Photography

Herman Wiens, Photographer.

Serving the area for almost half a centure, Winkler Photo Studio has during these years developed in quality that is “second to none.“ in 1927 Mr. Herman Wiens started a studio which he sold to Mr. Jake Sawatzky in the 1940's. In 1952 the business was purchased by Mr. George G. Sawatzky who has developed the photography techniques until he has become a household word in southern Manitoba.

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Mr. and Mrs. George G. Sawatzky, Winkler Photo Studio

When the Nazis laid down their arms in 1945, millions of people in Europe had been displacedthrough the ravages of Worid War ll. To relieve the suffering and to help in the rehabilitation of these refugees, the Cana- dian government under Prime Minister MaeKenzie King opened the doors for immigrants who wished to make a new beginning in Canada. Mr. George Sawatzky who was born in 1919 at Nieder Chortitza, Ukraine, arrived in Canada on September 28, 1948. His wife whom he had

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not seen for 24 years, was finally permitted to emigrate from Russia and was reunited with her husband here on June 17, 1968.

Mr. 8:. Mrs. G. G. Sawatzky were marrried on September 5, 1943, at Nieder Chortltza, Ukraine, South Russia. In i944 Mr. Sawatzky was drafted into the Ger- man army in Yugoslavia. in 1945, during the chaos ofthe last year of the war, he and his wife were separated when Mrs. Sawatzky was sent back to Russia where their daughter Lili was born and eventually she went to Siberia where she worked in a sewing factory and thus provided for herself and their daughter who was born some months after the Sawatzky‘s became separated. For years they found no trace of each other, however in 1955 through the aid of relatives, Mr. Sawatzky discovered the whereabouts of his wife in Siberia.

Before long, Mr. Sawatzky started negotiations for the release of his wife and child. With the help of a local special committee which had been organized to aid in the reunification of Mennonite families, representations were made through diplomatic channels at home and abroad. After his wife had been reunited with Mr. Sawatzky in l968, the wheels were set in motion to have their daughter Lili with her husband and son follow them to Canada. Progress was slow at first but in 1972 when Prime Minister Trudeau visited the Soviet Union, he presented to Premier Kosygin a tong list of families that had been separated and requested that they be permitted to reunite. Consequently, it was a joyful family reunion for the Sawatzky‘s on August 3, 1972, when a USSRjet airliner touched down at Winnipeg International Airport with their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. & Mrs. Igor Motschalov, and grandson Robert. Mr. Motschalov, an accomplished violinist who studied at the University in Nova Sihirsk, and Mrs. Motschaiov who taught German literature at the high school level, immediately enrolled for English classes at Red River Community College, Winnipeg, under the Canada Manp0wer Training Program.

When Mr. George Sawatzky purchased the Winkler Photo Studio, it was located on the second lioor of the Winkler Motors Garage at the north-east corner of Stanley Avenue and Main Street. When this building was destroyed by fire in 1958, Mr. Sawatzky erected a new Photo Studio at the present site at 285 Main Street. Winkler Photo Studio specializes in weddings, portraits and industrial photography, having won several honors on a National level for its outstanding work. Through his industry and expertise, Mr. Sawatzky has become in less than two decades one of the most successful business men of photogravure in southern Manitoba.

Barber

Besides the Winkler Beauty Salon at 379 Main Street, there are four other barbers taking care of the ver- satile hair—do‘s of the modern male. Because of the refusal of many teenagers to visit the barber regularly, the men in this profession have recently found their in- comes dwindling inversely to the length of the mop of hair seen dangling on the shoulders of many a youthful “Romeo”. Mr. Jake Friesen recently opened a barber shop at 586 Main Street North in order to attract the high school business. Mr. Henry Doell has been plying