EWZ naturalisation card: Lydia Dreger née Kröker
Document description
Archive: Bundesarchiv, Berlin-Lichterfelde.
Collection / series: R 9361-IV KARTEI 1 — EWZ-Einbürgerungskartei (Einwandererzentralstelle naturalisation card index).
Person: DREGER, née Kröcker, Lydia.
EWZ no.: 906 134 · Resettlement no.: 1 221 147.
Processing date: 28 April 1944.
Extent: two cards — typed and handwritten (duplicate of the same data), each with a reverse side.
Scans of the cards are not published on this site: obtaining a copy from an archive is not in itself permission to publish it online. Below is a field-by-field transcription of the data.
Field-by-field transcription
| Card field | Original entry | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| EWZ no. (1) | UdSSR 906 134 | EWZ file number |
| Resettlement no. (2) | 1 221 147 | Resettler number |
| Name (6) | DREGER, geb. Kröcker Lydia | Maiden name spelled with “c”: Kröcker |
| Last home place (10) | 1 b Ladekopp; district: 3 a Bolschoj-Tokmak (5); II Saporoshje II (7) | Ladekopp, Bolshoi Tokmak district, Zaporizhzhia region |
| Occupation (11) | Landarbeiterin | Farm labourer |
| Confession / sect (12) | bap. | Baptist — see note below |
| Marital status (13) | verh. | Married |
| Year of marriage (14) | 1935 | — |
| Born / in / district (15) | 17. 4. 17 in Shilesna, Ray. Artemowsk | Born 17.04.1917 in Shilesna, Artemovsk district |
| Previous citizenship (16) | UdSSR | USSR |
| Physical fitness (17) | voll | Full |
| Naturalisation note (18) | Eingebürgert / Einbürgerung | Naturalised |
| Total children | 2, of which 1 living | Two children, one living |
| “German descent” | A 100 % · E 100 % · F 100 % | Assessment under the Nazi-era registration system |
| Family members (19) | Dreger, Edmund — husband, m., 1914 — “1941 verschleppt” —»— Leo — son, m., 1937 — resettlement no. 1 221 148 | Husband Edmund Dreger, b. 1914, noted as “taken away in 1941”; son Leo, b. 1937 |
| Schooling (20) | 2 Kl. dt. Dorfschule | Two classes of German village school |
| Main occupational skills (23) | Feld- u. Stallarbeiten, melken | Field and stable work, milking |
| Secondary skills | Hausarbeiten, stricken, spinnen; dtsch. i. W. + Schr., russ. i. W. | Housework, knitting, spinning; German spoken and written, Russian spoken |
| Previous employment (24) | Kollektiv landw. — Landarbeiterin; eig. Haushalt — Hausfrau, 1935–44 | Collective farm work; own household from 1935 |
| Desired employment (27) | Landarbeiterin | Farm labourer |
| Registered by commission (30) | Kom. Nr. 30, in Hermannsbad; Lager Serotzki, Kr. H-bad | Commission no. 30 at Hermannsbad; Serotzki camp |
| Processing date (33) | 28. 4. 1944 | — |
What the document confirms and what it refines
Confirms: Lydia’s date and place of birth (17.04.1917, Shilesna), the year of marriage (1935), the birth of her son Leo in 1937, the birth year of her husband Edmund Dreger (1914) and his disappearance in 1941, the pre-war residence at Ladekopp (Bolshoi Tokmak district), and the date 28 April 1944 — the day Lydia herself names in her autobiography as the day she applied for German citizenship.
New information: the resettlement numbers 1 221 147 (Lydia) and 1 221 148 (her son Leo); the entry “2 children, of which 1 living” — Lydia therefore had another child who did not survive those years (name and dates not established); the Serotzki camp near Hermannsbad as the place of registration.
Discrepancies between sources: the district of birth is recorded as Artemovsk, whereas Lydia’s autobiography places Shilesna in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The card gives two classes of schooling, the autobiography “only three years”. Which is correct cannot be determined from the documents at hand.
On the “Konfession (Sekte)” field: both cards carry the handwritten entry “bap.” — Baptist. This is the first documentary indication of a confession in this line. It refers to Lydia personally in 1944 and neither confirms nor refutes the presumption that the Kröker name is connected with the West Prussian Mennonite community: confession could change across generations, and German registration records of the period frequently used this entry for congregations close to the Baptists. The question requires confirmation from church registers.
Source
Bundesarchiv, R 9361-IV KARTEI 1 (EWZ-Einbürgerungskartei), card for Dreger, née Kröcker, Lydia, EWZ no. 906 134, resettlement no. 1 221 147, processed 28.04.1944. Copy held by the site author; accessed July 2026. See also “Sources and licences”.