Commemoration for people on the move with current relevance: In October 70 years ago, the cross of the displaced persons was erected on the cemetery in Moosinning.
Dean Michael Bayer and Mayor Georg Nagler took this event as an opportunity to think about the fate and suffering of everyone around the world who had to and still have to leave their home country.
Moosinning
- Nagler read out the letter from contemporary witness Hannelore Anderl, born in 1939. She comes from Wigstadtl, a town in the northeast of today's Czech Republic, came to Moosinning in 1946 and now lives near Aschaffenburg. “Like over three million other Sudeten Germans and over nine million Germans from the former German eastern provinces and countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, I had to die as a small child in the course of the terrible Second World War started by Nazi Germany and the heated nationalism of the 20th century I left my home with my family for seven years in 1946, ”the old lady wrote to Nagler. Her four-year-old brother lost his teddy bear while on the run - a loss that symbolizes much that had to be left behind at the time.
And one more memory is very present: the strong thirst that the family suffered on the train on a “journey into the unknown”.
“Our wagon with 30 people was assigned to the Moosinning community on June 12, 1946, where we found temporary accommodation in the camp in the dance hall of the 'Maier-Wirt'.
In the end we got lucky and were assigned to the Schnabel farm in Stammham.
We are still very grateful to the Niedermair family for their acceptance back then and maintain regular friendly contacts. "
Sudanese Germans want a memorial cross in 1950
Other expellees had “luck with their houseguests”, “but there were also cases of rejection as well as arguments and misunderstandings,” said the contemporary witness, who referred to the present in her letter: “Let's take a look at today's world, for example to Syria or, more recently, to Afghanistan, flight and displacement are unfortunately still part of everyday life for many people. So it is good that we remember the events 75 years ago. "
Mayor Nagler reported from the parish history.
In July 1946 the population of the Moosinnings had risen to 2,350 people, including 441 refugees and displaced persons.
The group of Sudeten Germans was the largest among the new citizens with 260.
Around 1950 the Sudeten Germans wanted "to erect a memorial cross for their relatives who died in their homeland and the war victims".
Dean Bayer: God is always on the side of all people "who are in need"
Displaced persons from the Bohemian Forest and the Egerland, from Moravia and the Sudetenland have ultimately settled in the community. “The first doctor ever to settle in Moosinning was Dr. Joseph Kubo from South Moravia. For his services to the community of Moosinning, Dr. Kubo was awarded the citizen's medal in 1992, ”said Nagler - as did Franz Krammer from Egerland,“ a committed musician ”. Another reminder can be found in the naming of Egerländer Straße.
Dean Bayer emphasized that the Bible knows many stories of people who have left their country for various reasons.
God always stands on the side of all people “who are in need”.
Everyone is called to act to help others.
The prayers remembered victims of violence, wars, persecution and famines in the past to the present day.
"The hope for reconciliation between people and peoples" and a worldwide appeal for peace marked the end of the commemoration, which was also attended by flag delegations and which was musically framed by an ensemble from the Moosinningen brass band.
Vroni Vogel
