Part Six - Makhno's Reign of Terror
The Schulz home in Osterwick. Illustration, Arthur P. Kroeger
Anna Schulz now had more than thirty Schulzes and Zachariases to shelter and provide for. But those would not be her only guests. A band under one of Makhno’s lieutenants, Starko, who had claimed the territory of Chortitza for themselves, decided to spend Christmas that year in the great hall of the Schulz mansion. They were willing to spare Anna and her people if she fed and provided a place to sleep for them. But not so her sister Maria, who was murdered on May 13, 1919, along with three children and a grandson in her home in Niederchortitza. Weeks later tragedy would strike again, this time at the very core of Anna’s heart. On June 23, her eldest son, Isaak P. Schulz, died suddenly, leaving behind his newlywed wife and an infant son.
The intruders not only instilled fear and respect in their hosts but brought with them lice and with these the dreaded disease typhus. It spread like wildfire through the region, striking civilians and freedom fighters alike. Some 10,000 anarchists alone allegedly succumbed to this disease. In Osterwick 120 died, at times as many as seven a day.Miraculously the Schulz and Zacharias families were spared. But their trials were not over. Strife and disease were followed by famine. In his memoirs, Isaak Zacharias would later write: ‘I can still hear it when the small or younger children made known their hunger and asked in such a childlike way for a piece of bread and one couldn’t give it. It was heart-breaking and required much prayer and heavy sighs.’ In all, the two families would spend four years under the roof that Peter built, a time of both fear and bonding.
Life somehow went on. Babies would be born; the sick and dying ministered to.
Anna’s oldest daughter (also called Anna) would marry during this time. Throughout this I can imagine the Schulz clock ticking, keeping time. Was it Anna that wound it each day? Did it provide solace? Did it ground her? By 1923 Anna’s brother Isaak and his family had had enough. They would immigrate to Canada.