Biographical Sketch

Anna Dyck is the daughter of Aganetha Kirsch and Johann Dyck. She was born October 23, 1925 in Kondratjewka, Borissovo Colony. The family farmed for themselves until they were forced into collective farming and their horses taken away. Johann died in 1934 of cancer leaving Aganetha, Anna and her younger brother Johann to work the farm alongside the men in charge of the Kolkhoz.

The war began in 1937 and Anna watched as family, friends and neighbours were taken away. On October 2, 1941 Anna and the other Germans in her village were evacuated from Kondratjewka. Russian soldiers loaded them onto wagons and brought them to Konstantinovka. They continued to travel for several months until they arrived in the village of Shana-Turmas where they lived in clay huts and worked on the collective farm.

In 1942, at the age of 17, Anna was drafted into the Labour Army. She was sent to a village 15 km away from Pochwistnewo and was placed with a Russian family. The work was ardous. In the fall of 1948, three years after the end of the war, Anna was allowed to return to her mother and brother in Kazakhstan. Once home she worked on the collective farm in the village.

In 1950 Anna married Wilhelm Neguebauer. They continued to work, had children and eventually were able to buy a house. After the death of Stalin, they had a better life. They moved to Germany, with two of their children, in 1992 and have an apartment with a small garden.