© Mennonite Heritage Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba (Last updated November 10, 2010)

  • Bergen, Jacob, 1897-1991

    Retrieval numbers: Vol. 2138:12-16; Vol. 5479-5480; Photo Coll. 589.

    Title: Jacob Bergen family fonds
    Dates: 1923-2000
    Extent: 2 cm of textual records ; 5 photographs
    Repository: Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives

    Historical note

    Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) was born to Jacob Bergen (1872-1941) and Katharina Teichroeb (1872-1919). He grew up in the Borosenko colony, Russia. During the First World War he worked in the forestry camps doing alternative service instead of entering the military. His mother was murdered in 1919 during the Russian Revolution in the village of Felsenbach. Jacob and his father fled to the village of Schönhorst. While they stayed there, young Jacob met Maria Peters and they got married. In 1923, with their first born child, they immigrated to Canada. The family lived in Saskatchewan and Manitoba for a time and Jacob worked on the railroad. Eventually they settled in the Stephenfield area in Manitoba and established a family farm. Education was important to the Bergen family. Nine of the ten children spent some time at the Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Gretna, Manitoba. Jacob and Maria were also involved with the Schönwieser Mennonite church. Jacob Bergen died in Carman, Manitoba in 1991.

    Scope and content note

    This fonds contains a transcript of an interview with Jacob Bergen, Jacob Bergen correspondence with the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization regarding immigration, payment of travel debt and the sponsorship of relatives coming to Canada after the Second World War and correspondence with the Schönwieser Mennonite church. The fonds also includes the letters written by Margaret Bergen (1928-) to her parents, Jacob and Maria Bergen, and the letters received by Margaret from her parents, while attending the Mennonite Collegiate Institute boarding school from 1941-1945, while attending Normal School in Winnipeg 1945-1946, and while teaching in various schools in Manitoba and on an exchange program in Coventry, England in 1961-1962.
    This material shows the difficult situation some Mennonites experienced in Russia after the First World War, how one family coped and immigrated to Canada where they started a new life with their children. The letters show the high value that this family placed on education and staying in touch with each other when transportation, travel and communication was quite limited.
    There is also one file of letters which Margaret Bergen received from female Ukrainian agronomist of Zaporozhye who began to care for the Mennonite cemetery on the Island of  Chortitza in 1998. These letters contain a perspective of a Ukrainian who lived through World War II as a prisoner in Germany and then returned to Ukraine in 1957, and eventually attending the Mennonite Church in Zaporozhye which started in the late 1990s.

    Index terms

    Creators

  • Bergen, Jacob, 1897-1991
  • Bergen, Maria (Peters), 1898-1983
  • Bergen, Margaret, 1928-

    Adjunct descriptive data

    Finding aids

    Inventory file list available
    Online version of finding aid available at: https://www.mharchives.ca/holdings/papers/Bergen,%20Jacob%20family%20fonds.htm

    Related material in this repository

    Anna Peters (1919-) fonds (Vol. 5425:8-13)
    Jakob Peters fonds (Vol. 5425: 1-7)

    Notes

    Language

    German and English

    Arrangement

    Described by Conrad Stoesz July 16, 2004. Updated by Alf Redekopp, October 6, 2010, December 14, 2010 and May 19, 2011.

    Restrictions on access

    No restrictions

    Immediate source of acquisition

    Margaret Bergen of Winnipeg.

    Other notes

    Acc. Nos. 1999-002, 2000-097, 2010-065.
    • File List
    Volume 2138       
    1. Transcription and translation of the life story of Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) born in Steinbach, Borosenko Colony, Russia and died in Carman, Manitoba and his wife Maria Peters (1898- 1983)/ Margaret Bergen. The interview recording was done in 1977, translation done in 2000. There is some information on the Ebenfeld massacre. Accession No: 00-97
    2. Jacob Bergen and Maria Bergen family documents related to the immigration to Canada and the payment of the travel debt (Reiseschuld) with the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization. -- 1923-1924. Accession No: 99-002
    3. Correspondence to Jacob and Maria Bergen from or related to the Schönwieser Mennoniten Gemeinde in Manitoba. -- 1934-1949. -- Note: also included are some minutes. Accession No: 99-002
    4. Jacob and Maria Bergen sponsorship applications and correspondence to and from the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization and the Canadian government regarding relatives Peters and Hildebrandt. -- 1945-1948. Accession No: 99-002
    5. Copies of church membership certificates travel documents and correspondence. -- 1923. Accession No: 99-002

    Volume 5479
    Margaret Bergen (1928-) letters to parents,
    Jacob Bergen (1897-1991) and Maria Bergen (1898-1983)     (Acc. No. 2010-065)
    1. Introduction to letters written to parents from 1941-1962 / Margaret Bergen. – 2010.
    2. Letters to parents while attending MCI. – 1941-1945. [originals]
    3. Letters…while attending Normal School on William Avenue. – 1945-1946. [originals]
    4. Letters…while teaching at George Herbert School near Pigeon Lake. – 1946-1948. [originals]
    5. Letters…while teaching at Mason School. – 1951-1954. [originals]
    6. Letters…while teaching in Rose Farm School, Schoenwiese School, Mason School, one from Toronto while cooking for the fellows in the “Students in Industry” unit, and one letter from CMBC. – 1948-1958. [originals]
    7. Letters to my parents 1941-1958 recopied from the Gothic to the Latin script. – 2010.
    8. Letters…while teaching in Coventry, England on an exchange program 1961-1962 / translated to English from German by Margaret Bergen. – before 2010. NOTE: originals have not survived.

    Volume 5480
    Margaret Bergen (1928- ) letters received from her parents,
    Jakob Bergen (1897-1991) and Maria Bergen (1898-1983)     (Acc. No. 2010-065)
    1. Introduction to letters written by parents from 1941-1962 / Margaret Bergen. – 2010.
    2. Letters received from my parents while attending M.C.I. in Gretna. – 1941-1945.
    3. Letters received…while attending Normal School. – 1945-1946.
    4. Letters received…while teaching at George Herbert School 1946-1948.
    5. Letters received…while teaching at Rose Farm. – 1948-1949. [only 2 survived]
    6. Letters received…while teaching at Mason School. – 1951-1954. [only 3 survived]
    7. Letters received…while teaching in Coventry, England. – 1961-1962.
    8. Letters by Parents to Margaret Bergen / compiled by Peter and Johanna Bergen. – 110 pp. – 2010. This coil-bound compilation contains a typewritten version of files 1 to 6 [in German].
    9. Letters by Parents to Margaret Bergen [from 1941-1962] / translated into English by Peter Bergen. -- 2010. -- 87 pp. (Acc. No. 2010-082)
    10. Letters from Sinaida Gulega, Zaporozhye to Margaret Bergen, Winnipeg. -- 2001-2011. -- 16 letters. [In German with English translation]. These letters come from a female Ukrainian agronomist, living on the island of Chortitza since 1957, who began to tend the old Mennonite cemetery in 1998. She also attended worship services at Mennonite Church in Zaporozhye Mennonite Church where General Conference Mennonite Church Commission on Overseas Mission (COM) had involvement beginning in 1996. (Acc. No. 2010-088) (Acc. No. 2011-026)
    Photo Collection 589 Jacob Bergen family fonds
    1. Mothers dad's daughter. - [19-].. - 9 x 12 cm [b&w]. This photo is of a portrait of a middle aged woman wearing a dark dress, sitting on a chair posing for a photo. Her hair is pulled back. The description says "Mothers dad's daughter". [It is believed that this is Margaret Bergen's writing so that would make this person her aunt or Abram Peters 1874-1962 and Margaretha Derksen (1878-1932) daughter.?]
    2. Nikolai Wiens. - [ca. 1918]. - 9 x 14 cm [b&w]. This photo is of Nikolai Wiens [Nicolai Wiens] standing in a forest in the late fall or early spring when there are no leaves on the trees. He is wearing a foresti or Russian forestry service uniform used for alternative service in WWI. There is some Russian writing on the back.
    3. Jacob Neufeldt. - [ca. 1918]. - 9 x 14 cm [b&w]. This photo is of Jacob Neufeldt sitting on some rocks in a small creek bed that has some snow in it. He is wearing a foresti or forestry uniform which suggests this photo was taken during his alternative service in the forestry service during WWI. There is some Russian writing on the back.
    4. Herman Zacharias. - [191-]. - 9 x 14 cm [b&w]. This photo is of Herman Zacharias, friend of A. Braun. He is a young man, sitting on a chair outside a brick building with a bit of snow on the ground. He is wearing a tall fur hat. He is wearing a 3 piece suite with a tie. He is sitting with his legs crossed.
    5. Young man posing for a photo. - [191-]. - 6 x 10 cm [b&w]. This photo is of a young man posing for a photo in a photo studio. He is wearing a 3 piece suite. He has a short, under developed beard.
    6. Jacob Bergen Forestry Service Uniform during WW I. - ca. 1913. - 10x15 cm: b&w. This photo shows Jacob Bergen posing in front of a tree sitting on a wooden ledge with one foot on a little stool. Jacob Bergen was born in Steinbach, Borosenko Colony Russia and died in Carman, Manitoba.