Abgeschickt von John Tschinkel am 15 Maerz, 2011 um 17:38:34:
Gottscheer History – Falsified, Concealed, Distorted.
John Tschinkel
Again, the Gottscheer Zeitung reminds its readers to “to make sure that our history is not falsified”. This “Assignment” comes from the „Redaktionsausschuss“ (Editorial Board) of the Zeitung in its January 2011 issue under the Title „Unsere Meinung“ (Our Opinion). The head of this Board is Dr. Viktor Michitsch, also Chairman of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gottscheer Landsmannschaften (Association of Gottscheer Organizations) in Klagenfurt.
Unfortunately, the Chairman does not follow his own advice. It is therefore appropriate to correct his assertions since they do not agree with the facts.
1. It is claimed: “The [Gottscheer] resettlement was, figuratively speaking, a grave into which they were forced to jump”.
This assertion is false and misleading hindsight that also contradicts the later statement: “… the population was told they were going ‘Home to the Reich’ ”. That this was to be a “grave” (a part of occupied Slovenia) was known only by the Gottscheer leadership under Wilhelm Lampeter.
2. It is claimed: “Our people were, in the truest sense of the word, lied to by the governments of the time. No one knew the truth”.
The statement: “No one knew the truth” is also false. On April 26, 1941 Hitler personally informed the Gottscheer Leadership (Lampeter, Schober, Sturm), that the place was to be another part of Slovenia. The lies to the people came from Gottscheer leadership and not from „the governments of the time”.
In a lecture: “Der Heimat Dienen” [to serve the homeland] in the summer of 1989, Dr Michitsch, however, said it accurately:
“ The way the Gottscheer were brought to the Resettlement was wrong”.
“ They kept the settlement place secret until the end”.
“ They also described the place as a region in which milk and honey flow”
“ They have also, in our own Ethnic Group, introduced a manner of self-selection”.
“ And these recommendations came from our own Ethnic Group! When this is read today, cold runs down one’s back….” (See GZ, 11/89)
Details related to this are in „The Resettlement of the Gottschee Germans“, a book by Dr. HH Frensing who writes:
“On 14 May1941, three members of the Gottscheer Leadership (Lampeter, Schober, Sturm) arrived in Berlin. With the responsible adviser, SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Stier, they discussed the modalities of the Resettlement, above all, the Preparatory Work, which was to be carried out by the Gottscheer Leadership.” [Frensing, pg. 35,36].
Frensing quotes Dr. Stier:
“Weighing on the mood of the meeting was the insistence of Lampeter to keep the new Settlement Region a secret. Lampeter explained that the new Settlement Region can not be made public since the majority of the Gottscheer know this region and are aware that the properties and houses are in very poor condition”.
“Responding to my position that disappointment would be worse than honest explanation, he [Lampeter] stated that there is time for an explanation after the option is closed. Also Lampeter was not willing to announce to the Gottscheer even the fact that the quarters are temporary and a re-planning and redevelopment is envisioned, since he feared unrest through such announcement.” [Frensing, pg. 94]
To this, Frensing adds his own observation:
“At first, the population shall exercise the Option, only then - when there is no way back - shall the population be told the Settlement Region.” [Frensing, pg. 62]
3. Also false is the claim: “The Italian occupation troops threatened to transfer those who insisted on remaining to Sicily or Abyssinia”.
Fact is: These threats came not from the Italians as is claimed in “Our Opinion”. No Italian knew the Gottschee dialect and few knew German. The threats came directly from the Gottscheer leadership [Lampeter, Lackner, Schober, Sturm, Erker, etc.] and the Gottscheer Zeitung.
On this also reports Chairman Michitsch in a letter (15, June 1965) to Dr. Frensing:
“My father, Georg Michitsch, Göttenitz, started, at the end of September - beginning of October 1941, a counter campaign…. The petition requested that the Resettlement not be undertaken during the war. This released a mighty hatred campaign against the men of the counter current. The fact is, the people were so intimidated that the action had no result… The people were threatened that they would be forcibly moved to Abyssinia by the Italians, should they resist the Resettlement….” [F.Pg.84]
Examples of this intimidation are:
“These troublemakers should take note: The future shall soon teach them that they are Volksschädlinge [parasites] and that this future has no place for such parasites other than the Concentration Camp.” (The Gottscheer Zeitung, 1, May 1941)
“Catholicism is treated in the inner Leadership circle as a universalistic vision of the world which must be eradicated.” This was Lampeters personal warning to the Gottscheer clerics; the dominant resistance against the resettlement. (Frensing, pg. 86).
Similar other such threats can be found in other issues of the 1941 GZ.
Of other such threats reports also K.R., a farmer from Slovenska Vas, (Windischdorf), in his memoir of March 1958, published in “Dokumentation der Vertreibung”, Band 5.:
“… There began an intense propaganda campaign for the resettlement which was introduced with the slogan: Heim ins Reich, [Home to the Reich]”.
“This propaganda came to us from our own circles, from individuals who functioned as the so called Führer of the Gottscheer. These leaders organized meetings in all parts of Gottschee and made the resettlement palatable to the assembled villagers. At one such meeting, our leaders promised that we will receive nice and modern outfitted farms in our new homeland in the German Reich”. Not a “grave” as claimed in “Unsere Meinung”.
“The destination in the Reich was, however, withheld from us. Because of the rosy promises by our leaders, the majority of the population [initially] was enthusiastic about the resettlement. However, in a short while, this enthusiasm sank so low that a large part of the population was against the resettlement. All believed it would be better if the re-settlement were postponed until after the conclusion of the war.”
“One day came the news which brought about the defeat of the resisters. This announcement stated ‘whoever does not want to resettle to Germany, must expect to that he will be resettled to Sicily (Abyssinia) by the Italian Government’. Most believed it”.
“With this, the opponents to the resettlement concluded that it would be better to live in Germany than in Italy. I therefore, also decided to join, however, for me this remained a questionable and risky proposition. I, like the others who optioned to leave, still did not know where our new homeland was to be”.
“After the leadership was certain that the propaganda had been successful, the sign-up of the willing was started. We believed the slogan of our leaders ‘Heim ins Reich’ and trusted their promise that our new homeland will be in the German Reich”.
Fact is: The “Abyssinia” threat was an invention of Berlin. It was applied in Gottschee as it was in South Tyrol. Rolf Steininger reports on this in his book: “South Tyrol; A Minority Conflict of the 20th Century”.
He writes: “This legend was a masterpiece carried out by Berlin. The German General Consul [in Bolzano] Otto Bene was the first to speak of a possible deportation to the south of all those South Tyroleans who did not opt to resettle to Germany. The threat of forced resettlement to the south and the assurance of a unified contiguous area of settlement were the chief weapons in the VKR propaganda to turn the ‘stayers’ into ‘goers”.
And on the reaction of the Italians: “On March 21, 1940, Mussolini himself received a delegation of those who decided to stay and assured them that they would be allowed to remain in their homeland and that no one had ever considered transplanting them to other parts of his empire”.
The „Abyssinia threat”, invented for use in South Tyrol, was also used by the Gottscheer Leadership to persuade the Gottscheer population to resettle. In the Gottschee case, however, the Italians were against the resettlement. This can be seen from a report of Dr. Heinrich Wollert, the German resettlement official for the Ljubljana province. (The Original, dated 27 March 1958, is published in “Dokumentation der Vertreibung”, Band 5.)
“The Italian side, as I remember, was reluctant to agree to the re-settlement plan. Obviously reluctant because the Italians realized that this region was densely populated with ethnic Germans and they, therefore, were afraid that a resettlement would produce a vacuum”.
Frensing reports on this on page 43:
“It was apparent that Italian authorities tried, in the spring of 1941, to persuade the Gottscheer not to resettle. To influence these ethnic Germans, a German-Italian newspaper was to be founded.”
“later on, the Italian side persisted in their request for a population exchange between the Gottscheer and the affected Slovene. This caused some difficulties between the Italians and the Germans. Finally, on June 18, 1941 the RKFDV ordered the German negotiators to work up a plan for a one-sided resettlement of the Gottscheer.”
And to stop the activities of the Italians, “Dr. Stier informed his foreign office that this position of the Italians was viewed as an unfriendly act and should as such be presented to the Italian government. Thereafter, the interference of the Italians in the preparation effort of the VGL ceased.”
The differences between the Italian and German sides continued throughout the Gottschee resettlement negotiations which began in Rome in the beginning of July 1941 and ended with the signing of the contract on August 31, 1941.
Hitler had never intended a population exchange. This is clear from the “Ingathering Directive of the Führer” of October 7, 1939, as formulated by Himmler:
“From the areas annexed to the Reich, the non German population was to be moved out and as ‘foreigners either brought to the Altreich for work or pushed into the ‘Generalgouvernement’. [A holding area for ‘undesirables’ in occupied Poland.]. Ethnic Germans are to be resettled into the annexed provinces of the Reich.” [Frensing, pg. 28]
The responsibility for the resettling of the Gottscheer was requested by and given to the Gottscheer leadership. And in persuading the population to agree, this leadership used betrayal, lies, concealment and coercion.
And today, the Chairman conceals this betrayal of the Gottscheer population! Is the assertion: “No one knew the truth” and: “Not a single Gottscheer has, during those terrible years, made himself guilty of a transgression”, not again a betrayal?
Surprising is that this misdeed comes as falsification, concealment and distortion in “Our Opinion” under the leadership of an attorney who must know that proven facts cannot be overcome with falsified assertions.
The cause for this is not hard to find. The majority of these unrepentant fanatics (Lampeter, Lackner, Erker, Kren, etc.) had long ago been taken into the leadership circles of the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft under Dr. Viktor Michitsch as „Honored Members“ and „Cultural Advisers”. Their deeds in the betrayal of their people must, therefore, remain concealed! Even though their betrayal is now generally accepted as a fact!
John Tschinkel, March, 2011