Abgeschickt von A reader. am 15 Maerz, 2007 um 16:01:51:
March 15, 2007
In spite of open rejection of its offensive attitude, the Gottscheer Zeitung, under Viktor Michitsch, persists in his destructive politics toward Slovenia. This was the reason for the resignation of two Gottscheer-Slovene Associations, the “Gottscheer Altsiedler” and the “Peter Kosler” from the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft in Klagenfurt, also under Michitsch.
With impudent self-assurance, the GZ in “Unsere Meinung” (Our Opinion, February and March 2007) pontificates over the loss of our Gottscheer homeland and demands restitution from Slovenia.
The GZ claims:
A. We Gottscheer were, without restitution, dispossessed by Slovenia.
B. We Gottscheer were, without cause, driven out of our homeland.
The following three points are cause why the GZ continues to repeat damaging falsehoods.
1. It continues to be under the influence of the “Honored Members” and “Cultural Advisers”, among them former members of the SS Elite, former Gottscheer Nazis and their followers, all of whom carry heavy responsibility for the loss of our homeland. You can see them in meetings as photographed by the GZ.
2. It attempts to slow the disappearance of members and readership of the newspaper by propagating untruths and thereby hope to maintain a sense of community.
3. Possibly some of its leadership suffers from the ailment which afflicts members of their age group, an ailment that prevents logical thinking and leads to false and unrealistic utterances.
The above described items are the likely causes for this polemic. On basis of all available documentation, the GZ claims are undeniably false.
-- Proof on A: We Gottscheer were not dispossessed by Slovenia, but sold our possessions in 1941 to Italy which used the funds to pay off, via Banca d’Italia, its national debt to the Third Reich which in turn reimbursed us with lands stolen from the Slovene. After that, we voluntarily left our Gottscheer lands in 1941 for nothing more than a promise, forced into this by the young Gottscheer Nazis, betrayers of their people who were at the time the enforcers of the Third Reich. In contrast, the Italians tried to dissuade us from leaving and even promised us a German newspaper. However, the pressure of the young Gottscheer National Socialists prevailed. And on to them, decades later, the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft bestowed gold medals and titles such as “Honored Members” and “Cultural Advisors”.
After the sale of our properties in Gottschee and our leaving the homeland in 1941, we took over the properties of dispossessed Slovene who were taken by the SS to slave labor camps in the Reich. And the Gottscheer Diaspora, as a community, has until today not yet apologized to these victims.
-- Proof on B: We Gottscheer were not driven out of Slovenia, but were ordered (at the start of May 1945) to flee the country to escape the vengeance of the liberator of the land. This was so because we were sworn citizens of the Third Reich and therefore members of the occupier of Yugoslavia.
Slovenia carries no guilt on the loss of our homeland. The often repeated claims in the GZ (under Michitsch) are frivolous, false and are a rewrite of history, especially since the Bundesrepulik West Deutschland accepted responsibility and agreed to reimburse us. My Father was paid out in 1973. The request for reimbursement from Slovenia is immoral and far from being a Christian act. It is sad that the Gottscheer Diaspora community remains silent over such falsehoods.
However, two Gottscheer Associations in Slovenia, the “Altsiedler” and “Peter Kosler” could no longer tolerate the demands of the GZ under Viktor Michitsch and resigned from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft. The future, however, lets us hope that other Associations, still in the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft also under Viktor Michitsch, follow their example.
John Tschinkel