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Contact
Mennonite Archives of OntarioConrad Grebel University College
140 Westmount Road North
Waterloo, ON N2L 3G6
Phone: 519-885-0220 x24238
Classification scheme:
1.323 (s.c)
Title: Otto Dirks fonds
Dates of creation: [after 2007]
Physical description: 1 cm of textual records
Biographical sketch: Otto Dirks is the grandson of the first Mennonite missionary from Russia to go abroad, Heinrich Dirks (1842-1915). Heinrich and his wife Aganetha "Agnes" Schroeder were missionaries in Sumatra from 1869-1881. Otto's father was Hermann Dirks, a teacher, who was arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1938 and not heard from again. Otto Dirks was born in Soviet Ukraine and came to Canada in 1948. He became a Mennonite pastor in Ohio and Ontario and spent 10 years as a missionary in Taiwan.
Custodial history: Donated to the Archives by Niagara United Mennonite Church in 2020
Scope and content: A 9-page booklet by Otto Dirks titled "You Shall Be My Witness." Dirks describes some experiences of his grandfather Heinrich Dirks and his father Hermann Dirks before relating the story of his own life.
Notes: Original archival description created 2020 by Laureen Harder-Gissing.
