AustreibungExpulsion1

Expulsions
- 1 /
Anarchy
at its
Worst!!

Austreibung Expulsion - 1
(The Atrocities of Ethnic Cleansing!!!)

  WHEN WORLD WAR II WAS OVER.

                          By Karl Hausner

"Students don't know a lot about this topic", said Chris Gregory,
Director of Ryle North Residential Colleges. "They are taught that
the war ended in 1 945 and the Americans went home. They don't
often think of the people who were still there". This was Dr.
Gregory's introduction to my presentation on October 1 2, 1 998 at
Truman University in Kirksville, Missouri.

The situation is much worse. Almost daily, politicians, the media and
even prominent Christian leaders refer to Nazi crimes and the
Holocaust, without mentioning even such crimes against humanity,
committed by the Bolsheviks before, during and after World War
11 and the millions who were tortured and killed in China, Korea
and Indochina. There is also total silence about the Morgenthau
Plan, the Allied War against civilians and the starvation camps
throughout Europe and Asia during and even after World War II.

It is, for this reason, that I would like to contribute to the
understanding and harmony between nations by presenting to those
interested in the whole truth, the experience of my people in the
former Sudetenland after World War 11.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AFTER WORLD WAR I I:

I was born and raised on a family farm in Schwansdorf
(Svatonovitze), a village with a prewar population of about 550,
near the city of Troppau (Opava), formerly Sudetenschlesien and
now the Czech Republic.

The war was extremely hard on our people with a high number of
casualties. The worst came when we were "liberated" by the Soviet
troops and Czech partisans.On May 8, 1 945, after weeks of
military and refugee movements, the German troops quickly
disappeared. At about 1 0:00 A.M., the village was bombarded by
the Soviets with grenades and later combat soldiers appeared.
There was no fighting. The Soviet troops searched every house,
primarily for soldiers and valuables such as watches and jewelry.
The combat troops then moved on.

The Soviet support troops arrived, removed all of the horses from
the barns, harnessed them, hitched them to the best wagons
available, took some feed and departed. Every mature male who
was located, had to go along. Of the five men who were forced to
join, only one returned. These were: Ernst Krebs, Fritz Krebs,
Johann Kuntscher, Emil Kaimer and Franz Rohm. The latter
returned after two years in a Soviet labor camp.

Other Soviet soldiers started to look for young women they could
sexually abuse. Since most of the population had fled or were hiding
in stone quarries or woods, only those who remained in the village
felt they had to take care of their cattle. Mrs. Jahn, a 50 year old
woman, was approached for rape. She ran out of the house and the
Soviet soldiers shot her to death.

Franz Frei, during World War 1, was in the Austrian Army and got
captured by the Russians. He spent years with and against the Red
Army. In 1 923, he returned from Russia via China, thus, he had the
ability to speak Russian. He was in his house, when Soviet soldiers
entered it. They saw a family picture on the wall with his four
daughters. They demanded that he produce these girls. Since he
knew some Russian, he explained that they are not here. After a
beating, Mr. Frei had to kneel down and then he was executed.

Emma Bischof, our neighbor, about 35 years of age, was about to be
raped. She took her two children and ran out of her farm as two
soldiers ran after her. She jumped with her two children into a
water reservoir. The soldiers pulled her and the children out, but
her little boy already had drowned. She was raped, while her seven
year old daughter watched. At about 3:00 P.M., a bunch of Soviet
soldiers entered the farm house of the Emil Kaimer family. Emil
Kaimer was already gone, when they took his horses. Mrs. Kalmer,
age 38, her three children, ages ten, six and two and her 70 year old
mother-in-law were in the kitchen. She had to lay on the floor
where she was raped by dozens of Soviet soldiers, one after
another. When blood exited from her vagina, one Soviet soldier
instead of raping her, took his bayonet and stuck it into her vagina,
pulled it out and disappeared. Mrs. Kaimer was still alive for
another hour or so, when a Soviet officer shot her in the head. All
this was in the presence of her small children and old mother-in-law.

Julius Dohmes, age 60, hanged himself in the hay barn, when they
took his only horse. He was a small farmer and obviously could not
handle the loss and circumstances. Hans Sommer, about 55, had a
small farm and Gasthaus (Inn), known as Schles, which was on the
road between our village and Bautsch (Budisov). He was found shot
to death near his estate. No one knows the circumstances. Most
likely he fled and failed to stop and was shot.

During the next few days rape and robbery were committed by the
Soviet troops whenever and wherever possible. All of the cows and
the other cattle, except one for each family, were removed from
the various farms and driven to the
Rosmanith farm (No. 27) where they were milked, awaiting their
transportation to Russia. All of the young women, who were
located, were forced to do the chores for a period of about four
weeks, during which time they were raped numerous
times, even daily.

At the end of May, the Soviet troops had discovered that some
refugees were hiding in a stone quarry, about a mile away from the
village surrounded by large wooded areas. Our teacher, Karl
Wolny's family, had a hunting lodge nearby where they were hiding.
On May 26, 1 945, Karl Wolny, who was 74 years of age, his wife,
his sister-in-law Mrs. Muehr, his son Oskar with his wife Anna and
her sister were brutally slain. The two young women were raped,
even though, Anna Wolny was pregnant and close to giving birth.
They were thrown into a mass grave without a funeral, because our
villagers were scared to attend. In September of 1 998, 53 years
later, a stone was placed on that mass grave in memory of them.

Within about four weeks, in early June of 1 945, most of the Soviet
troops disappeared from the villages and the Czech partisans had
taken over. The situation worsened.

I personally was in hiding with a Polish speaking family who had
been on our farm prior to the end of the war. Since they spoke
Polish, they could communicate with the Russians to some extent
and during more critical moments, I was hidden under sacks of feed
for the horses, with clothing and the small children on top of it. We
made our way to their hometown, Weihendorf (Wojnowice) near
Ratibor, which had been claimed by the Polish Militia. Finally, at the
end of June, I ventured the return to my hometown about forty
miles away, naturally on foot, avoiding towns, highways and people
in general. Upon my return home, all of us between the ages of
fifteen and sixty-five, were to report for work, harvesting and
thrashing, whatever was left in the fields. In early September, I was
just about sixteen, when two from our village, myself and Ernst Frei
(nineteen), who had returned from the military, were sent to the
industrial and coal mining region between Ostrau (Ostrava) and
Oderberg. The labor camp was built during World War 11, where
Soviet prisoners of war were housed and had to work in the coal
mines. This was a typical labor camp with barracks, primitive
sanitary facilities and a kitchen. The camp was surrounded with
barbwire fences and watchtowers for the guards.

Upon arrival in the camp, our civilian clothing was taken away and
we got a prison uniform which included wooden shoes and a helmet
for use in the mine. We received shears and had to cut each others
hair as short as possible in order to reduce the habitat for lice and
make us more readily detected in case we fled. This was certainly
not something new, but a common practice in all labor,
concentration or prison camps.

We were housed in these barracks, sixty to eighty men in one room.
In the morning we got a pot of "coffee" (roasted grain and boiled).
After the shift we got about a quart of soup without fat or meat and
one small loaf of bread for five days. Most of us could eat the bread
during one meal, some did and this quickly led to serious health
problems.

When we arrived at the camp, between the drive and the walkways
there was grass. Within weeks, all of the grass was pulled out and
consumed, including the roots, which further led to digestive
problems, severe diarrhea and often death.

In the mine, we worked eight hours daily. Initially, we could handle
the work, but within weeks, many lost strength or got injured, while
others simply dehydrated due to the diarrhea and died. We were
not permitted to have any reading or writing material. Thus, our
parents did not know where we were. The camp I was in was within
the town of Dombrau (Dombrowa) near Karw'in, not far away from
Oderberg.

Within weeks, I developed not just diarrhea and other health
problems, but also an eye infection. Since there was no medical care
and the coal dust aggravated the condition, I got to the point where
I could not work in the mine under ground. Shortly after the New
Year of 1 946, about forty men from this camp were collected, put
in a railroad car and sent away. The train ride ended in Troppau
(Opava), our county seat, about twenty miles away from my
hometown. From the Troppau railroad station, we walked, naturally
under guard, to Graetz (Hradez) where we were put into the castle
of the huge Feudal Estate of Fuerst von Lichnowsky. We were to
cut timber for the mine. The forest we were assigned to work in
was one of the last battlegrounds between the German and Soviet
Army, in late April of 1 945. Most of the trees were scratched or
even filled with shrapnel and in the bunkers there were still the
remains of German soldiers. We cleared these woods and closed the
bunkers.

The equipment we used was of American manufacture, an IH
tractor (Farmal M) and even a few American made power saws. In
this camp things had improved for us. It was much smaller, less
guarded and some Czech people would slip us some food, even
though, it was prohibited. In March of 1 946, four of us from the
group were asked whether we knew how to handle horses and thus,
we were transferred to the farm, where we were working with the
horses, hauling wood, or later making hay.

A young Czech, who worked at the dam of the small electric power
plant, found a hand grenade, played with it and it exploded. It tore
off his hand and injured him severely. We heard the blast and ran to
the area and found him laying in the water. We pulled him out and
carried him to the farm, from where he was taken to the hospital.

Since we saved his life, the farm manager and the other Czech
people working on the farm, gave us special privileges, such as
more food and more freedom.

I was there until June 1 946, when my family was scheduled for
expulsion.

In June of 1 946, 1 received word from our guards that we would be
released, sent home to our family and then transferred to the
expulsion camp in Wigstadtl (Vitkov), a
town about five miles from our Village of Schwansdorf. My
parents, my twelve year
old sister and 1, along with ninety other inhabitants of our village,
were to pack up
and get ready to be transported to the camp. We were permitted to
take with
us 60 kgs. (1 30 lbs.) of used clothing, shoes, bedding or utensils, no
money, no 'ewelry and nothing valuable. All of this stuff was
inspected by the guards of the expulsion camp in Wigstadtl. There
we stayed for about five days until a complete train of about thirty
box cars was assembled. Our "possessions" were loaded in railroad
box cars, along with thirty people to one car. The camp was heavily
guarded as was the train during the whole trip. We were not told
where we were going, but within the first day of transit and waiting,
we realized that we were going westwards. We hoped and prayed
that this direction will be maintained, because many people prior to
this event, were sent into forced labor camps to the Soviet Union.

After about four days of very slow travel and waiting, we arrived at
the border crossing of Czechoslovakia and Bavaria at Furth im
Walde. During the trip we were permitted, at specified locations, to
leave the box car and empty the pail of human waste or use the
open latrines. Occasionally, we got food and water. After the train
crossed the border, the guards quickly left and we realized that we
were in Bavaria, the American Zone of Occupation. There, the Red
Cross and some other voluntary organizations gave us food. Then,
we were ordered 'into barracks, where we were individually
deloused by DDT powder. All of this was under the United States
Military Command. We still did not know where we were to be sent
next. After another day of travel, the whole train was separated
into different groups and three box cars, which included us, ended in
Landshut, Bavaria. There, the railroad station was totally
destroyed by bombs and only a small barrack housed the railroad
office. All of our possessions were unloaded and put on trucks for
further transportation to an unknown destination.

After about a one hour truck ride, we arrived in a remote village of
about a dozen farmers. In Huettenkofen, the truck was unloaded
beneath a shade tree and that was our final destination. Within an
hour, the appointed Mayor, Mr. Stelzenberger, walked with each
family to another farm and told the farmer that he had to clear one
room for those of us which were expelled. The
farmer gave us an ox cart, with which we transported our
"valuables" to the farm and our new
"home". Our new home, a 1 2' x 1 2' room for four persons.

Data of Expulsion from Wigstadl: Troppauer Heimat-Chronik
January 1 996 Issue
May 23, 1 946 - First transport, 1 204 persons to Goeppingen
(Schwaben).
June 10, 1 946 - Second transport, 1 204 persons to Munich
(Bavaria).
This was our transport, where three box cars were removed from
the train at Landshut.
June 26, 1946 - Third transport, 1 1 08 persons to Dachau (Bavaria).
July 4, 1946 - Fourth transport, 1 1 55 persons to Augsburg
(Bavaria).
July 18, 1 946 - Fifth transport, 1 204 persons to Regensburg
(Bavaria).
August 14, 1946 - Sixth transport, 1 203 persons to Wuerzburg
(Bavaria),
another major part from our Village of Schwansdorf.
August 23, 1 946 - Seventh transport, 934 persons to Wuerzburg
(Bavaria).
October 21, 1 946 - Eighth transport, 298 persons to Kitzingen
(Bavaria).
With this transport, almost every German from our district, about
ten villages, and the town of Wigstadi, were expelled.

While the end of World War 11 brought great relief for millions, for
many other millions, hell broke loose. The crimes and the brutalities
against millions of East Europeans have been kept'in secret and
even today, very few know about it, or even want to know about it.

Justice in the world cannot be promoted, if justice is not provided to
all. A crime is a crime, whether committed by the Nazis, the
Communists or the Allies.

                       OTHER ATROCITIES:

By comparison, my experience after World War 11 in the hands of
the Soviet Army, and particularly the Czech Partisans, was fairly
pleasant - even though, it eventually resulted in the loss of my
eyesight.

What happened in Landskron on May 1 7, 1 945, the hometown of
my wife Hermine (Schwab), Ober-Johnsdorf and Krels Landskron,
is reported in her documentary "May 1 7, 1 945, The Day I Will
Never Forget" and the even more dramatic description of the
events in the book entitled "Documents on the Expulsion of the
Sudeten Germans" published in 1 953 by University Press, Dr. C.
Wolf & Sohn, Munich, Germany, pages 31 through 36, "Landskron:
Massacre on May 1 7th, 1 945", reported by Julius Friedel, report
of February 22, 1 951. During this massacre, her father, her uncle
and a great number of local Germans and a few German soldiers
were tortured to death.

In that documentary, there are many other atrocities published such
as the Death March in early May of 1 945 from Bruenn (Brno) to
the Austrian border, whereby, over 800 persons were tortured to
death and thrown in a mass grave, which is now an agricultural
field. As of 1 998, the Czech Government refused to either exhume
these bodies or at least permit us to set up a memorial and stop
farming the field.

The torture and beastly killing of over 1 50 Germans and a few
Czech "Collaborators" in the Hanke Lager in Ostrau (Ostrava),
was initially investigated in 1 947 by the Czech Government, but
the report was never released until after the collapse of the
Communist Regime in 1 990.

Dr. Stanek, a journalist and historian, published the complete file in
the Czech language in an Ostrava paper (see reference).

Mr. Franz Jenschke, who was born and raised near Grulich
(Kraliki), who after the war finally made it to West Germany and
lived for decades in Bremen and now resides in Berlin, reported:

A few days later, a "trial", similar to the one in Landskron, was
held in Grulich, a town about twenty miles from there. After the
beating, torturing and killing, the previous Mayor, Mr. Grund of the
town, was singled out. He was hung by his feet until he was
unconscious, then he was dropped to the ground and cold water was
poured over his head, until he regained consciousness. This torture
was repeated a number of times and then he had to crawl on his
knees and hands to the cemetery. During this "trip", Mr. Grund
was beaten, kicked in his testes and forced to salute "Heil Hitler",
while the survivors had to follow and watch. At the outside wall of
the cemetery he had to dig a shallow grave, crawl into it, raise his
right hand and say "Heil Hitler", while some of the survivors had to
shovel dirt on him, until he was silent, his hand still extending out of
the dirt. (His grave is still there.)

Franz Jenschke, a devoted Christian, decided in 1 988, when he
visited his hometown Grulich, to restore the almost totally
destroyed monastery, especially the chapels and the Pilgerhaus.
Since that time, up to 1 998, he collected over DM 2 million and
almost finished the restoration of the Muttergottesberg (Hill of the
Blessed Mother of God) shrine and monastery.

The brutal assassination of the Karpaten Deutsche (refugees from
the Carpathian region) and the blood bath in Prague (Praha) are
well documented in various books (see reference).

                HISTORIC BACKGROUND:

The first settlements of the lowland in Bohemia and Moravia, which
is now the Czech Republic, were initially settled by the Germanic
tribes known as the Bojers. The names of the regions Boehmen
(Bohemia) and Bayern (Bavaria) are derived from Bojers.

During the Fifth and Sixth Centuries, Slavic tribes originating from
the Ukraine, pushed into this
lowland and settled. The Bojers moved westward to what is now
known as Bayern (Bavaria), but also remained in the hills and
mountainous region of the Bohemian Forest (Boehmerwald), which
is a part of the mountainous complex, including the Bavarian Forest
(Bayrischer Wald). These two sections were divided by a political
border only. Bayern and Boehmen were independent kingdoms until
1 91 8. All of the original settlers of the Boehmerwald were
expelled in 1 945/46, because they were German people.

The mountainous region to the north of Bohemia and Moravia,
which became known as the Sudetenland, was a total wilderness
except for small valleys up until the Twelfth Century. At that time,
the King of Bohemia and the Bishops throughout the region
encouraged the German people from Franken, Thueringen and
Schlesien (Silezia) to colonize the totally unpopulated region.

While the Czech people were primarily flat land farmers, obviously
based on their Ukrainian heritage, the German people were not
afraid of mountains. They also developed mining and various other
industries, since the land alone could not provide for their families.

In the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 300 years before the
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, our ancestors, mostly Franken
peasants, moved eastward. They cleared the rugged terrain and
built farms and villages, similarly as did the settlers in North
America in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Initially, the
region belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations.
Later, for hundreds of years, our homeland was part of the
Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, which was irresponsibly destroyed
by the Allied powers after World War I (Treaty of St. Germain).

In 1 91 8, the Czech Nationalists, Mazaryk and Benes, created the
misconception of Czechoslovakia in Pittsburgh with the blessing of
Britain, France and the United States. They promised to become
the second Switzerland with an absolute autonomy for the many
different nationalities. Instead of autonomy, Czech machine guns
brought to the Sudetenland the newly founded "democracy". Since
the Czechs were actually a minority of 48% in the Republic, the
other minorities represented the majority. As history has shown,
even the Slovaks broke away twice from their Slavic brothers, the
Czechs.

When Hitler took power in Germany in 1 933, the Czechoslovakian
economy was also depressed. The Sudeten-German people had
hoped to receive autonomy. Instead, things turned from bad to
worse, World War 11 started and finally ended in 1 945.

In 1 948, the Benes Government, which had ordered the expulsion
immediately after the war (Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman and Stalin
agreed to it in Yalta and Potsdam), was overthrown by the
Communists.

We expelled Sudeten-Germans had laid new roots in Germany and
many like me, were now in foreign countries. The Czech people
were tortured by their own leaders. The property was confiscated,
the clergy was thrown into concentration camps and our homeland
became a land of destruction. The majority of the buildings
collapsed, the land eroded and the nation fell into poverty and
atheism.

After forty years of a Communist paradise, the Marxist Regimes in
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed, due to a
misconceived, atheistic philosophy, bureaucracy and corruption.

Although the Czech Republic has now a democratically elected
government, no attempt has been made to rectify the crimes
committed after World War 11 and return the property and the
land to us Sudeten-Germans. The Benes Decrees of 1 945/46, which
permitted the killing, without a trial of Sudeten-Germans and
"Collaborators", the torture of virtually millions, the confiscation of
all private property and the "law" to expel all Sudeten-Germans
and even some Hungarians, remains in effect until now, the end of
1998. Even though, the Czech Government

has filed application to join the European Union and NATO, these
unthinkable laws have not been removed or demanded by the Allies
as a condition to 'oin the European Union and NATO, except for
Resolution No. 562 of October 1 3, 1 998 by the U.S. House of
Representatives.

At this time, over 1 20,000 churches, chapels and monasteries are in
desperate need of repair, forget restoration. Thousands of such
structures have been purposely destroyed or simply fell in decay
beyond repair. Practically all of the farm buildings, small factory
structures and hundreds of thousands of homes in the former
Sudetenland are gone or beyond repair.

Prior to the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany in 1 938,
over 60% of the tax income for the whole Czechoslovak Republic,
with a total population of fifteen million, came from the 3.5 million
Sudeten-Germans. Money alone cannot and will not bring
prosperity to these depressed regions. They will need people with
high standards and work ethics.

The expelled Sudeten-Germans, who came to West Germany, now
(1 998), own 1.5 homes per family, while the Czech Nation has a
home ownership of 0.5 homes per family.

The State of Bavaria honored the Sudeten-Germans by designating
them as the fourth tribe in the state besides the Bavarians,
Frankens and Schwabens.

Let us hope that the Czech people will find a just solution.

           THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE:

As pointed out before, the world knows all about the crimes
committed by the Nazi Regime. Many Nazi leaders were justly
punished. The German people are reminded daily about these
atrocities by the media worldwide.

Where were the western journalists when our women were raped
and our people were tortured to death? While the Nazis committed
their crimes behind heavily guarded concentration camp fences, the
Soviet troops and the Czech partisans committed even greater
brutalities publicly in every village. Today, over fifty years later,
not one of these criminals was brought to trial, due to the Benes
Decrees.

When Tito, who also slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in
Yugoslavia, came to visit the United States, he was celebrated as a
hero, and so it was when the Soviet leaders came.

The Western World and the United States will have to submit to the
truth and discontinue the double standards. The Soviet Union was
allied with the Western Powers and thus, the Western Powers of
Britain, France and the United States must share the responsibility,
as to what happened in Eastern Europe after World War II.

Publishing this documentary is not to cultivate hate, but to
contribute minutely to the understanding between nations, because
the truth is the foundation of all relations. Let us pray that God
may bring wisdom to our leaders, so that they will return to the
principles of the Constitution of the United States of America and
the almost two millenniums of Biblical teaching.

FOREIGN WARS, THE EXPULSION OF MILLIONS AND
THEIR EFFECT ON AMERICA:

Pastor Weis of Bethel United Methodist Church in Blackhawk,
Wisconsin, during the dedication of our Expellee Memorial Chapel
on September 1 7, 1 995, at Karl Hausner Farms in Sauk City,
Wisconsin, said it in a few words: "Let us look at the
brighter side of the expellee miseries. After every such war,
thousands and
sometimes millions of such expellees or refugees crossed the
Atlantic and brought
with them the Christian heritage, which included strong family ties
and high standards of work ethics. It gave this country periodically
new impulses and energy".

The pilgrims, who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, well   over
300 years ago,
were expellees. The first group of German immigrants, the
Menonites from Krefeld, settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania over
300 years ago. They also were refugees/expellees.

After the bloody thirty-year religious war of 1 61 8 - 1 648,
eccentric Protestant groups had to flee Europe and not just
Catholic dominated regions, but from the Lutheran controlled part
of Europe as well. These were the Amish, Menonites, Quackers,
Huttenreits, Moravians, just to mention some. Often, they are
incorrectly called the Pennsylvania Dutch, while in fact these were
German people.

After the French Revolution, and even more so, after the failed
Austrian/German Revolution of 1 848/49, many refugees entered
the United States. Over 1 0,000 came from various German states.
Since they were true libertarians, and the United
States at that time was still considering native and black
Americans as subhumans and slavery was still accepted, even
subsidized, these
intellectuals pushed for the abolishment of slavery which led to the
U.S. Civil War.

After World War 1, when the Austrian and German Empires were
destroyed and
the continued embargo brought extreme hardship to Central
Europe, many
immigrants came to the U.S. between 1920 and 1 930.

After Hitler took power in Germany in 1 933, not only the Austrian
and German Jews immigrated by the hundreds of thousands, but
also many German politicians who were not in agreement with his
policies.

After World War 11, as a result of Soviet advances and the
occupation of all of Eastern Europe and the subsequent expulsions
of well over 1 8 million German people from the Sudetenland and
practically all of Eastern Europe, the United States enacted the
"Refugee Relief Act". Between 1 948 and 1 960, well over one
million immigrants, mostly refugees or expellees, came to this
country. Of the over 800,000 German people, 80% were expellees.
This massive influx of well trained and often highly educated
people, such as Werner von Braun and his rocket research group,
gave the American industry, economy and social structure new
impulses, which Pastor Weis so honestly credited.

In this discussion, I do not want to review the Congressional,
Industrial and Military Complex and their impact on the history and
economy of the United States and, for that matter, the whole world,
but just focus on the miseries, which were created by these foreign
wars.

References:

1 ) Hvezda Pod Rosutici, Morowsky Beroun, 1 997.
2) Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten-Germans, University
Press, Dr. C. Wolf & Sohn, Munich, 1953.
3) Es gibt nicht nur ein Lidice, Sudetendeutscher Rat e.V.,
Muenchen, 1 988.
4) "Sterblichkeit ist Schein", Dr. Fritz Pendl, Sudetendeutsches
Archiv, Muenchen, 1 985.
5) Dokumente zur Vertreibung der Sudetendeutschen,
Sudetendeutscher Rat e.V., Muenchen, 1 992.
6) Ein Mythos zerbricht: Bene§, Sudetendeutsche Stiftung,
Muenchen, 1 99 1.
7) Dokumente zur Austreibung der Sudetendeutschen, Europa-
Buchhandlung, Muenchen, 1 951.
8) The Sudeten Question, Brief Exposition and Documentation,
Sudeten German Council, Munich, 1 984.
9) Landskroner Not und Tod, Franz J. C. Gauglitz, Selbstveriag
Heimatkreisbetreuer Franz Gauglitz, 97353 Wiesentheid, 1 997.
1 0) Sudetendeutscher Atlas, Association for the Protection of the
Sudeten German Interests, Munich, 1 954.
11) Heimat Zwischen Oder und Mohra, Hausner Foundation, P.O.
Box 322, Hinsdale, IL 60523.
1 2) Hoelle im Zentrum von Ostrava - Hanke Lager, by PhDr. - Dr.
Tom6§ Stanbk.
1 3) Miroeschau/Miro§ov oestlich von Pilsen - ein tschechisches
Todeslager nach dem Krieg, Herausgegeben vom Heimatkreis Mies-
Pilsen e.V. in Dinkelsbuehl.
1 4) "1945 In Memory" by Karl Hausner "Landsberg Brief" -
Ausgabe, March 1997
1 5) "May 17, 1945, The Day I Will Never Forget" by Hermine
Hausner, D.A.N.K., August 1998.
1 6) "Crimes and Mercies" by James Bacque, Institute for
Historical Review.
1 7) "Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the
United States, 1939-44" by Thomas E. Mahl, Washington, D.C.:
Brassey's, 1998.
1 8) Resolution No. 557, October 9, 1 998, and Resolution No. 562,
October 1 3, 1 998, U.S. House of Representatives.

Presented as a lecture during the seminar of the Society for
German-American Studies and affiliated institutions, St.Olaf
College, New Ulm, MN, April 22-25, 1 999.

Author's Address:
Karl Hausner
28 Concord Drive
Oak Brook, IL 60523-1 767

   THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET
                               MAY 17, 1945
                         By Hermine Hausner

I was at that time, eleven years old, my sister Gerlinde was seven
years old and my mother Hermine Schwab was seven months
pregnant. The Soviet troops were about one week in our village
OberJohnsdorf, near Landsksron. Since my grandparents, Julius
and Hermine Kreuziger, had not just a farm and a guesthouse, but
also ma butcher shop, my grandfather had to butcher cattle for the
troops. All of the young women were in hiding including my mother,
because the Soviet troops were still raping women. Thus, we
children were in our grandparent's house. My grandmother was
severely handicapped, even crippled by arthritis and thus, the
soldiers did not bother her.

My father, Robert Schwab, was not drafted during the war due to a
problem
with his legs. He worked in Landskron in the City Hall. My uncle,
Reinhard
Schwab, had finished his engineering education and worked in a
factory also
in Landskron. Our families did not feel in any way guilty of having
harmed our
Czech neighbors. That is why they did not flee before the Soviets
and Czech
partisans arrived.

On May 17, the situation had somewhat normalized and thus, my
father and
uncle went to Landskron to work. Later in the morning a few
truckloads
of Czech partisans went to the nearby villages and collected all of
the men
between sixteen and sixty and even older and drove them on foot to
Landskron. During the journey they were beaten and rifle shots
were fired over their heads to prepare them for the tribunal. My
grandfather, Julius Kreuziger, who was at that time sixty-five, was
also among those who had to go to court.

By early afternoon, hundreds of men were at the city square and
the tribunal started. My father and uncle were among these. They
also had to appear before the tribunal during which time they were
beaten with rifles, and they had to salute "Heil Hitler". Others had
to kneel down in front of these judges and Czechg partisans would
kick them in their genitals and knock them to the ground. My
father was so severelly beaten with rifles that his eyes were
knocked out of his head. Half dead he was then hung on a lantern
in the city square. My uncle Rheinhard was equally beaten and
then, half dead, was thrown in the village fountain, whereby, he
drowned.

During the late afternoon, the tribunal resumed. Over forty men
laid dead on the square or were hanging from the lanterns. The
German men, who were not killed, were ordered into custody
overnight and the tribunal continued the next day. On May 19,
these dead bodies were thrown on wagons and hauled to the
cemetery. Among those who came to view the tribunal were many
Czech persons, who either wanted to see "justice" or felt sorry for
these men. My uncle, Emil Pelzl, also was among those at the City
Square. Since my grandfather and uncle Emil were known by many
Czech farmers due to their cattle trading, they were, without
knowing of each other, taken by the Czech farmers, removed from
the square, sent home and told to hide during the next few days
until all this terror ended. At the cemetery, the other German men
had to dig a mass grave. The dead bodies were thrown into it with a
very ugly disrespect by the Czech partisans, urinating on them.

Before my grandfather came home, we had heard of the terrible
crimes and massacres which were committed at Landskron. My
grandfather, in total frustration, decided to destroy the whole
family, as he told ud years later. During that night, my grandfather
wanted, while we were sleeping, first to shoot us children, then the
rest of the family and after that himself. My grandmother,
obviously suspicious of this, did not rest and kept us children
awake. Thus, one hour after another went by. As morning broke,
my grandfather gave up his plan. Terrible days and nights followed
this massacre at Landskron.

On August 2, my sister Marlies was born and thus, my mother and
grandparents and Aunt Anni Kreuziger among others, were
expelled from our home, put in freight cars and shipped to
Germany. We arrived in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, at the expellee
camp and a new life started.

In the summer of 1964, my husband, Karl, and I traveled for the
first time to Czechoslovakia on the occasion of a medical
conference in Prague (note: Remember that Prague was originally
an important German city in the Sudentenland). We already were
American citizens and hoped to be safe. During this trip, we also
visited Landskron and the cemetery. Near the wall of the
cemetery, where the mass grave was, we saw a pile of dirt and
weeds of all kinds covering it. In this mass grave, where my father
and uncle, along with the other men who been wantonly murdered,
were buried, nothing was ever placed on the grave, like a plaque or
monument. When we revisited that gravesite in the spring of 1992,
we could not find the mass grave. The dirt was leveled and grass
was seeded. Thus, nobody knew that this was once a mass grave.

At this time, not one of these criminals were brought to trial and the
Czech Government even now, under a so-called democracy, has
never found it necessary to investigate and punish those
responsible. Many of these Czech criminals are still alive and still
protected by the Benes Decrees (GAWHS NOTE: This fact makes
the entire present Czech government an Accessory after the fact,
and thus a partner with the Partisans, the Benes decrees, and the
ensuing murders of innocent people)!

On September 17, 1995, we dedicated a chapel at our farm in Sauk
City, Wisconsin in memory of all the expellees. In this chapel a
plaque was installed in memory of my slain father and uncle and all
of the others, who suffered at the hands of these brutal
(unconscionable and pathological) criminals.

The Memorial is (above) under the motto:

"O GOD, FORGIVE THEM AS THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT
THEY WERE DOING".

So far my personal experience. In the following is a direct
quotation from the book entitled "Documents on the Expulsions of
the Sudeten Germans", published in 1953 by University Press, Dr.
C. Wolf & Sohn, Munich, Germany, pages 31 through 36,
"Landskron Massacre on May 17th, 1945", reported by Julius
Friedel, report of February 22, 1951.

On May 9, 1945 the last combat on the hills above the valley at
Landskron began. The invading Russians did not pay much
attention to the frightened German population during the first
days. They looked for alcohol, they plundered and they organized
regular hunts for women at night. One could hear all night long the
cries of the victims of this pursuit.

At first the few Czech residents did not know themselves what to
do, they were also worried about their possessions. The German
Male inhabitants of the town, who had to work at clearing the
streets, were suddenly sent home, without reason, in the morning
hours of May 17th.

About 11 o'clock of the very same day hundred of armed Czechs,
so-called partisans, arrived in trucks. They gathered in the market-
place for a demonstration; a Russian officer made a fervent speech,
which was greeted with roars of approval. As if by previous
agreement, then Czechs then dispersed in all directions. It was not
long before we knew what was going on.

The German men and with them many women anc children were
driven in larger or smaller groups to the market-place, the houses
were thoroughly searched to insure that all of the men were
present, old and young, also invalids and those seriously ill. The
individual groups of Germans were escorted by yelling Czechs,
heavily armed, who shot blindly in all directons and knocked down
anyone who came in their way. Meanwhile, other troops.of Czechs
drove to the surrounding villages and brought the men back to the
town. More than a thousand German men were rounded-up in the
market-place in the early hours of the afternoon. They were
ordered to fall in and they stood there with their hands above their
head, waiting for what would happen next.

There followed the most horrifying scenes which human beings ever
devised (from whence did these partisans acquire the names of
human beings, as you will see below).The men were forced to lie
down on the pavement, fo stand up quickly and then get in line
again. The Czechs passed down the lines, kicked the men
preferably on the shins or in the genitals. They hit them with
whatever lay convenients to their hands, they spit on them and
loosed off wildlly with their rifles.

Many men were too badly wounded to get up again and lay in great
pain. But this was still not enough. There was a large water tank
for air raids in front of the town hall. Into this, the victims of this
terrible madness, were finally thrown one after the other. As they
came to the surface, they were struck at with sticks and poles and
kept under water. The Czechs even shot into the mass and the
water slowly reddened.

Whenever anyone tried to scramble out of the tank, they stamped
on his fingers; some of the men were fished out of the water, but
they were already dead (GAWHS - upset with this because they
could not hurt the victims anymore - they went into overkill).
Others, who were prostrate on the ground, were squirted with the
fire-hose, which had been fetched in the meantime, or were
tortured in indescribable ways. While all of these atrocities were
taking place, the so-called People's (Kangaroo) Court established
itself on the si'dewalk in front of the Districk Council Building.
Behind the tables, which had been set up, the Czechs seated
themselves; among them were the following persons:

Hrabacek, owner of a saw-mill at Weipertsdorf,
Wilhelm Pfitzner, clerk to the workmen's sick fund, Landskron,
Franz Matschat, weaver in the firm of Thoma, Magdalenen Str.,
Landskron,
Bernhard Wanitscheck, Shoemaker, Karl Str., Landsdron,
Stefan Matschat, weaver in the firm of Thoma, Landskron,
Friedrich Bednai, carpenter for the tobacco-factory, Landskron,
Polak, officer of the gendarmerie,
and a woman, probably, Mrs. Lossner from Landskron.

(GAWHS - The above probably acted as the judge and jury.)

Around the table stood a number of Czechs, who functioned as
prosecutors and who selected the individual Germans out of the
rows. One behind the other, with their hands above their heads, the
Germans had to appear before the tribunal. The first man in each
row had to carry a Hitler picture, covered with excrement, which
the man beside him had to lick off. The last 20 or 30 paces up to the
tribunad had to be made in a creeping position. Arriving there, each
one of them received his sentence, which was written on his back
with a piece of chalk. About 50 to 60 meters (167 to 300 ft) distant
from the tribunal, on the opposite side, was a gate; up to this the
victims had literally to run the gauntlet. Many of them collapsed on
their way, even before the sentence could be carried out. The
brutality which took place there cannot possibly be written down.

Heinous Attacks
                   By Josef Fischer

At the end of the war, I was ten years old and had already seen so
much terror. I have never been able to overcome this!

My parents were both born in the Grafschaft Glatz, as well as all
eight of us children, four girls and four boys. My father was a
medical orderly on the Eastern Front, my brother Karl volunteered
for the Navy.   My sister Magdalena got married and moved to
Austria in 1943, and that left my mother to care for six of us
children
alone.

Very soon, great sorrow struck our home. My father fell in 1944,
and at the beginning of 1945, my brother Karl died, after being
seriously wounded, in a military hospital in Glatz, where he was
buried in a mass grave. The battles of the war came ever closer.
Endless columns of the German refugees moved from eastern parts
of the country, through our city.   There were report of Russian
massacres that had happened there. In a deadly panic about her six
children, my mother put us, along with many others on a train and
took us to the so-called protectorate.

My mother and her children, Leutfrieda (18), Dorothea (17), Maria
(8), Gottfried (15),
Berthold (11) and I (10), could only take a few necessities along.
We drove right into the arms of the Russians! Our train was
stopped in Trautenau, and it was a mracle that my mother could
protect us from the packs of armed Russians. She had hidden us in
the railroad station waiting room. Afterward, we joined a refugee
group and marched 150 kilometers to Glatz; only the sick people
and small children could ride on the wagons.

The road across the Sudeten and Glatzer Mountains was very
difficult, especially so, since we preferred roads through the
forests. We were always afraid of being discovered by the
Russians. Yet, we still had to face them. There was nothing left for
them to plunder. Our group was voluntarily escorted by
Frenchmen, who were former
prisoners-of-war in Germany. They protected our women from the
threatening
Russians.

During this ordeal, my mother contracted typhoid fever, due to the
lack of hygiene. There was no longer any room on the wagon,
which was already overcrowded with sick people. We reached,
more dead than alive, the village of Birgwitz, a short distance from
Glatz. Horrified, he reported that the Russians occupied our house.
Still, we traveled home the following day.

We took up quarters in a neighbor's house. When the Russians left
ours, we wnt to our vacated home. Inside the house, everything
was a shambles. The coal shed was full of horse manure. Although
we were able to restore some order, violently marauding Russians
just ruined it again. The atrocities, we had heard about in the past,
were now felt in our own bodies.

My sisters, Leutfrieda and Dorothea, were in hiding every night.
Our doors were constantly wrecked by Russian machine guns. A
door was never an obstacle for these brutes. They would often
threaten my mother with their loaded weapons. We suffered with
deadly fear, when they shot at us while we tried to escape through
the windowws in the roof. Desperate cries for help would not keep
those beasts away! It went on night after night, since they had total
freedom to carry out these horrible crimes.

In addition, we soon had to suffer from the intruding Poles. They
disowned the German farmers and estate owners. They were free
to plunder and expel the German population,
and allolwed them only miserable supplies of food.. Including my
mother, we were all close to starvation. We sheltered expelled
neighbors and lived in a small room with
15 people.

My sisters Leutfrieda and Dorothea were forced on a horse-drawn
sled and raped by the Russians along the way. Dorothea was able
to flee, and reported the heinous crime to my shocked mother.
Very early the next morning the neighbors and my mother found
the body of my murdered sister in the snow. She had suffered
horrendous injuries. Her blood-drenched, shredded clothes proved
her desperate fight against the savage beasts. The horrible
violation of her daughter drove my mother almost into
despondency. With compassion from the whole neighborhood, our
Leutfrieda was interred in the Catholic cemetery. My brother
Gottfried built her a coffin, and painted it white.

For the rest of us, sorrows increased. On an ice-cold morning in
February of 1946, the Polish Militia suddenly and brutally threw us
out of our house, without any of our possessions. In a column, with
our neighbors, they chased us into an unheated and filty building.
We had to endure four days without food. Many of the refugees did
not survive these barbaric conditions.

The survivors were marched in columns, like criminals, to the
railroad station. Fifty people were crammed into each windowless
cattle car. An alarming feeling of being shipped to Siberia gripped
all of us, but when the train arrived from Breslau, it departed
toward to Gorlitz. All of us fell crying into the arms of my mother.
We knew, then, that we would not be murdered; we were destined
to survive!

Many of the refugees, weakened by hunger and icy weather, died
like flies in the cattle cars. The corpses were buried along the
various steps on the way.   After much hardship, we reached, via
Friedland, Marienborn and Wunstorf, the village of Rodewald. It
was hard to find shelter for a family with so many children. A
wealthy and childless farmer was forced to give us two rooms in his
servants' quarters. Our drinking water came from a well in the
courtyard, our latrine was in the backyard. But we felt free. We
did not have to fear either the Russians or the Poles. Yet, I still feel
uprooted!

(Now Erich-Martens-Strasse 33a, 32257 Buende)

_________________________________________________________
_____

In The Torture Cellar...
By Marianne Walter

I was born in 1922, in Breslau, but I grew up in the Grafschaft Glatz,
in Eisersdorf, where my father was the principal of the local
elementary school. I grew up with six siblings, with only very happy
memories of my childhood. From my Catholic and anti-Nazi
parents, I was well prepared for my adulthood which was to bring
tremendous hardship.

After I finished my education in Glatz, I was drafted for the
obligatory Labor Service in Oberschlesien, which was followed by
an assignment to the signal service. Finally I worked for the Red
Cross, which tool me to France and Holland. From there, I
ventured home on Easter Sunday of 1945 to Grafschaft Glatz.
After an erratic trip, I reached my home village.

In 1936, we had moved to our own house, which was surrounded by
a large garden. The political opinions of my fater were always well
known, which made him believe that he could face the Russians
confidently. He took care that my mother and us children
evacuated to the mountains.
Just a few hours before the Russians came to our village, we
arrived there. When my father visited us on May 10th, he told us
what had happened. The invading Russians had used our house as
their command post. My father had to stand all night with his face
toward the wall, while the Russians turned everything upside down
in the house. When the hordes left, there were no longer any
curtains on the windows and every container had been broken. Any
person with former NS-Party affiliations had disappeared during
the night.

A few days later, my mother and all of us children returned to
Eisersdorf. The leader of a group of five Russians, who regularly
took the looted goods to Vienna, told my father, in confidence, what
he had witnessed in Breslau, how the Germans were brutally
thrown out of their houses, withoug any of their possessions. This
German-speaking Russian, a teacher by profession, pleaded with
my father to leave the village immediately and take his family to
West Germany. We lacked every possible means, and so we had to
stayh until the Russians left.

Meanwhile, the village was flooded with the Poles. We had to turn
over the first floor to them, and we were assigned to one bedroom
upstairs. We had to give up all of our keys, and we were not
allowed to leave the house without permission. In the following
months, we lived wretchedly, freezing and starving. We had no
money, very little food, no newspaper, no telephone and no mail.
The Russians also had taken all of our supplies with them.

In January of 1946, a terrible tragedy happened. The Poles set our
house on fire, and we were not allowed to salvage anything. The
Polish Militia arrested my father. Some time later he returned
deranged, marked with the obvious signs of torture. They had
accused him of arson, so he was brtally beaten and kicked. Then, in
February of 1946, when I was away from the house, my father,
mother and younger sister were taken to Ullersdorf. There, both
women were forced to dig, with their bare hands, in the cellar floors
of our ruined home for suspected valuables, weapons and money.
Intermittently, they were beaten unconscious and locked in a
torture cellar. Before that, they had to name all of the addresses of
my father's relatives, which resulted in the capture of my 21-year
old sister from Ullersdorf and her incarceration in this torture
cellar. She had to spread her body across a chair, with her pants
pulled down. She was so brutally beaten that she could not sit for
many days.

We could hear how a newcomer was horribly mistreated. He
screamed terribly from excruciating pain. My mother and sister
prayed that the misery of this sad creature would end.

On the way to an interrogation, my mother saw a scarf, which
belonged to my father, among the shambles of broken chairs. She
fainted and was brought back to consciousness with beer poured in
her face. My father was dragged upstairs a second time and beaten
unconscious. When he returned to the cellar, my mother heard his
pitiful moaning from her own wooden partition, until a few hours
later it stopped forever! We do not know what happened to his
body. When my mother and sister were allowed to leave the
gruesome location the next day, my mother begged me to ask the
Russians, in Glatz, to defend us against the Poles. But my pleas
were answered thus: "We do not interfere, the land now belongs to
the Poles!"

In mid-February of 1946, we were expelled. My mother, still
suffering from shock, could not even dress herself. My younger
siblings also needed my assistance. We dragged our bundles
through ice and snow to Glatz. The next day, the refugees who had
suffered so much, made their way to the railroad station in Glatz.
About a week later, our cattle cars reached Nordenham Elmsland
after a strenuous trip.

(Now: Lessingstrasse 3, 69214 Eppelheim)

_____________________________________________________

Freie Stadt Danzig
Günter Grass was in the Waffen SS

After Günter Grass confessed that he was a member of Waffen SS
at 17, Germany erupted. Mr. Grass was born in Danzig, and at the
age of 17 was conscripted by the Waffen SS. Today, at the age of
81, he, the
German Nobel Prize-winning author confessed that he was a
member of the Waffen-SS during World War II, which has
provoked everything from rage to empathy in the German press.

Until now, biographies of the writer, who was born in 1927, have
asserted that Grass was conscripted as anti-aircraft personnel in
1944 and then served as a soldier. After being injured on April 20,
1945, he was taken into captivity by the Americans.

On August 12, Grass explained in an interview with the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung (excerpt in German) that he was not in the
armed forces but in fact in the Waffen SS, in the 10th SS tank
division "Frundsberg". He said he was called up in the late summer
of 1944 when he was just about 17. The following autumn and
winter he was trained as member of a tank crew and he was
involved in rearguard action of the German army in Lausitz in
March and April 1945, until he was wounded on April 20. He ended
up in an American war prison soon afterwards.

The Waffen SS, which came into existence in 1933, was not
originally part of the armed forces but rather a unit of the Nazi
party, distinguished by its extreme brutality and ruthlessness. The
list of crimes, especially those in the concentration and
extermination camps and the war crimes in the so-called "combat of
the partisans," is long and horrible. The massacres of Oradour sur
Glane or Sant'Anna di Stazzema, in which entire communities
including old people and babies were slaughtered, were the doing of
the Waffen SS as was the retaliatory massacre of Czechs after the
assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942."   The regular German
Army (the "Wehrmacht") did not murder innocent women and
children; but the Waffen S.S. and the Communist Partisans dealt a
similar blood bath, at different times, to innocent civilians.

At the end of the Second World War, the Partisans and Russians
murdered thousands of the Germans that were living in Danzig.
Most of them had nothing to do with the atrocities delivered by the
Waffen SS.   But, like in other parts of Eastern Europe, The
Communists dealt a reign of Terror on the Germans during the
period of expulsions from the City of Danzig (now Gdansk). The
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published in Frankfurt-am-Main,
has researched many of the atrocities dealt to the Germans during
the expulsions from Danzig and Prussian communities. Mr. Grass,
although of part German by birth and a Nobel Prize Winner, was
also a past President of Poland, and it is believed that his politics
are left of center. He sided with the Communists on many issues
especially in regard to the German expulsions, reiterating that they
got what they deserved, relenting somewhat in regards to the great
loss of life by refugees escaping by ships in the Baltic Sea at the
conclusion of hostilities.   The Waffen S.S. were never members of
the regular German Armed Forces. They were trained killers and
did their dirty work as though killing innocent people was a sport.
In their earlier years, the waffen SS was an elite killing
organization, whose membership in the very beginning was
voluntary.   Towards the end of the war, however, young men were
conscripted by them, and most of these young men who perished
fighting for the "father land" are buried in the military cemeteries
in Bitburg, Germany. It must be remembered that it was President
Reagan that visited the SS cemetery in Bitburg.   Today, even
though most of the survivors of the Waffen SS are now deceased,
meetings are still held secretly in Germany and other countries.
And the Nazi Party (which is banned in Germany) still exists in
many countries throughout the world, but under the guise of
skinheads, white supremacists, etc.

A chronicle:

12 August 2006

Grass said in the interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:
"It had to come out, finally. The thing went as follows: I had
volunteered, not for the Waffen-SS but for the submarines, which
was just as crazy of me. But they were not taking anyone any more.
Whereas the Waffen-SS took whatever they could get in the last
months of the war, 1944/45. That went for conscripts but also for
older men, who often came from the Air Force - they were called
'Hermann Göring donations.' The fewer intact airfields there were,
the more ground personnel were stuck in army units or in units of
the Waffen-SS. It was the same with the navy. And for me, I am
sure I am remembering correctly, the Waffen-SS was at first not
something scary, but rather an elite unit that was always sent to
trouble spots, and which, according to rumour, had the most
casualties."

He said he volunteered mainly to "get away. From constrictions,
from the family. I wanted to put an end to all that, and so I
volunteered. And that's also something odd: I enlisted at the age of
15, and promptly forgot the details of the process. And it was the
same for many of my birth year: We were in the work service and
suddenly, a year later, the conscription order lay on the table. And
that must be when I first realized: it is the Waffen-SS." Asked
whether he had feelings of guilt, Grass answered: "At the time?
No. Later on, this guilt feeling burdened me as a disgrace." It
wasn't until he heard the testimony of Hitler Youth leader Baldur
von Schirach in the Nuremberg trials that he "believed that the
crimes had actually taken place."

Later, he thought that "what I did in my writing was enough." The
1950s did not seem to be the right time to confess. "We were under
Adenauer, ghastly, with all those lies, with all that Catholic fug. The
society of that day was fed by a kind of stuffiness that never
existed under the Nazis."

(What Grass is referring to in this last sentence is also the subject
of Götz Aly's essay "I am the people" about the revolutionary
"now or never" attitude of the Nazis.)

Here a longer excerpt of the Grass interview in German. His
autobiography "Beim Häuten der Zwiebel" (Peeling the onion), in
which he addresses this chapter of his life, was released hurriedly
on August 16; publication originally was set for September 1.

The first reactions:

12 August 2006

Germany - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In an editorial, Grass
interviewer Frank Schirrmacher comments: "To be perfectly clear,
it is not a question of guilt and crime. Grass was practically still a
boy. And even later, he never portrayed himself as a resistance
fighter." And yet: "Anyone familiar with the rhetoric of post war
excuses and finger-pointing might think they are not hearing right.
The author who wanted to loosen all tongues, who took as his life's
theme the secretiveness and suppression of the old Federal
Republic of Germany, admits his own silence which, according to his
own words, must have been absolute. ... How would it have been if
Franz Schönhuber's [former head of the extreme right-wing
Republikaner party] Waffen-SS tract, 'I was there,' had been
confronted with its counterpart, under the headline, 'Me, too'?"

Germany - Der Tagesspiegel. Gregor Dotzauer expressed shock:
"Whoever hears this, whether disbelieving or stunned, may think it
is a bad joke even after seeing it in convincing black and white,
both in the literary recollection and in the interview. Günter Grass,
Germany's most celebrated living writer, the Nobel Prize winner,
the conscience of the nation, the writer of legends, was a member
of the Waffen-SS... A cheap joke of history? Or a truth whose
bitterness cannot yet be fully measured? The categories flounder,
because it gives rise to so many tones of meaning: for the work of
Günter Grass, for his role as bearer of left-wing precepts, for the
entire intellectual balance of the country, which his inner struggle
and questions on foreign policy still fought out, against the backdrop
of 12 long years under Hitler."

Voices from the weekend:

12/13 August 2006

Joachim C. Fest (79), Historian: "I wouldn't buy a used car from
this man. I don't understand how someone can present himself as
the nation's guilty conscience for 60 years and then admit to himself
having been deeply involved." (Bild)

Martin Walser (78), writer: "The most responsible of all
contemporaries can not disclose after 60 years that he landed in the
Waffen SS through no fault of his own. That casts a devastating
light on our climate of coping with its normalised modes of thinking
and talking. Grass' independent statement should act as a lesson to
this adaptable moral climate." (Stuttgarter Nachrichten)

Ralph Giordano (83), Author: "Worse than making a political error
is refusing to deal with it. Grass has been doing this internally for a
long time, and now he's turned to the public. For me, he doesn't lose
moral credibility – not at all." (WDR)

Walter Jens (83), philologist: "Grass' admission is balanced, precise
and reasonable. A master of penmanship reflects and considers:
what have you forgotten to report in your long life? He's done that
and gained my respect in the process."

Erich Loest (80), Author: "Grass does not need to be accused for
what he has said. He was very young and was without any influence
that could have prevented him. I also wanted to register with the
Waffen-SS but my school director prevented it. Grass should tell us,
why he is only writing about it now." (Tagesspiegel)

Klaus Theweleit (64), Essayist and cultural studies scholar: "This is
an advertising campaign for a publicity addict who has written a
new book. When Grass reads in a survey that not 102 percent of all
Germans know who he is, ideas like this occur to him."
(Tagesspiegel)

Klaus Bölling (77), journalist and government spokesman from 1974-
1981: "I don't presume to pass moral judgement. And his disclosure
does not belittle his literary work. But as contemporary I have to
wonder: Why did such an intelligent man, the Praeceptor
Germaniae that he sees himself to be, not mention this long ago?"
(Tagesspiegel)

Hellmuth Karasek (72), literary critic: "Had he admitted earlier to
his membership in the Waffen SS; he might have risked his Nobel
Prize. Grass deserved the Nobel Prize more than any other
German author. But suddenly, everything appears in a new light."
(NDR)

Dieter Wellershoff (80), writer: Wellershoff, who also fought as a
volunteer, but who reported it much earlier, nonetheless defended
Grass. Grass' statements, he says, should not be used to morally
condemn the writer. "We live in the world in which we were born."
Wellershoff didn't want to judge the fact that Grass took so long to
break the silence on his own role in National Socialism. Possibly he
feared the "rage of the critics." (Kölner Stadtanzeiger)

Michael Wolffsohn (59), historian: "You too, GG... ? You too are
going to ooze the truth!" Coming from the generation after Grass,
Wolffsohn also knows what would have been a more appropriate
moment for the exposure. "In April 1985, he had a golden
opportunity. At the time, Germany and the world were heatedly
discussing the Bitburg visit of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and
American president Ronald Reagan: Should they go together to the
cemetery where the soldiers from the Waffen SS lay? They went...
Back then, in April 1985, GG should have stood up and explained: I
too was involved." But Wolffsohn offers no verdict: "Through his
constant silence, it's GG's moralising and not his fictionalising work
that is being devalued." (Netzeitung)

___________________________________________________

Slovenia Unearthing WW-2 Past

A new program of the Slovenian government has recently been
illuminating the secret, literally buried legacy of mass slaughter in
Slovenia after the end of WWII. In forests throughout Slovenia in
areas like Lancovo, Celje and Tezno, mass graves are being
registered and revealed to researchers in record number as
Slovenians begin to come forward with information and
acknowledge the shameful existence of these tragic sites. Quietly
known for years - local farmers keeping their livestock from
grazing in their vicinity, medical students occasionally visiting the
sites when needing skulls or bones for their studies - the elderly
have still been too fearful of reprisals to openly speak about their
existence. Joze Dezman, a historian who heads the committee for
registering hidden graves, says "People who come to me are still
afraid someone will see them talking to me. They have fear in their
bones."

There is no small amount of irony to this fear, considering the
nature and circumstance of these massacres, which were reprisals
themselves. Many of those killed were soldiers who fought in
collaboraion with Nazi Germany - victims of what is widely
acknowledged as a vengeful killing spree by partisans of Tito's
victorious communist party which came to power in 1945 in the
aftermath of World War II. These crimes are unique in the history
of the war. Not only were they carried out by the home resistance
to Nazi Germany, but they occurred after the war's end: In the two
months following the end of WWII, more people were slain in
Slovenia than during the four years of the war.

"These killings took place in Slovenia because this is where the war
was ending: this is where the Iron Curtain was anticipated, this is
where refugees found themselves at the end of the war," Dezman
says.

When WWII began, the Republic of Slovenia was partitioned
between the Axis Powers, with different regions absorbed by Italy,
Germany and Hungary and subsequently ethnically cleansed.
Slovenia became part of the Axis Powers. By the war's end,
Slovenia was essentially in a state of civil war with conflict between
Nazis and partisans and in-fighting between communist and anti-
communist parties. When British-led Allied troops turned Balkan
soldiers back from Austria at the end of the war, they were turned
over to the communist partisans who now controlled the volatile
region. The soldiers were then summarily murdered in forests
throughout Slovenia without trial. However these mass graves do
not simply harbor the victims of revenge killings; many of the
victims were members of opposition parties killed by the
communists to lessen the threat of counter-revolution.

Despite the fact that Slovenia declared independence from
Yugoslavia in 1991 and is now an EU member country (about to hold
the EU Presidency, no less), the graves have remained a public
secret for decades. Yugoslavia's communist authorities diligently
refused to acknowledge the killings and refused to tell relatives
where the bodies were buried. For 50 years the graves were
forbidden to visitors. Many of them were even destroyed by
deliberate explosions, covered by mountains of waste, or in the case
of Celje (60km east of Ljubljana), parts of town were built over
them. Although the graves were known to exist, their exact number
was and is still unknown.

"It is high time to acknowledge these graves - after all, more than
60 years have passed since the Second World War," said Lado
Erzen, the local representative for secret graves in Lancovo.

In 2002, 40 mass graves had been registered in Slovenia.
Researchers had no idea how many more would soon be revealed to
them: "Only after we started researching the first graves did we
realize how many secret graves there were, as people started to
open up, calling us and telling us of locations they knew of," Mitja
Ferenc, chief historian in charge of grave research, said. In August,
researchers confirmed at least 15,000 victims in a secret mass
grave in Tezno, about 120 kilometers northeast of Ljubljana, where
mostly Croat and Montenegrin soldiers were slain and buried.

As of October 2007, 540 secret mass graves had been registered
across Slovenia, believed to be holding up to 100,000 bodies.
Slovenians account for only one-fifth of those victims. Thus far, no
one has been charged or brought to trial in connection to the crimes.

Source: Ljubljana Life
Oct.23.2007

Special Note:

Since it was allied troops, specifically British, who turned non-
communist soldiers and civilians over to the Communists Partisans
for execution, and buried in hundreds of mass graves; if it is ever
determined who they are, then, when it comes to the prosecution of
the guilty parties, then the British Allies responsible should be
charged along with the Communists Partisans.

It appears to the researcher, Johannes Rammund De Balliel-
Lawrora, that the conclusion of World War Two was not really
between the Allies and the Axis Countries, but was between the
Communists and non-Communists.

It seems it is really their problem and between the conscience of
good over evil.   Think About It!!!

"The True Story
of the Expulsions!!!"

Part Two

"When the Truth is Distorted by Lies;
Let Us Who Know, Challenge Their Wisdom!"