Bill Pickelhaupt asked: In working with the Memorial website, I have found several entries of "Verdict: canibalization" for victims of Soviet repression. Has anyone else who has worked with the website found this? I know the communists were brutal but I can't imagine they condemned people to that fate. Or is the term just a bad effort by Google Translate? My comments: I think it very unlikely that any Soviet tribunal would have sentenced Russian Germans to commit cannibalism. A more likely interpretation is that the person was convicted of cannibalizing other villagers (i.e., the verdict was the accused had committed cannibalism). Things got so bad during the 1921-22 and 1933 famines in the Volga villages that I have heard rumors about cannibalism before. I have not seen a letter, newspaper article, or other definite evidence, but it would not surprise me that, in their dire starvation, some Volga Germans had to resort to cannibalism. David F. Schmidt Village Coordinator for Boaro, Cäsarsfeld & Stahl am Karaman Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA Email: [email protected]