2012 MEMBERSHIP DUES
2012 membership fees are now due. I will be culling unpaid members from the members only pages of the web site at the end of April. To check your status, log in to zichydorfonline.org and go to Your Profile. You will find your dues expiry date on the bottom right side of your profile. If you think there is an error, by all means drop me a line and we will straighten it out. You may pay with PayPal by using the donation box on the left side of the homepage. Mailing address and other details for payment by mail are on the Membership page.
ZICHYDORF CHURCH RECORDS
When we first compiled the church records, I created a companion document describing the contents, giving some pointers on how to find records, and including a glossary of some Latin, Hungarian, German, and English terms you will find in the records. In 2010 we located two missing pages that are now posted in the Photos section of our web site. I have updated the companion document to include the missing records. Comparing this document to your own files will show whether you have the complete set of what is available. You will find it on the site by clicking on Banat > Genealogy > Zichydorf Church Records. If you have purchased the records, but are missing any of the newly discovered pages, please look for them on the site.
ZICHYDORF PICTURES
Helmut Kaiser has added numerous vintage and modern pictures to his web site at www.zichydorf.h-kaiser.de. Click on Bildergalerie > Weiter.
ARBEITSKREIS UNGARNDEUTSCHER FAMILIENFORSCHER
If you are trying to trace your family back through Hungary, you may be able to make useful contacts through the AKuFF. This society was established in November 2000, as the partner organization of AKdFF (Arbeitskreis donauschwabischer Familienforscher) in Sindelfingen. The AKuFF is an organization of family researchers with German heritage, but it doesn’t preclude the possibility of researching Hungarian or other nationalities.
The main purpose of the society is to organize the researchers in this organization, promote the exchange of information by getting to know each other’s research work, provide scientific background for the members, and give professional assistance necessary for research. Additional interests are Swabian history, local history, historical auxiliary sciences (heraldry, archontology, cartography, etc.). Find them at http://www.akuff.org/index.php?p=1&;lang=en
CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HUMAN RIGHTS
For the last many years, a prominent Canadian Jewish family has been organizing and fundraising to build this museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba. With substantial government support, construction is underway and expected to be complete in 2012. Understandably, a major portion of the museum will be dedicated to the Holocaust. Other genocides and human rights violations will also be featured. However, as, near as I can tell, there will be no mention of the genocide in Yugoslavia or the deportation of 15 million ethnic Germans from eastern Europe after the Second World War.
I have twice emailed the museum asking about this, but have never received a response. It appears that those who set the search criteria for what stories would be told were unaware of these events. I encourage all members to contact the museum and ask whether these stories will be told. Here are some email addresses that you can try: Research Directors: Sharon.Reilly@humanrightsmuseum.ca and Rhonda. Hinther@humanrightsmuseum.ca; Exhibit Project Manager: Linden.Roberts@humanrightsmuseum.ca. You could ask questions such as: Are you aware that 15 million ethnic German people living in eastern Europe were forcibly relocated after World War II with up to 2 million deaths? Are you aware that, after the War, tens of thousands of ethnic Germans in eastern Europe were kidnapped to forced labour in Russia where about one fifth of them died? Are you aware that Yugoslavia established a series of concentration camps for the very old and very young who were not conscripted into forced labour in their own country or deported to Russia and that one third of them died due to starvation, disease, or maltreatment? Will these facts be portrayed in your museum? If not, how does ignoring these facts fit with your stated goals of objectivity, inclusiveness, sound research, and scholarship? Are you aware that thousands of survivors of these atrocities later immigrated to Canada? Did you talk to any of them in the planning for your museum? You can also tell your own story or those of your family at http://humanrightsmuseum.ca/important-notices. Click on Share Your Story.
NEW IN THE LIBRARY
The Danube Swabians is a DVD by a Serbian director. It is another example of young Serbians discovering the Donauschwaben story and trying to spread it to a wider audience. To make the story more interesting to potential young Ser bian viewers, it intersperses two different elements. To add interest and engage young viewers, the film begins with a modern day dramatic story, scenes of which are inserted throughout. In this narrative, a young German woman arrives in Serbia looking for the home of her grandfather, who was dispossessed after the war. She meets a young Serbian man who helps her in her search. They become romantic, which draws the attention of some Serbian bullies. This part of the film ends with the couple deciding that their future lies in Europe. The message is that Serbia must acknowledge its past sins and become more tolerant of non-Serbians so that it can join the European Union and become more prosperous. However, the bulk of the film tells the Donauschwaben story, beginning with a brief history of the settlement, and then the personal recollections of people who lived through the post-war experience of dispossession and internment camps. It appears that these people live in Serbia today and must have been small children at the time of the events. It is encouraging to see that their stories are now being told and acknowledged in Serbia. The film is in the Serbian language with English subtitles. You can see a preview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAUlwTqCYXI WARNING: This DVD was produced in Serbia. The producers attempted to find a format that would work in North America, but they were only partly successful. From comments by several purchasers, it seems that the DVD works in a computer DVD player, but not a player meant to feed a television. Also, the DVD will not be available in the library until after our meeting on April 22.
You may recognize the author of Kirchweih Fest, Elisabeth B. Walter, as the author of Barefoot in the Rubble, the story of her childhood at the end of World War II. In this book she recalls the customs surrounding the largest festival on the Donauschwaben calendar. Kirchweih celebrated the anniversary of the consecration of the village church as well as the completion of the annual harvest. Elisabeth describes the festival in her home town of Karlsdorf, as well as its re-creation in her new home of Chicago, illustrating both with her own excellent artwork. It is a short read and amply illustrated, offering an excellent way to connect with the culture of our ancestors’ homeland.
The Familienbuch Sartscha 1800-1852 by Josef Kuehn is on order and I expect it to arrive any day. I expect that it will be typical of all the other Familienbuchs with family listings, various indices, and some historical text. As soon as it arrives, I will post a listing on our web site with more detail.
FEEFHS CONFERENCE
The Federation of East European Family History Societies is holding a major conference in Salt Lake City from July 12 to 14, 2012. FEEFHS always puts on a very professional event with the top speakers in the business. Get more information at feefhs.org.
MOUNT ANGEL CONFERENCE
The Mount Angel conference will be held September 13 to 16, 2012. This meeting is a little more laid back than the FEEFHS conference, but is always an informative and enjoyable weekend. I will be making a presentation this year on how it was that Zichydorfers came to settle in Regina. For more information, go to http://www.danube-swabians.org/treffen/
HAUS DER DONAUSCHWABEN AND AKDFF ONLINE LIBRARY CATALOGUE
The following message was received from Dave Dreyer:
The library holdings at the Haus der Donauschwaben in Sindelfingen are now on-line. Keep in mind that there are two different libraries at the Haus der Donauschwaben. The main library is sponsored by the various Landsmannschaft organizations, the City of Sindelfingen and the Staat Baden-Wuerttemberg. The holdings of this library encompass all aspects of Donauschwaben activities from economics, history, biographies to agricultural practices and dialects. The second library/archives are those of the AKdFF and is focused on family history matters. The two different libraries share a single on-line catalogue which can be viewed at, http://my-bibliotheca.net/opac-108506/App/Pages/webopac/xsearch.aspx The AKdFF archives does not loan out printed materials but will loan out microfilm. With the on-line catalogue one can now view the holdings and know what to expect in advance of a visit to Sindelfingen. The catalogue will provide a snapshot of the available literature in any given area and researchers in North America who cannot make a trip to Sindelfingen can then search for items of interest in institutions closer to home. Dave Dreyer (You can also access the search engine from this site http://www.haus-donauschwaben.de/wordpress/)
DONAUSCHWABEN GENOCIDE BOOKS
Here are some links to books on this topic. We have several of these in our library.
http://www.dvhh.org/history/genocide/books.htm
http://www.dvhh.org/history/genocide/index.htm
http://www.dvhh.org/history/genocide/chap_1_tito_1944-48.htm
And here is a link to information about the DVD The Danube Swabians, reviewed elsewhere in this newsletter. There is a short summary, some screenshots, and advice for ordering. http://www.dvhh.org/community/ds-film.htm.
See a trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAUlwTqCYXI
Also, the Director, Marko Cvejic, is looking for support to tour this film throughout the Vojvodina in Serbia in order to create another documentary about the reaction of this new generation of Serbs to this information that most of them know nothing about. Contact info is at the web site.
NEW ON THE WEB SITE
The translated Foreword from the Boglar Familienbuch can be found from the Main Menu by clicking on Schildgebirge > Articles > Boglar Foreword. It includes a list of Banat villages to which Boglar families migrated and which families went to each village.
The translated Foreword to Helmut Kaiser’s Deutsch Stamora Familienbuch gives great insight into the difficulty of compiling such a book and the reliability of the results. Much information is missing and, of course, much more is virtually unreadable. Despite great care in its compilation, the results cannot be considered definitive. From the Main Menu, click on Banat > Genealogy > Deutsch Stamora.
The translated history from the same Deutsch Stamora Familienbuch has also been added. Click on Banat > History > Deutsch Stamora
The Heufeld book Eheschliebungen und Sterbefälle by Hans Gerhardt contains a number of articles dealing with the French villages in Banat, their settlement and development, their ties with their origins, and the post World War II settlement of Banaters in France. The primary French villages were Charleville, St. Hubert, and Soltur, but others, such as Heufeld, Triebswetter, Ostern, and Gotlob are also mentioned. I selected a number of these articles for translation and compiled them into a PDF file that you can download. Click on Banat > History > France and Banat.
OBITUARY
Katherine, wife of Frank Mulatz, passed away in March, 2012. Frank’s family came from Georgshausen.
ZVA REGINA BRANCH MEETING
Regina Branch will meet at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 22, at Access Communications, 2250 Park St. (north door by the ball diamonds). The main agenda item is election of officers for the coming year. After the formalities of the meeting, we will view the DVD The Banat Swabians. Please mark your calendar and bring along a Zichydorf friend.
Zichydorf Village Association News
edited by: Glenn Schwartz
2274 Baldwin Bay, Regina, SK, S4V 1H2
Internet: http://zichydorfonline.org
&
http://www.feefhs.org/members/zichydorf/frg-zva.html
email: gschwartz@accesscomm.ca