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Rakko, Wilhelm, 1912-2006
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Dates of existence
1912-2006
History
"Wilhelm Rakko (1912 – 2006) was born in Waldheim, Ukraine, and died in Brazil after a fulfilled life. In Russia, he had attended primary school in Waldheim and the central school in Halbstadt. He was first trained as a field surgeon (paramedic) and later completed medical studies in Odessa.
In the following years, he practiced the medical profession in several places in the country.
In 1933 he married Anna Dück, a nurse. Two children, Elfriede and Arnold, were born to them. When the German troops withdrew from Ukraine in 1943, the Raqko family also fled. In Germany, they were naturalized and Dr. Raqko was drafted into the German Wehrmacht. After the collapse of the German Reich, he was in American captivity for more than two years.
Although Dr. Rakko was able to emigrate to Canada with his family, he decided at the request of the >MCC to go as a doctor to the newly founded settlement >Neuland in the Paraguayan >Chaco. Here he did pioneering work in the construction of the Concordia Hospital. The hospital was built according to his suggestions and inaugurated in 1951. A nurse training course was set up to train nurses for their own hospital. He worked here as a doctor for 30 years and was available to the patients day and night, as he was the only doctor on site. His wife supported him as a midwife and head nurse. Mennonites and Indians as well as Latin Paraguayans came from a wide radius to seek help at Hospital Concordia.
When Rakko retired in 1978, he and his wife moved to Brazil to live with their children, who lived there with their families. A tragic event marred her well-deserved retirement when her son Arnold Rakko mysteriously disappeared on a trip and never reappeared. For many years they lived in their house in Curitiba and took an active part in community life. In 1996, his wife Anna died. He stayed in their house for a year, then moved into the Mennonite retirement home Betesda for a year. But for the last seven years he lived with his daughter Elfriede and her husband Heinz Ehlert. On January 15, 2006, he passed away in the S. José dos Pinhais Hospital.
For the Neuland > colony, Dr. Wilhelm Rakko and his wife Anna, née Dück, have rendered very valuable services in the field of health care for three decades. Together with the head mayor Peter >Derksen, who remained in the service for 25 years, Dr. Rakko was one of the supporting pillars in the colony, who stood firm and believed in the future of the colony when most of the newcomers left the colony to seek better earning opportunities abroad.
Jakob Warkentin
Elfriede Rakko Ehlert: Mennoblatt 78 (2006) 4, p. 9f; Walter Regehr (ed.): 25 Jahre Kolonie Neuland. Karlsruhe, 1972." ~ auto-translated page from https://menonitica.org/lex/rakko-wilhelm/
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GRANDMA ID: 517757
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See obituary in Der Bote, 1 March 2006, pp 19-20.