Women Without Men

Title: Women Without Men oral history project

Dates of creation: 1993-1994

Physical description: 1 cm of textual records; 53 cassette tapes; 28 optical discs

Administrative history: These oral history interviews were conducted by Marlene Epp as research for her dissertation Women without men: Mennonite immigration to Canada and Paraguay after the Second World War (University of Toronto, 1996). Her dissertation was subsequently published as a book, Women without men: Mennonite refugees of the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

Custodial history: The interviews were donated to the Archives by Marlene Epp in 2014. The interviews were subsequently digitized in .mp3 and .wav format, and indexed by Sheri Gingrich at the Archives. One additional interview was received from Marlene Epp in 2023.

Scope and content: Interviewees recall life in Mennonite communities in the Soviet Union before the Second World War, life under German occupation, the "Great Trek" of Mennonites westward following the German army, life as refugees and resettlement in Paraguay or Canada. Interviewees are listed in the file list, below. Unless specified, all interviews were conducted by Marlene Epp.

Notes: Original archival description created 2016 by Laureen Harder-Gissing.

File list:

1. Katie Wall, Irene Bergen, Marie Price (Clearbrook, B.C.)
2. Elfrieda Dyck (Kitchener, Ontario)
3. Jacob Dyck (Kitchener, Ontario)
4. Peter Dyck and Elfrieda Dyck (Kitchener, Ontario)
5. Annie Ens (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
6. Dr. George Epp (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
7. Herta Janzen, Aganita Enns (Coaldale, Alberta)
8. Elizabeth Krahn (visiting Waterloo, Ontario from Clearbrook, B.C.)
9. John Kroeker (interviewed by Anna Gossen in Clearbrook, B.C.)
10. Trudy Peters (Waterloo, Ontario)
11. Netty Pries (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
12. Katie Rempel (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
13. Rudy Rempel (Kitchener, Ontario)
14. Susan Rempel (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
15. Agatha Schmidt (Kitchener, Ontario)
16. Tamara Sommer (Kitchener, Ontario)
17. Alfred Hecht (Waterloo, Ontario)
18. Anne Fast (Kitchener, Ontario)
19. Lina Wohlgemut and Gudrun Mathies (Kitchener, Ontario)
20. Katie Siemens and Jake Siemens (Clearbrook, B.C.)
21. Mary Bergen (Clearbrook, B.C.)
22. Anna Koop (Clearbrook, B.C.)
23. Jacob Penner and Lena (Helena) Penner (Clearbrook, B.C.)
24. Mary Wiebe (Kitchener, Ontario)
25. Harry Loewen (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
26. Otto Klassen (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
27. Lilly Bargen and Jake Bargen (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
28. Release forms
    Note: Includes some correspondence and notes by Marlene Epp
29. Index to interviews
30. Cassette tapes
31. Maria (Wall Wiebe) Sawatsky (Abbotsford, BC)
    Note: No index created. Tapes have not been digitized.