In 1991, on a visit to Ukraine with 12 other Mennonite tourists, including Hilda Epp, led by Al Reimer and James Urry, we came to visit this Dmitri Yavarnitzki Historical Museum in Dnepropetrovsk.

After seeing the main exhibit areas downstairs we were taken to large room on the second floor. A banner proclaimed: "THIS MUST NOT HAPPEN AGAIN". We asked what it meant. The museum guide said:

"This Reparations Room Exhibit was put together by people of this area as a memorial to those millions of Soviet citizens  who became victims of the repressions of the Stalin era. When you see this memorial it makes you want to bow your knees in front of these uncountable innocent victims of these terrible crimes. It is impossible to reverse history, and many of the victims' names will never be identified, least of all their burial places, BUT IT MUST NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!

This museum memorial is different from a granite memorial in that it shows photographs, documents, letters and artifacts of the Stalin years. It is also a monument to those millions of victims who perished during the artificially created famine of 1932-33. Not much was left behind, after the deaths of these innocent people, executed as "enemies of the people". No one can come into this room and not be deeply touched", so said our guide.

I Marguerite Bergmann, daughter of Gerhard Christian Hamm and Hilda Epp, daughter of Peter Dyck, were told that since our fathers were executed in this city, we could have their pictures mounted on the pyramid of victims faces, provided we supplied an appropriate picture and two kinds of documents - the authentic execution order and the rehabilitation document, along with a short biography of our fathers.

I did that and in due course, that is about one year later, the museum placed my father's picture in the pyramid. I am very grateful for this. Here I am back in the museum in 1995. My father's image is under my right hand.

The museum guides can usually point you to the right spot when you visit the room. Tell them you are Mennonite and that the name is usually pronounced "Gamm" in Russian. Please thank the museum guides for me when you leave the room.

My father, Gerhard Christian Hamm was sentenced to death on September 16, 1937 in Dnepropetrovsk. The same happened to Hilda's father, Peter Ivanovich Dyck. Just five years earlier, both of them had been given the highest Soviet award, the Order of Lenin, for their part in creating the first Soviet combine harvester. In 1937 they were accused of belonging to counter-revolutionay groups. The charges were totally fictitious of course.

It is ironic that in 1930, my father was "chosen", along with the director of the factory, to spend three months to learn about conveyor belt systems in Battle Creek, Michigan, Peoria, Illinois and New York City. He was told that if he defected his whole family would be sent to Siberia. It was threat enough.

My father and Peter Dyck were leading engineers of the farm implement factory "Komunar". The firm was begun in Schoenwiese by Abram Jakob Koop, a Mennonite, in 1863. Today it produces cars and is known as Avto-zaz-Dey in Zaporozhye.

Marguerite Bergmann,  Winnipeg, September 1998

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