The last post in this mini-series uncovered a great deal about Heinrich and Helene Harder, parents of Anne (Njuta) Harder and thus parents-in-law of Johann (Hans) Buller. This post now turns to Johann. Drawing from the first three posts, we can assemble the following facts.
1. Johann (Hans) Buller was the son of Andreas Buller of Waldheim (Toews 1990, 98).
2. To escape Soviet harassment, the Andreas Buller family moved from Waldheim to a town named Krasnogorovka (modern Krasnohorivka) in the Donbass region of Ukraine (Woelk and Woelk 1982, 17). They moved specifically to the area of town named Borisowka/Borisovka (Toews 1990, 98).
3. Johann Buller married Anne (Njuta) Harder, daughter of Heinrich and Helene Harder (Toews 1990, 98).
4. Johann and Anne lived with her parents in Krasnogorovka for several years in the early 1930s (Toews 1990, 98).
5. Johann and his father-in-law Heinrich Harder were arrested on 30 April 1836. The charges against them are unknown but probably related to their holding of religious services. They were released the following year, in June 1937 (Toews 1990, 98).
6. In late 1941 Johann, Anne, and her parents were sent east to the village Algabass in the Akmolinsk region of southeast Kazakhstan (Woelk and Woelk 1982, 32).
7. There in 1942 Anne gave birth to a son David (Woelk and Woelk 1982, 34).
8. Shortly thereafter Johann was still alive, since he wrote his relative Heinrich Buller in Ontario, Canada, about the deaths of his parents-in-law.
Beyond that, we can say nothing more about Johann, Anne, and David. For all that we now know, we still cannot say with any degree of certainty whether Johann and his father Andreas are close or more distant relatives of ours. We do have additional confirmation of Andreas’s life in Waldheim, thanks to a village map in Schroeder and Huebert (1996, 42).
The top map shows the entire village and its landowners in 1916. The larger plots north of the river were all part of the original assignments that we covered in detail some months back. The bottom map zooms in on the key area identified in the map above: the half-Wirtschaft that Andres (Andreas) Buller owned. This is the Andreas who was the father of Johann.
Was he a close relative of ours? At this point we cannot know. I have thus far been able to find out who this Andreas was. Nor is his son Johann any easier to identify. Given the fact that there were, as we know, other Buller families than ours in Waldheim and the surrounding villages, we will have to leave this question unanswered for the moment. We will be on the lookout, however, for additional appearances of Andreas and Johann of Waldheim, as well as for Johann’s wife Anne Harder or their son born in 1942, David.
Sources Cited
Schroeder, William, and Helmut T. Huebert. 1996. Mennonite Historical Atlas. 2nd ed. Winnipeg: Springfield.
Toews, Aron A. 1990. Mennonite Martyrs: People Who Suffered for Their Faith 1920–1940. Translated by John B. Toews. Perspectives on Mennonite Life and Thought 6. Fresno, CA: Center for Mennonite Brethren Studies, Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary
Woelk, Heinrich, and Gerhard Woelk. 1982. A Wilderness Journey: Glimpses of the Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia, 1925–1980. Translated by Victor Doerksen. Perspectives on Mennonite Life and Thought 4. Winnipeg: Kindred.
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