Cherry Juice

Perhaps the most enjoyable refreshment we enjoyed during our visit to the Ukraine was the cherry juice served us by Luisa Riesling of Selz (Limans'ke). After visiting the immense Catholic Cathedral which the German pioneers had built there, we stopped to see the one room museum which tells the story of the German people who built the village of Selz. This museum is the result of work done by Luisa and Margarita Budayera, the former mayor of Selz.

Luisa was born in Selz in 1936 to Fritz Karl Mautner and Lydia Riesling. Her father worked for the Red Cross and Defense Society, training young recruits for the military. He was arrested in 1937, imprisoned and subsequently shot. As happened often at that time, the family didn't know what happened to him until he was 'rehabilitated' in 1985. Lydia was later arrested and imprisoned for six months. Luisa and her brother, Walter, lived in the Selz orphanage during that time. Lydia had to renounce her husband and change all of their names back to Riesling in order to reclaim her children.

When the Soviet Army was advancing from the east in 1944, the German residents fled for the West. Many were captured and wound up as slaves in the Soviet 'labor camps'. Luisa worked in the forest and in an iron mine in the Ural Mountains until she was liberated in 1956. She was then allowed to move to Kazakhstan. Luisa married Chokan Anton Josephovich, who had also been 'repressed' and had worked in coal mines in the Urals, and in 1974 the family moved to Latvia. They were allowed to return to the former home of Pius Riesling at Selz in 1992. Luisa's husband died in 2002, and Luisa continues to live in the Riesling house. Her daughter and family live nearby. Even though Luisa may move to Germany and join her brother, Walter, she prefers to operate the Selz museum she established to tell the story of the German people who lived there.

We were pleased when Luisa offered to show us her home. When we visited the cellar, she removed a large container of cherry juice. It was especially enjoyable to join Luisa in her vine covered terrace, to visit with her and to taste that delicious cool drink. It was an honor to be the recipients of her gracious hospitality.