Abgeschickt von John Tschinkel am 06 Dezember, 2002 um 16:46:13:
Response by J. Tschinkel to entry of "Beobachter".
The standard reaction to any challenge of the AG (now including the GHGA), is a personal attack using fabricated falsehoods. This is so because the truth is not on their side. The entry of 30/11/02 is no different except that its falsehoods are clearly created by a deficient and an illogical mind.
The writer of that
entry obviously never read the AVNOJ Decrees. Had he done so he would have learned
that they were directed only toward expelling the occupier and his supporters.
Any nation has the right to expel an invader, in this case the Germans of the
Third Reich and the Fascist of Italy. Included were ALL supporters of the invader,
be they ethnic-German, ethnic-Italian or ethnic-Slovene.
The Beobachter is also ignorant of the truth about the loss of our Gottscheer
homeland. As part of the voluntary exodus in 1941, all Gottscheer, my family
included, decided to become Citizens of the Third Reich. We, like all other
Gottscheer became part of the invader when we occupied ('41-'45) the homes of
expelled Slovene and fled to Austria in May 1945 as ordered by the Nazi Gauleiter.
For the AG and
now the GHGA, to press for the abolition of the AVNOJ Decrees is morally wrong.
It clearly places us on the side of the Nazi occupier. And I as a Gottscheer-American,
still mindful of the Pledge of Allegiance to my adopted country, want it known
that I am not part of this stand. We have by any standard no right, moral or
otherwise, to make such demands which is the reason why they are ignored by
all nations.
I do not have dual Slovene-American citizenship. If I did I would not deny it.
My Slovene mother had no property in Masern which I regained. My family (Gottscheer
father, Slovene mother) voluntarily like other Gottscheer elsewhere, left our
property in Masern and we never regained it.
To say I have a right to Slovene citizenship because my mother was Slovene is
false as is the claim that ethnic Germans born in Slovenia do not have the right
to be Slovene citizens. Erik Krisch and Avgust Grill, both ethnic Germans and
leaders of resident Gottscheer Vereins in Slovenia were born in Slovenia, are
Slovene citizens today and have all the rights other Slovenes have.
Members and supporters of the Nazi occupier can not regain their property. My family, my Slovene mother included, became part of the occupier. AVNOJ applied to us and still does so today. The Decrees apply to all Slovene who cooperated with the invader. But my family, like most Gottscheer, was reimbursed by postwar Germany who thereby admitted responsibility for our loss. To now pressure the Slovene to give us what we voluntarily left behind in 1941 is both immoral and revolting.
We always hear from the AG how ethnic Germans were mistreated. (All supporters of the Nazi occupier were mistreated). But we never hear of the brutal mistreatment of the 37,000 Slovene who were forcibly removed from their homes and taken to Nazi labor and concentration camps to make room for us. Over half of them died and the survivors received no compensation. These Slovene were mistreated because they were Slovene who happened to be in the way of the occupier. But most Gottscheer survived and got reimbursed by the German state.
The AVNOJ Decrees
will not be abolished since a moral imperative to do so does not exist. The
whole western world, including Germany, agrees on this. Proof is in the fact
that Slovenia is now a member of NATO and has met all requirements for joining
the EU in 2004. Pressure from the AG and GHGA notwithstanding.
The AG (now including the GHGA) is playing a dirty game in influencing its members
to support an immoral cause. But this is not surprising given the fact that
former Gottscheer Nazis and even a former SS officer are "Honored Members" and
"Advisers" within the AG.