© 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).

 Biographical Sketch:

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.

 Scope and Content:

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”

 Notes: 

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.

 Volume 6356

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.