© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated July 14, 2009)
Jacob Peters was born in 1908 in Neuendorf, Chortitza, South Russia to Abram and Margaretha (Derksen) Peters. He received his early education in the village school, followed by attending the Zentralschule in Nikolaipol (1923-1924) and the Chortitza Teachers Institute (1925-1927. He usually came home to Neuendorf for the summer to help his parents with the farm harvest. In 1928, he told his parents that he was was not coming for the summer, as he and his friend were planning to go to the Caucausus to study plants. It was discovered later that Jakob's real plan was not to study plants, but to escape from Russia. The family found out when they got a letter from him from Persia (Iran). Eventually Jacob and his friends made their way to Germany and from Germany to Brazil in 1930 through the help of Benjamin H. Unruh in Germany. Jakob Peters lived in Brazil until 1933, when he returned to Germany to study in Berlin at the University for Children of German Nationals living abroad. In Brazil he had begun a teaching career. In 1939 he had almost completed his Ph.D. in Education and was hoping to return to South America to teach in Paraguay, when the war broke out in September on that year. When Germany invaded Russia in 1941, Jakob was enlisted as an interpreter on the eastern front and stationed in Orel, Russia. Jakob visited his father Abram Peters in Burwalde, Ukraine three times between 1941 and 1943. In 1942, he brought his sister Anna Peters to Berlin where she worked in a German household and took up nursing studies in Danzig (Gdansk). In 1943 Jakob's parents and other siblings were evacuated by the retreating Germany army and became refugees in Oberschlesian, Germany. In 1944 his sister Anna Peters received word that Jakob had gone "missing in action" and she was given his last effects.
This fonds consists of two groups of letters. The first group of letters were written by Jakob Peters (1908-1944) to his sister Anna Peters (1919-) between 1942 and 1944, after he had accompanied her from the Ukraine to Berlin where she remained to work in a German household. Anna had had little schooling in German, with her father exiled to Siberia when she was 11 and her mother dying when she was 13, and the family being classified as kulaks (tight-fisted landowners). As her German was so poor, Jakob would correct her letters and return them to her so that she would improve her German. There are 24 letters in this group and they have all been transcribed and translated into English.
The second group of letters were written to relatives in Canada, specifically his sister and brother-in-law, Maria (Peters) and Jakob Bergen and her son John Bergen (1922- ). The letters begin from when Jakob Peters escaped Russia in 1928 across the Caucausus to Persia, his years in Brazil and his years studying in Berlin. In his letters to John Bergen, who was studying at Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna during the late 1930s, Jakob Peters often writes about how wonderful it would be for him to come and get an education in Germany after completing his high school in Gretna.
Inventory file list with some accompanying background comments.
Anna Peters (1919-) fonds (Vol. 5425:8-13)
The letters were in the Bergen family possession and in the possession of Anna Peters who brought some to Canada in 1948. Margaret Bergen translated the letters. Other family members assisted with typing some of the transcriptions.
German with English translations
Arranged and described by Alf Redekopp, July 2009.
None to access.
Acc. No. 2009-036
Volume 5425
Jakob Peters (1908-1944) letters to his sister Anna. – 1942-1944. – 24 letters.
- About the writer and recipient of the letters by Margaret Bergen. – Feb. 2009.
- “Geburtsurkunde” (birth certificate) for Anna Abram Peters (b. 11 June 1919) in Neuendorf, Zaporozhye. This document is dated 19. 4. 1943 and stamped by the “Reichsministeriums…” (Germany) as a translation of the document issued 10 Oct. 1933 at Neuendorf, Zaporozhye. (original)
- Letter dated 20.1. 1944 from Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium to Jacob Peters in response to his request for the results of his studies in Berlin during the 1930s. The letter reports that the office holding the records was destroyed by enemy attack and fire on 22 November 1943. (original)
- Letter from Dr. W. Schultze, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin to Harri Fröse, Leopoldshöhe, Germany in response to his inquiry about his great uncle Jacob Peters’ German military service 1941-1944. – 6 Sept 2004. (photocopy)
- “Jakob Peters (1908-1944)” / compiled by Margaret Bergen. – 6 pp.
- Jakob Peters, Orel, Russia letters to his sister Anna Peters in Berlin, Germany. – 1942-1944. (some originals and some photocopies)
- Jakob Peters, Orel, Russia letters to his sister Anna Peters in Berlin, Germany. – 1942-1944. (Typewritten German transcription.)
- Jakob Peters, Orel, Russia letters to his sister Anna Peters in Berlin, Germany. – 1942-1944. (Typewritten English translation)
Jakob Peters (1908-1944) letters to his relatives in Canada. – 1928-1939. – 18 letters.
- Jakob Peters letters to his relatives in Canada, primarily nephew John Bergen, after his escape from Russia to Persia (1928) until World War II (Sep 1939). – 1928-1939. (Some photocopies and some originals)
- Jakob Peters letters to his relatives in Canada, primarily nephew John Bergen, after his escape from Russia to Persia (1928) until World War II (Sep 1939). – 1928-1939. (Typewritten German transcriptions.)
- Jakob Peters letters to his relatives in Canada, primarily nephew John Bergen, after his escape from Russia to Persia (1928) until World War II (Sep 1939). – 1928-1939. (Handwritten English translations.)