Tales from the Mennonite Heritage Archives
Explore the history of Mennonites through materials found in the Mennonite Heritage Archives. Using interviews, object, and documents, this podcast will dive into stories inspiring, tragic, strange, and beautiful. As varied as the lives of the people and organizations whose materials are housed in the Mennonite Heritage Archives, this weekly podcast aims to educate and inspire greater interest in Mennonite history.
Episodes
100 episodes
Inventors and Innovators with Dick Braun (Part 1)
Today we bring you Part 1 of a conversation with Dick Braun of Osler, Sask. Dick has written on the topic of Mennonite inventors and innovators from the past. What he’s learned is so interesting, we just had to share it with our listeners.
Forced to Fight: The Jakob Guenther Story
Today we share the the story of Jakob Guenther, who was born and raised in Russia, only to be conscripted by the German army during WWII just because he spoke German. He was forced to fight against the country from which his ancestors cam...
C. C. Penner
By the time C. C. Penner managed to get out of Soviet Russia in 1949, he’d lost track of his wife and family, and had to leave them behind. Eleven years later, he schemed a plan to meet Nikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union, in New Yor...
David Toews
We’re delighted to launch our fall season with the story of David Toews, one of the most influential Mennonite leaders in 20th century Canada. He became so well-known across the Prairies and in Ottawa, that Prime Minister William Lyon Mckenzie ...
SUMMER REWIND: First Harvest in Canada 1876
For our last rewind of Summer 2026, we bring you a special feature from Thanksgiving 2025! Mennonite history enthusiast Gerhard Ens first recorded this fictional account of the first harvest by Mennonites in Canada (1876) on audio t...
SUMMER REWIND: The Disappeared Beaver Mennonite Church
Today, we bring you a story about the Beaverlodge Mennonite Church, a little known congregation that formed in the late 1920s and disappeared from the landscape of Peace River country in northern Alberta some 15-ish years later. Guest Doug Klas...
SUMMER REWIND: From Russia with Woe (Part 2)
During Stalin’s Reign of Terror the 1930s, Jacob Petrovich Janzen was one of many Mennonites swept up into forced labour camps called Special Settlements, and then the more severe form of the camps called the Gulag. More than 80 years lat...
SUMMER REWIND: From Russia with Woe (Part 1)
Today, we bring back 'From Russia with Woe', part one of a two part series. During Stalin’s Reign of Terror the 1930s, Jacob Petrovich Janzen was one of many Mennonites swept up into forced labour camps called Special Settlements, and then the ...
SUMMER REWIND: Trapped in Icy Waters
Today in the rewind episode, guest host Sara Dyck brings you the chilly tale about a group of Mennonites whose ship became trapped in icy Lake Superior in the spring of 1876. A journey that was meant to take five days turned into a 15 day ordea...
SUMMER REWIND: A Short History of House Barns with Roland Sawatsky
Today, we bring back 'A Short History of House Barns'! Join me and Roland Sawatsky, curator at the Manitoba Museum and past curator at the Mennonite Village Museum in Steinbach, as we reveal that a house barn is (!SPOILER ALERT!) “a barn ...
SUMMER REWIND: Smallpox and the Mennonite Experience
Today, we bring back Episode 48, Smallpox and the Mennonite Experience. According to historians, the smallpox virus has been circulating among humans for about 3,000 years. In this episode, we unpack the involvement of Russian Empress Catherine...
SUMMER REWIND: Aunt Ollie Part 1: Children’s Party
In this episode, we take you back to the nostalgic days of Aunt Olly Penner, beloved radio personality and host of the show, Children’s Party. Olly Penner graced the microphones of CFAM for a 28-year long career.
SUMMER REWIND: The Mobility of Peter Dyck
In today’s episode, we learn about Peter P. Dyck. He was a familiar sight around Carman from the 1940’s to his death in 1970 – a man that refused to stay still despite the loss of his mobility after a tragic accident. While he spent much of his...
The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes
If The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes were a person, it would be eligible for Old Age Security this year. Not bad for a book whose roots date back to a group of women who volunteered to feed 3,000 people attending a church conf...
Mennonites and Nationalism (Part 2)
In Part 2, Mark Jantzen unpacks major historical events that influenced the Mennonite view of patriotism and nationalism, and the role that faith played in their understanding of how to relate to the state and the state church.
Mennonites and Nationalism (Part 1)
In Part 1, guest Dr. Mark Jantzen of Bethel College in Kansas shares what he’s learned about the history of Mennonite’s and their various understandings of national identity. Is it language, homeland, culture, ethnic background, or something el...
Looking for Peter Hampton
Today, join host Sara Dyck as she shares the story of researcher and writer Helene Warkentin’s quest to learn about Peter Hampton. Born Peter Paetkau in Russia, Hampton spent his younger years in Grunthal, Manitoba, eventually ending up in Ohio...
Laureen Harder-Gissing on Family Secrets
Today, we have an interview with Laureen Harder-Gissing from the Mennonite Archives of Ontario. Laureen has studied family secrets, their connection to church life and family genealogies, and how secrets are handled at a public archive.
Adina Janzen
Today, guest host Sara Dyck brings you the compelling life story of Adina Janzen, who survived the dark Soviet era in Russia. In 1934, her father was taken by Soviet authorities. They instantly lost the family breadwinner. At one point, a starv...
Interview with Dr. Mark Jantzen (Part 2)
Today, In Part 2, Dr. Jantzen reveals how Prussian rulers targeted Mennonite women, which eventually provoked a mass migration of Mennonites out of Prussia.
Interview with Dr. Mark Jantzen (Part 1)
Today, we bring you an interview with Bethel College professor Dr. Mark Jantzen, who studies the little known history of Mennonites who lived in Prussia from the 1530s to the late 1700s. In this episode, we learn that Mennonites liv...
Samuel McRoberts and his Paraguay photo collection
Today, we bring you the story of Samuel McRoberts, the American lawyer and banker whose deeply religious wife Harriet persuaded McRoberts to negotiate and facilitate a mass re-settlement of Canadian Mennonites to Paraguay in the 1920s. Did the ...
Laureen Harder Gissing and the Mennonite Archives of Ontario
Today, we bring you a conversation with archivist Laureen Harder Gissing. When Laureen was 13 years old, her grandmother gifted her with a cheque for $13.00. That gift inspired a life long interest in her family’s history, and the bigger pictur...
Journey to Burns Lake
Today, guest host Sara Dyck brings you the story of a provincial government experiment to resettle a group of Manitoba Mennonites near Burns Lake, B.C. during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Hear about their journey to B.C., and the challeng...