Accession 2025.006
Title and Physical Description
Jacob Retzlaff fonds. – 1942-1973. – 12 cm of textual material
Administrative/Biographical History
Jacob Retzlaff (GM #667248) was born 8 March 1934 in Bassano, Alberta, the son of Heinrich B. Retzlaff and Elizabeth (Baerg) Retzlaff. Jacob’s parents had emigrated from the Soviet Union to Canada in 1926. They acquired a farm near Rosemary, Alberta, where Jacob grew up. Shortly after his marriage to Lydia Klassen in 1956 the couple moved to Calgary where Jacob worked as a bookkeeper and accountant. Both Jacob Retzlaff and his father maintained close contact with other Russian Mennonite migrants of the 1920s. Both at various times served in administrative positions of the Vertreterversammlung der Mennonitischen Gemeinden und Gruppen von Alberta and its successor organizations. The most important work of the Vertreterversammlung involved collection of funds to repay the burdensome transportation debts (Resieschuld), owed to the Canadian Pacific Railway which had been incurred by the Russian Mennonite immigrants of the 1920s. The Vertreterversammlung also served as a land settlement and colonization agency and charged all members a small levy or tax. It provided information, mutual support and some quite limited financial assistance as the immigrants settled into their new communities. After the outbreak of World War II and repayment of the transportation debt the Vertreterversammlung was reorganized and became an agency to assist the victims of war. After the war it collaborated with the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization to facilitate the immgration and resettlement of Mennonite refugees. Further reorganizations resulted in the establishment of the Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council as a successor agency of the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization. It had an Alberta affiliate, the Alberta Mennonite Relief Committee which is referred to as the M.P.H.K. (Mennonitische Provincialle Hilfs Kasse) and was later renamed the Alberta Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council. This provincial committee became a succesor agency of the Alberta Vertreterversammlung. Further reorganization and restructuring resulted in establishment of the Mennonite Central Committee Canada and the Mennonite Central Committee, Alberta, which were affiliated with the United States based Mennonite Central Committee, International. Jacob Retzlaff, his father, and his father-in-law, Jacob J. Klassen who lived in Coaldale, Alberta, were all involved, often as treasurer or bookkeeper, during the years when changes in the work of various provincial and national Mennonite immigration, colonization and relief organizations resulted in major financial and organizational changes.
Scope and Content
The fonds includes textual material related to the work of Jacob Retzlaff, and of his father, Heinrich B. Retzlaff, who died in 1969. The earlier financial documents related to the collection travel debt (Reiseschuld) and membership levies or taxes collected by the Alberta Vertreterversammlung. They were created by Heinrich B. Retzlaff while later records pertaining to the reorganization and subsequent activities of the successor agencies of the Vertreterversammlung were created or collected by Jacob Retzlaff. There were also several subject files. The fonds also included a large collection of the annual reports of the Alberta Vertreterversammlung, Mennonite Central Committee, Canada, Mennonite Central Committee, Alberta, and Canadian and Alberta Mennonite conferences. These printed reports have been deaccessioned since copies are readily available elsewhere in the library or archives of the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta.
Source of Aquisition
The fonds was donated by Chandra Janzen, daughter of Jacob Retzlaff.
Access restrictions
None
Related material
MHSA Accession 2004.060. Records of the Alberta Vertreterversamlung.
Records of the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization are held in the archives of the Mennonite Heritage Centre in Winnipeg.
File list
1-1 Notebook entitled, “Eingaenge der Reiseschuld und der Boardsteuern vom 1 Juli, 1942,” (Receipts for the transportation debt and Board taxes, fom 1 July 1942). It covers the period from 1942 to 1947.
1-2 “Monatliche Abrechnungen ueber den Fond der Einwanderung des M.P.H.K, 1947-1955,” (Monthly Reports of the operation of the Transportation Funds of the M.P.H.K.).
1-3 “Monatliche Abrechnungen ueber den Fond der Einwanderung des M.P.H.K., 1955-1959.”
1-4 Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council, minutes and reports, 1959-1960.
1-5 Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council, minutes and reports, 1961-1962.
1-6 Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council, minutes and reports, 1963-1965.
1-7 Alberta Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council, minutes and reports, 1963-1965.
1-8 Alberta Mennonite Central Committee, minutes and reports, 1965-1966.
1-9 Conference of Mennonites in Canada, Council of Boards records, 1970.
1-10 Mennonite Central Committee (Canada) Annual Meeting, 1972.
1-11 Mennonite Central Committee (Canada) Annual Meeting, 1973.
1-12 Mennonite Central Committee (Canada) Council of Boards, 1973.
1-13 Inter-Mennonite Leadership Conference, 1973.
1-14 Frank H. Epp, Mennonite Publishing Company, 1962.
1-15 Papers read at an Old Mennonite Stewardship Conference, 1962.
1-16 Bound set of “Referate und Berichte,” 1964.
Notes
For details on the various predecessor societies, organizations and agencies of the Mennonite Central Committee (Canada) and the Mennonite Central Committee (Alberta) see Esther Epp-Thiessen, Mennonite Central Committee. A History (Winnipeg: CMU Press, 2013).