28 June 1925

Die Welt-Post, Thursday, 28 June 1925

Page 3, "Words of Acknowledgment from Beideck, Russia"

Beideck, May 21, 1925

Esteemed Mr. L. Dreuth, Lincoln, Nebraska: 
     Forgive me for troubling you again with a request: I would very much like to have these few lines published in Die Welt-Post. 
     Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension where it is the custom with us for the people to go to the cemetery and meet there for an hour. How beautifully one may do this now compared to earlier years when God's Acre would have been without fencing and was unkempt. We were often shamed by it and someone wrote mockingly in the newspaper:

"Happily resting are you dead bones,
After a life of pilgrimage,
But oxen, goats and pigs are known,
Upon your graves to forage."

     Now however, we can look upon God's Acre with pride because the fence has put an end to the mocking. How often when we carry our loved ones to their final resting place do we look with joy upon God's Acre? The people now show more interest in it. Daily people come and get the keys to the cemetery in order to decorate the graves of their own. It is no longer a cattle pen as in former times, grave after grave is beautifully bedecked with roses and planted with showy flowers. The graveyard itself has put on a fresh green dress when before it always looked gray. Who must we thank for this? 
     You, our dear Beideck brethren in America. This came about through your joyous sacrifices. You have done so much for us in the last few years. Thus many who are yet here and working would have long been in God's Acre if you had not sent food during the famine years and rescued so many from their great misery with your aid. It was likewise with the clothing you sent, which, up to this very day, one can still see on the people. 
     And yet this act is quickly forgotten. But it is here in God's Acre for all to see, whoever passes by cannot help but be reminded of this act. I, now that I have some years in the community, rank myself as a half-Beidecker to you, and as such I cannot open my heart wide enough to you dear brothers in America who come from Beideck, to again heartily thank you for the help you have given us in preparing God's Acre so magnificently. Yes, it is also my honor, now that we do not have our own pastor, as schoolmaster, to look after everything and so, at least in these parts, on this account I am not regarded as merely a measly schoolmaster. 
     There is yet in these parts something in the eyes of the people of Beideck which makes others lower their eyes because there are still so many who want an explanation as to why they still remain. 
     With heartfelt greetings and thanks from house to house to all the Beidecker brethren in America, 
               Eduard Pintscher, Schoolmaster 
               Beideck, 21 May 1925