Abgeschickt von An Observer am 04 September, 2006 um 18:29:24:
Dear Mr. Gladitsch,
I admire the restraint in your response to the insulting lines of Martha Tiefenbacher. You of course, realize that her hysterical polemic is only the outcry of a confused Gottscheer unable to accept the facts of the black period in our history. But since she is the secretary of the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft (AG), I applaud you for making her polemic public.
Frau Tiefenbacher condemns your making public pictures of Gottscheer Nazis and calls you a coward. But the insulting term has a better fit in herself and those Gottscheer who continue to try to hide our ignominious past. Frau Tiefenbacher would do well to control her fury and learn the mantra of the unrepentant Gottscheer: “Wir verhüllen uns im Mantel des Schweigens”, a term coined long ago by that played out master of denial, Ludwig Kren.
But the most tragic part that shows the confusion of Frau Tiefenbacher is in her claim: “wir machen keine Politik”.
The latest example contradicting the claim “keine Politics” is in the May 2006 GZ under “Suche nach Gerechtigkeit”. In this article, the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemenischaft (AG) through the Landsmannschaft in Klagenfurt lobbies the Austrian Bundeskanzler Schüssel and his foreign minister Plassnik to use their elevated position in the EU to force Slovenia to:
A. Dissolve of the AVNOJ Resolution,
B. Make restitution to the Gottscheer for their property and
C. grant Minority Rights to Gottscheer-Germans, Citizen of Slovenia (separate from the rights of all other citizens) to a group of less than 100 people.
(Not so long ago, these requests included the demand that Slovenia be denied entry to the EU unless it agrees to this).
The conflict with morality in these three demands is self-evident.
With reference to:
A. the Gottscheer left their homeland voluntarily,
B. most Gottscheer were reimbursed by the Federal republic of West Germany over three decades ago and
C. no state can and will grant minority rights (separate from the rights of all other citizens) to a group of less than 100 people.
This entire line of politics has been dismissed by all those being petitioned and is producing only scorn and dishonor for the Gottscheer of the Diaspora. But Frau Tiefenbacher thinks this is not politics! I suggest that Frau Tiefenbacher and Viktor Michitsch consult a dictionary.
However, the greatest tragedy of this corrosive Klagenfurt politics toward Slovenia, designed by the “Ehrenmitglieder” and disseminated by the GZ for over a decade, is that it is destroying the Gottscheer community. This is obvious in the fact that all three German associations in Slovenia, the Altsiedler Verein, the Peter Kozler Verein and the Freiheitsbrücke in Maribor have all resigned from the AG. All resigned because they can no longer tolerate the destructive politics of Klagenfurt in their affairs and their State.
1. This is clear from the reason the Altsiedler give in their letter of resignation from the AG:
“On February 8, 2006, the board of the Gottscheer Altsiedler Vereins debated the content of “Unsere Meinung”(Our Opinion) in the February issue of the Gottscheer Zeitung. The content demands the restitution of properties to the, in 1941 resettled Gottscheer. In spite of our protests over these demands, their repeated publication brings us, those in the old homeland living, great harm. The demanded restitution would mean for us Gottscheer as well as the Slovene living in the vicinity of Gottschee a great catastrophe and a diminishment of the development of the region. Apart from this subject, other problems connected with the Arbeitsgemeinschaft were also debated. In the end, it was unanimously agreed that our Verein resign from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Gottscheer Landsmannschaften”.
All this from the Verein from which Ivan Jacklitsch was forced out to be replaced as Chairman by Avgust Gril, according to Viktor Michitsch, the “right man in the right place”. But even under this leader, the Altsiedler rejected the attempted purchase of their loyalty through the “great financial support” from abroad, as is claimed in the July 2006 GZ article under “Unverstandliche Vorgehen….”. Such tactics, acquired some six decades ago by the then young “Ehrenmitglieder”, no longer works today.
In this July 2006 article “Unverständliches Vorgehen des Altsiedlervereines”, Frau Tiefenbacher and Viktor Michitsch try to self justify the behavior of the Altsiedler against them. In this they claim that the Letter of Resignation is reproduced in full in the GZ. (“vollstandig wiedergegeben”). This is false. It is edited and censored, again demonstrating the deceptive behavior of the AG. (The complete version of the letter is available in the Forum of Gottschee.de in both English and German).
2. The letter of resignation from the Peter Kosler Verein, dated April 25, 2005, is more directly to the point.
“The results of the AG politics are for us Gottscheer and their descendants no longer bearable and for our Verein in Slovenia extremely negative. The mood of the Slovene population is one of irritation and distance seeking. Therefore, at the annual meeting of the Peter Kosler Verein, it was unanimously agreed to resign from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Gottscheer Landsmannschaften”.
(The complete version of the letter is also available in the Forum of Gottschee.de, in both English and German).
3. The Chairman of the “Freiheitsbrücke” in Maribor, Dr. Dušan Kolnik, realized years ago that Viktor Michitsch and the “Ehrenmitglieder” were trying to manipulate him and his Slovene-German Verein and, as a result, broke off all contact with the AG. They in turn appointed Oswald Werther, a former Nazi and member of the SS resettling authority in Maribor in 1940/41, to go to the membership behind Kolnik’s back and have him removed as chairman. But the membership rejected all of this.
It should be remembered that all ethnic Germans still living in Slovenia could prove (in 1945), that they did not support and cooperate with the Nazi invader and that is the reason why they were allowed to stay and keep their possessions. Now they only want to practice their German traditions. And they are again rejecting the Nazis, who this time are hiding behind the cloak of “Ehrenmitglieder”. But Michitsch keeps insisting that the objective after WWII was to remove all Germans from Slovenia, a remark which is not only false but also illuminates his political leanings. For were he right, there would today be no membership in the Freiheitsbrücke, the Peter Kosler Verein and the Altsiedler.
It is clear that Gottscheer leaders were never good in politics. Exceptions were, such as Dr Arko and the Reverend Eppich, among others, were simply pushed aside. And all those Gottscheer who now look behind the curtain of denial, as propagated by the GZ, see that the policy of the Nazis cost us our heritage. They are also beginning to realize that the politics of the “Ehrenmitglieder”, as promoted by Victor Michitsch and Martha Tiefenbacher, are costing us our honor.
Frau Tiefenbacher-Stalzer claims that she is proud to be a Gottscheer. If by that she means she is proud of our heritage up to 1933 she is to be commended. But she seems to include in her pride also the Nazi period after 1933 and for that she is a fool.
There is a proverb which states “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”.
It is clear the new generation follows this motto and that is the reason why few come to the meetings in Austria and Germany attended mostly by friends of the “Ehrenmitglieder”. This is not the case in the USA where the young come for the picnics not for the politics. They are, according to Frau Martha, „die Nicht-Gut-Informierten“, because few read German and even fewer know Slovene and therefore, are not aware of the destructive Klagenfurt politics and the details of Nazi period.
Their pride is quite different from that of Martha Tiefenbacher and her kind. She is one of those who should be ashamed for being fooled twice.
Herr Gladitsch, we the “non-believers” commend you for your action and hope that you will continue to publish pictures which illuminate that tragic period in our history.
John Tschinkel, September 4, 2006