Ukrainians in Erding: Escape today, abduction during the Nazi era

Created: 05/16/2022, 06:00

Every point a destiny: the map shows the places of origin of the forced laborers in Erding.

© Erding history

It is not the first time that more than 1,000 Ukrainians are coming to Erdinger Land these days.

During the Nazi era, many people from Ukraine were deported to the district for forced labor.

Erding

– Ukrainian refugees have been reaching the district of Erding for weeks, and there is still no end in sight.

Currently there are over 1000, and the trend is rising.

Historically, such an influx from Ukraine is not the first time.

Let's look at the period between 1941 and 1945: The Erding-Freising employment office helped deportee demonstrably more than 1419 people from today's Ukraine.

When they were "handed over" to the mayors and local farmers for distribution, it hardly mattered what profession they had previously practiced or whether they had ever worked in agriculture.

In almost every village, business and farm you could feel the homesickness of these people throughout the war years, most of whom were just waiting to leave their jobs and be allowed to leave.

With the refugees today, a similar pain and longing is once again reaching the remotest corners of the county.

The widespread solidarity, on the other hand, proves that the situation today is completely different.

People from Ukraine can decide for themselves whether they want to stay here - at least for the time being, to avoid the danger at home.

The Erdinger history project has made visible the 2021 unwanted connections between local families and companies on the one hand and the forced laborers on the other.

Like many of her fellow sufferers, Ellena Moskwina from Kharkiv was deported from the Ukraine to the Erding district for forced labor.

© Esri/National Archives

And so every rocket exploding in the current war affects our own history to some extent.

This is illustrated by the map of the origin of Ukrainian forced laborers.

However, some names could also uncover one or the other old wound.

Some examples: Near a small town in Donetsk, which has been contested since 2014 and called Avdiivka, where dozens of Ukrainian mountain farmers have been killed by rockets or artillery fire these days, the descendants of Maria Ternovets and Vasilie Dokienko, 19 and 33 years old, may be living today when they Goldach and Hampersdorf were "allocated".

Nineteen people probably came from the destroyed Kharkiv, including Ellena Moskwina, a young sixteen-year-old girl who was sent without a family to a farm in Taufkirchen that was completely foreign to her.

Your compatriots had been assigned to the Air Force Office near Eichenkofen.

Of the 99 residents from Kyiv in the district, it was primarily young women.

The largest group was sent to Eibach, north of Dorfen.

The descendants who should still live in the Ukrainian capital can hear the air raid sirens every day.

There are endless examples.

However, a special case from Haselünne in Lower Saxony proves that such historical connections do not have to have an immediate negative effect.

Because the Kemodingen and amateur historian Andreas Faltermeier was able to bring two families together in the course of his research.

In recent years, a Ukrainian woman from Mankivka, in the west of the country, has wanted to find out where her grandfather had been forced to work for years.

Faltermeier made contact and was able to determine the location after tedious research.

A local resident then agreed to help with the search.

This unexpected contact helped the Ukrainian woman have a purpose when war broke out.

She reached Haselünne together with her little daughter.

The Nazis also forced Maria Rernowez from the Donetsk region to do forced labor.

© Esri/National Archives

They still live there today in the house of the woman who helped them find their grandfather's farm.

In the same village where he once had to toil against his will for several years of his life.

The focus was not on one's own personal experience and traditional suffering, but on mutual stories and an openness that created space for honest encounters.

In the forced labor database, it can be determined quickly that between 1940 and 1945 five people from Mankivka lived in our district.

They each spent several years in Niederneuching, Moosinning, Notzing, Eschlbach and Windham near Bockhorn.

Could a historical connection be mobilized here not as a separating but as a common element?

Written by Giulio Salvati, historian and grew up in Erding.

He conducts research in New York, among other places.

His local interest is in coming to terms with Nazi history in Erdinger Land.

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