Bessarabia History

Records for my family on both sides show that they came from Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Bessarabia, and other names for the same place.  The confusion arises because the area was very much in flux as to who was in control at the particular time that the record was made.  Other than that, they all tie back into Germany, where they originated at an unknown date.

This article was copied from a source which I did not record, but gives a historical, accurate record of how the Germans, and particularly my family settled in Bessarabia.
Quote:
German colonization of Bessarabia began in 1812 when Russia acquired this territory from the Ottoman Empire.  Tsar Alexander I issued an invitation to Germans--mainly in the Duchy of Warsaw--to settle in this comparatively empty region.  These Germans had migrated there from several German states--especially Prussia, Wurttemberg and Baden--to colonize the Prussian districts after the first partition of Poland.  When theses regions became part of the Duchy of Warsaw and were suppressed by the state and fell into misery and hunger, many of the Germans were willing to follow the Tsar's call.  Germans from southwestern Germany, particularly Wurttemberg, also responded to the invitation.  That region was seriously depressed because of the Napoleonic Wars and suffered under arbitrary rule of the princes, high taxation, religious quarrels, and many failed harvests.  The Tsar promised the settlers--as Catherine the Great had done before in 1763--free land (65 hectares), exemption from military service, and religious freedom.  (It is important to note that Catherine the Great was herself of German descent.)

Between 1814 and 1842 about 9,000 Germans migrated to Bessarabia and founded 25 mother colonies on about 150,000 hectares of land given to them by the state.  Because of their high birth rate, the number of colonists increased to 25,000 by 1842, leading to a sharp increase in demand for new land.  As it became available, daughter colonies were established. In this manner, more than 150 communities were set up in 125 years of German Settlement in Bessarabia.  Between 1861 and 1919 the German population of Bessarabia rose from 33,000 to 79,000, accounting for three percent of the total.  The highest concentration of Germans was found in the Akkerman Kreis where they represented more that 16% of the population.

But some colonists left Bessarabia again.  Large numbers emigrated in 1874 when the exemption from military service was lifted. (Until 1939, altogether 19,000 Bessarabians would emigrate, of whom 11,320 would go to North America--most of them in 1902--and another 2,000 to South America.)

Although relations between the Germans and Russians in Bessarabia were generally good, pressure from the nationalist and Pan-Slavist movements led to a continuous decline in the number of privileges that the German colonists had been granted.  The situation deteriorated even  more with the outbreak of the First World War.  German schools were closed, and German services and newspapers were prohibited.  They lost much of their land and were threatened with mass evacuation to Siberia.  However, the severe winter and the Revolution of 1917 kept them from this fate.

After Bessarabia had become part of Rumania in 1918, the liquidation and expropriation laws were repealed.  Although the colonists received their land back, the German Schools were allowed to reopen, and church services could be offered in German, many of the concessions were once more withdrawn.  The following two decades would, however, be characterized by considerable economic prosperity and cultural development as the Bessarabians tried to retain their German heritage and to be loyal Rumanian citizens at the same time.  At the end of the 1930's they were even allowed to establish church schools again.  In the 1930's, 2.8% of the population of Bessarabia was German.  There was an active cultural life among the Bessarabian Germans: In 1940, 61 villages had German libraries, the teachers' organization and the Hochshulverband with its collection of books, and their were five German bookstores.

In 1940, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were occupied by Soviet troops.  Against the background of the Hitler-Stalin-Pact, it was agreed to resettle the more than 93,000 Bessarabian Germans to
the Reich.  They were allowed to take along food, furniture and agricultural implements, but were not compensated for their homes and whatever wealth they had accumulated.  They wound up primarily in camps in Saxony, Franconia, Bavaria, the Sudentenland, and Austria.

After  difficult times in the resettlement camps, the great majority of the Bessarabians was resettled on farms in the Warthe-Gau and  West Prussia in 1941/1942 from which their Polish owners had recently been expelled.  Many Bessarabians were aware of the fact that they had displaced another ethnic group  for their own advantage, but did not ask many questions.

In January 1945, Russian troops advanced on the regions where the Bessarabia Germans had been settled, and while trying the flee, the Germans suffered tremendous losses.  Those who made it came to Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, Lower Saxony, and Holstein.  Others were deported to the Caucasus and to Siberia.
UNQUOTE

Those who were deported to Siberia were sent in cattle cars in the middle of winter with snow and freezing conditions which they were not prepare for.  Many froze to death or died because of the severe conditions.  Those that survived were unloaded in Siberia with no provisions made for where they were to live or how they were to survive.