Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1908-1984 , predominant 1929-1941, 1959-1984 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
6.2 meters of textual records and other materials
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Alexander (Sascha) Rempel was born on June 8, 1915, in Chortitza, South Russia, as the oldest child of Jacob Rempel and Maria Suderman. His father, Jacob A. Rempel (1883-1941), who had studied at the Evangelical Ministers' School (Predigerschule) in Basel, Switzerland and the University of Basil, was a teacher in the Chortitza Zentralschule in South Russia, when Sascha was born. For a short time during chaotic times of the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war, the family moved to the Sudermann family estate, where Alexander's mother died in 1918.
Jacob Rempel, Alexander's father, was called and elected as an Ältester (Bishop) with the ordanation being performed by Isaak G. Dyck on 2 May 1920. A little later, Jacob made his home base the village of Grünfeld in the Barotov-Schlachtin settlement. Here Jacob married his first wife's sister, Sophie Sudermann. Together they had six more children, two of whom died young due to starvation.
In September of 1929 the church was closed and the family need to re-locate. They went to Moscow with plans to emigrate but for unknown reasons they were not allowed to leave the Soviet Russia. In November 1929 Alexander's father, Jacob, was taken away and jailed while the family was ordered to return to Grünfeld. Jacob was released and imprisoned numerous times.
From 1934 to 1936, Alexander and Jacob, his father, lived in Ak Metchet in Central Asia. In 1936 they were both arrested, charged and sentenced to death. Jacob was charged jointly with other Mennonites, of attempting major acts of sabotage on behalf of Germany against the Soviet Union i.e. attempting to blow up railway bridges, etc. etc..., all concocted. Alexander was charged for providing economic aid to his father. At one point both were sentenced to be executed by shooting. Jacob's sentence was later commuted to 10 of prison, but he was nevertheless executed on 11 September 1941 in the city of Orel, south west of Moscow. Alexander survived severe interrogation and torture and eventually came to Germany in 1942. These events colored the rest of Alexander's life. Alexander had promised his father that his life would not be forgotten, and though he studied engineering in Berlin, he also painstakingly researched and collected the relevant materials from family, friends and colleague, in order to keep his promise. In 1963, he immigrated to Canada, and lived at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario until his sudden death in 1985.
He was an avid researcher who devoted much of his life to Mennonite studies, but unfortunately due to his illness and sudden death of a heart attack, little was completed or published. In 2005, the story was published under the title, Hope is our Deliverance: Aeltester Jacob Aron Rempel: The tragic experience of a Mennonite leader and his family in Stalin's Russia by Alexander Rempel and Amalie Enns.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jacob A. Rempel was one of the prominent leaders of the Mennonite church in Russia
Repository
Archival history
The records of this fonds were brought to the Heritage Centre from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario in several deposits -- six cartons of books delivered in July 1986 by Waldemar Janzen, a friend of the family, then some more boxes were received directly from Alexander's sister, Elenore (Lora) Janzen on May 22, 1987. In 1999, another donation consisting primarily of books collected by Alexander Rempel was made. In 2004 Elenore Janzen donated the research files related to the Chortitza Zentralschule. In 2010, Amalie Enns donated the Jacob A. Rempel documents and letters from the 1930s.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Elenore (Lora) Janzen and Amalie Enns
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This fond consists of nine series. They include:
-1) Linguistics;
-2) Russian / Prussian Mennonite history;
-3) World War Two history;
-4) Education;
-5) Anabaptist history (with a sub series on catechisms);
-6) Theology;
-7) Genealogy;
-8) Russian history;
-9) Philosophy and History.
These series contain handwritten notes, manuscripts by the author, card indexes, photocopies, pictures, micro media, and a few original documents. The numerous photocopies and micro media are of books and articles, some of which are extremely rare. It is difficult to determine when the copies or notes were made: therefore, the creation date of the files are often [19-], meaning between 1900-1999. In many cases, the correspondence and manuscripts are the only way to date his research. In some cases, the date of publication is not known and an estimate was made.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Some of the material appeared to have been gone through by a friend or family member of Alexander Rempel, prior to arriving at the Heritage Centre. (See genealogy series description.) After the second donation was received, acting archivist Peter Rempel, made a preliminary inventory. During the summer of 1995 college student Conrad Stoesz went through the collection again creating file lists for a preliminary finding aid. Stoesz updated the the preliminary finding aid some more during the summer of 1998. The current arrangement and finding aid was completed in 2000 by Archivist Conrad Stoesz and with further updates done on June 18, 2003 and April 30, 2004. Updated by Alf Redekopp, Dec. 23, 2010. Reviewed 13 April 2020 (AHR).
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- Czech
- Dutch
- English
- French
- German
- Latin
- Low German
- Russian
Script of material
- Gothic
Language and script notes
Some of the oldest materials are written in Gothic Old German script style, however, most of the material is not in Gothic.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Inventory file list
Uploaded finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
Accession nos. 84-085, 87-148, 88-164, 99-043, 2004-029.
Note
Other materials consist of 160 frames of microfiche, 9089 frames of microfilm, 7 frames of black and white photographs and 24 books.