[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Volhynia concern

[Richard Benert]

Several years ago there was a discussion on GR-Heritage listserve about a 
tendency for our GR ancestors to be reluctant to admit to, and speak of, 
their background in Russia.   There are probably lots of reasons for this, 
and we shouldn't forget that not all of them were so reluctant.  I suspect 
that when in Russia, most Germans rather felt like they were a notch or two 
above the muzhiks around them, and some may have felt tainted somehow by 
having this in their past.  Russia was widely regarded as backward 
throughout the western world, so who would want to be associated with it?  I 
remember one lady in my church in St. Paul who was so tied up about her 
Russian past that it was a major victory for her to write about her 
experiences in exile between 1915 and 1920.  Much as she felt compelled to 
preserve these memories for her family, she was held back for a long time by 
her fear of admitting where she had come from.

So it wasn't just being from Volhynia that was the problem, but being from 
Russia.  Nevertheless, I'm wondering if some people from Volhynia, 
especially those transferred out by the Nazis in 1940, might have absorbed 
some of the disdain which many Nazi officers apparently felt for what they 
sometimes regarded as low forms of German life coming into Poland with their 
miserable German dialects and all.    This is just a guess.  But for sure 
(since so many GR refugees from Russia spoke of it) many of them were deeply 
hurt by the fact that homeland Germans referred to them often as "Roosians," 
a term not meant to flatter.  In fact, weren't they sometimes called 
Roosians in the U.S. and Canada?

Just some thoughts in passing....
Dick

--------------------------------------------------
From: "K. Gallagher" <gallag.4gen at comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 6:57 PM
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Volhynia concern

> Was there something wrong with being from Volhynia?  A good number of
> the immigrants from Klein Gluscha whose families I have known did not
> acknowledge that they came from there.  One of my mother's half-
> siblings consistently said that she was born in Middletown,
> Connecticut although her confirmation record in MIddletown names Klein
> Gluscha and she immigrated when she was old enough to remember where
> she was born.  When he applied for citizenship, her older brother said
> he didn't know where he was born although he left Volhynia when he was
> fourteen and certainly knew he was born in Borki.  The children of
> these two, and the first generation here of others did not seem to
> know either.  While I know that there was a considerable amount of
> anti-German feeling during the war and they had security concerns, is
> there more to it that I have not considered?
>
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