Beitrag von John Tschinkel » Sa 16. Mai 2015, 14:41
This letter was mailed to the GHGA in 2006.
June 11, 2006
Elizabeth Nick
President, President GHGA
174 South Hoover Avenue
Louisville, Co 80027-2130
Dear Elizabeth Nick,
Attached is a copy of my letter to the Bundeskanzler of Austria which was prompted by the article “Suche nach Gerechtigkeit” in the May 2006 issue of the Gottscheer Zeitung. The letter informs the Chancellor and other Government notables that not all former Gottscheer support the appeal to his Excellency by the Landsmannschaft in Klagenfurt described in that article and that we find the distortions of the truth and the demands toward Slovenia, offensive and insulting. But the intellectual bankruptcy of the AG leadership is especially revealed in the comment: “...vertrieben, nur weil wir Deutsche waren”.
The Gottscheer were not “vertrieben”, we left voluntarily in both 1941 and 1945. And “nur weil wir Deutsche waren” conveniently overlooks the ethnic Germans of Slovenia (Altsiedler, Peter Kosler, Freiheitsbrucke, etc.) who did not collaborate with the invader are still in their homes. The full banality of the comment, however, is in the attempt to spread the crimes of the Nazis over all Germans and Austrians, oblivious of the insult to those who resisted the Nazis, then and now.
The letter also informs the Chancellor that all three German/Gottscheer Organizations within Slovenia, the Freiheitsbrücke, the Peter Kosler Verein and the Altsiedler Verein, have reached the same conclusion and have, as a result, resigned their membership in the AG the Gottscheer Arbeitsgemeinschaft in Klagenfurt. Their letters of resignation specifically mention the damage the AG policies were/are causing their organization, their membership, their neighbors and their State. One letter of resignation even labels these policies as “catastrophic”.
It appears that the GHGA is still a member of the AG and has not yet reached a conclusion to resign. We, the silent majority, trust that you will do so soon and cease to be part of that corrosive organization. An organization which includes former SS Officers (members of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and the infamous “Totenkopf” division) as “Honored Members” and holds meetings with them to formulate these “catastrophic” policies and which your Vice-President attends.
You have claimed that the GHGA is a cultural organization and, as such, has nothing to do with politics. But by being a member of the AG, a highly political organization in which former Gottscheer Nazis perform critical roles, you are part and parcel of their doings. And these doings are bringing, once again, tragedy on the Gottscheer people. The first time they brought us the loss of our homeland in 1941. This time they are bringing us, for good, the loss of our honor. The obvious lies, distortion of the truth and unwarranted demands are examples of that. They are telling government leaders that the Gottscheer, even after 60 years, are have not changed and have learned nothing.
With best wishes and a fervent hope that you too will soon resign from the Arbeitsgemeinschaft.
John Tschinkel
PS. The letter to the Chancellor is in German, the language that you and other keepers of the Gottscheer-German heritage should know by heart. Nevertheless, you will also find the English and Slovene version on the Gladitsch website, Gottschee.de.
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John Tschinkel