© Mennonite Heritage Archives, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated 26, July 2018)
Title: Anganetha Wiebe fonds. – 1924-1955.
Extent: 5 cm of textual records and 50 photographs
(unprocessed).
Anganetha Wiebe was born Anganetha Klassen
on September 21, 1873 in Rosenthal; Chortiza, South Russia to Gerhard and
Helena Klassen. Anganetha married Peter G. Wiebe (born February 25, 1866) on
October 16, 1897. They lived Chortitza and together had five children: Gerhard
(1897- ), Peter (1900-1937), Helena (1902-1997), Abram (1905-1938) and Aganetha
(1909-2011). Abram married Ira and they had a son Walter. Ira was taken away in ca. 1933 to work in a prison
camp as a pharmacist until ca. 1938. Her
husband Abram was a minister and worked the school for the deaf and exiled in
1937. Their son, Walter was raised by Ira’s
brother, Wladimir Janzen (1900-1957) and family.
Peter G. Wiebe died in 1919 shortly after
start of the Russian Revolution. Daughter, Helena and her husband, Johannes
Dyck (1902-1978) immigrated to Canada in 1930 and settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Johannes and Helena Dyck had seven children
including the second youngest, Ruth (1935- ).
The youngest daughter of Anganetha and
Peter Wiebe was Aganetha (1909-2011) and in the letters is known as Net’l. In 1930 she married Peter Regehr of the
village of Chortitza, in the Chortitza colony, South Russia. By 1997, Peter and Aganetha had moved from
the USSR to Germany.
Most of the letters are from Anganetha to her
daughter Helena Dyck from 1930 - 1939. These letters reflect the economic
situation in South Russia, the lifestyle, religious beliefs and events experienced
by Anganetha. Additional letters are to
Helena Dyck from Net’l Regehr, a sister of Helena Dyck, and from Anganetha to
her brother, Gerhard Klassen (1886-1983) who had immigrated to Canada in 1948 Mariechen
Derksen[CS1] , who had also immigrated to Germany.
Helena Dyck wrote two short remembrances, one of her husband’s imprisonment in
a Russian prison in 1929 and one about their husband’s escape from Russia to
Germany in 1930. Anganetha died August 3, 1947 in South Russia.
Ruth Wood went on a trip to the Ukraine in 1995,
which ignited a passion to translate the family letters, making them accessible
to future generations.
This fonds consists of handwritten correspondence, recollections about life in and
leaving Russia, and photographs. The correspondence
dates from 1930 to 1939 and are in German Gothic script by Anganetha Wiebe who
lived in Russia, to: her daughter, Helena Dyck, who lived in Canada (1930-1939);
her brother, Gerhard Klassen, who lived in Germany (1944); and Mariechen
Derksen, who lived in [Germany?] (1946). As well as material about the Anganetha’s
son Abram, his wife Ira and son Walter. Many
of the letters are fragmentary (incomplete).
Many of the letters have been transcribed and translated by Anganetha’s
granddaughter, Ruth Wood (nee Ruth Dyck), entitled “The Letters of Anganetha
Wiebe”
The photographs are unprocessed.
Arrangement and description: Described by Bernie Toews
and Conrad Stoesz July 26, 2018.
Accession Number: 2018-014.
Retrieval: Volume 6356 and 5870 file 5.
Related Material: See Waldemar Janzen, Reminiscences of my father Wladimir Janzen,
2017 and Waldemar Janzen, Growing up in
Turbulent times, 2007.
1. 1. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - January 13, 1930 - December 15, 1930.
2. 2.
Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - February 7, 1931 - December 28, 1931.
3. 3. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - March 30, 1932 - December 27, 1932.
4.
4. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - April 5, 1933 - December 28, 1933.
5.
5. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - February 21, 1934 - November 19, 1934.
6.
Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - June 30, 1935, Correspondence from Net’l Regehr to Helena
Dyck - June 30, 1935, Correspondence from William A. Dyck to John
Dyck - ? 17, 1935.
7. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - June 15, 1936 - December 19, 1936.
8.
8. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - March 10, 1937 - October 20, 1937.
9.
9. Correspondence
from Anganetha Wiebe to Helena Dyck - March 8, 1938 - November 20, 1938.
1 10. Correspondence from Anganetha Wiebe to
Helena Dyck - June 4, 1939.
1111. Correspondence fragments from Anganetha
Wiebe to Helena Dyck, numbered “1” - 10, [193-?].
12. Correspondence fragments from Anganetha
Wiebe to Helena Dyck, - numbered “17” - 25, [193-?].
1313. Correspondence fragments from Anganetha
Wiebe to Helena Dyck - numbered “26” - 35, [193-?].
16. 14. Correspondence fragments from Anganetha
Wiebe to Helena Dyck – [193-?].
1515.Transcriptions of correspondence of Anganetha
Wiebe and Net’l Regehr to Helena Dyck (1930-1955). [199-].
1 16. Translations in English of the correspondence
of Anganetha Wiebe and Net’l Regehr to Helena Dyck. – [ca. 1995].
1717. A copy of remembrances in German (Arabic
script) of Helena Dyck of the imprisonment and release of her husband (Johannes
Gerhard Dyck (1929-1930) from a prison in Russia. – 1926-1927.
1818. A copy
of a transcription and translation of remembrances of Helena Dyck of her and
her husband’s escape (Johannes Dyck) from Russia to Germany in 1929-1930. – [199-?]
1919. Canadian Naturalization papers of Johannes
Gerhard Dyck and his wife, Helena Dyck.
2020. Copies of maps of Chortitza. – [199-?].
2121. “Mein
Vater Abram Wiebe 27 Dez. 1905-15 Okt. 1938. Erinnerungen und Briefe,” W. Wiebe Petershagen, 2005.
2222. Unsere Familie Dyck aus Rosental,
Suedrussland/ Anita Dyck. – 1982.
2323 . Erinnerungen aus Meinem leben/ [Ira
Wiebe?]. – [198-?].
Volume 5870
5. Russian and German travel documents (passports)
of Helena and Johannes Dyck. -- 1924-1930.