Abgeschickt von Beobachter am 29 Dezember, 2002 um 20:03:51:
Antwort auf: More on AVNOJ von John Tschinkel am 06 Dezember, 2002 um 16:46:13:
Reply of Jim
Heimann to AVNOJ Decrees posted by J. Tschinkel
Dear John,
I have done my best to ignore your seemingly one sided attacks on everyone who does not agree with your particular point of view. In past online discussions, you have repeatedly ignored anything that resembled a different view of the post war era.
As I have said before, my ancestors came over well before the start of WW II and, as such, I have no interest in obtaining land that had once belonged to my ancestors. They did not have much anyhow or they would not have come to the United States.
Concerning the AVNOJ decrees, you appear to hold out a set of documents enacted by a brutal Communist regime at the end of a hard fought war as an ideal that should be adhered to greater than fifty years later. This regime killed thousands and thousands of people to rid themselves of anyone -- Slovene and nonSlovene alike, who might cause them a problem.
As for the Potsdam Conference in 1945, there were so many quid pro quo agreements being passed back and forth that it would make your head spin. The AVNOJ decrees were part and parcel of agreements that solidified the Communists hold on eastern Europe in exchange for weakening the communist movement in Greece and other areas. Again, it is folly to point to the Potsdam conference as a beacon for anything but political expediency.
With respect to the recent statements (as asserted by you) made by the current Slovene president, would anyone expect him to say anything else? His reaction is not only predictable but understandable. Wrongs were done before, during, and after the war by all parties.
Concerning the actions of the Gottscheers in the early 1940s, many of their choices were dictated by the actions of both the Yugoslavian government after World War I and the Nazi government before and during World War II. It is my understanding that the Yugoslavian government made it very clear through laws that the ethnic Germans were no longer welcome in a land that they had lived in for over 600 years. The choice was to either leave Gottschee or to gradually give up the AustroGerman traditions. The Nazis played on inherent and increased ethnic tensions to get the Gottscheers to move out of a place that many never wanted to leave. These ethnic tensions were exacerbated by the intolerance of the Yugoslavian government after 1917.
The Nazis were 100% in the wrong for deportation and imprisonment of Slovene nationals. Although the Gottscheers ultimately came to occupy their houses and lands, this was not a decision made by them or enacted by them. Some Gottscheer leaders, as you have asserted, were likely to have been aware of more details but the vast populace was very much in the dark.
After the war was over, it surprises me that you think the Gottscheers had any choice other than to flee. They had been legislated against since 1917, they had been the subject of partisan attacks, they were noncommunist and they were ethnic AustroGermans. Anyone of those circumstances would have been enough to convince me to "hightail" it out of there. The Yugoslavian government was not kind to those that they felt had either been a threat or might continue to be a threat. If the Gottscheers had remained, I am sure there would have been wholesale slaughter. Enough fellow Gottscheers died in the attempt to flee to underscore the point sufficiently.
I am not sufficiently versed on either the full import of the AVNOJ decrees or the AG resolution. As such, I am not sure where I stand on the issue. As a matter of fact, I just would like to be able to visit where my ancestors came from in peace and quiet. All I know is that your reasoning on past history is illogical and less than factual enough to make me wonder about the rest of your assertions.
Because there are some of us who do not agree with your agenda and reasoning, it does not mean that we are neoNazis or Nazi sympathizers. For my part, I happen to think that your views (of the Yugoslavian government under Tito, the allied powers, and the actions of all concerned before, during, and after the war) are much too one sided for me.
Finally, I send this reply in the hope that something I have typed may make some sense to you. If it fails in doing that, I hope that others take the time to read it and see that there may be a less dogmatic way to look at past history and current events.
Sincerely,
Jim Heimann