Krasna child blanketSimon Ziebart (1867-1941), a former resident of Krasna, Akkerman, Bessarabia, Russia, supplied the wool used to make this blanket about 1931. The blanket was woven by Kreszenzia (Söhn) Schreiber (1890-1952), wife of Gabriel Schreiber (1884-1943), also former residents of Krasna. It was woven in Krasna as a symbolic traditional baby gift for her great-granddaughter, Bernadina Ziebart, born in 1933 in Krasna. Bernadina’s parents were Michael (1903-1990) and Anisia (Schreiber) (1909-1974) Ziebart. Stripes using traditional colors, red, black, blue and green were used to create such traditional baby blankets amongst the Black Sea Germans during the years they lived in South Russia. The blanket remained in Krasna until the 1940 Resettlement. It traveled with Bernadina and her family to Semlin, near Belgrade, Yugoslavia. From there it went to a Resettlement camp at Pirna, Saxony, Germany. In 1941, it accompanied the family to Königsmoor, West Prussia, Germany (Poland). In 1945, the blanket, Anisia and her four living children, Josef, Bernadina, Antonius and Adolf, during Der Flucht (The Flight) fled from West Prussia and settled in Germany. Bernadina married Philipp Krams in 1958 in Mayen, Mayen-Koblenz, Palatinate, Germany. In 1974 she with her husband and children, Stefan Michael Krams, Isolde Ingeborg Krams, and Veit Philipp Krams emigrated to South Africa. The blanket accompanied them. In 2006, the family (and the blanket) emigrated to Berlin, Germany. The blanket remained there until 2015, when Bernadina sent it to her son, Veit Philipp Krams, then a resident of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2022, as a means of preservation, he donated it to the Germans from Russia Heritage Society in Bismarck, North Dakota, USA. NOTE: The small repaired tear was caused by thieves in South Africa who used the blanket to move a family safe to the front door of the house in which the family was living. The blanket was often used by the family at picnics. The blanket has a size of 3 1/2 feet by 7 feet. Source: Veit Philipp Krams, son of Philipp and Bernadina (Ziebart)Krams Canada, August 2022 Young mother with her sleeping youngest, whom she has wrapped tightly around her in a children's shawl. In the Semlin camp, October 1940. Painting by Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski From the book "200 Jahre Krasna" of Ernst Schäfer, page 134 Picture archive: Heimatmuseum der Deutschen aus Bessarabien und der Dobrudscha, Stuttgart,Germany Young mother with baby in children's shawl and boy by hand. Source: Ernst Schäfer The red chalk drawing was made in the Semlin camp, October 1940. A copy of the picture hung in the Heim der Bessarabiendeutschen in Mülheim-Kärlich, Urmitz-Bahnhof. The old people testified that the depicted woman was Anisia Schreiber *27.07.1909.
Young mother with baby in children's shawl and boy by hand. Source: Book "Es führet uns des Schicksals Hand" by Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski, page 95 To the personal report of Anisia Schreiber In the book "Es führet uns des Schicksals Hand" by Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski are more drawings, which several times show the elaborate colorful striped pattern of the ceiling typical in Bessarabia. Paintings and graphics in the local museum of the Germans from Bessarabia and Dobruja |