They Have Conquered Part Two

Based on actual people and events, THEY HAVE CONQUERED is a fictional account of an extended Mennonite family living in turn-of-the-century Ukraine. In Part Two, Gerhardt and Maria enter Ellis island before going to work on their immigration sponsor’s farm in Kansas. Moving on with their lives, they try homesteading in northern Idaho and then in northeastern Montana. As they add to their family, their travels take them to southern Idaho, California, and Oregon. Back in Soviet occupied Ukraine, Gerhardt’s sister Helena and Maria’s sister, Aganeta, endure Holodomor. Then comes World War Two and the German occupation. The sisters left behind endure widowhood and their own separate Hells in Siberian exile and post-war Displaced Persons camps. 'As the group was funneled toward the cars, Helena and Cornelius were separated from the rest of her group. Told she was being loaded into a car reserved for those marked for special consideration, she looked around, frantically straining to catch a glimpse of her stepdaughters’ families. Forced toward separate railcars, Helena thought she saw the hand of her oldest stepdaughter waving a forlorn goodbye above the lines of undesirables being expelled from Ukraine. Helena and Cornelius were the last deportees forced into their assigned car. She slipped on the top step of the snow-slickened portable steps and raked her shin on the door’s lower steel rail. With blood running down her shin, Cornelius helped her limp to the only empty spot left in the car. Complete silence inside the car drowned out the loading process din as every reluctant passenger watched the door rattle shut on its well-worn casters. The clank of the heavy, cast iron, hooked doorlatch echoed in the somber car. Loudly proclaiming the finality of their fate, the iron locking clamp fell into place. Helena realized that the last two centuries of her ethnicity in Ukraine was now just an asterisk in the history books.' 'Struggling to get her foot free, Aganeta lost her shoe and was forced to kneel and reach into the mud to retrieve it. The laces on her high-top shoe had completely surrendered to the elements, rotted beyond repair. With her daughters’ help, she hobbled to the back of the wagon and climbed inside. Not allowed to block traffic, her son-in-law urged the team back into motion. Aganeta didn’t want to be a burden on the group and didn’t want the horses pulling more of a load than absolutely necessary. Digging through her bags, she found her Sunday dress which had bodice lacing. Stroking the dress fondly, she paused for a few moments to mourn the loss of her last remaining piece of fine apparel. Aganeta shook herself back into reality and stoically removed the lacing. Cutting the lacing in two, she replaced the laces on both of her shoes. In the process, she realized the stitching attaching the shoes’ soles to the uppers had also begun to give way. The incident’s trauma had been too much for Aganeta’s last pair of stockings. She removed and set them aside for future possible repairs.Climbing back down into the mud, she trudged on. Bits of muddy grit infiltrated the shoes and ground sores into her wet feet. Aganeta hobbled on, grimly enduring the pain. With every step, she fought back tears of agony.' 'Suddenly, Arthur’s captain shouted, 'Watch out you stupid-' His voice was drowned out by a huge bang then feedback in the comm system. The bomber lurched to the port side, and the wing of another B-17 passed by his turret on the starboard side. A piece of broken propeller blade spun in front of him and bounced off his guns, shaking the turret. Pieces of his disintegrating bomber crashed against the plexiglass bubble.'