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I Heard My People Cry
One Family's Escape From Russia
Review:
Dr. Becky Stevenson, Professor, Anthropology, University
of Guam; Dr. Hiroyasu Kurashina, Dean of the Graduate School
and Research, University of Guam. Director of the Micronesian Area
Research CenterI
Heard My People Cry, One Family's Escape From Russia
"When I Heard My People Cry was picked up neither of us could
put it down. This book is very anthropological. The photos add extra
meaning to the written text. It is a very compelling account: so
many people-such very hard times-the ways in which people kept a
grip on themselves and kept their determination alive-and Elizabeth
Koop Huebert, and Lise! - what a remarkable book!
Elizabeth
Lenci-Downs is to be admired greatly for writing it. I Heard My
People Cry is an outstanding contribution to both history and literature.
Between us, Dr. Stevenson's experiences in Russia, in the Soviet
far East in Khabarovsk, for academic meetings, heightens her interest
in Russia. Elizabeth Lenci-Downs has written a most compelling book
I Heard My People Cry is a singular accomplishment. Well done -
and thank you Elizabeth Lenci-Downs!"
Review:
Dr. Karla C. Shippey
Approved Speaker / Stonecroft Ministries:
Law Offices of Karla C. Shippey, JD., Yorba Linda, CA
"Set in Eurasian history, this remarkable story of faith, courage,
perseverance and love could easily happen again and is happening
today. A mother's love and determination, a child's lost innocence,
a tale of harrowing survival. What should never have occurred is
as fresh today as it was then. I couldn't put down I Heard My People
Cry the first time. I continue to pick up my favorite parts to read
them over and over as a source and basis for my own faith. The words
are so clear, the vision so real."
Review: Dr. Henry Baerg, past President
of The Bible Institute. Chilliwack British Columbia, Canada -January
2002.
"Elizabeth Lenci-Downs, I compliment you on the excellent,
superb job you did in writing I Heard My People Cry, One Family's
Escape From Russia. I cannot recommend your book too highly." This
is the story of Louise Huebert Toews Gerig (Lise in the book) and
"Her People" who were originally Dutch-German Mennonites
of the Crimea and South Ukraine. The focus is on the years 1918-1949,
the Great Revolution, Lenin and the reign of terror under Stalin
followed by three years of occupation of the southern Ukraine by
the German army and the family's life in Poland as trapped Black
Sea Germans. The
saga takes us from early Mennonite history to Ukraine in 1778, until
Lise's family take refuge in the Crimea in the early 1900's. The
theme, "My People", threads throughout the whole book
and gives the reader the impression that young Lise appreciated
and treasured her grandfather's Christian teachings. The
author writes about the manner of life, joys and prosperity of Dutch-German
farmers in Ukraine and of those in the marine climate of the Crimean
peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. The fruit and the flowers,
meadows and mountains, the agricultural fields and gardens are described
in exquisite picturesque language. . .
.
. .Lise's poignant words tell how her people found a haven in the
village of Tiege under Rumanian forces of the German Army where
they were able to survive for two years. However, when the German
Army was retreating from Stalingrad, Lise's people joined millions
of others who fled on wagons, by train when possible and on foot
to Poland and finally to West Germany and British protection. It
is a breathtaking and agonizing story of flight and escape.
The
author must be complimented on her use of words and language to
engage your mind so thoroughly. You can just feel the suspense and
pathos from the danger of being captured. The story ends with Lise's
family able to come to Canada despite all the obstacles including
detention in Poland. One cousin was granted asylum in the west after
I Heard My People Cry, One Family's Escape From Russia was completed.
Interesting
facets in the development of the story are the romance and finally
marriage of Lise and Walter Toews. The fire of love and romance
cannot be extinguished even in times of separation, oppression and
danger. To appreciate our freedoms and affluence, I recommend the
reading of this life story which is skillfully woven through the
events of Russian history that affected Lise's people. And to read
especially to our young people.
Review:
Lise's Sisters
"You did a marvelous job creating the tension, the fear, we
must have always felt; the agony and uncertainty of daily events;
the harsh realities as they were lived by millions of people. I
thank-you also that you portrayed the faith our people needed and
lived in order to survive - that God really heard His people cry
and answered their cry. I am glad that you wrote our story that definately needed to be told. Thank-you, Elizabeth Lenci-Downs,
with love." Agnes
"I
am truly grateful...you did an excellent job of retelling the story
of our lives. I really enjoyed reading I Heard My People Cry. It
is also good for our children and grandchildren to have this book.
Persons who have read I Heard My People Cry exclaim to me that they
can't believe anybody could survive. Well, we did survive. I thank
God very day that we can live in this beautiful country while the
world is in real turmoil. I thank-you from the bottom of my heart
for writing I Heard My People Cry. May God reward you for doing
this." Mary
Six Girls On A Hoot!!!
Yellowstone National Park 1926
Review
by: Mike Scharnow, Editor: The Fountain Hills Times,
Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Many
of us have grown up hearing stories told to us by mom or dad - stories
about "how things were" or perhaps something wild and
crazy they did as youngsters. Elizabeth Lenci-Downs had much more
than that - she uncovered written notes that her mother had penned
in 1926 about a wild trip taken in a borrowed 1924 Studebaker Model
E.L. "Special Six" with a ladder on top.
Route
66 and Jack Kerouac conjure up images of the Wild West and wild
road trips - but six girls on a lark in 1926 driving from northern
Minnesota to Yellowstone National Park? It happened - and Lenci-Downs
published the "unabridged journal" in a small book she
calls Six Girls On A Hoot!!!
Perhaps
one of the most ironic things is that Lenci-Downs hadn't heard a
thing about the trip until she unearthed the journal while preparing
the family homestead for sale after her mother's death. As Lenci-Downs
states in the forward about the discovery:
"A brown leather portfolio left the softness of ages upon her
fingertips. Silken cords bound-round it. Sitting there on the floor,
Elizabeth pulled it to her out of the dark recesses of her deceased
mother's bookcase and removed a film of ancient dustiness. Golden
words, impressed long ago, stood out from the rustic leather:
Our
Yellowstone Tour
July 15-Aug. 3, 1926
Off On a Hoot!!!
"It
was priceless," Lenci-Downs says. "I thought, 'This has
got to be published.' I didn't say anything to my two brothers.
I decided to publish it just for fun and present it to them."
The
1926 journey involved six female friends who had been hanging around
with each other since high school. "The Gang" included
three Norwegian sisters (Florence, Gertrude and Violet) along with
three others - Lilly, Myrtle and Hazel all of Virginia, Minnesota.
During high school the six had taken a three-hour journey to Duluth
to march in a suffragette parade - a precursor of their boldness
and unique approach to life. By 1926 these single, professional
women ages 23 to 32 decided to take one more journey.
Vi
wrote to a different friend in June of 1926: "We've decided
on one more adventure together. You know - 'Go off on a Hoot!!!'
People are telling us that such a trip is unheard of for young ladies
- and I can hardly wait!"
Violet
was actually Violet Hazel Hansen of Virginia, Minn., the future
mother of Lenci-Downs. The "boyfriend" who lent the Studebaker
for the wild lark was John D. Lenci, who eventually married Vi and
became the father to Elizabeth (and a highly respected builder in
Minnesota.) Vi and John were married five months after the trip.
Lenci-Downs
spent considerable time attempting to get information about the
other five women and what became of their families. "I put
ads in newspapers in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan," she
says. "I found a niece in New Jersey from one of those ads."
Vi was a witty writer and an amateur photographer. The journal included
40 pictures, and Lenci-Downs put 20 of them in her book.
Violet
ended up doing most of the driving - lumbering across the northlands
of Minnesota, both Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming on uncharted roads,
detouring down cow paths. When a door is ripped off because of a
grizzly bear, Lilly simply tied it back on with a rope. Vi would
write down diary entries as they sat on the floor of service garages
in the dead of night, sitting on the ground
beside a pup tent or bouncing over prairie dog holes across prairie
when Myrtle took over the driving at times. Scribbles were in shorthand
and later transcribed to the leather portfolio by Vi.
Lenci-Downs
says, "Violet's words do everything but sing. Her unusual,
witty descriptions of the 'wild west' and her insight into human
nature stir delight and open laughter."
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