B. B. Janz

Who was B. B. Janz?

Benjamin B. Janz was a minister of the Mennonite Brethren Church who was instrumental in assisting thousands of Mennonites in emigrating from the Soviet Union to Canada.

Janz was born in Konteniusfeld, Molotschna, Russian Empire, in current-day Ukraine. He was baptized into the Mennonite Brethren Church on 10 August 1897. In 1905 he married Maria Rogalsky.

Janz became a school teacher in the village of Tiege in current-day Ukraine. He became an ordained Mennonite minister in the Mennonite Brethren Church 1909. In 1920, Janz became the chair of the Union of Descendants of Dutch Lineage, the most prominent Mennonite political organization in the Soviet Union. During the famine of 1921, Janz helped negotiate permission for the entry of relief supplies from American Mennonite relief agencies. Janz was also asked by the Mennonite Brethren Church to negotiate the release of men who had been conscripted into the Red Army.

Beginning in 1922, Janz began negotiations with the Soviet government to allow emigration of Mennonites to Canada. In 1923, 3000 Mennonites emigrants left the Soviet Union largely as a result of Janz's efforts. In 1924, 5048 more emigrated. Janz remained as spokesman for the Mennonites in the Soviet Union until March 1926.