Historical note

Siegfried Janzen (1920-2005) was born to Jacob K. Janzen and Martha Schmidt in the Russian Mennonite village of Orloff, Zagradowka. His parents were house parents for the Bethania Mental Hospital 1912-1920 in Alt-Kronsweide, Chortitza Colony. The family immigrated to Canada in 1927 and settled in Larid, Saskatchewan. In 1940 they moved to a fruit farm near Gimsby, Ontario. Here the family was active in the Vineland Mennonite Brethren church.

In 1942 he served as a conscientious objector performing alternative service at Calk River, Ontario and later served as a farm worker. In 1945 he married Margaret Wiebe and they had four daughters. Siegfried and Margret volunteered with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and were assigned to work in post World War II Europe. Their first post was in Holland distributing food and clothing to refugees. In 1947 they were reassigned to work at the refugee house at Gronau, Germany on the Dutch, German boarder. For three years they directed the processing of over 10,000 refugees fleeing from repatriation to the Soviet Union. The refugees hoped to immigrate to Canada but the process was not easy. The Janzens set up a hospital to help people pass the medical requirements to enter Canada. The newspaper Unser Blatt and Der Mennonit were established to help these displaced people build their sense of community and help in the reunification of families. Siegfried and Margret served under C.F. Klassen, European Commissioner for Refugee Aid and Resettlement with MCC.

In 1950 Siegfried and Margaret returned to North America and he attended Tabor College, Kansas. They returned to Ontario where Siegfried worked as a youth worker in the Vineland Mennonite Brethren church between 1952-1954. Here he worked at building closer ties between young people and Mennonite Brethren missionaries working abroad. The family then moved to Nova Scotia where he found work as a stone mason. At the age of 65 he became the pastor of the Petitcodiac Mennonite Church and was active in prison chaplaincy. In 2004 he was awarded the Taylor Award by the Correctional Service of Canada and the National Volunteer Association.

Siegfried Janzen died 2 August 2005 in a Moncton, New Brunswick.

Scope and content note

This fonds consists of Janzen's correspondence and reports while working in Gronau, Germany, while attending Bethel College and while working with the youth in Vineland Ontario. Included in Janzen's Germany materials are essays and memoirs by some of the refugees Janzen worked with as well as correspondence with leaders such as Dr. Kurt Kauenhowen and Walter Quiring. There are 107 slides showing the Gronau camp, people and activities. The materials gives an account of the Janzens' life in Germany, Kansas and Vineland. With this material a better understanding of the effects of the Second World War on the Mennonite population in the Ukraine and the process of emigrating from there to Paraguay or Canada can be gained.

Index terms

Creators

Adjunct descriptive data

Finding aids

Inventory file list

Related material in other repositories

MCC records at the Mennonite USA archives, Goshen; Vineland Mennonite Brethren Church fonds at the Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies

Related material in this repository

Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization fonds

Notes

Custodial history

This fonds was transferred to MCC Canada in Winnipeg after the death of Janzen in 2005. The MCC Canada records manager then brought this material to the Mennonite Heritage Centre in 2007. The slides were deposited ca. 1995.  In 2010 CMBC history professor Adolf Ens deposited a letter a student, Jillayne Neufeld got from Janzen about his church work in New Brunswick.  The essay Neufeld wrote that included this letter has not been located.

Language

German, English, Dutch

Arrangement

Described by Conrad Stoesz April 17, 2010, updated by Stoesz on March 13, 2013, March 8, 2015.

Restrictions on access

none to access

Other notes

Accession no. 2009-005, 2010-068.

Inventory File list

1. The Swiss origins of the Galician Mennonites. -- [194-]. --Note: in English and German. Includes immigration lists of these people.
2. Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal against Otto Ohlendorf et. Al. Nurnberg, Germany. -- 1948. -- Note: This item is a transcript of the of the testimony of Franziska Reimers regarding the Einsatzkommando Mathias Graf.
3. Reports, articles and statistics from the refugee camp in Gronau. -- 1947-1949. [Note: the article "Flüchlinge zwischen gestern und morgen..." was thought to be written by Walter Quiring.  It was written by Quiring and published in Die Mennonitische Rundschau, January 1950.]
4. Mennonite Central Committee Refugee section report by Siegfried Janzen, Gronau camp. -- 1948.
5. Periodical Unser Blatt, published in Gronau, Germany. -- 1947-1950.
6. Ein Bericht von Sowjetrussland ueber die Entkulakivsierung und Kollerktivisierung und Erlebnisse aud dem Gefaengnis/ Jacob Redekopp. -- [1948?].
7. Periodical Der Mennonit, published in Basel, Switzerland. -- 1950.

1. Correspondence to Siegfried Janzen from family and friends in Paraguay. -- 1947-1949.
2. Personal correspondence to Siegfried and Margaret Janzen expressing thanks. -- 1947-1949.
3. Essays on German responses to the Third Reich by Karl Wilhelm Trefeil. -- 1945.
   - Restitution but not Retaliation! Dialogue. -- 26 p.
   - Trilogy of Perception. -- 11p.
   - Shortcomings and Errors. -- 11p.
4. Unidentified personal recollection of experiences in the war and coming to the Gronau camp. – [1948?]
5. Mein Lebenslauf/ Katrina Hamm. -- [1948?]
6. Abschrift wie Prof. B.H. Unruhs Frau aus der Molotschna nach Karlsruhe in Baden kam. (Frieda Unruh selbst erzählt. -- [1948?].
7. Das Familienleben. -- [1948?].
8. Freude, wie ich sie erlebte / Heinrich Noll. -- [1948?].
9. Theological Essays and reports. -- 1944-1947.
10. Abschrift/ Maria Heinrichs. -- [1948?]
11. Eine kurze Wiedergabe meiner Erlebnissen / Margarete Dürksen. -- 1946.
12. Why I do not want to return to the USSR / Ivan Bahriany. -- 1946.
13. Erlebnisbericht aus Sowjetrussland / Susanna Dyck. -- [1948?].
14. Reports from Kurt Kauenhowen about the MCC work in Gronau, Germany from the Mennonitische Forschungsstelle in Göttingen, lists of names of people exiled from Einlage, Chortitza and refugees from Rudnnerwide, Molotschna now in Warthegau [Poland]. -- 1944-[1948?]
15. Reports and minutes from the MCC refugee camp in Gronau, Germany. -- 1948-1949. -- note: also includes documents regarding the starting of a church in the refugee camp.
16. Abschrift. Der Weg Nach Innen: Reisebrief aus Deutschland / Walter Quiring. -- 1948.
17. Kriegsende und unsere Flucht aus Danzig / Lotte Heinritz, Tönsheide, Holstein. -- [1946?]

1. Menschen in Not / Leonard Froese. -- [1948?]
2. Die Mennonitische Altkolonie Chortitza in der Ukraine / Dr. Walter Kuhn. Aud: Deutsche Monatshafte, Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Gegenwart des Ostdeutschtums, Posen, September/Oktober/November - heft 1942. -- 44p.
3. Personal correspondence to Siegfried and Margaret Janzen. -- 1946-1950.
4. Correspondence, reports, and articles. Includes report "Clean up job of the Russian Mennonite Refugee Camp". -- 1945-1949.
5. Periodical, Der Mennonit, published in Basel, Switzerland. -- 1948.
6. Periodical, Der Mennonit, published in Basel, Switzerland. -- 1949.
7. Correspondence with Mennonite Life regarding an article on Janzen's activities in Gronau, Germany. -- 1951.
8. Correspondence to and from Siegfried and Margaret Janzen while at Bethel College, Kansas. -- 1950-1951.
9. Correspondence regarding church and young people's work while Siegfried Janzen was with the Vineland Mennonite Brethren Church. -- 1952-1953.
10. Correspondence with the Mennonite Brethren Board of Foreign Missions. -- 1952-1953.
11. Letter by Sigfried Janzen regarding his church work in New Brunswick. -- 1987.