Many refugees who came to Dietramszell found shelter with Elvira Burger and her husband Walter.
Now “Grandma” has passed away at the age of 77.
Dietramszell
- Full of empathy, Elvira Burger looked after people who had arrived in Dietramszell after escaping halfway around the world.
Macedonians, Afghans, Pakistanis, Syrians: She helped them all to find their way around German culture, supported them with visits to the authorities, did homework with the children, did shopping trips and dried many tears.
“Grandma”, as she was called by many young and old asylum seekers, has now passed away at the age of 77.
Elvira Burger had to flee herself
Elvira Burger, nee Jaitner, was a refugee child herself.
At the age of two they had to flee from their place of birth, Hotzenplotz in Silesia, today's Osoblaha.
The family came to Schönegg via Holzkirchen and then to Obermühltal.
She had no memories of what the family went through.
"But she always told me that it was an important motivation for her to help herself," says her husband Walter Burger.
The two met when Burger was unloading gravel from a truck in Obermühltal.
He saw a young girl and thought to himself: “That’s a pretty one.” Since the father, who had returned home from the war damaged by the war, ran a hairdressing salon, he always had his hair cut there from now on.
In 1961 they married and the couple moved to Peretshofen.
Burger built a house for the family there.
Four children came.
The deeply religious woman had great joy at the Lenggrieser Hütte.
Her son Walter was a tenant there for many years and entertained many hikers, especially on sunny weekends.
“She helped where she could and was happy,” says her husband.
The story of the Raufis caused a sensation
The first asylum seekers came to Dietramszell in September 2013.
Elvira and Walter Burger did not hesitate a moment to take them on.
One of the first was the Afghan Raufi family, who made headlines because the family reunions were spectacular.
After many wrong turns and detours, Abdul Raufi found his wife and four children, whom he had lost sight of on the crossing from Turkey to Greece.
Afterwards there were many more refugees from all over the world, whose Elvira Burger always accepted with great warmth.
The family stayed in contact with many of them later.
Waltraud Bauhof, at that time the head of the social network “Together for one another”, which had taken over the asylum care, only finds words of praise for the performance of the Burgers.
“The care and attention was something very special,” she says.
"Your empathy was great and absolutely exemplary."
The fire in her house hit Elvira Burger
Elvira Burger fell ill in 2015.
However, she fought her way back to life after a successful operation in Munich and radiation.
Then came the “disaster year 2020”, as Walter Burger, long janitor at the Dietramszell Middle School, relates.
At the beginning of the year Elvira Burger had to undergo another operation.
Then the Peretshofen house burned down.
And finally the bad illness returned.
“Stay with me a little longer, next year we're celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary, I want to go dancing with you,” Walter Burger said to her.
Vain.
The disease was too severe.
On August 18, 2020, Elvira Burger closed her eyes forever.
