To read the book, go to https://archive.org/details/durch-truebsal-und-not

The story of the Mennonites who remained in the Soviet Union after the turmoil of the revolution and its aftermath in the 1920s will never be fully told. Some of those who accompanied the German army retreating from the USSR at the end of World War II managed to escape to the west; others were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union as a result of the Yalta Conference of 1945.

Each refugee's experience has its particular sharpness, and each story gives us a greater understanding of this tragic time in human history when faith in God was severely tested in the midst of such trying circumstances.

Helene Dueck's story is one such story. The first part begins with the story of her parents and the extended family, with a particular focus on the hardship and hard life her mother experienced after Helene's father was arrested and eventual disappeared by the NKVD. The story of the Great Trek out of Ukraine at the close of the war is told in vivid detail.

The second part tells Helene Dueck's own story, starting from the time she was separated from her mother. Helene and a group of other young women became part of the Lutbrandau teacher training institute in Poland, which was under the direction of the German director Karl Götz. With the advance of the Soviet Army, they were forced to flee west further into Germany. Helene’s story is almost entirely concerned with the constant fleeing from place to place, often in harsh, exhausting conditions. Eventually, they came under the American occupation forces, and, with the help of the Mennonite Central Committee, Helene was able to reunite with relatives in Canada.