Qualla: Neuland Colony https://qualla.com/neuland-colony en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:58 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Neuland Colony https://qualla.com/neuland-colony Neuland Colony: Introduction https://qualla.com/neuland-colony/ Many of the people who built Neuland were not wanted anywhere else. They were Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from the Soviet Union, swept westward in the chaos of the Great Trek as the German army retreated through Ukraine during World War II. When the fighting ended, they were stranded in Europe: widows, orphans, the elderly, families hollowed out by war and displacement. Canada and other prosperous nations, sorting refugees by youth and strength, largely turned them away. So in 1947 the Mennonite Central Committee bought land in Paraguay's Boquerón Department, and some 2,500 of these refugees made a new beginning on the flat, thorn-tangled floor of the Gran Chaco. They named their colony Neuland, "New Land." It would be the youngest of all the Mennonite colonies in Paraguay.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/p/neuland-colony-wp/6evp-neuland-colony-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Neuland Colony: Starting From Almost Nothing https://qualla.com/neuland-colony/ Consider what these settlers carried with them, and what they did not. They had survived collectivization, the Soviet famine, and a war that had killed or scattered their men. Many arrived as widows leading children. Ahead lay a tropical wilderness where summer temperatures climb...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/p/neuland-colony-wp/6evp-neuland-colony-starting-from-almost-nothing.mp3 0:06 2 full Neuland Colony: Lessons in the Shade of Trees https://qualla.com/neuland-colony/ The settlers prioritized schooling before they had proper buildings to hold it in. Classes met outdoors, in the shade of the Chaco's trees, because education was the one investment these families believed in completely. That conviction shaped the colony that grew. Today Neuland r...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/p/neuland-colony-wp/6evp-neuland-colony-lessons-in-the-shade-of-trees.mp3 0:06 3 full Neuland Colony: The First Battlefield https://qualla.com/neuland-colony/ Neuland's district holds ground soaked in another war's history. Within it stands Fort Boquerón, where on September 29, 1932, the first decisive battle of the Chaco War ended after a brutal three-week siege. Bolivian and Paraguayan conscripts died there in the thousands, many not...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/p/neuland-colony-wp/6evp-neuland-colony-the-first-battlefield.mp3 0:06 4 full Neuland Colony: The Older Claim on the Land https://qualla.com/neuland-colony/ The Chaco the refugees called "New Land" was ancient ground to others. These thorn forests were the territory of indigenous peoples, the Enlhet and Ayoreo among them, who had lived by hunting and gathering here for generations before any European set foot in Boquerón. As the colo...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/e/v/p/neuland-colony-wp/6evp-neuland-colony-the-older-claim-on-the-land.mp3 0:06 5 full