"Deportation was a kind of genocide, murder not of persons, but of a nations sense of itself." -- Susan Wise Bauer
“The Karamysh River ran north and south between Beideck and Norka, but up north it veered or turned westward, so it bordered what was considered two sides of the Norka ground, the eastern edge and also the northern edge. Across the river on northern shore, was a Russian village named Rybushka that we traveled through when going toward Saratov….. To the west we bordered with Russian villages on the Medveditsa River. Along the Karamysh River, across from Rybushka, the land lying along the river was owned by four parties (including a Miller and Sinner family)... this we used for our potato ground. These four parcels of land far exceeded the amount of land farmed by all of the Russian villagers of the village of Rybushka, and created anxiety with the Russian villages near and far.”
“A man named Soujac Krieger was the man who did the whipping when someone was sentenced to public punishment. Disgruntled Russians he had whipped gave the name to him. He had a horse shot out from under him in a skirmish with Russians from Rybushka during a dispute over the former ground used for the potato crop of Norka folk that was awarded to Rybushka villagers about the time of WWI and the Revolution.”
“According to reliable facts, which were obtained by the military authorities, among the German population residing in the districts in the Volga Region, there are thousands and tens of thousands of saboteurs and spies, who, at a signal given from Germany, must commit sabotage in the districts, which are populated by the Germans in the Volga Region.
In order to avoid such undesirable occurrences and for the prevention of serious bloodshed, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR deems it necessary to resettle the entire German population residing in the districts in the Volga Region and other districts, and that the re-settlers be allotted land and receive state assistance in the new districts.
For this purpose, the abundance of arable land in the districts of Novosibirsk, the Omsk Region, the Altai Region, Kazakhstan, and other neighboring regions is to be distributed to the re-settlers.
In connection with this, the State Committee of Defense is instructed to execute urgently the removal of all Germans in the Volga.”
“I want to tell people one more truth about the last war. Many Germans fought against the fascists then, but these facts were always hidden. The fate of many of them is sad. The historian, General Dmitry Volkogonov, wrote in his memoirs that 200 thousand Soviet Germans were at the front during the last war, fought well, many were awarded orders, and 11 people were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. From our native village of Schilling, in the Saratov region, 21 people fought."
“Then there was the wave of Germans – Germans living on the Volga, colonists in the Ukraine and North Caucasus, and all Germans in general who lived anywhere in the Soviet Union. The determining factor here was blood, and even heroes of the Civil War [the Russian Revolution] and old members of the Party who were German were sent off to exile.”
"We remained the only Germans in the village. The soldiers have taken all the people away. At night, mum and I nestled to each other and cried. Cows lowed, dogs barked, cats mewed...all of the village was without people... "