“‘Remember us as we remember you’ – the plea from a father for his family in a prison camp in Stalin’s Gulag empire. Jasch Regehr’s letter is a criminal offence. Documents of the NKVD, the Soviet Union’s secret police agency, confirm that ‘correspondence abroad’ is punishable by arrest and imprisonment without trial.

Yet this father’s letter was delivered to a tiny prairie town in Canada. From 1930-37, other letters written by Russian Mennonites – a nine-year old girl, her mother, brother and sister, extended family and friends – arrived in Carlyle, Saskatchewan. Most of the 463 letters traveled by covert means and circuitous networks. Aggressive prison guards, hostile censors and informers were obstacles to secure delivery. Once safely in Canada, the letters were stored in a Campbell’s Soup box. They moved from attic to attic for nearly 60 years, and were finally discovered in 1989 by Peter Bargen, son of the recipients.

For the author, Ruth Derksen Siemens (a first-generation Canadian of Russian-Mennonite descent) these letter writers are not faceless, nameless people from the past. They are her blood, her kin. From the position of an ‘insider,’ the author guides us through the accounts that depict not only death and horror – but also the hope that sustains the prisoners in their darkest hours.

The letters gathered in this publication (Volume One) have been written by one family: Jasch and Maria Regehr and some of their children.”

Price: $10.00

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“A splendid and eloquent story of the work of MCC in Canada from its beginnings in the 1920s to the present.​”

“This history of Mennonite Central Committee in Canada comes out of a rich historical tradition, eloquently telling the fascinating and complex story of this well-loved organization. Each chapter illustrates the myriad of ways that people and programs have come together to create a work that we know as MCC, but which is much more than an institution. MCC in Canada is a movement that has linked Mennonites and Brethren in Christ in Canada – young and elderly, rural and urban, women and men – in a deep desire for the wellbeing of others.” (From the Preface)

“Connecting People at a very human level was one of the key ways that MCC sought to foster understanding, peace, and reconciliation in a world that continued to groan with hostility, injustice, and suffering. MCC was at its best when it drew people out of their comfort zones and built relationships across the divides. It was at its best when these people-to-people encounters were mutually transformative – and where giving and receiving flowed in both directions.” (from the Conclusion)

Price: $15.00

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