Visit to Brunnental, 1992 (1)

The Village Frank Newsletter
Volume 22, Number 1
Winter 1992/1993
Sherrie Stahl, editor

Casey Haas Visits The Village of Brunnental – Summer 1992

(Excerpts)
(Page 9)
“…It was my wife’s family that came from Brunnental. She was born Gloria Becker. George Friedrich Becker (b. 30 Jul 1875) was her grandfather and Katherine Elizabeth Melcher 9b. 15 Feb 1877) was her grandmother. Her father was August Becker (b. 5 May 1911).

“Our trip to Brunnental lasted two days and one night. We stayed with a Heinrich Hartung family of German/Russians. He was a wonderful host and fed us well. We ate four meals a day, and three of those were served with vodka. We ate such things as noodle soups and we had fish for breakfast.

“Mr. Hartung was born in Brunnental in about 1934 and was 7 years old in 1941 when his family was deported, along with all the other residents of the village, to Kazakhstan. They returned to Brunnental in 1976 along with 15 other German families. They are preparing to emigrate to Germany, as soon as they are allowed to. They knew the Becker family…

“The conditions in Brunnental are very much as we have heard about in the other villages--- they do have electricity, but no running water. There are no paved streets and no indoor plumbing. There is one store in town (a room about 15 feet by 20 feet) where they sell sacks of potatoes and loaves of bread (not wrapped) and sugar (which is being rationed at 1 kilo per month). There is very little food to be purchased and almost everyone has a garden and raises their own food--- the main occupation is farming.

“Brunnental is located on the east side of the Volga River about 30-40 miles from the river itself. It is also about 90 miles from Saratov. The roads from Saratov were very poor and rough.

(Page 10)
“The are near Brunnental looks like the plains--- there are very few trees left--- the land has been cleared as far as the eye can see. We did find a few of the apple gardens on the outskirts of town.

“There are no mills left, but the dam is still there. It has 12 gates and operating gears, but the rods are missing to operate it. There are planks laying across the top and I walked across--- this is called the Bisjuk River --sp?) and it is only 30-40 feet wide, but then spreads to 100 feet behind the dam.

“There are a few cars in town, but nowhere to get gas. One of the strangest sights is the amount of modern farm equipment, sitting out in fields, that is broken down--- they are unable to get parts to fix it, so it just sits there.”

(Continued later)