by John (Johannes) Phillips
Fargo North Dakota
North Dakota State University 2009
Paperback
John Philipps was born in 1914 in Landau/Beresan. His reports are based on what he experienced and what he saw beginning with the 1917 Revolution and civil wars; at the age of seven he experienced the first famine, 1921-22; economic policy of Lenin, 1922-28; collectivization of agriculture and deportation of the kulaks “rich farmers”; famine induced by Stalin 1932-33; closing of churches and arrests of clerics - their court trials and banishment 1934-35; banishment of German teachers and pedagogues 1931-35; Stalin’s constitution 1936; Stalin’s great cleansing including many teachers of the author 1936-38; the Second World War and occupation by German and Romanian troops 1941-44; resettlement (evacuation) of the ethnic Germans between the Rivers Bug and Dnjester to the Warthegau (Poland) 1944. This is the main theme of the book. One of the author’s expertises is his training and experience as an agronomist in the Black Sea areas he knows so well and describes in this book. He studied agrarian sciences at the University in Landau from 1933-37 attaining a degree of agronomist. John traveled extensively across the Beresan region gaining knowledge of how the land was worked in normal and collective times.
