File 7 - Franz Froese sermons

Franz J. Froese, minister and teacher, was born on February 28, 1902 in the village of Einlage, Chortitza Colony, South Russia. He was the fifth of 12 children born to his parents Jacob and Maria (nee Thiessen) Froese. As a child he attended the village school and then did his teacher training at the Chortitza Zentralschule. Between 1925 and 1929 he taught in a Russian Public School and married Agatha Klassen on November 8, 1928 in Einlage. He was arrested in 1929 for trying to leave the country and when released went to work as book-keeper for the Dnieper power dam. Agatha died in 1935, leaving behind four young children, two sons and two daughters. Froese was sent to a forced labour camp in 1938, where he remained until the German invasion in 1940. That same year he married his second wife, Elizabeth Wiebe on December 2nd. This second marriage produced five sons. In August 1941 Froese went to Berlin for a teaching refresher course and taught in Germany for a while. He was elected to the ministry at his home church in Einlage in February of 1942. When evacuated with the German army in 1943 he became involved in working with refugees. Froese and his family immigrated to Canada in June of 1948, where they settled in Steinbach, Manitoba. He was ordained to the ministry in 1950 by Aeltester Benjamin Ewert at the Steinbach Mennonite Church. Here he served until 1975. Franz J Froese died on February 18, 1978 in Steinbach.