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Family Histories of Survivors of Stalin's Labor Camps mostly in the Parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary, Chelyabinsk, Russia © Copyright 1997 Congregatiuon of the Sisters of St. Agnes, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, all rights reserved Family Histories of the following older parishioners and friends of Immaculate Conception Parish in Chelyabinsk, Southern Urals district, Russia, and its mission parishes are being recorded in a series of "Conversations" by Sister Alice Ann Pfeifer with Sister Mary Elise Leiker, her interpreter and interviewer. August EXSNER (born 1909) and his wife Elizabeth LEIKER Exsner (born circa 1913) of Korkina Herman PAPENFUSS (born 1932) and his wife Albina YOUNGER Papenfuss (born 1931) of Chelyabinsk Clara GREILICH BRAUN (born 1911) of Chelyabinsk Helena WEIGEL MERZ (born 1922) of Chelyabinsk Frederick GOERTMANN (born 1922) and his wife Agatha MARE Goertman (born 1924) of Chelyabinsk Maria HAVERKAND LANG (born 1936) of Chelyabinsk Agatha ALBERT MOOR (born 1933) of Kopeysk Ilse WIENS WEBER (born 1939), formerly of Chelyabinsk, now Germany Appendix: Konstantine WASINGER (born 1913) and his wife Josefina of Kopeysk Lydia ACKERMAN KUHN (born 1924) of Chelyabinsk Ekaterina RISCH STARIKOVA (born 1923) Johannes STAMM (born 1934) and his wife Agnes WAGNER STAMM (born 1929) Therese GROSS HERMAN (born 1915) Monica SCHAEFER HARMEL (born 1936) About the Conversations and Their Authors Sister Alice Ann Pfeifer (born 1953), a member of the Congregation of St. Agnes (C.S.A.) and a 1971 graduate of Thomas More Prep-Marian in Hays, Kansas, U.S.A., was part of the exploratory team sent in May of 1993 to gather information on a possible mission of the Agnesians to Russia. When she returned on mission to Chelyabinsk in August, 1995, her arrival brought the number of Agnesian Sisters in Siberia to five - four of them from Ellis County, Kansas. Sister returned to the U.S. in February, 1996, and returned to Chelyabinsk in August of 1996. While spending most of her time in Russian-language study, Sister also began recording the tragic stories of various ethnic-German exiles in Chelyabinsk - a subject which should be of interest to the many descendants and friends of Germans from Russia who settled in the U.S., Canada, and southern South America in the half century between 1874 and 1924. Sister wrote the first four articles in this series prior to returning to the U.S. in February, 1996, and the rest since her return to Siberia in August of 1996. Sister is the daughter of Ida Schaffer Pfeifer (born 1922) of Liebenthal, Kansas, and the late Albert Frank Pfeifer (1920-1974). Her grandparents - George Pfeifer (1886-1955), Rose Herrman Pfeifer (1891-1956), Alex Schaffer (1896-1976) and Rosalia Legleiter Schaffer (1901-1967) - were all born in the U.S. Many of her great grandparents, however, were brought to the U.S. by their parents from Russia's Volga River Valley in the 1870s. [All bracketed material in these Conversations are editorial notes by Fr. Blaine Burkey, O.F.M.Cap.] History of the Chelyabinsk Parish |