Accession 2021.018, 2026.015 filed with 2021.018
Physical Description
Katharina Regehr fonds. – 1950-1970. – 5 cm of textual records
Administrative/Biographical History
Katharina Regehr was born in the village of Prangenau, Molotschna colony in 1894. The family moved to the Terek Mennonite settlement in 1901. Sharply increased hostility by some of the local people following the overthrow of the Tsarist government forced the family to leave the Terek in 1918. Like many others, Katharina endured numerous hardships in the 1930s and during World War II before being evacuated westward by retreating German military forces. She was able to migrate to Canada in 1948. She maintained contact with relatives and friends in Russia and in Germany and copied many of the letters she or other friends and relatives received into small notebooks. Also included in the notebooks were poems, stories, autobiographical notes and smaller bits of other information. It is a rather eclectic collection documenting conditions in Russia, Germany, and contacts between people there with their relatives and friends in Canada. Katharina Regehr visited and stayed for a time with her oldest brother, Peter H. Regehr, in Coaldale, Alberta, before retiring in British Columbia where she died in 1982. After her death Katharina’s nephew, Jack Regehr, translated and then in 1992 privately published Katharina Regehr’s recollections. He subsequently donated a copy to the Library of the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta.
In 2026 Jacob Regehr’s great-granddaughter, Rebecca Smith, donated an essay she had written, entitled “All the Stopping Places. A Mennonite Woman’s Experiences in the U. S. S. R. and the Third Reich.” The essay is based on Katharina Regehr’s translated and published recollections.
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Custodial History
After, or perhaps already before Katharina’s death in 1982, many of her papers came into the possession of the children of her oldest brother, Peter H. Regehr. The notebooks were donated by Marge Friesen, the daughter of Cornelius Regehr, another nephew of Katharina Regehr. The essay was donated by the author, Rebecca Smith.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of 4 booklets or folders of material
Folder 1-1 Letters written by relatives and friends in Germany, 1950-1959, and copied by Katharina Regehr.
Folder 1-2 Letters written by relatives and friends in Germany, 1959-1970, and copied by Katharina Regehr
Folder 1-3 A somewhat eclectic collectionLetters, notes, stories, copied by Katharina Regehr.
Folder 1-4 A small, somewhat eclectic collective of original letters and other written material collected by Katharina Regehr.
Folder 1-5 Essay by Rebecca Smith entitled, “All the Stopping Places: AMennonite Woman’s Experiences in the U. S. S. R. and the Third Reich.”
Source of Acquisition
Donated by Marge Friesen, daughter of Katharina Regehr’s nephew, Cornelius Regehr.
Notes:
See also, Jacob M. Regehr, Recollections from my Life by Katharina H. Regehr, 1894-1982, Self-published, 1992. A copy is available in the Library of the Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta as BX 8143REG REG 1992.
GRANDMA #111553