They Refused to Fight is the story of two young boys sent from Germany to the Ukraine in the hope that they would have freedom and a chance to grow up. The journey on the Danube to their new home in Russia was dangerous and their innocence was lost. It is a multigenerational story of the Ebel family living in peace and growing prosperity only to be caught in the middle of a revolution between the Tsar and the Russian Unions. The German immigrants were farmers that brought progress and fortune to Russia but were used as scapegoats by the aristocracy when a war was lost, when poor people could not make a living, when the German communities tried to remain segregated. Russia invaded the Ukraine, first destroying the German families way of life and then deciding to rid their country of the Germans along with the Jewish people. The Ebel family was a family of faith and commitment. They fought to keep their way of life and hold their family together. Unfortunately Russia had a different agenda for the German and Jews in their country. It was the beginning of the destruction of the Ukraine.
