This is a photo of a wide street in a village identified as Chortitza by Arthur Slagel. There are several teams of oxen tied to wagons and people on the street and sidewalks.

This is a rather faded photo of the Chortitza Girls' School (Maedchenschule) in Russia. There are some bare trees and a low fence in front of the building.

This is a photo of the teachers, with their families, of the Teachers' Training School in Chortitza, Russia. Standing ( to right): 3rd person, Dietrich H. Epp, 5th person, Heinrich H. Epp. Seated (left to right): 2nd lady, Mrs. Agnetha Epp, nee Klassen, holding child.

This is a photo of men in the field in Chortitza, Russia, harvesting the barley crop for the American Mennonite Relief.

This is a photo of American Mennonite Relief workers operating the Fordson and other farm implements to harvest the barley crop near Chortitza, Russia.

This is a photo of a group of people, mostly men, standing along side the railway track in Chortitza, Russia. It is the first group of immigrants to leave Russia in 1923.

The Chortitza Oak tree (same as MHC 531:5, but digitally enhanced). It had a height of 35 metres. The crown had a diameter of 43 metres, and the trunk about 3.4 metre. The tree was 700-800 years old when the photo was taken. Taken in the spring or summer, it shows the trunk, branches and most of the crown. A small metal fence roughly the circumference of the crown, encircles the tree. There is a woman outside the fence off to the right, next to a wooden box.

This is a photo of The "Maedchenschule", (girls school) in Chortitza.

Chortitza

This photo is a combination of three photos pieced together by photographer Bill Schroeder on one of his trips/tours of the Ukraine. A road is in the foreground and a low fence surrounds the oak tree. Inside the fence is a few boulders and grass. Behind the grass in the background are smaller trees and a woman a small structure. A modern building can be seen through the trees on the far right in the back. -- Note: this photo is over sized. Bill Schroeder's comments on this picture are:
The famous old oak in the village of Chortitza provided shelter for the first Mennonite immigrants from the Vistula Delta in 1789. The tree is estimated to be about seven hundred years old. It had a height of thirty-six meters (115 feet). The crown had a diameter of forty-three meters (137 feet ), and the trunk had a diameter of about 3.4 meters (about 11 feet). The shape of its leaves was similar through slightly smaller then the leaves of the burr oak common in the prairie states and provinces in North America. Because of its size, great age and unusual shape the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who live in that area till 1774, considered this oak to be sacred. The practice of worshiping an oak tree was a carry-over from per-Christian times (988) when Slavic people worshiped Perun and Svantovit. This magnificent oak served as a natural monument for many years. It was protected by the state and served as a popular tourist attraction. Unfortunately the old oak died during the 1990s. (William Schroeder). See MHC 631.6 for enhanced version.

This photo is of the legendary 700-year-old Chortitza oak tree on Chortitza island near Rosenthal where the Funks lived. The Mennonite settlers gathered for more than a hundred years under its flourishing branches to rejoice, remember, and restore spirits. The tree in the photo is thriving. It has since died.