[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German culture in North Amercia; Was Re: Kwiatkowski - Bluemke

[Jerry Frank]

As a casual observation, though no means scientific, I have often agreed with the "melting pot" term applied to immigration to the United States.  Migrants there were generally quick to drop their original language, etc. and blend into US culture, often losing their connection to the homeland.  In Canada, I observe more of a "stew pot" situation.  There is some blending to a unique Canadian flavor while at the same time individual components clearly remain to be seen and tasted.  While my Volhynian German cousins in Michigan were worshiping and communicating only in English already by the 1930s, those of us in Canada (2nd generation born here) were still worshiping with the German language in the mid 1950s and schools still offered instruction in German.   This is of course a broad based observation and individual experiences will vary.

One problem for me is that current German festivals of various sorts always seem to emphasize the beer hall, lederhosen, and oomp-pah-pah caricature of German culture.  This is NOT the culture of our Russian German ancestors and yet some of our supportive societies seem to think it is.  It would be nice to be able to define and celebrate are more uniquely Russian German perspective but I'm not sure that we know what that is.

I have never been really accused of any problems associated with German history though only a few years ago a Polish person asked if I had any connection the infamous Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland after the Nazi invasion.  I don't.  It is far more often suggested that my roots must be Jewish because of my surname.  Again, it is not.


Jerry Frank



----- Original Message -----
From: Spaghettitree at aol.com
Date: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 10:18 am
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Kwiatkowski - Bluemke
To: otto at schienke.com, ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org

> 
> Hello again, Otto - I should have included the fact that my 
> brothers and I 
> were forbidden to learn a word of German (though we learned what 
> Verboten! 
> meant).  There remains a very strong stigma from WW I and 
> WW II for anyone and 
> anything German in America, especially from people of Jewish 
> heritage.  I have 
> even been accused of having something to do with Hitler's 
> holocaust, simply 
> because of the name Schoenky!   Never mind that I was 
> far too young, never in 
> Europe (until 1999) and am as horrified as anyone else over that 
> insane genocide!   
> I have learned some German, word by word, though by no means 
> conversational,  
> as a necessity in order to understand my own genealogical 
> heritage and help 
> others to do the same.   
> 
> If anyone knows about a dictionary in Polish or Russian similar 
> to the German 
> one (German-English Genealogical Dictionary by Ernest Thode) I 
> would love to 
> know about it.  I use Thode's book (in addition to numerous 
> other dictionaries 
> and texts) on a daily basis.   
> 
> All that aside, German foods and beers and Octoberfests and 
> many, many 
> Germanic  customs are immensely popular here, and 
> increasing - i.e., profit-making.  
>  Adolphus and Gussie Busch in St. Louis did rather 
> well!  And so did 
> Griesedieck and Schlitz and Lempe and Pabst and many, many 
> others, at least until 
> Busch took over - and now they are no longer the top beer barons 
> either.  
> 
> The best thing I see about all these message boards is bringing 
> people of 
> differing heritages together with the common denominator of 
> genealogy; when you 
> get right down to it, we are all family, after all.   
> 
> Maureen Schoenky
> 
> 
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>       
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