Headline: Norka October 12th
To: Conrad Schleucher, Berthoud, Colorado
You Loved Ones far away:
I received your letter of 7 August and see from it that you are still well.
Dear cousin: You must know how it is with us. It is worse than it has ever been in Norka. Already a third of the people are without bread. By the end of the month, half of us will have no more. By New Years one will be able to easily count those who still have bread. There isn't a single family here that will make it to harvest time.
Right now many of the people are eating red beets and pumpkin. They cook soups made of it and this will soon be gone, and then the people will be going from house to house begging for pumpkins. Already we are burying 8 to 10 corpses daily. And with all that it has not been as bad here on the Bergseite for as long as it has been on the Wiesenseite where there was a total crop failure. In the spring the people went into the fields and picked up ears which had lain there over the winter in the fields. There was little for them to put in their sacks and less to put in their stomachs. You can't imagine how bad things stand with clothing. There are families where the children sit naked in their homes. The adults have fashioned clothing from sacks and canvas tents. On top of that there are various insects among the people causing such diseases as Typhoid Fever, Scabies, etc.
The people have already traded everything they owned to the Russians for foodstuff, clothing, horses, cows, oxen, machinery, etc., in order to keep themselves alive, nevertheless many have finally succumbed to death from hunger. Prices for food are exorbitantly high, in the hundreds of thousands and millions.
Now I want to inform you that the Americans have arrived to take on our emergency. One of them is named Repp and came here from Portland, Oregon. Our people are very grateful for this assistance.
Our son Georg, the second oldest, fell in the war in 1914.
Here everything has been changed from single ownership; 26 families are now together on 517 desyatinas of land.
I close with greetings,
Your Peter M.
You Loved Ones far away:
I received your letter of 7 August and see from it that you are still well.
Dear cousin: You must know how it is with us. It is worse than it has ever been in Norka. Already a third of the people are without bread. By the end of the month, half of us will have no more. By New Years one will be able to easily count those who still have bread. There isn't a single family here that will make it to harvest time.
Right now many of the people are eating red beets and pumpkin. They cook soups made of it and this will soon be gone, and then the people will be going from house to house begging for pumpkins. Already we are burying 8 to 10 corpses daily. And with all that it has not been as bad here on the Bergseite for as long as it has been on the Wiesenseite where there was a total crop failure. In the spring the people went into the fields and picked up ears which had lain there over the winter in the fields. There was little for them to put in their sacks and less to put in their stomachs. You can't imagine how bad things stand with clothing. There are families where the children sit naked in their homes. The adults have fashioned clothing from sacks and canvas tents. On top of that there are various insects among the people causing such diseases as Typhoid Fever, Scabies, etc.
The people have already traded everything they owned to the Russians for foodstuff, clothing, horses, cows, oxen, machinery, etc., in order to keep themselves alive, nevertheless many have finally succumbed to death from hunger. Prices for food are exorbitantly high, in the hundreds of thousands and millions.
Now I want to inform you that the Americans have arrived to take on our emergency. One of them is named Repp and came here from Portland, Oregon. Our people are very grateful for this assistance.
Our son Georg, the second oldest, fell in the war in 1914.
Here everything has been changed from single ownership; 26 families are now together on 517 desyatinas of land.
I close with greetings,
Your Peter M.
The recipient of this letter, Conrad Schleucher, added the following remarks:
"I have received a magnificent Christmas present in this letter which I hereby give to the Welt-Post for delivery to the public. It comes from Norka, the village of my birth and makes me very happy because for 6 years I have heard nothing from over there. This message from such a far away country went right through my heart and I had to let my tears run freely. Thank God the price increases have not circled the earth and one can still render help. May God give us willing hearts that we may share our goods with those who are in the bitterest emergency; for it is written: Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it again after many days."
Conrad Schleucher
"I have received a magnificent Christmas present in this letter which I hereby give to the Welt-Post for delivery to the public. It comes from Norka, the village of my birth and makes me very happy because for 6 years I have heard nothing from over there. This message from such a far away country went right through my heart and I had to let my tears run freely. Thank God the price increases have not circled the earth and one can still render help. May God give us willing hearts that we may share our goods with those who are in the bitterest emergency; for it is written: Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it again after many days."
Conrad Schleucher
Sources
Die Welt-Post, 12 Jan 1922, page 7.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
This translation provided courtesy of Hugh Lichtenwald.
Last updated March 3, 2016.
