New York Times, News Article, 25.10.2003. - John Tschinkel

[Forum 2002 - 2013]

Abgeschickt von John Tschinkel am 05 November, 2003 um 21:10:31:

"The Germans Came; Now They Are Us: An Ethnic Queens Neighborhood Is Melting Away Into America". New York Times, October 25, 2003

Excerpts:

Not long ago, Ridgewood, Queens, was the city’s quintessential German neighborhood, where residents would flock on weekends to the nearby Metropolitan Oval for soccer matches between teams with German names, follow up the game with sauerbraten, dumplings and beer, and end the day with polkas at a German social club.

But in this season of Oktoberfests, it is all the more obvious that Ridgewood is losing its Germans. The descendants of German immigrants continue to dissolve into the American mainstream, marrying non-Germans, raising their children with only a smattering of ethnic awareness.

“You need to change with the times and realize it was the American dream to fit in with the American population,” said Richard Mezic, (Mediz ?) 35, a former president of Die Erste Gottscheer Tanzgruppe, a Germanic folk group.

There is another factor in this melding of identity. Despite the passage of more than half a century, some German-American residents in Ridgewood say that the stigma of two world wars endures and that as a result, many are content to blend into an all-purpose Americanism.

“To this very day, both wars have caused people of Germanic background to pull their horns back and really not talk about it all that much,” said Paul Kerzner, counsel to the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association and a fourth generation German-American.

Kathleen Hulser, public historian of the New York Historical Society said: “There’s been so many Germans here for so long that Germans feel very comfortable here, but the polar opposite is that after two wars and the Holocaust, the term German is so toxic that nobody wants to identify themselves as that.”

Richard Alba, a distinguished professor of sociology at the State University at Albany, said that “many families drew the conclusion that the best thing to do was to encourage their children to assimilate.”

One group that does not shrug off its identity is the close-knit community of Gottscheers (pronounced Gut-SHAY-uhrs), ethnic Germans from Slovenia who sustain hunting and fishing clubs and benefit societies in Gottscheer Hall in Ridgewood. They were among the people of Germanic background who were reset-tled by the Nazis within the Reich and at wars end wound up in refugee camps, eventually immigrating to the United States in the 1950’s.

The neighborhood is dotted with small insurance companies and butcher shops that bear Gottscheer names. But the Gottscheer children are also intermarrying and the long-range fate of their community is uncertain.

“Life is a journey,” said Elfriede Parthe, manager of Gottscheer Hall. “and you know what, nothing ever stays the same.”

[Forum 2002 - 2013]

Abgeschickt von Ailene Lampel Novick am 06 November, 2003 um 16:06:34:

Antwort auf: New York Times, News Article, October 25, 2003. von John Tschinkel am 05 November, 2003 um 21:10:31:

Memories of Ridgewood

To the Editor: Re "The Germans Came; Now They Are Us: An Ethnic Queens Neighborhood Is Melting Away Into America". (news article, Oct. 25):

I grew up in Ridgewood in the 1930’s and 40’s. It was a working-class community with occasional trees and (lowers adorning the clean streets. As a blond, blue-eyed girl, I was often addressed in German by friendly passers-by on the street. I just nodded and continued on my way, afraid that they might discover that I was Jewish.

I remember the Saturday evenings when soapboxes were set up on Myrtle Avenue, the main thoroughfare, with orators spewing Father Coughlin diatribes and other anti-Semitic hatred while I tried to blend into the crowd. I also remember the brown-shirts marching through the streets with swastika flags, and the shock when the restaurant owner on our block was incarcerated as a German-American Bund leader after the United States entered World War II.

The news that Ridgewood is melting away into America is heartening for those Jews like me who were beaten up by young thugs outside P.S. 77 if we did well on a test. But I am grateful to Ridgewood because those painful memories are what turned me into a Jewish activist and Zionist,

AILEEN LAMPEL NOVICK
Jericho, N.Y., Oct. 25, 2003

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Abgeschickt von John Tschinkel am 06 November, 2003 um 16:25:19:

Antwort auf: New York Times, News Article, October 25, 2003. von John Tschinkel am 05 November, 2003 um 21:10:31:

To the Editor: Re "The Germans Came; Now They Are Us: An Ethnic Queens Neighborhood Is Melting Away Into America". (news article, Oct. 25):

" Closely-Knit" ??

As a descendant, I can attest that the community of immigrant Gottscheer, "closely-knit" for five decades after its arrival, is also dissolving into the mainstream and on the way to its final demise as an ethnic group, for reasons over which they can not be very proud.

The Gottscheer, a 12,000 strong ethnic German group, existed for over 600 years peacefully in their ethnic island surrounded by a sea of Slovene until 1941. The encroaching Slovene, (after 1918 no longer held in check by Imperial Austria), made them susceptible to the overtures of Nazi Germany seeking their ingathering into the Reich. The siren song reached its peak in the late '30s when young Gottscheer converts to the Nazi cause succeeded in forcibly convincing the entire group to accept German citizenship and resettle into the Reich. The young fanatic converts hid the fact that the destination was annexed Slovenia, ethnically cleansed of 37,000 Slovene who were taken to Nazi labor camps from which more than half never returned. In 1945, the new citizens fled Slovenia or were expelled by Tito for being part of the Nazi occupier.

The majority of the now homeless emigrated to America, most of them to Ridgewood. There they gathered in clubs where they commiserated over their gullibility in having surrendered their heritage to the Nazis. Comfort came from those who placed the blame on the assimilation efforts of the Slovene, while they carefully kept secret the real reasons for the loss of their homeland.

The successful hiding of the "secret" was, for decades orchestrated by the umbrella organization in Klagenfurt, Austria to whom most American Gottscheer associations, including the GHGA and those in Ridgewood, belong. This is not surprising, given the fact that "honored members" in "advisory positions" in this umbrella are the same individuals who, as confirmed Gottscheer Nazis, "convinced" their people to surrender their heritage to the interests of the Third Reich.

The second and third generations finally realized the betrayal of their parents by their own, when the "secret" became public in the 1990's and the "honored members" were exposed as former SS officers and confirmed Nazis. (of them serving as an SS officer in Buchenwald concentration camp after 1942). The confirmation of long held suspicions by the descendants started a progressive abandonment of this "close-knit" community now at its final disintegration, an ending started at the hands of the Nazis and their still non-repenting fanatical followers over six decades ago.

John Tschinkel
Vero Beach, FL, Oct. 29, 2003

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Abgeschickt von Joseph Berger, NY Times am 07 November, 2003 um 17:42:45:

Antwort auf: Re: New York Times, News Article, October 25, 2003. von John Tschinkel am 06 November, 2003 um 16:25:19:

News article, Oct. 25: "The Germans Came; Now They Are Us: An Ethnic Queens Neighborhood Is Melting Away Into America".

Dear Mr. Tschinkel: Thank you so much for your illuminating and helpful letter. I was well aware that the Gottscheers welcomed Hitler -- they told me themselves -- and a book on Gottschee that I read confirmed that fact with some historical information. I did not go into that history in my story, mostly for reasons of space, but also because I had already touched on the Nazi dilemma for all of Ridgewood's Germans at several points in my story.

Thanks again for your letter.

Best, Joe Berger