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Product
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A
JOURNEY THROUGH TITO’S DEATH CAMPS
This memoir
conveys the journey of ethnic Germans living in an area that had
changed to a non-German nationality after WWI in southeastern
Europe. The towns existed because during the Austria-Hungary
reign, people were asked to resettle there from northern areas of
that empire. The author tells the story of her life that began in
a town called Franzfeld, not too far from Belgrade. The town now
is called Kacareva.
During and
after WWII, the village was occupied by the German Army, then the
Russian Army and ended up under Tito’s regime. The men were away
in the war. This town, along with other German towns, was
drastically changed after the Russians came through in 1944. The
Russians took men and unmarried women with them to rebuild their
war-torn country. These workers lived in camps with little food
and had to perform hard labor.
When Tito
came to power, the Germans were stripped of all their rights. In
1945 all Germans were forced into concentration camps, many of
them known as death camps.
The author
and most of her family survived, and because of her mother’s
courage, escaped to Austria in 1947. After re-uniting with her
father, it took the family five more years to find a permanent
home in America.
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Product
details...
Paperback
Format: 6.14 x 9.21 paperback, 199 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (Jun 16, 2010)
ISBN10: 1432749129
ISBN13: 9781432749125
Genre: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage
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Author
Information...
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Erna
was born in Franzfeld, Yugoslavia, as an ethnic
German. She lived through years of imprisonment
and displacement after WWII. She arrived with her
family in Mansfield, Ohio, at the age of 14 in
1952. Here she grew up in the 1950s along with
other recent immigrants. After retiring in 2000,
she decided to record her story. She felt that the
story needed to be told, to give the next
generation a glimpse into their heritage. She
hopes to make more people aware of the Genocide of
the Danube Swabian German people. She and her
husband still live in Mansfield and have been
married over 50 years. She is proud to be an
American citizen. |
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