Women's Portraits

Lilli Gugel

Place, Date, Time: Ulm, July 18^th 2011, 9.15- 11.00
Interviewer 1:Christel Freitag-Wagner
Interviewer 2:Brigitte Nguyen-Duong, photos
Interviewed Woman: Lilli Gugel
Medium:Talk and writing
Publication:Photo, IT

The motto of the 81- year- old Lilli is: I enjoy  life and I am content with my life.

Childhood and youth

Lilli was born in 1929 and grew up in a mountain village near Odessa, where everbody spoke German. The family of farmers had to work very hard. In 1938 Stalin ordered all the men in the village to be taken away. They were executed. Thus Lilli lost her father. When in World War Two the German Army came into the village, collective farming came to an end. Everybody had to work on their own. Before the arrival of the Soviet Army all the people left  the village and went on a trek to Hungary in 2 ½ months. There was rain and snow and only children and sick people could sit on a carriage. In Hungary they were put in stock wagons and taken to Poland, where they had to work very hard  for farmers. There was not enough room available and 20 people slept in two rooms. Before the Soviet Army occupied Poland, they went on another trek to Thüringen in Germany. There Lilli`s brother had to join the German Army and he was killed in action on May 8 ^th, 1945. Then Thüringen was  taken over by the Red Army. The Russians promised that  the German Russian families could go back to their mountain village. Again they had to travel in a stock wagon. After two months they did not reach their native village, but the town of Solikamsk to the west of the Ural. On the train a lot of people had starved and frozen to death.

In Solikamsk the beginning was very hard. They had to live in overcrowded  shacks and the Germans were discriminated against. Lilli couldn´t speak any Russian and the natives called her a fascist. She was happy to get an apprenticeship as an electrician and, what was very important to her, she got food ration cards and so she could buy  food for her family. On her job she started to learn Russian.

Family

Lilli married in 1948. Her husband was a member of a German working brigade in which ¾ of the men had died. She has been married to her husband for 62 years. In 1949 she gave birth to her first child who died shortly afterwards. Then she bore children in 1950, in 1951, and in1952. Nevertheless she continued working. With the help of her mother and of her husband who worked at  different times  they could bring up her three children. That part of her life was hard and  stressful. At night the children wouldn´t sleep and wanted  attention.  In 1950 the family left the shacks and moved to a state flat. Gradually her Russian improved. In the factory  where she worked she was promoted to  being leader of a group and finally she was appointed deputy leader  of  the workforce. It was one of her duties to organize celebrations and parties. She enjoyed singing and dancing with her co-workers.  Lilli worked in the paper mill for 46 years. She  has a lot of Russian friends, and she is still in touch with them.

In 1990 the Germans living in Russia became free. They were allowed to found a German Club and Lilli was elected to the board. Now they could celebrate Christmas singing German songs, they organized parties and  German courses.

Departure

Her mother-in-law lived in Ulm and in 1987 Lilli and her husband visited her. After that visit they did not want to stay in Russia any longer. At home they dicussed the pros and cons of leaving Russia with their married children and their grandchildren. The knowledge of German of the children was very poor, since they only spoke German with their grandmother at home. Until 1970 it had been strictly prohibited to speak German in Russia. Nevertheless all her children and grandchildren wanted to leave, even the Russian wife of her son.

Lilli says that in Russia the Germans had always been strangers. She felt that she did not belong there.

In 1992 she was permitted to depart with her husband, and half a year later her children were allowed to follow them. She could only take one suitcase with her. In Germany the beginning was very hard, too. They were taken to a temporary home and the authorities wanted them to settle in East Germany. It was  extremely difficult for them to get the permission to join their relatives in Ulm. Before leaving Russia Lilli had known that her training was not recognized in Germany. Therefore many Germans from Russia did a retraining, but often they had to work below their qualifications. Lilli distributed newspapers at front doors at four o'clock in the morning, and she also worked as a cleaner. Her children could not speak German fluently, but all of them got a job. Her grandchildren did their training for a job in Germany, and now they are perfect in both languages.

Lilli  has seven great-grandchildren and feels at home in Germany. She is happy to live in this  country and she has never regretted having left Russia.

Honorary work

Lilli has been a  member of  the Club of  Germans from Russia since 1992. She helps people to integrate and she also organizes parties. For three years she worked one day per week in a temporary home to help people with their paper work. For 15 years she looked after an elderly woman. Since 1995 she has participated in the activities of the Intergenerational Club. She is in a dancing group  and she is responsible for preparing the shows. In another club she organizes the birthday singing, dancing, and sketches. There she meets people from different nations. She is good at telling jokes. With a girlfriend she sings songs in a duet. Her repertoire consists of 40 songs with CD music. Two days a week she works in a second-hand shop which sells clothes to poor people. She is a menber of the Regional Planning Committee, where she makes suggestions for improving the living conditions in her neighbourhood. Lilli has received a great number of awards for her commitment and for her activities in many fields..

Lilli is happy and content as a senior citizen. She is glad that she was able to cope with all the difficulties she was confronted with. If she could, she would start her life again. Lilli hopes to remain healthy and  to be able to continue helping other people. 

Christel Freitag-Wagner