HISTORICAL RESEARCH COMMITTEE

Minutes of July 28, 2008 Meeting

Casper, Wyoming

            The meeting of the Historical Research Committee was called to order at 9:30 a.m. by Vice Chair, Ed Hoak.  Committee members in attendance were Dennis Zitterkopf, Elizabeth Barker, Nick Bretz, Lauren Brantner, Ed Wagner and Ed Hoak.  Excused were Leona Janke, Kevin Rupp, Roger Rutz and Patti Sellenrick.  Staff present were: Pam Wertz, Diane White and Yulia Tsymbol.  Guest, Dr. Nina Vaschkau, Chair of Russian History, Volgograd State University was also present.

            The minutes of the Spring Meeting were reviewed and changes were made to remove ex-officio from President Jerry Siebert’s name, change the date in paragraph one to 2009, and add mention that the Norka film project was discussed but it was not yet ready for publication.  With these changes, the minutes were approved by consensus as was the agenda for this meeting.

            Dr. Nina Vaschkau, Chair of Russian History at Volgograd State University, was introduced and was asked to share her personal history and research interests.  Nina’s father was German but realized that it was important to assimilate into the Russian community to live.  He didn’t tell the family about his German background because of fear.  Nina was born in the Ural Mountains area.  She does not know her ancestral village but does know it is in the Volga Region.

            Nina’s 1984 thesis was on the comparison of workers in Germany and Russia.  This was during the communist period.  After Perestroika, articles on German-Russian colonial period and German autonomy started to appear and were discussed which caught her interest.  She worked on her doctorate in St. Petersburg and sold carpets off her walls in order to pay to live while going school.   She started doing research on the colonies during this period.  In 1994, she met several German women, repressed survivors, in the Sarepta Colony and began collecting their stories and in 2006 brought stories of fifteen women together into a book which has been published.  She just this past month has published another book on the deportation of the Germans from Sarepta.  She is the only one so far who has had access to do research on the deportation records which remain closed.  She has taught German-Russian history for twenty years and continues to do so because she feels it is important that her students know this history.

            Nina’s current project over this next year is to research and publish her findings on a collection of letters written by German soldiers back home to Germany while they were in Volgograd during World War II.

            Other foreign visitors at the convention this week include Dr. Mila Koretnikov from Germany, Isabel Kessler from Argentina and three others, Inna Stryukova from Nikolaev, Pastor Alexander Scheiermann from Saratov, Alexander Rupp from Berlin representing Landsmannschaft, and Tatjana Schell from Germany.  Mila, Nina, Inna and Isabel will be presenting.

            The committee was encouraged to meet the foreign visitors this week and attend a 7:00 a.m. breakfast meeting on Saturday with the Archives Committee and the foreign guests. 

 

A contract as been signed with Dr. LaVern Rippley to translate Die deutsche Frage im Schwarzmeergebiet und Wolhynien by Neutatz.  Leona Janke will be the contact with LaVern to keep the committee informed of the progress.

Matt Feeney has been given the contract to translate The Bolshevik Power and German Autonomy on the Volga (1918-1941).  Ed Hoak will be working with Matt.

Mila Koretnikov has been given the contract to translate the book, Annotated inventory of the Records of the Saratov Kontora of Foreign Settlers, edited by Dr. Pleve, also called Lost Files Volume 2.  She will be picking up the book this week.  We currently only have funding for about one-third of the book.  President Siebert has allocated another $3,000 from the Lauren Foundation donation for translations; and the committee by consensus decided that this money be applied toward translating this book.  This will leave less than one-third remaining unfunded and donations will be requested to complete the work.

Leona Janke has completed the translation of the book, Legends of Germans in Vohlynia and Polesye and is currently asking her German professor to review the manuscript.  Once reviewed, Leona Janke has asked Ed Hoak to review it.

Money has been set aside in the restricted account for all of the books for which contracts has been written.

The committee has selected the book, History of Foreign Colonization in Russia in the 18th Century by Pisarevsky as the next to be translated.  Yulia found that we have three books in our library by this author; and after consultation with Nina Vaschkau, has selected the one of German Colonization only to be translated.  The committee supported her recommendation.  Patti is working with John Groh to search for a grant to do the translation.

The committee is considering the Minkh book as another candidate for translation.  Only the former German villages would be done.  Several have been completed already through private donations and Rick Rye, which are now on Brent Mai’s website.

Hugh Lichtenwald continues to translate the Letters from Hell that were published in the Die Welt Post.  He is posting these on the Ger-Volga website.  Dennis is saving the postings in a word file.

Hugh Lichtenwald has asked Dennis Zitterkopf if there is other translating he can do.  The committee suggested that he be asked if the completion of the Die Welt Post project would be of interest.  Ed Wagner is going to talk with Steve Schreiber and Brent Mai to see if they would discuss the possibility with Hugh.  The prior volumes were done in Microsoft Access.

It was suggested that we try to get more of the deportation lists.  It was suggested that Ed Hoak, Patti Sellenrick and Jerry Siebert discuss the possibility with Nina Vaschkau this week.  She expressed an interest.  Irma Eichhorn mentioned in the past that some group in Germany was publishing a deportation list.  Nina said she was unaware of anyone doing it.  We need to check with Irma to see if she had heard more.  It was also thought that Alfred Eisfeld was publishing something on this.  Nina says that we already have the book he was publishing in our library.

The committee has requested that the Editorial and Publications Committee reconsider their decision to not publish Otto Pohl’s book, Catharine’s Grandchildren.  The recommendation is that this be a monograph.

 

 

            The Memories of the Aussiedler book has been published and is available for sale.

            For an unknown reason, the University of Texas link to the Aussiedler recordings doesn’t work.  Patti is going to contact them.  Kerstin Sommerhalter called Diane this past week to also ask why.  Patti is going to approach Alexander Rupp and Alexander Scheiermann to see if they would be interested in transcribing the files.

 

            De-accession Policy 403 was reviewed and found to be adequate for our needs.  It was noted that this same policy is to be used for missing library books.

            Diane continues to update the museum inventory as time permits and is keeping new acquisitions current.

            Diane is continuing photo scanning as time is available.  She showed the committee the photograph price sheet for sales to members.  It is obsolete.  Diane will be reviewing it and making a recommendation to Patti regarding changes.

            The cost estimate for second floor display cabinets was shared with the committee.  The feeling is that this is within the scope already approved and Patti could approve it if she wished.

 

            Patti is continuing to index the Volga Relief Society Records and expects it to be completed by the Fall Meeting.

 

            Bob Lembke continues to organize the Emma Haynes collection, but does not have a current completion date.

 

            The Editorial and Publications Committee indicated they didn’t feel the need to publish the first two volumes.  Further follow up indicated some confusion in the direction given to Gail Gingrich.  The decision is now to publish it, and Patti will need to work with Gail to correct any formatting issues.

 

            Bob Benson has completed the video portion of the project and has that on DVD.  He also has a written narration.  He has indicated he would like to hand it over to the committee now to make it ready for sale.  President Siebert will be discussing this with Bob.

 

            The John Biel film of Wiesenseite villages from the 1920s that we have is a copy of an original that was in very poor condition and likely destroyed after it was copied.  The copy is now showing signs of deterioration as evidenced by a strong smell of vinegar.

            John Groh has worked with Paul Eisloeffel of the Nebraska Historical Society to prepare a grant request to the National Film Preservation Foundation in the amount of $5305.25.  The proposal has now been presented and we await the answer.

 

            Several recordings of oral interviews with Lincoln German-Russians were made several years ago.  There was a thought that we could make these available to our members.  Further checking found that the Nebraska Historical Society has the copyright and we can’t sell them.  The only thing we can do is keep them available in the library for research with normal copyright restrictions as to what can be copied.

 

            The only contact made since our last meeting is between Patti and the University of Wyoming.  Patti and Nina Vaschkau will be visiting with several faculty members there this next week.

 

            The need for Journal and Newsletter articles for the pipeline was discussed.  Patti has done an excellent job of providing articles for the Newsletter.  Yulia and Nina Vaschkau will discuss the possibility of publishing translated interviews from Nina’s Sarepta book.  Lauren Brantner is working with Mr. Kestner to have some of his students translate materials as possible Journal articles.  We should be able to give them credit for the work.  The committee was encouraged to think about other possibilities. 

 

            The committee was asked to think about 2009 convention speakers with the goal of finalizing the list during the Fall Meeting.  Nick has prepared a list of all speakers since 1998 which is very useful.  He passed along a copy for Patti.

 

 

            The Work Plan for next year will for the large part be a continuation of this year’s work.  Committee members were encouraged to come to the Fall Meeting with new ideas for the 2009 plan.  Patti suggested that we start a “cool sites” column in the Newsletter to pass along interesting websites we find.

 

            The pluses and minuses of Web Teleconferencing were discussed with no strong consensus.  It would not take the place of hallway meetings and may limit discussion.  It may be of benefit for presentations though.  It was suggested that this may be a tool to use between meetings.  It also may encourage members to serve on the Board who otherwise may not be able to financially.

 

            The committee would like to request money in the 2009 budget for $10,000 for translating one additional book and $5,000 for additional museum display materials and cabinets to come from the museum account.

 

            With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.

Ed Hoak