[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tatars

[Richard Benert]

Günther, your explanation concerning the use of Protestant churches by 
orthodox in 1929 makes sense.  Another reason for preserving these churches 
was their utility.  The Baptist church in Neudorf (used by Tatars???) was 
soon turned into a granary, in 1933 or so.

Dick
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Günther Böhm" <GHBoehm at ish.de>
To: "Wolhynien-Liste" <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 12:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tatars


Richard Benert schrieb:

>Your impression that "Tatar" and "Cossack" were terms that got applied to
>Ukrainians in general is interesting, Jerry.  Can you recall any specific
>examples of this?
>
Hello Richard,
no Volhynian example but one from Siebenbürgen, Romania:
I knew a woman from there some twenty years ago. She was of Hungarian
ethnicity and married to a German from Siebenbürgen whose parents didn't
accept the daughter-in-law for many years and called her a 'Zigeuner'
(gipsy). The circumstances were comparable: a German ethnic group of
decreasing number amidst of a foreign majority struggled to maintain her
identity and thus tried to segregate and speak ill of the native people.
The label 'Zigeuner' stood for strangeness, non-sedentariness and
non-reliability and so were the lables 'Tatar' and 'Cossack'. The lables
'Hungarian' or 'Ukrainian' weren't disparaging enough. I think the
pastor himself admitted the orthodox neighboring Ukrainians to use the
protestant church during the anti-religious campaign of 1929 when most
of the orthodox churches had been demolished. Note that the German
protestant churches in Volhynia were not demolished because they were
not considered to be symbols of the old ruling class. Maybe the German
pastor felt solidarity with the chased neighboring orthodox parish - but
the German peasants were not that insightful.

Günther


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