Person:Michael Bartolf (12)

This Bartolf line is B Bartolf -- also Hart. Adam Bartolf was also a Hart. Michael and Maria were deported in Russian for slave labor in the coal mines in 1945 and released five years later. They left in January of 1945 and returned in October 1949. They were in Donbas-Becken. The recollections of a male survivor told of months' long trip in cattle cars where the only thing they had to sit on were their suitcases or duffel bags. They had no water as they were going through the coldest part of Russia and the wells were all frozen, so they would put their hands out the little windows in the car and tried to grab the snow. Food was given them but only twice a day and it wasn't very fortifying. Many died on the trip. One day the fellow took off his shirt and held it out the window -- trying to freshen it a bit and was appalled to see that it was full of lice. The sun and wind made them drop off. Everyone in the car then tried to do the same. They were ashamed that they'd come to that point. They are listed as living at 606. He was in Lager 1054 with Maria.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Georg Schmidt. Evangelische Familienbuch.
2. ↑ Family Records.
3. ↑ Heimatbrief, Heimatortsgemeinschaft, Semlak.