Hans, You've hit on something I hadn't thought of - lack of schooling. I said my mom was not ashamed, but now when I think about it and your post - when it came to her education I do think she was ashamed, my father too. It was covered up with anger in regard to anything to do with education - that was a tough one for me growing up. My school work always came last after chores were done and sometimes my grades suffered because of it - but failing a subject was not allowed either. I have noticed that other families from mom's and dad's towns had just the opposite reaction where education came to the front. Funny how the same thing can effect others in different ways. I have to say that my parents education was not cut back because of the war though (IMHO), but because of lifestyle and being in a "newer" colony. Their village never had the pretty Trachten that I see connected with many other villages - they wore their Sunday best, but just not as fancy. Just my 2¢ worth (I'm in the US we still have our pennies - LOL) Eve On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 3:35 PM, Hans Kopp <hanskopp.anni@yahoo.com> wrote: > Dear Lister > There is > definitely some truth to it; "being ashamed" to in particular the > people who languished In the starvation camps. > Basically for > two reasons. I was 9 years old when we were expelled from our home April 15 > 1945. My grandmother would load our wheelbarrow with essential and did walk > with the load our way from Batschsentiwan to Filipowa. In Filipowa we had > to load on a train after being there for two weeks to be shipped to > Gakowa. We > had to march between two rows of partisans to whom we had to show what we > have > and they took everything they wanted from the people. > Having only the > clothes on our back we lived for two years in Gakowa. Naturally the > children outgrew their clothing and had to resort to making clothes out of > whatever they still had and my grandmother made clothes out of "Jute > Sack" for us. My aunt who was a seamstress had needles and I had found > scissors in Filipowa as thread they used thread they took from some > clothes and > Jute. Now we were running around in these clothes till we reached Austria. > We can imagine how we looked, but we were not the only ones, others were > forced to do the same. > The second > reason was our dialect and the fact that most of our people did only have 6 > years of schooling and had a difficult time to communicate in a dialect > they were not familiar. > I myself like > many of us lost 3 years of schooling and now practically had to start > over. Some > were not even able to do this especially those children who lost some 5 > years > of schooling. > Our people once > very proud people with beautiful Trachten now were walking around in rags > and > were often looked at from the side. > The mother if > one of my friends was a wonderful women and I was eating many times in > their house and she would say; it does not matter what clothes I was > wearing as > long as they were neatly mended and clean. There is nothing to be ashamed > of > it. > Hans > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > DONAUSCHWABEN-VILLAGES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Syrmia Regional Coordinator http://www.dvhh.org/syrmia