We have had some outstanding sessions over the past couple of years. We expect that the program this year will be just a great. Our program topics this year include:
Saturday Sessions (around 9:30PM - 4:30PM)
Dave Dreyer is going to talk about "The Evolution and Some Consequences of the Banat Passenger Ship
Database." As we all know so well, Dave has been a pillar of knowledge for all of us, sharing so much with us over the years. A particular area of his expertise has always been the flow of our people into North America, and Dave's research into the passenger ship data bases, and his thoughts and reflections on this, have been the foundation for so much of what we now know. So, we are really looking forward to Dave's presentation this year.
Henry Fischer's talk is titled "It's Always Been a Matter of Identity." He will share his personal journey in his own self understanding of his identity and heritage as exemplified in the experience of the Danube Swabian population in Hungary leading to the repercussions following the Second World War.
For more information on Henry's books please see: www.hrastovac.net/Books/Books.htm. We are very lucky to have Henry with us this year.
Rosina Schmidt has also been so important to all of us, her thoughts and ideas have always stimulated us and enlightened us. This year, Rosina will speak about 'Sathmar', one of the six DS areas. Already by 1230 settlers of Germanic heritage lived there, but all perished during the many wars with Turkey and its occupation. When the landowner
Count Kaeroly decided in 1711-1712 to resettle his land, he once again looked for the settlers in the same area of Germanic nations: the Upper Swabia (Wuerttemberg). They too came down the River Danube all the way to Budapest and traveled from there to Sathmar by horse and buggy.
Glenn Schwartz will tell us about his group tour this summer throughout the Banat. As Mark Remsing travelled this spring and summer, he kept catching up with Glen's tour, before, during and after, with Sorin Fortiu who gave the expert commentary for the Romanian part of the tour and also with Stasa Cvetkovic who anchored the Serbian part of the tour.
We are really looking forward to hearing what Glen has to say about this year's tour.
Mark Remsing will be speaking this year about his two trips to Molidorf this summer. Both trips were focused on building the Molidorf memorial at the site of the mass graves next to the old cemetery. Mark will give a brief overview of what he presented last year, i.e. his 20 year rather surreal search for Molidorf, of finding it finally 6 years ago, just a tangle of brush and trees and mounds of rubble that mark where the houses used to be and of
his many visits there since.
Mark will describe what it took to build the Molidorf memorial, trying to get the official approvals, the logistics and complications of building a memorial in Serbia and then the unexpected attendance of high level Serbian provincial officials at the dedication ceremony. They placed a wreath and spoke with considerateness about what happened there (the death camp years, etc.) and the desire to work with "us" in the future.
We will then have an open forum for us to consider and discuss the implications of this new attitude on the part of the Serbian government officials (well at least those from the Vojvodina province). For the implications may be far reaching in terms of our future interactions with the Serbian authorities--in our research and our visits, etc.