Itchy Feet - Hochbaum History Part 1

Spring has sprung and I'm not going travelling. It even hurts to type that statement.

My mother was an immigrant from Wickerau, Russia, which is now part of Ukraine. Her great great grandfather, Johann Michael Hochbaum Sr., was originally from Tiegenort area in West Prussia and had moved to Wickerau in 1826 or thereabouts, I'm not aware of the exact date. Documents located by Tim Wahl indicate that the family was originally involved in silk farming. Johann Michael's grandson Frederich ran the family farm in Wickerau. My mom, Adele Hochbaum, was born there in 1921, and emigrated to Canada with her family in 1928 when she was 7 and her brother Otto was 2, so the pattern was set, our family has itchy feet. Knowing it is genetic does help explain why the urge to pack up and move hits me every 5 or 6 years.


My great grandparents, Frederich and Maria, had 10 children with my Grandpa Johann the 3rd child. The children were Friedrich b. 1897, Erdman b. 1899, Johann b. 1900, Alexander b. 1903, Adolf b. 1905, Maria b. 1907, Lydia b. 1909, Hermine b. 1910, Nicolaus b. 1915, and Martha b. 1918.  Their mother Maria Hochbaum died in 1936.

 As you see in the photo, Maria was a large, strong woman and a true matriarch in every sense of the word. My Grandpa(John)took after her in more than just size. My Grandma, Emma, was in awe of this woman who she shared a house with for a time. 

My Grandma, Emma, also mentioned that she nursed my mom's grandma through breast cancer until her death. I had thought this was Maria, but it must have been her own mother, Amelia (Jahn) who died in 1920.


While my grandfather was German he spoke some Russian. Therefore he sat in on the village council meetings and brought the news home to his parents and siblings. In 1928 word got out that all the farms in their area would be communized. When he learned this, Frederich advised his family of 13 children that they should get out of Russia while they could, bad times were coming. Always a man of action, my Grandpa announced to his wife and children that they would move to Canada, the land of opportunity. Friedrich died in Siberia in 1941. I believe it may have been in the internment camp in Novosibirsk, but have never seen documentation to support that memory. Several of my grandmother's sisters were also taken to camps in Siberia.


Grandma, a faithful young wife with a large extended family living close by, had no desire to go traipsing across Europe and the Atlantic ocean to a place they knew nothing about. Grandpa insisted they had to go quickly to survive and if she didn't want to come, well, he would go alone! Grandpa was very much a "My Way or The Highway" kind of guy. He decided they would head for Edmonton as word had it that the wheat grew tall there and land was FREE for the asking. Grandma waited until the last minute for him to change his mind, but to no avail.


Not wanting to be left behind, Grandma packed their big wicker chest with clothing, household items, seeds, strings of dried bagels and smoked sausages for the journey, and off they went with their 2 yr old son and my mother, then 7 yrs old. They made their way north where they boarded the S.S. Baltonia for England, then boarded the Empress of Australia which sailed to Montreal.By some quirk of fate they only got as far as Wilkie, Saskatchewan. A family from the same part of Russia had moved there several years before and invited them to come for a visit. They did, and went no further.


My Grandpa's brothers and his parents also planned to leave the country as they were going to be evicted from the large family farm. Their farm was mixed, grains and the usual chickens and cows plus they raised horses, the best in the district if one was to believe Grandpa. Since the farm was large and of some value they knew it would be expropriated by the communists. If the family resisted, and the boys were a stubborn bunch,their lives would be in danger.


However, by that fall the borders were closed and to my knowledge none of his 12 remaining family members managed to leave Russia. This picture was taken in 1929, shortly before they were ordered to vacate their home. The family was then split with some brothers and sisters sent to concentration camps, some killed outright, and some just disappeared never to be heard from again. In the early 1950's my Grandma did make contact with a cousin who had been in a Polish camp, escaped and made his way to Canada. He settled in Oliver BC where he worked an orchard, later retiring in Westbank.  

My Grandma had some contact with her siblings and of her 5 sisters only 2 were sent to camps. In the 40's she was able to write to them through the Red Cross, and later could write directly. The early letters were full of lines blacked out, every piece of mail was checked by the authorities before it was allowed in. Through all of this my Grandma kept her faith in God and in her husband. She was a true pioneer in every sense of the word.