Doenhof 2001
This page was started 20 June 2001 -- rak. The photos are all
thumbnails, so click on them to enlarge them.
I visited Doenhof on 20 May 2001. The first picture is the first view
we had of the village. 
As was noted on the Doenhof page, it sits on a hill overlooking the Gololobavka
stream shown here. 
The stream was quite small but the bridge was quite large indicating they had
high water to deal with in the rainy season. In the center of the village
a small brick church 
had been converted into a granary. On the end that is to the right of the
first picture you can still see some crosses. 
Those I met say that only one German family which had come from Doenhof ever
came back here and they are now long gone to Germany. No one could
remember their family name. The handful of Germans now in the village all
came from distant points and are all trying to get to Germany as quickly as they
can. This family who gave us a magnificent tea with all the trimmings are
soon on 
on their way to Germany. The granddaughter has one of my gift pens in her
hand. She announced that she was a school girl and the pen would be very
useful -- then she was happy to distribute more to her older and younger
brothers. The grandparents in this picture whose parents were
Germans originally from the Ukraine who were sent to in 1941 to slave labor in
Kazakhstan. These people returned seven years ago. They are very
family-oriented and have photos of his parents and of each of their 8 children
on two walls of the living room at ceiling height along with pictures of Jesus
and Mary on one of the opposite walls. Their eldest intends to stay in
Kazakhstan but everyone else either has immigrated, or is hoping to immigrate,
to Germany. Their youngest son has a real problem -- he does not know
German and has no skilled trade -- so he may not get to go. For years now
he has been refusing to marry saying if he does marry a Russian girl all hope of
Germany will disappear.
The village had many old German houses still in use by Russians. Here are
three, with a window detail from the first one. 
The little Russian girl in the third picture kept trailing along with us as we
took pictures clearly wanting her picture taken too. She was delighted
when it happened! One of the old stores still had the sign of its German
owners on it. 
Unfortunately I can't see it clearly enough to read it now and did not make
notes at the time on what it said...
Horse carts were in every village. As we left Doenhof, I could not
resist taking a picture of this guy at his ease. It was lunch time and I
suspect his driver was home for lunch! 
There was a house just beyond the fence.
To go back to Doenhof, click it.
To go on to reports on other village visits, click here.
As was noted on the Doenhof page, it sits on a hill overlooking the Gololobavka
stream shown here. 
The stream was quite small but the bridge was quite large indicating they had
high water to deal with in the rainy season. In the center of the village
a small brick church 
had been converted into a granary. On the end that is to the right of the
first picture you can still see some crosses. 
Those I met say that only one German family which had come from Doenhof ever
came back here and they are now long gone to Germany. No one could
remember their family name. The handful of Germans now in the village all
came from distant points and are all trying to get to Germany as quickly as they
can. This family who gave us a magnificent tea with all the trimmings are
soon on 
on their way to Germany. The granddaughter has one of my gift pens in her
hand. She announced that she was a school girl and the pen would be very
useful -- then she was happy to distribute more to her older and younger
brothers. The grandparents in this picture whose parents were
Germans originally from the Ukraine who were sent to in 1941 to slave labor in
Kazakhstan. These people returned seven years ago. They are very
family-oriented and have photos of his parents and of each of their 8 children
on two walls of the living room at ceiling height along with pictures of Jesus
and Mary on one of the opposite walls. Their eldest intends to stay in
Kazakhstan but everyone else either has immigrated, or is hoping to immigrate,
to Germany. Their youngest son has a real problem -- he does not know
German and has no skilled trade -- so he may not get to go. For years now
he has been refusing to marry saying if he does marry a Russian girl all hope of
Germany will disappear.
