^{The News}
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

New Parishes Online at Matriken.at: BB staff member Patrick Kovacs reported that images for records from the parishes of Frauenkirchen, Halbturn, Mannersdorf, Mattersburg and Neckenmarkt are now online at Matriken.at.



New Bilingual Catholic Deanery in Trausdorf: The Catholic Diocese of Eisenstadt recently made a couple of changes in its administrative organization. The Eisenstadt Diocese is composed of 172 parishes in Burgenland divided among twelve "Deaneries" (prior to 1973 there were 15 Deaneries).  A Deanery is an ecclesiastical administrative units within a diocese that manages a collection of parishes and their staffs.

The current changes affect the Church's organization in districts Eisenstadt and Mattersdorf. First, both Eisenstadt and Rust previously had independent Deaneries, and they have been merged. Then a new Deanery was established in Trausdorf with the distinction that it will be a Croatian/German bilingual Deanery serving a group of parishes that all have a substantial Croatian membership. The parishes are: Antau, Baumgarten, Draßburg, Hornstein, Klingenbach, Oslip, Siegendorf, Steinbrunn, Trausdorf, Wulkaprodersdorf, Zagersdorf, Zillingtal (with Baumgarten and Draßburg being from the northern edge of district Mattersdorf).

It is not clear to me whether the two prior Deaneries, Eisenstadt and Rust, managed parishes beyond their city borders. As free cities, both are politically independent Bezirks (civil administrative districts) separate from the wider surrounding Eisenstadt Bezirk. However, there is no reason the Church would have needed to honor the civil distinctions (as they obviously did not in establishing the Trausdorf Deanery).



Rotenturm Timber Loading Station Opened: ORF News ran a story in June about the move of a timber-loading rail station from Oberwart to outside of Rotenturm, ten kilometers away. The new timber loading point is located in the area of the former Rotenturm train station and directly off the B63, the major state road through the area. More importantly, it is no longer in the urban area of Oberwart, where it caused trouble for residents and community officials, as the prior truck access was through the downtown governmental, shopping and commercial district of Oberwart, and the loading point, which was just a block behind the downtown district, created dust and noise pollution. Oberwart Mayor Georg Rosner said they had repeatedly asked for this and are now happy and grateful that the loading point has been relocated.

Maintaining a loading point was of concern for the state of Burgenland because, with passenger traffic already lost, securing continued freight traffic was essential to "not only to revitalize this economic region, but to develop it further," according to Governor Doskozil. To make the move possible, the state of Burgenland bought the disused railway line between Oberwart/Unterwart and Großpetersdorf in 2018, investing more than one million euros. More than 200 meters of track were relocated for the new loading station and the approaches were provided with lighting and asphalted to accommodate heavy vehicles.



The main beneficiary of the new loading point is the city of Oberwart, where the timber was previously loaded. Rotenturm itself is not burdened by the new timber loading station because it is located well outside of the village. Now large amounts of round and sawn timber can be brought from the road to the rail, with about 32,000 tons currently schedules to be loaded at the new timber loading station.



More on Sankoháza (in Güssing Gemeinde): BB member Bob Schatz and I had an email exchange concerning the Sankoháza Mayerhof this past month that consisted of an initial information-filled message from Bob, a number of back-and-forth exchanges where Bob helped me resolve some questions that arose as I tried to translate the German-language text he had quoted, and then yet another long quote by Bob of a related German-language text from another source. Rather than cite each email in the exchange, I will edit Bob's original message to incorporate answers to my questions. Bob writes:



Dear Tom, I hope all’s been well with you and yours.

Regarding the discussion of Sankoház in the recent newsletter, I also “had previously heard about this place” (quoting you in the article), and had visited it in 2001. It is southwest of Urbersdorf and north of Glasing. It plays a role in my 18th-century ancestry and my family's origins in Burgenland. Let me briefly explain that first, and then provide what I know about Sankoház itself.

My earliest documented paternal ancestor in Burgenland is Johann Schatz, who married Margaretha Bastl of Tobai in 1719 in Güssing. The baptismal records of their children born in 1719, 1726, 1730, 1732, and 1734 all state in Latin that the parents were “ex Shankohas” - from Sankoház (I must credit my cousin Anna Gully of Strem here, she researched the marriage and baptisms in the Güssing volumes in Eisenstadt back in the 1990s). My ancestor Johann was not originally from the Güssing area. My many years of research have uncovered no Schatz in the church or civil records of Komitat Eisenburg / Vas Megye before that 1719 marriage (genetics now suggest a possible origin in Vorderösterreich, but that’s another story). I surmise that, as a young man newly arrived, Johann did not have the means to purchase a farm lease from the Güssing Herrschaft, but instead found employment as a farmhand at Sankoház. Between 1734 and 1736 he did apparently acquire a farm because he is “ex Urbersdorf” in the baptismal record of his son in 1736. The descendants of that child, my paternal ancestors, lived and farmed in Urbersdorf until the 1920s (interestingly, this fact is mentioned by Father Gratian Anton Leser in a 1929 article in the Güssinger Zeitung).

The origin of Sankoház goes back at least to the mid-16th century, when it was a dairy farm owned by the merchant Nicholas Sanko, first mentioned as a trader of wheat and salt in Güssing in 1539 (more on him below). The farm passed to his heirs but, upon the extinction of the family in 1691, it reverted to the Batthyány. Sankoház is now owned by the current Count Draskovich (Schloss Draskovich is one mile west), it was included in the dowry of Elizabeth Batthyány when she married Count Karl Draskovich in 1841.

Ed: This 1841 date was clearly incorrect as Sankoház was owned by Philipp Batthyány in the 1857 Parzellen Protocolle; Bob later wrote:

Since sending my prior email, I have learned that Sankoház was not acquired by the Draskovich as dowry in 1841. Elizabeth Batthyány, Countess Draskovich, was a niece of Prince Philipp Batthyány-Strattmann. He died unmarried and childless in 1870. The title passed to a 2nd cousin, Gustav Batthyány but, in his will, Philipp left his estates and property in Güssing and Punitz to Elizabeth. This included Sankoház. Elizabeth’s husband Karl had died in 1855, so their sons eventually inherited these properties from their mother. Hence the Draskovich now own much of the former properties of the Batthyány in and around Güssing.

Interestingly, Philipp’s will also established the foundation that maintains and preserves Burg Güssing. The main residence of the princely family in modern times was at the palace in Körmend, until the Batthyány properties in Hungary were expropriated after 1945.

But let us return to Bob's original message:

During a trip to Austria in 2001, I visited Sankoház with my cousins from Strem. We had a pleasant talk with the then tenants of the main house, sitting out back along the Strembach. I suspect this is the house that is the number 153 you cite from the cadastral map [Ed: actually, if along the Strembach, that would be #154]. I remember that the (empty) living quarters for farmhands and their families were a long block of attached residences next to the house. The buildings can be all be seen on Google Earth.

Regarding Nicholas Sanko, the following is quoted from: Floiger, Michael, et al., Geschichte des Burgenlandes, Lehrbuch für die Oberstufe (Wien: Hölzel 1996), page 99.

[Ed: the quoted text was in German; I have translated it here]:

“Nikolaus Sanko was part of a family from Ofen [Ed: Ofen = the Buda part of Budapest], which came from Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Sanko had extensive business relationships with Venice, but he also did business with Turkey.

"Sanko raised a huge amount of capital via nobles who invested in his businesses. So he worked with Franz Batthyány, the Ban of Croatia, who invested 20,000 guilders in Sanko's extensive trade. But Franz Batthyány was soon deeply indebted to the wholesale merchant. To pay, he had to mortgage the village Sulz from his Güssing Herrschaft.

"Sanko owned a free house in Güssing. Nearby he ran a dairy farm, which later became the "Sankohaz-major" and became the property of Batthyány (now owned by Draskovich).

"The reason why the wealthy Ragusan merchant settled in Güssing is to enter into, on the one hand, the Alpine trade of the Habsburg Empire and, on the other hand, the freedom the citizens of Güssing had from the Dreissigst [Ed: a 'one-thirtieth' customs tariff on the import of products from the German, Galician and Lombardy-Venetian countries to Hungary and Transylvania]. Franz Batthyány, the landlord of Güssing, had succeeded in gaining a liberation from the Dreissigst after the Turkish wars of 1529 and 1532.

"However, the Ragusan wholesalers, as a whole, were unable to gain a foothold in the regions dominated by the Habsburgs and concentrated their trading activities on the majority of the country, which was occupied by the Turks.

"The descendants of Nikolaus Sanko were based in Güssing. However, soon we will no longer find them as risk-taking traders, but as civil servants and soldiers serving Batthyány."

With my very best regards,
Bob Schatz, New York, NY



Bob later sent a longer quote about Sankoháza and the Sanko family. As you will see, it was written by Father Gratian Anton Leser, O.F.M. (1873-1949), a member of the Franciscan community at the cloister in Güssing and its Father Superior for many years. Father Leser had an interest in southern Burgenland and translated (into German) much pertinent material about it from the original Latin and Hungarian sources. His translations and articles found their way into the local newspapers in the 1920s and 30s, as well as into scholarly publications.

Bob sent me Leser's German text and I translated it, so any errors in translation are my fault. However, I will note that Bob detected two date errors in the original text, and I have applied his corrections to my translation. I'll also note that this text is likely the source of the incorrect claim that the Draskovich acquired Sankoháza as dowry in 1841.

Leser writes that "...welcher endlich durch Heirat des Grafen Paul Draskovich und der Gräfin Elisabeth Batthyány 1831 in den Besitz des ersten überging" (= "which finally came into the possession of the first (i.e., the husband) through the marriage of Count Paul Draskovich and Countess Elisabeth Batthyány in 1841.")

While it is correct that Sankoháza came to the Draskovich family through (i.e., "as a result") of the marriage, Paul Draskovich was the son of Elisabeth, not her husband (who was Karl). Karl was already dead when Elisabeth inherited Sankoháza in 1870. So the real transfer to the Draskovich only occurred when Karl's son, Paul, inherited Sankoháza at his mother's death in 1882. I have added these editorial corrections to my translation also.

Bob writes:



This [German text] is from a series on notable people from the Güssing area written by Father Leser that appeared in the Güssinger Zeitung. This one is from 28 July 1928:

"There is a dairy farm near the municipality of Glasing in the Güssing area, which is known in various old writings and is still popular today under the name Sankóház. In this Meierhof there is an ancient residential building on the banks of the Strembach, today inhabited by Emerich Bogner, the estate manager for Count Draskovich. In the 16th and 17th centuries, this building was an Edelhof [noble house] and was used by the Sanko family.

"Some writers give this family the nickname of Sankoház and want to move their origin to the southern Slavic port town of Ragusa. Their first known family member was Johann Sanko, commander of the Hungarian fortress Késmárk in 1529.

"In a document from 1539, the nobleman Nikolaus Sanko is called "Familiaris" [friend and advisor], the confidante of Franz Batthyány, and because the document speaks of our region, he was the first resident of the noble house named after him. He will have received this noble court with the belonging for his heroic deeds with the Batthyány soldiers in the Turkish wars, which can also be concluded from several similar gifts by the Batthyány. The Sanko family seems to have been resident here since the first half of the 16th century, because their individual members are often mentioned in the Güssing community protocol, which started in 1612. In 1625, Frau von Sanko complained to the city court via Peter Blasko about three fields above the cemetery.

"At the time of the great division of belief in the 16th century, this family joined the Helvetian [Swiss/Calvinist] creed, which is confirmed by the fact that on November 13, 1633, in Sankoház, when Peter Balogh married the daughter of the nobleman Sanko, the Swiss superintendent Johannes Paulides Canisacus gave a speech about the gospel of the false prophets, targeting the young lord and count, Adam Batthyány, who had returned to the Catholic Church three years previously, and [Batthyány was] so angry with him that on November 24 of that year he expelled the superintendent, and on February 9, 1634, by decree expelled all evangelical and reformed clergymen and teachers from his estates.

"This decree did not affect the Sanko family, who could remain in their belief, as evidenced by the fact that the Predicant of Lábad, Michael Fidel and his wife mortgaged their property in Táplánfa in 1644 to the nobleman Balthasar Sanko until the sum of 120 thalers was repaid. Later we find this family again in the lap of the Catholic Church as, in 1671, 1682 and 1688, Balthasar Sanko appeared as godfather in the local baptismal register, and in Güssing in the Roman Catholic rite are baptized in 1690, Katharina, the child of Nikolaus Sanko and his wife Katharina, and in 1709, Franz Johann, the son of Georg Sanko and Maria Vinkelmarin.

"After pointing out their belief, we want to follow the story of Sanko further. We know from a trial in 1638 that this family owned 33 immovable properties in Somogy and Zala counties, that Balthasar Sanko was leader of a imperial Hussar division at the Kiskomárom border fortress, and that the late Kaspar Sanko had left the widow Margaretha Herant and two sons Nikolaus and Stefan.

"The Kiskomárom border fortress was a very important and dangerous post in those Turkish wars. The Turks had conquered the Gross-Kanizsa fortress in 1600 and strongly fortified it. In order to prevent their further advancement, a protective fortress had to be built by Austria-Hungary near them in Kiskomárom. Here the Christians had countless battles with the Turks until the reconquest of Kanizsa in 1690. Here the Batthyány were the generals, the Sanko the Hussar leaders, and the Batthyány soldiers from our territories therefore the fighters. At this time the Hussar leader Balthasar Sanko and the above-mentioned two brothers Nikolaus and Stefan Sanko were so distinguished that, in 1640, on behalf of the Emperor Palatine Nikolaus Esterházy of Galántha, they were awarded all of Maroth's property, half of the property of Szentkirály, Szentmihály and Hosszúfalu, the Pusztanyir dairy in Sümeg county [actualy, Sümeg is a district, in Veszprém county] and the goods of Syl, Sanacz and Cher in Tolna county.

"In a document dated 1641, the Hussar leader Balthasar Sanko named the following possessions as his property: 33 possessions in the Sümeg county, 5 in Zala county and 3 in Tolna; and in our area he owned vineyards in Langzeil near Güssing and in Sumettendorf and Heiligenbrunn, in Güssing, he owned a puszta called Domogg, a stone house, a noble farm called Sankoház near Glasing, and an estate in Urbersdorf.

"In 1642, Balthasar and Nikolaus Sanko bought a house in Güssing. In 1643, the noblewoman Margaretha Herant, and Kaspar, Balthasar and Nikolaus Sanko were mentioned in the Güssing community protocol. In 1645, Johann Eszterházy and Nikolaus Pethö presented the two Sanko, Balthasar and Nikolaus, with goods in recognition of their merits. In 1646, Balthasar Sanko bought a house in the inner city of Güssing, with the count's stables to the east, next to the Kaspar Franchich and Daniel Jobbágyi residential buildings. In 1655, Franz Márfy, who lived in Veszprém, borrowed 100 gold guilders from Balthasar Sanko, for which he mortgaged his goods in Somogy county to Sanko in pledge. In 1656, Nikolaus Pethö pledged his goods in Tolna and Sümeg counties to his brother-in-law Nikolaus Sanko for 100 thalers. In 1657, Nikolaus Sanko was mentioned in the Güssing community protocol as a high employee at the court of Count Adam Batthyány and was mentioned again in 1689. In 1671, 1682 and 1688, Balthasar Sanko is listed as a godfather in the Güssing baptismal book; in 1690 Nikolaus Sanko is listed as the father of a daughter and in 1692 with the general and count Adam Batthyány as a godfather at the baptism of a Turk; and in 1709, Georg Sanko appears as the father of a baptized child; thereafter the family disappears from the history of Güssing and of their Edelhof. On July 11, 1749, a child from Sankoház named Josef Eutkymius was baptized, his noble parents being Franz Somogyi and Christina, with godparents Euthymius Marchio de Castiglioni and Elisabeth Talian, from which it follows that at this time the Edelhof Sankoház was inhabited and perhaps owned by the Somogyi family. However, in 1753 the Batthyány rule had already taken via Sankoház 5 fl. 30 kr for wine, consequently also owned the Edelhof; which finally came into the possession of Count Paul Draskovich [in 1882] through his [father's] marriage with Countess Elisabeth Batthyány in 1841."

The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings Burgenland Bunch!

I hope that everyone is doing well and staying healthy. This month, we welcomed 28 new members, bringing our total member count up to 1368. Please join us if you haven’t already! We’d love to have you!

We had a nice recipe-sharing thread, which motivated me to make some delicious goulash for the first time in months. I always make the Hungarian version, but this time I tried a new recipe for Austrian beef goulash (Rindsgulasch). It was really good and I will definitely make it again. Here is the link if you’d like to give it a try! https://www.lilvienna.com/authentic-austrian-beef-goulash/

Member Roland Schuller shared an English translation of his recipe Grenadiermarsch: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/grenadiermarsch

A few members reminisced about St. Anna Kirtag celebrations in years gone by. We also had a little chat about popular soccer/football clubs in Burgenland. We did quite a few translations and look-ups as well.

BB staff member Patrick Kovacs shared an update on additional villages added this month at the matriken.at website. Now available are the villages of Frauenkirchen, Halbturn, Mannersdorf, Mattersburg, and Neckenmarkt.

We round out the month with a gorgeous video shared with us by Land Burgenland. Enjoy this bird’s eye view of the Siegendorf and Klingenbach area:
https://www.facebook.com/.../2508619242574695/

Stay safe and healthy!
Take care!
Vanessa



Update for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": Here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book "Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer."

Current total sales are 1534 copies, as interested people purchased 3 more books during this past month. Sales are being estimated because our print-on-demand printer, Lulu.com, is still updating their site and systems, thus the complete sales history is currently unavailable (but is expected to return in July). However, sales during the current month are listed.

As always, the book remains available for online purchase at a list price of $7.41 (which is the production charge for the book, as we purposely choose not to make a profit so we can avoid dealing with the income tax consequences and so you can obtain the book at as low a cost as possible!), plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for information about current discounts (there is at least one discount on price or shipping available most of the time... if not, wait a few days and there will be one!). Getting the book and reading it is another excellent way to pass the time in self-imposed quarantine.



Burgenland Recipes: No recipe this month...



Note: We have updated the recipes sortable list with links directly to the recipes or food-related articles published in our past newsletters. You can access the list by clicking our recipe box (to the right). Thanks to the contributions of our members over the years, we have quite a collection of Burgenland recipes, some with several variations.

However, we have now used up most of our unpublished recipes... thus this recipe section will become dormant when we run out. So, if you have a favorite family recipe, please consider sharing it with us. We will be happy to publish it. Our older relatives, sadly, aren't with us forever, so don't allow your favorite ethnic dish to be lost to future generations.

You can send your recipe to BB Recipes Editor, Alan Varga. Thanks!



Cartoon of the Month:

"In November 1954, at the age of 4, Joseph immigrated to Toronto, Canada, and continued on to New Jersey in 1963."

I was fairly certain that the Soviet post-WW-II occupation of Burgenland did not end until 1955, so I was surprised that his family was able to emigrate in 1954. In a return email, I asked Annie about this, saying:

"I’d be interested in hearing more about your family’s emigration from Burgenland. My understanding was that the Soviet occupation did not end until May 1955, yet you report Joe (and presumably the whole family then) emigrating in November 1954. I was not aware that was possible at that time so would appreciate enlightenment. It could be an interesting and informative story for the newsletter. Please, when the time is right, consider what you can share on this topic."

Annie wrote back to say that her mother, Mitzi (Maria), would be very happy to speak to me regarding their emigration, that "...it would actually make her very happy to reminisce, so please feel free to contact her." I would later learn that Annie was born well after her family's emigration, even after the move to New Jersey, so could not provide first-hand memories of this event.

Thus, after I prepared a list of questions, I called Mitzi, now living with her daughter Rosemary, and had a forty-five minute conversation with her... which I'll recount in the paragraphs below.



I began the interview by asking questions about Mitzi herself, her husband and their parents.

Maria/Mitzi (Domitrovits) Kaufmann was born in Strem in 1927 (making her 92 now) to parents Franz and Theresia (Hafner) Domitrovits, originally of Strem and Glasing, respectively. Despite the Croatian roots of her father's surname, they spoke German in the home. Her father had been in Pittsburgh in 1922-1925, came back to marry Theresia and, by the time Mitzi was born, had already gone back to America. By 1929, her mother joined her father in America, but in Saddle River, NJ. Mitzi says she was raised by her grandparents, presumably Ignatz and Cecelia (Garger) Domitrovits on the family farm in Strem, as mother-in-law Cecelia is listed as Theresia's contact at home on her 1929 manifest and Mitzi says she was raised in Strem. She also says she seldom saw her parents (they appear in the 1930 US census living in Manhattan, NY, but I can't find them in the 1940 census). Mitzi had one brother, Johann, born in Strem in 1937, died there in 1992 (he married and had one daughter, who also married and gave him a grandson).

Her husband was Franz Kaufmann, born 1924 in Strem to parents Josef Kaufmann and Theresia Karner, originally of Fischa, Steiermark, and Strem respectively. His parents, too, went to America in 1929, heading to Nazareth, PA; they would still be there in 1942 when Josef filled out his WW-II Draft Registration card (but I was unable to track them further). Mitzi says Franz never knew his parents. Franz did have an older sister, Hilda, but I could not determine what happened with her.

Mitzi and Franz would marry in 1950, with the aforementioned son, Joseph Franz, soon following. The family would emigrate to Toronto, Canada in 1954, where a daughter, Rosemary, would be born. In 1963, they would move on to New Jersey, where the last daughter, Annie, would be born. Husband Franz, now known as Frank, died in New Jersey in 1997, at the age of 73.

But I'm jumping past the heart of this story... and the details that explain it.



To me, the heart of this story is why did the family emigrate when it did? ...and why was it allowed to emigrate at that point in time? But for both of these questions, I will need to build a little background.

When asked by me what her earliest memories of life in Burgenland were, Mitzi initially hesitated... then answered with just a few words: "It was a good life; I miss it."

I would quickly learn that asking questions about her feelings and her reasons for those feelings, would seldom elicit an extended response; most often, they would be met only with silence. Facts she would share; feelings she kept to herself. As an interviewer, I could not complain about this. I told her up front that I would not print anything she did not want reported and that she would have the right to review the article before it was published; I think she decided that the sure way to guarantee control was not to say anything she would not want printed. Questions like, "Did you do chores on the farm?" received a "yes" but "How did you feel about that?" were ignored. So I moved on.

I asked about being a teenager during WW-II, what she did for the war effort, and what was life like under Nazi rule... about all I learned was that the family had "more money" during the war because of "government support." (I'll note here that I suspect her answer says more about the lack of cash in Burgenland during the years leading up to the war than it says about the level of government support during the war. And I'll note that I was previously unaware that the government provided any support then.)

My questions about life after the war (any restrictions, shortages, etc.) during the Soviet occupation received an equally short answer: "We received food stamps" (which was another governmental surprise for me!). Likewise, when I asked about whether there were any issues around getting married during the occupation, the answer was simply, "None."

My final questions about her time in Burgenland concerned the emigration itself: were there legal limitations around emigrating during the occupation and what was the process like? The only thing that she noted was that there were questions about whether her husband, Franz, had served in the military during the war. Their answer was "yes" ...and that he had been taken prisoner and shipped to a camp in Siberia, only being released in 1949. That answer seemed to satisfy the government, so they were free to go.



To say the least, many of these answers surprised me... which made me do some research. Clearly, my "bias" coming into this interview was that, of course, the Soviet Union would impose restrictions on the freedom of the Burgenland people; that, of course, there would be shortages; that, of course, life would have been miserable during and after the war! But I should have known better...

Mitzi was born right before the Great Depression, and, as hard as it is to believe, the Depression had a positive effect on Burgenland. Walter Dujmovits, in his book, The Burgenländer Emigration to America, says a number of things:

"Unemployed Burgenländer emigrants returned from America with their saving and invested their dollars in the local economy. Many houses were renovated or rebuilt.

"Burgenländers who lived in the country always had a garden or a small field by their house where they were able to grow their own food—and maybe have some left over to sell.

"Job placement services, which had appeared about 1930, were successful. Burgenländers were also now able to find work outside of Burgenland and Lower Austria in other areas of Europe."

So Mitzi grew up in a time that our Burgenländers were comparatively well-off. They may not have had much cash, but they had food, with an excess to barter. And what did a child know about economic realities?

WW-II and her teen-age years had to be difficult... but it was difficult everywhere. It was something to be lived through... then forgotten.

As for the period after the war, Walter Dujmovits tells us that:

"The period after 1945 was very different from that after 1918. The land had been ravaged by war. Houses and possessions had gone up in flames, roads and bridges had been destroyed, resulting in the total collapse of trade and transport. The concern for the captured and missing soldiers mingled with the grief for those who would never return.

"The Burgenländers in America were very worried about their relatives back home. During the summer of 1945, the first letters starting arriving from the relatives in America (“Did you survive the war? Are you all healthy? How are things?”). Then, in early 1946, a steady stream of care packages started, peaking during the period from 1947 to 1949 and continuing into the late 1950s. It is estimated that a family who had relatives in America received an average of 10–20 such packages. In total, there must have been close to a 100,000.

"The local economy improved from year to year, helped significantly by the dollars being received in letters from relatives in America."

Walter does acknowledge the Soviet occupation... the barbed wire fences along the Styrian border ("symbols of constraint and separation"), and the lack of reconstruction aid via the Marshall Plan (which allowed the industrial economy of western Austria to recover quickly). But within a few years, he says, the restrictions were lifted and the fences moved to the Hungarian border. And the lack of personal aid from the Marshall Plan (which was also blocked by the Soviets) was countered by the private aid from families in America. Likewise, Burgenland (and everyone else in the Soviet Occupation Zone) received proportionately less from the United Nations UNICEF feeding program for children and mothers... but Burgenland still had their garden patches and the ability to grow their own food.

So Burgenland actually opened its own economic gap relative to the other areas under Soviet control—areas that did not have such support from emigrant family members in America nor easy access to small-scale farming expertise.

I spent some time reading about the Soviet actions in its occupation zone. The general consensus of the literature was that the Soviet Union's interest in Austria was to extract economic value from Austria, removing industrial assets when possible and running unmovable industries for its own use or profit, while reinvesting as little as possible. As Burgenland had no significant industries, this policy had little effect in Burgenland.

Further, after the Soviets discovered how weak the Communist party was in Austria, they gave up on political domination; instead, they used Austria as a "show place" for their "benevolent" rule. Their occupation soldiers were kept isolated from the indigenous population and, as an effect, had the least impact on that population of any occupying troops. And yes, the Soviets felt the need to support the local population with aid, mostly not to be "bested" by the Western zone efforts and to maintain their "show place."

However, by the early 1950s, they had extracted everything moveable and the profits from the increasingly decrepit remaining industries were rapidly decreasing. Maintaining the occupation had became an expense, so they lost interest, only keeping control as a bargaining chip in other, more-important negotiations. Burgenland, and the rest of their Zone, were largely ignored.



Thus Mitzi's answers were consistent with the local view she had: compared to nearby areas, life in Burgenland was good. They had sufficient food and money to survive, and the Soviets, after their initial ventures immediately post-war, retained little interest in direct management of the local governments and its peoples.

My next question, then, was: "So, if things were so good, why did you emigrate?"

Again, after a weighty pause, I received a succinct answer: "Money."

Although I dug for more justification for such a life-altering decision, it was not forthcoming. I did learn a few facts: Franz took a ship in July 1954 and settled in Toronto. Mitzi and son followed in late November, landing in Halifax and taking the train to Toronto. It was a "nice ship" and life in Canada was "good."

Yet nine years later, in 1963, they would move on again, this time to New Jersey. There was an uncle there, and a friend, and a job as a butcher, so they loaded up the car and made the trip.

When I asked how she liked New Jersey, her answer was, "Canada was nicer."

Regardless, they settled in and established what turned out to be permanent roots. A third child, Annie, joined brother Joe and sister Rose. Over the years, grandchildren were born and the family built a house back in Strem; annual vacation trips were made. But those trips ended ten years ago, when health problems interfered. Mitzi told me that, "when I'm better, we will start going again." If she does go again, she'll have to do it without husband Frank, dead 20-plus years now, or recently deceased son, Joe.



My final question followed my spoken observation that it seemed clear that she still holds Burgenland dear, prompting me to ask, "So, why didn't you move back?"

The answer was slow in coming but was what I expected: "We have no one there now; everyone is dead... and I have children and grandchildren here."

In those words, I felt the gentle melancholy that I think all of us in the later years of life feel... we made many choices along the way: this man or woman; that job; this sequence of places to live... a whole series of decisions that led from youth to old age; some carefully made, some flippantly made, some made out of necessity, but all decisions that determined the course of our lives ...decisions impossible to unwind now. It may well be that we are not unhappy about the choices we made... but, still, we wonder what life may have been like had we changed one or two of those choices.

I think there was a lot said in the silence that prefaced so many of Mitzi's answers.

Familynames/Housenames. In many areas of medieval Southern Germany, large farms had names, usually one derived from the first family that lived there, but not always. Very often, since peasants did not have well-defined family names until the late middle ages, a new family moving in was called according to their house. After the middle-ages, the habit remained though legal surnames now existed. In most of the German area, as well as most of the Zips [Ed: German settlement area in old Szepes County, Hungary, now the Spiš region of Slovakia] and Hauerland [Ed: another German settlement area in present-day Slovakia], house names became akin to a semi-official nickname: Legal records would state that so-and-so (real name), known in the community as (alias the house name), etc. Even when locals used exclusively the house name in their dealings with each other, there was a legal surname as well. But in some places, like Muennichwies (today Vricko) in the Hauerland, an isolated mountain village founded in 1450 in the uppermost Neutra Valley, the medieval usage continued. Until the late 19th century the husband marrying into a farm (when taking it over) legally received the house name, and it was used exclusively in all church entries about him and his children. (from Johann Lasslob, in Heimatblatt Mai/June 2000, p. 5-6)

I just thought you might be interested in seeing this since what was true for Poszony (Austria-Hungary) was probably true for the Burgenland area, also.

Thank you again for the wonderful work you are doing!

Hannelore (Fakundiny) Billowitz

NOTICE (Informal Terms and Conditions): The Burgenland Bunch (BB) was formed and exists to assist Burgenland descendants in their research into their heritage and, toward that end, reserves the right to use any communication you have with us (email, letter, phone conversation, data upload, etc.) as part of our information exchange and educational research efforts.
    ● If you do not want your communication to be used for this purpose, indicate that it is "confidential" and we will attempt to abide by that request.
    ● Correspondents who communicate with the BB without requesting confidentiality retain their copyright but give a non-exclusive license to the BB allowing us to forward to BB members, publish in our monthly newsletter or on our website, and/or subsequently and permanently archive all or parts of such communications.

The formal Burgenland Bunch Website Usage Agreement can be found here: Agreement

The Burgenland Bunch homepage (website) can be found at: the-burgenland-bunch.org

Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, copyright © 2020 by The Burgenland Bunch
All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided.