Costa Rican Adventure

We've had an amazing family holiday in Costa Rica.

Kieran and my folks left yesterday, so now it's just Nadia and me. I'm excited and nervous. Could be because I don't speak Spanish. Could be the solo-parenting for six weeks. Could be the solid diet of beans.

But we're having a great time and jumping right in!

2010 European Adventure

It's been so long since I visited the RR3 blog that it took a few tries to sign in. Edith wondered/suggested about the blog's use as a way to share stories of this summer's adventures. I'm game to try and resurrect it.

We just returned from a 3.5 week adventure in Central Europe. After nearly a year of planning, our group of friends (ten in total) met at Passau, Germany to begin a week of cycling along the Danube River. Our destination was Vienna. We had a blast. The Theodor Koerner served as our floating hotel. Our group was the largest subset within the group of 135. The oldest biker was a 90 year old man from Italy. He rented an electric bike, but still....

The scenery was awesome. The meals were terrific. We couldn't keep up trying different local beers. In addition to soaking up the obvious assets of the Danube, we also made a side trip to Masthausen, Austria's largest concentration camp. Very sombre. We swayed to the music of an operetta in the Vienna royal palace. (It had a proper name, but the tour book is beyond arm's reach.) Esther took hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pictures. No major issues with the bikes. One of our friends collided with a bike illegally parked on the side of the pedal path. No one was injured - just a bit of pride perhaps. Another friend, on Day 1, accidentally hit a parked bike and set into a motion a domino effect that sent a dozen or so bikes towards the Danube. That'll teach the crew to line them up so close to the water's edge when Henry Daniels is around.

This was our second cycling adventure in Europe. We're ready for the next one.

The group of ten became six for the second week of our adventure. We travelled to Prague, Cesky-Krumlov, Bratislava, and Budapest, - all by rail. Again, great scenery, good food, friendly people, and lots of fun. Cesky-Krumlov is a medieval city in the Sudetenland. A treasure.

Week three saw the goup of six become three subsets. One person went home to work, two joined a bus tour of Bulgaria and Romania, and Esther, her brother Rick, and I headed to Ljubjlana and Lake Bled in Slovenia.

These were relatively unkown to us. We went there on the recommendation of others. They are hidden gems - perhaps the highlight of the adventure. The world meets at Bled. It was Tito's resort when he ruled Yugoslavia. It's a scaled down Banff. While enjoying the incredible views at an outside cafe one afternoon the calm was broken by a busload of tourists descending on the cafe. Apparently this tour company brings Israelis to Bled every Tuesday for coffee.

Our last stop on the way was in Willenbach and Lautenbach, Germany. Throughout my growing up years my mother shared many many stories about her time living at the home of the Landes family - as war refugees. The stories were always happy ones. The Landes family and the farm estates of Willenbach and Lautenbach had clearly been special to Mom. It was high time for me to visit there. We had a wonderful experience. The grandson of the family that took Mom in showed us around and told us stories of the glory years of the two estates that have recently gone into some decline.

There is much more that could be shared, but that's a good start. It's good to be home.

Ted

Mennonite Memorial Monument

On October 10, 2009, this Mennonite Memorial Monument was unveiled in a public park in the one-time village of Chortitza, centre of the first settlement of Mennonites in Ukraine in tsarist Russia, to honour the 30,000 Mennonite victims who died needlessly during Stalin's reign of terror. It consists of three life-size silhouettes: a woman, a man and two children. The designer created silhouettes on a mantle to represent absent family members, thus creating a special place for private contemplation or for sharing family history with others.
An inscription in English, German, Russian and Ukrainian reads: "To Mennonite victims of tribulation, Stalinist terror and religious oppression", and quotes the words of Scripture, "Blessed are those who mourn."
The park where the monument is located is surrounded by buildings erected by Mennonites.
The monument bears enduring witness to the suffering of many thousands who ended their days in unmarked graves.

Let us remember those of the Fransen family who perished secondary to starvation and violence under the communist regime:

Klaas Fransen (1851-1922) - died in Mariawohl of starvation and typhus.

Children of Klaas Fransen
Kornelius Fransen (1883 - 1919) - died in Mariawohl of starvation and typhus.

Nicholas Fransen (1879 - 1922) - died in Mariawohl of starvation and typhus.

Abraham Fransen (1886 - 1934) - died in Mariawohl of starvation during Stalin's manufactured famine.

Jakob Fransen (1885 -1941) - disappeared from Mariawohl on September 1, 1941; died en route to Stalin's gulag.

Franz Fransen (1889 - 1943) - sent from Mariawohl to Siberia on March 25, 1938. Later it was learned he was shot by the communists in Melitopol, Molotschna in October 1943.

Katharina Fransen (1877 - 1944) and husband Franz Dueck (1878 - 1943) - died in exile in Schewtschenowka, Kazakhstan.

Children of Jakob Fransen (1885 - 1941)
Heinrich Fransen (1920 - 1940) - teacher in Caucasus; abducted & disappeared during the turmoil of WW II; never heard from again.

Son-in-law Gerhard Enns (1911 - 1942) - disappeared from Mariawohl on Sept 1, 1941, same as his father-in-law; never heard from again. His wife, Liese Fransen Enns lives in Germany, age 97.

Jakob Fransen (1918 - 1942) - disappeared from Mariawohl on Sept 1, 1941, same as his father; never heard from again.

Kornelius Fransen (1915 - 1944) - disappeared from Mariawohl on Sept 1, 1941, same as his father; never heard from again.
　
　
　
　
　
　

Henry Fransen (1929 - 2008)

The top photo is of Henry & Martha Fransen.

The bottom photo (taken about 1981) is a four generation one of Nicholas Fransen (1907 - 2000), his son Henry Fransen, Ted Fransen and Erwin Fransen (sons of Henry Fransen), and their respective sons, Brian Fransen and James Fransen.

Any Fransen relatives in Russia?

Yes, we do have a few Fransen relatives who have chosen to continue living in Russia.

The top photo is a wedding picture of Leo & Alina (Kakurina) Fransen who were married in August 2008 in Staryy Oskul, Russia (south of Moscow), which is where they live. The couple on the right are Leo's parents, Erich Juri & Ljubow (Ruschina) Fransen. Erich born in 1940 is the son of Kornelius Fransen (1915-1944) and the grandson of Jakob Fransen (1885-1941). Erich, his father and grandfather were all born in Mariawohl, Molotschna. Erich & Ljubow Fransen also live in Staryy Oskul, Russia. The couple on the left are the bride's parents; the people at the back are friends of the bridal couple and witnesses to the marriage.

Had Erich Fransen been at the Treffen in Rehe, he would have been wearing a red name tag, signifying he belongs to the Jakob Fransen clan. He is my second cousin.

The second photo is of Erich Fransen's daughter Lilli & her family who live in Germany. Lilli & husband Adik Schidlowski are sitting; their children Dennis & Helene are standing.

Relatives we met at the Treffen who were on "The Trek that Wasn't"

Here are some photos of our Fransen relatives who were on the 1941 "Trek that Wasn’t" (see previous two articles), most of whom were at the Treffen.
There were 4 Fransen sisters (Liese, Justa & Mariechen, & Tina) and Liese’s two little girls, Tina & Regina Enns. Also in the group with his aunt was Jakob Fransen, age 11 at the time.

In the top photo you will see the 4 sisters (daughters of Jakob Fransen, our Grandfather’s brother), and just below that a photo of the oldest sister, Liese and her daughter Regina. Neither Liese or Regina were at the Treffen. Liese at age 97 lives in Bohmte, Germany but was unable to attend. Her daughter Regina died in 2007. Regina was one year old during that 6 day stay outside the Stulnevo train station. Regina’s husband and four daughters were at the Treffen. I had met the one daughter in Kant in 1978; she was pleased to meet Sharon Fransen at the Treffen, as she fondly remembered Werner pulling her long pig-tails when we were in Kant, and she was 12 years old.

In the next photo, see the 3 sisters (Justa, Mariechen & Tina) with Mariechen and Tina’s husbands, at the Treffen.

In the photo with Herb Fransen is Tina Enns Wiebe, daughter of Liese, who was two years old in October 1941.

And finally see Jakob Fransen (son of Abraham Fransen, our Grandfather’s brother) sitting with his cousin Justa and with Herb in the beautiful and peaceful setting of Rehe.

Reflecting on their difficult journeys, the relatives are incredibly grateful for their life in Germany.

Sorry for my less than perfect technological abilities; if you Click on each picture, it should enlarge.

Stulnevo Train Station

In the previous article Herb gives an account of the six-day outdoor experience of many of the villagers of Molotschna in early October 1941 at the Stulnevo train station. The building in this photo is what remains of the train station. I wanted to photograph it as some of us had spent considerable time last year trying to figure out from which train station the Fransens had left Molotschna when they emigrated to Canada in 1926. This is also the station from which great-Uncle John Wichert departed in 1925 when he went ahead to Canada to check out the viability of the Wicherts and Fransens settling in Canada.

When we returned from our travels to the Fransentreffen in Germany and our many experiences in Ukraine in July 2009, Herb unearthed this historical account, including an eyewitness report of Tina, one of the Fransen participants in this "Trek that wasn’t". The account gives added significance to this picture of the Stulnevo train station. Tina was 16 years old at the time.

On September 1, 1941, Tina’s father, her four brothers and her brother-in-law were removed from Mariawohl and the lives of their family, conscripted to compulsory labour and except for one brother, they were never heard from again. The account described by Herb began one month later (October 2, 1941). Camped outside at the Stulnevo train station for six nights with the elements of war raging around and above them, were 16 year old Tina, her 52 year old mother, her oldest sister (age 29) with daughters ages 3 & 1, and her 14 year old twin sisters. Also in the crowd of 6,000 were Tina’s 86 year old grandmother, and Tina’s 48 year old aunt with the 11 year old Jakob who we know. We met five of this group at the Fransentreffen. These six days and nights are etched in their memories. To them Stulnevo is an interruption before a much more difficult journey that was awaiting them; to us it is also now more than a departure point to freedom.