The long trek By Johann Steiner
Since the days of gun and cannon fire is heard. He is getting louder. The Germans of Billed Banat in the heath have an uneasy feeling. Summer is almost over. The corn should be already broken. But for days, hardly anyone dares to Kneser and Hodonier Hotter. And then appeared on the first autumn day on the first Red Army soldier in the Sauerland alley. Since that 21st September ¬ tember 1944 are passed nearly 64 years. There are years that has changed the village in southwestern Romania so fundamental that those who have not seen it since then, it would hardly recognize. For those who are not at the front, in the autumn of 1944 begins the great tribulation. In those days of September, but even later no one wants to have it true what happens in the coming months, years and decades.
Russian outpost in the Sauerland street can make an enemy in the village and his fellow men can ausschwär ¬. On the farm of Jacob Guild in the shadow of Bill Eder church that day, a soldier appears Asian origin, the Kalashnikov at the ready. His goal: the stables. His company needs horses. But he found none. Jakob guild has his last horse - the two penultimate took the Romanian army him - placed behind a haystack. Until there is not the Red Army. He takes off empty-handed.
The unexpected appearance of the man leaves with the slit eyes in Jacob Guild, the alarm bells ringing. He wants to leave, before the Russians come in droves. The horse makes it still possible, and German military, which forced the Russians the next day from the village. Jacob Guild, his wife Catherine and daughter, who listens to the same first name as the mother hesitate for a moment. To prepare to flee. They slaughter a pig roast the meat, pack it in jars and preserving the essentials.
On 24 September Jacob Guild birthday. He will spend it on his first Fluchttag driving and marching. He is 48 years old, his wife 42nd The guild can return a stable of fat pork, a cellar full of potatoes, the whole prepared to supply cannabis harvest, the non-harvested maize, and the whole economy. But he has a lot of money on him. The year 1944 was a good year for farmers in the Banat.
Together with the Guild flees from the Church Street and a portion of Related ¬ economy. Jacob Gilde's sister Mary from the Altgasse, who is married to Hans Szlavik. Both are 49 years old and take daughter Anna and the nearly four-month-old grandson with Ewald. The parents remain in the house in the Altgasse: Katharina and Jacob senior communities refuse to ride. When issued, the third family with the Szlaviks and guild related Braun on the run from the Altgasse: Mother Catherine with the same daughter and son Hans. Here, the parents of the mother, Margaret and Hans Wolf. Hungarian soldiers have taken away the last horse. For the tractor, they have no more diesel.
About Gertjanosch Hatzfeld reach the refugees to do the first surprise: you take Jacob Szlavik, Ewald's father, who fought as a member of the Organization Todt of Serbia by ¬. Spontaneously, he takes off his uniform and goes in the refugee trek with a civilian. About St. Hubert they reach Kikinda in the Serbian part of Banat. Under the protection of German soldiers, part of the shear ¬ refugees a train that runs west ¬ climb upward. These include the brown and the wolf, on the way lose all their luggage, but eventually safely Ried reach and are quartered in Niederbronn. They have not succeeded in "their" farmers well.
also Szlavik Maria and her daughter Anna and son Ewald opt for the train. The rest of the family goes on with the horse carriage. But before long, they meet again. The horse-drawn vehicles to get from the Serbian guerrillas stopped a train. They continue to flee with the family.
reached the caravan trek after a few days the river Tisza in Szeged. The refugees have to be patient. The Guild and Szlaviks are eight days on the river to the ferry can. You are lucky and do it. The roads are watered by the many rain, the horses have a hard time. On the way they've thrown away many a good piece. Because Serbian partisans keep trying to stop the refugees on the translation, many refugees have horses and wagons with the last possessions are. They save their bare lives on the Hungarian side. Some benefit. Jakob guild takes one of the abandoned stray horses. He has now but unlikely couple, but two horses sheep ¬ fen more than one. How should turn out later in Salzburg, is the horse to a Bill Eder. Many do not reach the saving Hungarian bank. They fall into the hands of Serb Partisans. These include a number Billeder families.
Even Hans Gilde, a cousin Jacob Gilde, embarks on 24 September on the flight with his wife Regina, his unmarried daughter Magdalena, his daughter and granddaughter Arntrud Wetti shepherd. They also take Margaret Rademacher and their daughter Maria in tow. They also leave Romania Hatzfeld go under Serbian Zerne recalls Magdalena Sehi born communities. Partisan stop them and destroy Hans Gilde's tractor, which falls with two attached cars. German soldiers expel the guerrillas. It continues at night with the two horses and carts, which they have left. On the soggy because they will soon one of the two cars behind, because the horses do not make it. The two-Rademacher women decide to go home. You make it. The reach of the German-¬ Zerne. German soldiers sent to Kikinda, because only there can still be guaranteed for its safety, Magdalena Sehi. But there does not get more of the trek. In German-Elemer fall Sanen the refugees into the hands of Parti ¬.
In the hands of partisan Serbs
These prisoners bring Großbetschkerek: women and children on carts. The men have to walk, riding partisan drive them before him. begins in a former mill ¬ be for the men an indescribable ordeal. ¬ You who the beaten, tortured and later shot ¬. The women and children who are housed together to get, just like the men to eat hardly anything. Because the women are protesting the youths after several days separated from the men and put in the room to the women, "recalls the then 17-year-old Hans Ortinau. This lucky find Ortinau also Hans Hans Braun (Church Street), Adi Klein and two companions. Released after a few days the two Temesvar textile manufacturer Josef Stefan Schmidt and Anton button. The Russians need to increase production to resume. be admitted into the old mill for a few days and Katharina Lichtfuß and her son Hans. German military, they take you on the withdrawal of Hatzfeld with a Red Cross car because they were injured on their farm in the Vertgass (Fourth Street): Katharina Lichtfuß had a battered leg, Hans Lichtfuß 18 shrapnel throughout the body. Until she fled with Hatzfeld Lichtfuß Hans' daughter Mary and son John, but return home from there.
The imprisoned men have to work every day. At first they empty the bags of shot and killed German soldiers. The moldy bread, they find it is good against hunger, it is soft at the well in water, and eat it. The men are in a room Concrete walls and floor-housed, beds are missing. From the ceiling falling bugs. The women have bunk beds, and must defend themselves against lice.
Outside the room the women is the "Schwitzzelle. There, the guerrillas killed German soldiers at night. They fight with clubs and rifle butts to her. The pools of blood are in the morning after the terrible cries in the night, further evidence of that ordeal. Among the prisoners is also a Russian nurse. It will be released one day. But she wants to leave the camp only when the other prisoners are freed. Their protest helps: In December, women, children and young people released. Springs are released from the Bill: Magdalena and Regina Guild, and Wetti Arntrud Schaefer, Susan and Mary Weber, Gabi and Barbara Linz, Inge, Elsi, Günther and Thöreß Magda, Magdalena, Ritzi and Adi Klein, Lara, Hans and Anna Braun, Katharina Lichtfuß, also Attila Schmidt's wife .
In Hatzfeld they are interned by Romanians in the Great pub, but they are better off because the German people, they are supplied. Every street is a week's turn for the said Shun which to cook. A new problem has now occurred: The girls have to hide from the Russian soldiers to escape being raped. The pledge, the men from the mill in Großbetschkerek to fire, do not hold the Serbs. In Stock in Großbetschkerek most come by shot in the neck died: Dr. Hans Weber, Hans Linz, Janni Brown, Dr. Michael Ortinau, Attila Schmidt, Peter Schwarz and Hans Bohn. The escape from the death camps succeed Hans Gilde, Adam Klein, Hans Albert and Thöreß Lichtfuß. As Magdalena Sehi reported, her father, Hans guild, after returning home a broken old man, he will die as a result of the beatings. Hans Lichtfuß manages to escape twice. The first time the Romanians send him back to Serbia from Arad. The second time, in 1948, he will be arrested in Arad, but subsequently released.
While some to languish in Serbian camps, the others continue to flee. With food the refugees are provided. There are problems with young children. Maria Szlavik knocking every day in the villages on doorstep ¬ Ren and pray for her grandson to Ewald milk. Every day, milk from another cow that does not tolerate child. Ewald, it can withstand any problems. For the horse is ensured, since the corn is not harvested.
next destination of the trek is the Danube Bridge in Feldwar and then German soil. After a month, the flight to Never ¬ Lower Austria a temporary end. But no one knows yet. The families and communities make in Szlavik Aspersdorf circulated Hollabrunn halt. The Mayor's Office takes care of the accommodation of refugees. Family Guild is admitted at Fa ¬ ily Haunold. The owner wants to put in the reserved ¬ house. It is an old building. The room and the kitchen have broken floors, the windows are beat is ¬, furniture missing. As the two women look around, ¬ sen must speak their faces volumes. The host asks the main house. He can repair the old house, villagers ¬ ner donate furniture. They come through the winter. In As ¬ persdorf receives family visit communities. Hans Steiner, Catherine's fiance has two weeks vacation. He marches in the days when the columns of refugees are already on the way, as guard soldier with Russian prisoners within one month from Belgrade to Vienna. Also the nephew of the guild, James Billinger comes to visit during his leave after Aspersdorf.
approaches in the spring, the front, grab the two families again and head west. About Bavaria they come into the province of Salzburg. The 8th May 1945 to live in St. Georgen belonging-emitting sub Eching. The day of the collapse is worse ¬ mer. The liberated prisoners of war to arm themselves, and the mor ¬ celebrate orgies. Family Guild is under at the farmer Franz Spatzenegger. She is lucky. The sparrows Eggers are good people. The Guild does not get a day at the prevailing misery their liter of milk and plenty of potatoes, worth its weight in gold. But guess what they and their hosts can not: The good, the experience of the guild, they will pay ¬ back with similarly good.
walk to Prague
Two weeks after the collapse, Hans Steiner, a free man as a member of the Organization Todt he has no blood group die under his arm. Therefore, the Americans released him from captivity ¬ Kaner. Over the Salzach river, he changes from Bavaria to Austria and goes to his fiancee after Un ¬ more ching. The new mayor of St. Georgen bei Salzburg takes him only under one condition in the community: He has to work on his farm. On the farm there is often soup for lunch. But picky can be one. Main thing: He's tired.
less fortunate than Hans Jakob Steiner has Szlavik After his family is located in Lower Austria, he beats his way to Vienna and reported to his unit. nights after Christmas 1944, he ¬ moves to Prague, where he was visiting his mother one day. You crosses the 120 km to Prague on foot. On the way back to Lower Austria is a truck driver with her. From Prague, Jakob Szlaviks unit is from the west. 14 days before the collapse he is still the blood type tattooed under his arm. He is now a thing of the Waffen-SS.
On 4 May he be with his comrades on a farm near Salzburg. They are hungry. However, the farmer offered them no bread. You may take, but potatoes. When they just want to cook the soup, dip in French and make it to the wall to shoot them. Before placing the French can go before Americans and take them as prisoners. What remains is all they have left. The uniform skirts. They come in a transit camp at Ried am Inn. Here the cold nights. They are without protection, morning frost covered their bodies. And they are hungry. They are then transferred to a real camp at crossroad. Even there, they plagued by hunger. But one morning the smell of coffee. And from that day on, does the American food supply. Gradually everything loose. Jacob and Joseph Szlavik Thöreß from Altgasse allowed to drive daily with six men from Kleinbetschkerek to Krems to service the cinema. And then the long ¬ longed has come Freedom Day: Good Friday 1946, it is 19 April. When he arrives in sub Eching, the Easter eggs have been dyed. But Ewald's afraid of the father, he does not know him. With the colored eggs, it is possible to win Szlavik Jacob, son to play for themselves. The ice is broken.
He is only a few days, as there is a wedding feast. Catherine Guild, and Hans Steiner since 29 March civilly married, now they are also the church blessing. For months, the whole Family ration cards not redeemed. Now they are sufficient to purchase the necessary portion of roast meat for the wedding can. It is 23 April. Hans Steiner has no Sunday suit. His clothes still hanging in the closet at home with their parents. But to help out Jacob Szlavik may be blue suit has survived the flight. Really do not fit trousers and skirt the much larger groom. He wears his belt, including pants a little lower. There are just bad times. Meanwhile, Jacob has
communities are Romanian money - exchange, in RM and then converted into shilling - it would have been enough from ¬ to buy a house. But the thoughts constantly revolve around the Home. Catherine guild has very homesick. Maria Szlavik wants their old parents are not left alone in Billed. The result: the first Hans Szlavik drives home to explore everything. In June, Catherine, and Jacob, along with daughter and communities make difficulties gersohn ¬, also Szlavik with Maria, daughter and grandchildren on the way home. Money for the tickets they have. Had they not, the journey home would be at risk. To obtain permission to transit through Hungary, they register as Hungary. They have also found a tractor. There is a certain Stefan. He is from the Serbian part of Banat and speaks German, Hungarian, Serbian and Romanian.
On the day of departure is Cathy Brown at the Salzburg train station, clapping of hands together above his head and says: ". People what you have in front of her," But the journey home volunteer can not be diverted from their projects. You get on the train heading east.
In Ruppert castle, the first surprise. The Hungarians control the young men and filter out former SS members. Stefan, the tractor goes twice to control, once for herself and the second time for Jakob Szlavik. A miracle that it is not noticeable. One of the inspectors already looks wrong. At the border in the border region of Hungary / Romania / Serbia, the un ¬ garian border guards are bribed. But that does not stop, the Home ¬ returnees from the border crossing, take away the last belongings. go home
While some, escape the others. Katharina Braun's brother Hans in 1946 comes in Niederbronn. According to a prison in Targu Jiu, he comes into camp in Russia. After his release he returned to Billed and flees 1949 on the limits to freedom. In 1949 the family moved to Kaiser mountain in Upper Alsace, where it remains until 1952. Then, the Brauns can finally enter Germany. Her odyssey ends in Glatt in the Black Forest. There are Margaret and Hans Wolf and later their children, Catherine Brown and Hans Wolf, the final resting place.
the Szlaviks, and Steiner Gilde saves Russia to escape the deportation. Exile in the Danube plain, but they could not miss.
On reaching home, the guilds are left with nothing. Not even a bed, they have more. Bessarabia in the house are refugees. But the closer together and make them square. The relationship is good, you can even help. Anyway: One day at mistrust. From the food supplies of the missing refugees from Bessarabia and in something. The suspicion falls on the freshly Heimgekehr ¬ ten. The Bessarabians is postmaster and has an apprentice. When the postmaster caught the boy stealing, he beat him terribly. The house is made peace forever.
But these are Trifles. Hans Steiner, and Jacob Szlavik have other worries, like many other returnees. Both have deserted before the attack on the Soviet Union in the Romanian army and have joined the Organisation Todt in Serbia in ¬ closed. Now they are looking for. A month-long hiding ¬ play begins. It ends only, so Jacob Szlavik, as Peter Mann clamps the horses, of all Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS ¬-members as well as deserters in the village performs a collection and bribes the police. The pursuers are always members of the new Romanian colonists who came to the village in late 1944, all rights and behave as gentlemen.
Hans Steiner is lucky he got away them again and again. But Jacob Szlavik they take one day at Uncle Wendel Szlavik in Altgasse. They bring him together with Jakob and Josef Schöplein citizens to Timisoara and then to the market for iron foundry. There he sits with many other captured in a large room. But not for long. At shift change, he mingles with the many workers who leave the work and goes to the train ¬ yard. It meets half of its tobacco from an iron ¬ workers, who takes the wagons after Simeria. After two days he will be home. He has yet to change a few times: in Deva, Maria Radna and Timisoara. At the station in Timisoara, the surprise: Jakob Szlavik sees the police chief Bill Eder boarding the train. He goes further to increase Tavern there on the train, in which sits the policeman. In Billed he leaves the train at the station off the side facing away. The police chief does not see him.
Hardly the refugees returned home, they achieved from sub Eching the news that the son of her benefactor in Timisoara in captivity. Hansi, the youngest son of the sparrows Eggers is escape from a Serbian camp succeeded over the Danube. He sits in a Dikasterialgebäude on Cathedral Square. Until he is sent to Russia to provide the guild with product. The circle has closed. The aid workers to be in need. The friendship with the sparrows will Eggers the last for decades, until all meet again after the expulsion of the Steiner in 1980 in Austria and Germany.
Source: Billeder Heimatblatt 2005
