. Lydia said her grandfather told them their land in Königsberg was very poor with sandy soil and lots of rocks. He had always heard the land in the Ukraine was very fertile, so he decided to sell the farm in Königsberg and move the family to the Ukraine where he was able to buy land and start a new farm. Lydia described the farm as having a large fruit orchard with apple and pear trees, and two fields of hops. There was a pond near the orchard. They kept some geese on the pond and would also go swimming there. Aunt Olga nearly drowned in the pond one day. She had gone under, and they had to pull her out of the water. She had stopped breathing, but they were able to get her to spit all the water back out and revive her. There was also a piece of woods on their land. There was a road coming out of Fedorowka that split the farm into two halves. Apparently they also raised pigs on the farm since Oma Tomtschik would go to market to sell the Ferkel, or baby pigs. Lydia thought the size of the farm was 18 desiatina, which equates to around 500 acres of land, but wasn’t sure of the exact size. Dad’s grandfather was named Johann Tomtschik and his Grandmother was named Regina. Lydia didn’t remember Amalia Konetzke’s (Oma Tomtschik’s) parents, as they were already dead when she was born. Oma’s dad was named Johann Konetzke. Amalia was the oldest of the children, and Emil Konetzke was the second. Amalia’s mother died after she was born. Lydia did not know her name. After this Amalia’s father married a woman named Bertha and the remaining seven children were born. Bertha died in 1934. Lydia wasn’t sure what Johann Konetzke did for a living, but he probably farmed too. He also died at a young age but both Lydia and Waldemar Konetzke are unsure of how or why he died. The other children were named Lydia, Emma, Paulina, Bertha, Johann and Waldemar. Lydia and Emma married Charntezke brothers. Lydia moved to the US with her husband and they were both killed in a car accident. Emma stayed in Germany near the city of Jena in the former east zone and died there. Paulina stayed in Poland and married a polish man. Bertha was sent away to Siberia. Bertha has a daughter named Tanya living in Russia who the family tried to contact once, but she wrote back that she didn’t want to be contacted any more. Johann is dead, but she doesn’t know what happened to him. Waldemar was the youngest. He had to fight in the war for the German army. He was last heard from as he was going to fight in Holland near the end of the war. They don’t know what happened to him after that. In 1915 the Russians deported most of the Germans living in the Ukraine. Gustav and Amalia Tomtschik were sent to Astrakhan. Lydia was born in Astrakhan on March 16, 1916. Martha was also born in Astrakhan in 1920, so the family spent at least five years there. She said her dad worked on buildings while they were in Astrakhan. Her grandfather Johann was not deported because he was considered too old. He was allowed to stay on the farm. When conditions improved somewhat in the area, he wrote a letter to his son saying that he should come back and then he would sign the farm over to him. Gustav left the family behind in Astrakhan and went back to complete the transaction on the farm, and probably to see if the area was safe. After this, he went back to Astrakhan to get his family and then brought them all to the farm in Fedorowka. As part of the transaction for the farm Gustav had to pay Augusta 400 Rubles. Amalia Konetzke (Tomtschik) was born in the Ukraine. She and her family were Masuren. From the readings I have done I found out the Masuren were a race of people originating in southern East Prussia and northern Poland. Masuren were characterized by their short, stocky stature and their own language, which was a combination of German, Polish and some Russian. Dad’s father was shot by two men who were brothers as he was coming back from selling hops at the market in Tschernjachow, a town about 13KM south of Fedorowka. He was alone on a horse drawn wagon when he was killed. The two men took his money, tied the horse to a telegraph pole and then ran away. The men were caught some time later at which time one of them committed suicide by slitting his wrists. Lydia said after that the parents and family of the brothers were all rounded up and shot because they had raised murderers. Opa Tomtschik was buried in Fedorowka. -Martha, Emma and Olga were all baptized in the church in Neudorf. Lydia was baptized in a river somewhere with 30 other people. Around the time the communists seized the farm all the churches were closed as well. For a time they had no church to go to. After a while they started having church meetings in peoples homes. A few small churches were then built. Lydia said their pastor, and most of the other pastors, were all arrested and shot. When Lydia got married she was not allowed to get married in the church. She had to go to Zhitomir and was married in the courthouse there. According to Waldemar Konetzke, the Konetzke side of the family did not regularly attend church and he didn’t know what denomination or religion they claimed. -All of the children except Lydia went to school in Neudorf. Oma Tomtschik didn’t let Lydia go to school because she needed her to work at home. After Opa Tomtschik was killed Lydia had to do a lot of work around the house. She spent a lot of her time caring for Dad and the other younger children and said she practically raised the family. -John Tucholke’s father was named Julius. Oma had another Tucholke baby who died. Julius Tucholke was usually drunk and was very abusive. He would beat Oma and the children. Lydia said that after Dad was burned Julius Tucholke would torment him by picking at his sores. Oma Tomtschik finally had enough and chased him away. He never came back. Life was very hard after the communists took the farm. The communists not only seized the land, but all the animals and anything else of value. They weren’t allowed to own anything. They were given little food and often had to scavenge in the fields for potatoes or anything else that might have been left behind. The communists didn’t care if they starved to death. Lydia’s father-in-law Julius Gaschke was taken away one day by the communists and shot for no apparent reason. Many of their neighbors were rounded up and deported to Siberia. One day in winter men came to the Tomtschik house with three wagons and were going to take Oma and the family away. Somehow Oma knew they were coming and told all the children to act like they were sick, and she did the same. When the communists came to take them away she convinced them that they were all very ill and would be dead before long and it wasn’t worth trying to send them away. The men left them alone and didn’t take any of them away. Around 1935 Dad’s Aunt Augusta left the Ukraine and went back to Königsberg. Lydia doesn’t know what happened to her after that. Life improved a bit when the Germans occupied the region during the war, but that was short lived. One day the German troops came and told them they had to leave right away and that the Russians were only 5KM away. They had to leave all their belongings in their house and flee. When they got to the Polish border there was a checkpoint manned by German guards. They were asked about their citizenship and where they were born. They were all born in Ukraine, but they claimed German citizenship because Gustav Tomtschik had been born in Königsberg. Luckily for them one of the border guards was also from Königsberg and he helped them get through the checkpoint into Poland. Many of the refugees trying to get into Poland were turned back and fell into Russian hands. -Uncle Otto’s real name was Anton. When they got to the Polish border the guards weren’t going to let him through because he had a Russian name, but then Lydia told them his name was really Otto, and that is what was put on his papers. Similarly, Lydia’s daughter Emma was originally named Tanya, but this too was changed because it was a Russian name. -Lydia left Ukraine with three children, Irene, Emma and Julius who were all born in Olschewka. Little Julius died at the age of 8 months while they were in Poland. When he got sick he was taken away to a hospital where he later died. After this his body was given back to them. Somehow they were able to get a small coffin for him and they used white cloth from Irene and Emma’s dresses to make an outfit to bury him in. He was buried in a mass grave in Poland. -During the war uncles Otto and Julius both had to go in the Wehrmacht, or German army. Julius was sent to Berlin where he had to work in the fire department. He was kept busy trying to put out all the fires started by allied bombing. Otto was drafted and trained, but never actually went to combat. After the war they were both released from service. -The Germans needed field workers in the Beienrode area. That is why the family was sent to that area. Lydia said she worked in the fields there for a total of 8 years before leaving to go to the US. -Martha’s husband Anton Artikov was medically disqualified from immigrating so they had to stay behind when all the other relatives immigrated to the US. Martha was later killed. Her body was found beaten and stuffed into a sewer pipe with her sitting on her knees and a lot of her hair pulled out. WALDEMAR KONETZKE, MY FATHERS COUSIN From : John Tomtschik Subject : Oma Tomtschik's Family Date : Thu, 7 Jun 2001 11:01:13 -0700 (PDT) Hi, Today I talked on the phone with Dad's cousin Waldemar Konetzke and he told me some stuff about Oma Tomtschik's side of the family I never knew. He told me she was the oldest of eight children, five girls and three boys. The next oldest was Emil Konetzke, born on November 27, 1898. He was the father of Dads cousin Waldemar. The other siblings were named Johann, Waldemar, Lydia, Emma, Paulina, and Bertha. Waldemar Konetzke went back to visit his former home in the Ukraine in 1994. He was born in the village of Olschewka, which was only three kilometers northeast of Fedorowka. He said the village of Olschowka is gone. There are still some remaining buildings in Fedorowka, but nothing was recognizable. He found where the Olschowka cemetery used to be, but no grave markers were there. He said many of his (and our) relatives were buried in that cemetery and it was sad that nothing remains to remember them by. We plan to visit him again some time. He seems to really like talking about this stuff and I'm interested in it too, so we always seem to have plenty to talk about. Someone should make a list of questions to ask and go talk to Aunt Lydia and see what she remembers about all this. I guess that's all for today. Hope everyone is well. We are doing good here. Take care.  GERMAN BAPTISTS RETURN TO GERMANY FROM VOLHENIA -It was March 1949 and the Baptist church in Beienrode was holding a revival in the hall they met in. The pastor’s name from the church was Pastor Lutz. (Several years later he ended up going to Canada to preach.) Dad’s sister Olga invited mom to the revival meeting where a young traveling evangelist named Pastor Goetz was preaching. There was a piano and they sang songs and then heard a message. Mutti figures there were about 80 people there and the room was packed. She attended for a few nights, and then one night when Pastor Goetz gave the invitation Mutti raised her hand. A lady named Mrs. Miller came over by her and took her aside to pray with her. Mutti already knew Mrs. Miller as a friend. She is the lady who borrowed her wedding dress to Mutti to get married in June of 1948. Mutti also remembers that Mrs. Miller’s husband had gone to the war and lost both legs. -There was a baptism that was held on June 6th and the entire town of Beienrode showed up. Mutti said it was like nothing they’d ever seen and there were people everywhere watching. There were two tents near the river for them to get ready, one for boys and one for girls. Mutti recalls about 7 girls and 5 boys were all baptized at this time. They all wore white and went into the river to be baptized. John Tucholke and Dad’s cousin Irene were baptized at the same time Mutti was, but she wasn't sure if they became Christians at the same revival. It was in the river to the right of the road as you’re going into town just at the end of where the big Schloss still stands today. -Dad did not come to know the Lord until more than 10 years later in the United States. Mutti and Dad went to church every Sunday, but Dad hadn’t accepted the Lord. Somewhere around 1960-61 a pastor of their church came to the house and was talking with Dad and finally prayed with him to accept Christ. His name was pastor Kroecker.  REMEBRANCES OF WW2 IN GERMANY -When Mutti lived in Ampleben, there were many air raids and the sirens would go off frequently. There was a fall-out shelter in town. When the sirens went off, everyone was supposed to go to the fall out shelter. The shelter was a wine cellar, which was also located in the same place where Mutti picked up mail. Mutti said that many times they didn’t go to the shelter when the sirens went off though, because there were lots of false alarms and they were always tired from working so hard all day that sometimes they just stayed home. One time when they actually did go to the shelter, they came home to discover a bomb had fallen through their roof and was lodged in the attic. Mutti said that every once in a while this would happen to others in the town also. Sometimes you’d even see a bomb in the ground and officials would put a barricade around it until it could be taken away. They called some officials who came to take away the one in their attic and defused it. Once, a bomb did go off in a barn in Ampleben and everyone had to get buckets of water to help put the fire out.