This series was inspired by a visit to the town of Goygol in western Azerbaijan in 2017. Goygol began life as Helenendorf in April 1819 and was founded by a group of pious German migrants fleeing poverty and persecution in their native Württemberg. These Germans established over a dozen colonies altogether in eastern Georgia and western Azerbaijan which generally flourished due to their expertise in wine and cheese making. Tragically, however, in the autumn of 1941, following the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, the Caucasus Germans (numbering about 46,000) were all deported to Central Asia.
Given that in 2019 Goygol was about to mark the 200th anniversary since its founding and I was extremely curious as to the fate of its former German residents, I decided to follow in their footsteps from the South Caucasus to Kazakhstan and southwest Germany. The goal was to track down survivors and descendants, hear their stories and make photos as I went.