"The past that does not want to pass" has already been the trigger for a historians' dispute.
Dorfen - There is currently heated discussion in Dorfen too.
The history workshop denounces the historical circle for not correctly evaluating the end of the war and the American invasion of Isenstadt.
In addition, the history workshop in Dorfen is calling for the city archive to be digitized so that the local history and family researchers in Dorfen should have easier access to the documents.
It has been simmering for a long time between the two Dorfen clubs that deal with local history.
For example, at the beginning of May the Dorfen history workshop called for “white flags to be raised for peace and freedom”.
In May 75 years ago the US Army came to Dorfen.
With these flags on almost all public buildings and on a number of private houses, the people of Dorfen commemorated the "Liberation Day".
No flag was waving in front of the local history museum.
“There were also a number of people who did not see this day as a liberation,” says Jürgen Weithas, chairman of the historical circle.
And: "There were different opinions on the board - that is why we did not take part in this campaign." He therefore sees no reason to "push up a dispute".
For Mayor Heinz Grundner, however, the flag campaign was an important signal against the right.
"What happened back then must not happen again, that's why I took over the patronage," he explains in an interview with the local newspaper.
However, he does not interfere with the club, that is not his job.
Hans Elas from the history workshop in Dorfen is particularly annoyed by the “ignorance” of the historical circle: “This is not just any association, but it claims to deal objectively and officially with the local history.”
The latest report by local historian Franz Streibl "The end of the war in Dorfen 1945" on the homepage of the historical circle brought the barrel overflow for the history workshop.
"Some passages do not correspond to the historical facts", complains Doris Minet.
And Monika Schwarzenböck added: "The author trivializes the misery of that time, I was madly annoyed." Streibl wrote down his memories as a little boy, ignoring the actual events.
“I expect a historical circle with the claim to reliable knowledge to distinguish between memories and events,” explains Schwarzenböck.
"This report does not do justice to the great catastrophe that the Nazi regime and the Second World War were," added Minet.
Some passages are simply "lacking in empathy", rants Schwarzenböck.
The theologian refers to Streibl's memories of the prisoners of war in Dorfen who “proudly presented themselves in photos behind the plow”.
She revises: “These people, including children, often had to work to the point of exhaustion for the country that has brought endless suffering to its own compatriots.
Often the prisoners of war were beaten. ”And she describes the“ brutal reality: In 1942, many Dorfeners watched a shaved girl from the area being driven through Dorfen and insulted. ”The young woman was imprisoned for one and a half years because she was from one French slave laborer was pregnant.
Minet, former 3rd mayor and long-time senior officer in Dorf, is co-author of the book "How did the Star of David come to Dorfen", which was published in autumn 2015 by "Dorfen ist bunt".
“When it comes to displaced persons, there is no mention that they were Shoah survivors - you could read more details with relevant evidence in our publications,” she says.
After all, the report would be uncommented on the homepage of the historical circle - without historical evidence and evaluation.
The timing of the dispute seems to have been deliberately chosen, because a few days before the annual general meeting of the Historical Circle next Monday, Minet, Schwarzenböck and Elas approach the press with their criticism.
Wolfgang Lanzinger, historian and board member of the historical circle, tries to appease.
"The disagreement between the historical circle and the history workshop is regrettable, because both actually have the same goal in common: objective research into local history, also with the aim of drawing lessons for the future," he emphasizes.
Without further ado, this also applies to a particularly inglorious chapter of history: the Third Reich.
Lanzinger recalls the words of the Holocaust survivor Max Mannheimer: “You are not responsible for what happened;
but that it doesn't happen again, it does. ”Serious historical research can make a valuable contribution to this.
For this reason alone, viewed from today, one must understand May 8, 1945 as the day of liberation.
At that time, locals everywhere received the Allied troops with a white flag.
"It is thanks to the West German occupying powers that democratic self-government was built up quickly on the ruins of a deeply criminal regime and thus the liberation from a dictatorship that still resonates today as a disgrace to Germany," said Lanzinger.
This statement is at least spoken from the heart of the local researchers at the Dorfener Geschichtswerkstatt.
Michaele Heske