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| San Jose Church |
As many of you know, I visited Argentina last November. When we traveled to the German from Russia
villages in La Pampa, Dr. Elio Krank and his lovely wife, Roxana Appelhanz,
were our hosts and guides. They shared
their heritage and opened their home in Colonia Baron
to us. Dr. Krank spoke German and Spanish, and Roxana spoke both of those languages plus English. Needless to say, if you have heard my sporadic German or Spanish, despite all of my pre-planning with Pimsleur language program, I was grateful for their patience and understanding of my poor attempts at Spanish.
La Pampa was settled by many Black Sea and Volga Germans from
Russia. Part of every research trip includes a visit to the local cemetery. One of my favorites was the cemetery at San
Jose.
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| San Jose Cemetery |
As a life member of the American Historical Society of
Germans from Russia and the German Russian Heritage society, I understand the
differences between Black Sea and Volga. Depending on perspective, there can be some major gulfs and some true
bonding between these groups who immigrated to Russia. The Volga Germans responded
to Catherine the Great’s Manifesto II over 250 years ago. The Black Sea Germans responded to Alexander
II re-issue of the manifesto in 1803. That is the first difference but not the
last.
When I entered the cemetery, Dr. Krank explained that the
Volga Germans were buried on the left and the Black Sea settlers were buried
on the right. I am familiar with Catholics
and Lutherans being buried in separate
cemeteries. It was a first for me to see
one cemetery with a walkway down the center, and family lots split by origin in
Russia.
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| Volga Germans buried on the left, Black sea Germans on the right. |
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| Head stone for Cristina Hollmann geb. Sauer Gebohren in Jahr 1879 bei vollmer, Russland |
While I learned much during my time with the Kranks, I look forward to reading Dr. Krank's book Colonia San José, El Atrio del Paraíso. Written in Spanish, it is my next step to working toward fluency in the language. Estudio mucho, pero apendir un poco. Maybe I can change that.
