Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen has a heightened appreciation of Mennonite history after a recent trip to Ukraine. He was there earlier this month to speak at an international mayors summit but made time to get to Zaporizhia and area where many ancestors of people in Steinbach and area once lived. Goertzen says, in visiting former villages like Chortiz, there are many signs that Mennonites once lived there.

"There certainly are. They talk about the Mennonite history, the Mennonite architecture that has been left for them. And there still are people who are Mennonites and who connect with us locally here. One of the highlights was certainly going to see the Chrotitza oak tree. It's a very infamous space, a place that meant a lot to the Mennonites who lived there, it means a lot to the people who live there now and it's really a meeting place, a gathering place."

Goertzen says it was touching to see how Mennonites had prospered in Ukraine before it was all taken away from them which caused them to immigrate to Manitoba. While many of the buildings are still there, he says they have fallen in to disrepair amidst economic hardship.

"It isn't a wealthy country and people are struggling to make ends meet and take care of each other. It was certainly evident, the history that was there, but it certainly is evident that we are in a good place in Manitoba. It makes you appreciate what you have now and it makes it you appreciate what our ancestors really worked so hard for."

Goertzen was also able to travel to the former village of Waldheim, where his grandparents grew up. He located the grave of his great grandfather that still exists there today.

School built by the Mennonites before they left Ukraine.

Goertzen at his great grandfather's grave in Vladovka, formerly Waldheim.