The Forgotten Genocide Conference 2011
St. Louis, MO April 28-29, 2011
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Speakers and Agenda
Day 1 – Thursday, April 28, 2011
Master of Ceremonies: Mr. Ed Tullius
Bio: 
Ed Tullius is the current president of the non-profit Danuschwabien Foundation, and is the vice-president of the Cincinnati Donauschwaben Verein. He has retired from 30 years of public service. He has worked part-time for 15 years as a ski instructor and continues to enjoy outdoors activities and world travel.
9:00-9:50am – Dr. Albert Jabs
Bio: Dr. Jabs began during the cataclysmic events of WW II surrounding his family’s farm along the Poland Vistula River (Gross Dembe-near Plock). The issues of war, peace, expulsion, deportation, racism, dying, guilt, blame, and hatred were germinated at this time and have influenced an academic career as a professor in America and abroad. He has put much energy into civil rights and Lutheran missions as well as written thousands of publications, and has taught primarily in the context of minority institutions both in the American South and Lithuania.
Speaking on: Genocide has been part of the human story back to the Genesis account of Cain killing Abel and amounts of deadly rebellion against the creator’s plan. The deadly virus of ethnic cleansing and genocide has been part of the human project from the Assyrian Empire of Three Thousand years ago and up to present day where the lingering shadows of genocide lurks in such places as Darfur, the Congo, and Burma. The responsibility of our generation is to surface all genocides as worthy subjects of study, hidden or not. I will speak on the goal of moving from conflict to reconciliation through moral and historical courage.
10:00-10:50am – Dr. Dirk Voss
Bio: Dr. Voss is a professor at the St. Louis Community College – Meramec and teaches American and World history. He graduated with a Ph. D. in history from the University of Oklahoma in 2000 and taught at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, Canterbury Christ Church University in England, and Ca Mau Community College in Vietnam. He specializes in transatlantic history of the 19th and 20th century. His most recent published article is on the influence of the stationing of American nuclear weapons on German pop music in the 1980s.
Speaking on: West German Perceptions of the Flight and Expulsion of Germans, 1949 to 2010.
Dr. Voss’ presentation is a survey of the West German literature on the flight and expulsion from 1949 to 2010. His presentation illustrates how the topic of the expulsion deeply divided West German society and politics. Conservative politicians and journalists compared the sufferings of the German refugees with the victims of the Holocaust in the 1950s. Left-wing media and scholars avoided and ignored the topic throughout the 1960s until the end of the unification of the two Germanys. In recent years, the topic of the expulsion, allied war crimes, has been revived by both conservatives and the Left to create a collective memory of the most traumatic event in German history while stressing reconciliation with Eastern European nations.
11:00-11:50am – Dr. John Messmer
Bio: Dr. Messmer is a professor of political science in the Department of History and Political Science at St. Louis Community College – Meramec. Dr. Messmer’s teaching and research interests include American political institutions and behavior, political reform, Constitutional issues, and international relations. He received his PhD from the University of Missouri in 2001 and has been teaching at Meramec since 2002. Dr. Messmer is a lifelong St. Louisian and the son of two Danubeschwabian refugees who immigrated to the United States in 1955.
Speaking on: Nationalism and Nationality
Within the context of “The Forgotten Genocide” project, this presentation will focus upon definitions of nationality. As the son of German (Danauschwaben) immigrants, what are my thoughts as a “German-American?” What’s right or wrong about being a “hyphenated” American? We’ll also discuss and try to understand the pride and despair people possess in their own culture and nation. Are there consequences that we don’t fully appreciate?
12:00-1:00pm – Lunch / Ms. Marlene Fricker: Choreographer and show coordinator
Bio: Marlene has been a member of the United German Hungarian Club of Phila & Vicinity and active in their Cultural Group since 1965 participating in every cultural aspect of the organization. She has a BFA in Dance from Adelphi University. For 20 years she was the primary instructor and administrator of Marlene Blank School of Dance. Marlene currently works as a Supervisor at Abington Memorial Hospital. She is furthering her education at Gwynedd Mercy College in the field of Allied Health. She is the mother and step mother of six and grandmother of a 2 year old. Marlene has worked together with members of the United German Hungarians and the Philadelphia and Trenton Donauschwaben Clubs on three Cultural Exhibits of primarily Danubeswabian artifacts. She was also instrumental in taking a group of 25 members of her club to visit the Donauschwaebisches Zentralmuseum in Ulm in 2008.
1:00-1:50pm – Mr. Eberhard Fuhr
Bio: Mr. Fuhr was arrested in his Cincinnati high school at the age 17 and interned for almost five years as a Dangerous Alien Enemy in WW 2. He retired with a career in sales/sale-management with Shell Oil and of Pioneer Plastics Corp.
He is a graduate of Ohio University and earned an MBA at The University of Wisconsin. He is a widower with three children and 8 grandchildren and resides in a suburb of Chicago.
Speaking on: The actions of the United States during WW 2 beginning with the registration of all aliens in peacetime 1940– and internment of legal resident immigrants as Dangerous Alien Enemies. This includes the incarceration of their families, the losses of property and careers. The Aliens were used in exchange for Americans, soldiers or US civilians abroad. He will exhibit documents, photos, along with discussion of court cases and his personal experiences as an internee from age 17 to age 22 when released.
2:00-2:50pm – Mr. Henry Fischer
Bio: Mr. Fischer was born in Kitchener, Ontario in Canada the son of Swabian immigrants from Hungary. He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. Following a career in the Lutheran ministry during his retirement he has authorized several books related to history of the Danube Swabians, including Children of the Danube, The Pioneers, Strangers and Sojourners and Emigrants and Exiles part of a trilogy: Remember to Tell the Children. He has also translated significant Danube Swabian historical information from German to English which appear on his website. He is married to his wife Jean and has two sons and four grandchildren the latest manifestation of the Children of the Danube in Canada.
Speaking on: “It’s Always Been a Matter of Identity”.
The Danube Swabians facing their self-identity in terms of nationality, ethnicity and their country of residence and the implications and expectations of them by their host countries. I provide a brief historical survey of the problem and I use my own personal experiences growing up in Canada during the Second World War in my attempt to answer the question who am I? There was a parallel situation in Hungary at that time during the census of 1941 when our families were asked what their Mother tongue was and what their nationality was. What did it mean to be German living in Hungary during the Second World War? It was the kind of loaded question like: Do you beat your wife as often as you used to? The answers they gave at the time would have dire consequences and implications for them in the future including deportation to the Soviet Union and expulsion to Germany. What does it mean to be a Danube Swabian now, regardless of where we live?
3:00-3:50pm – Mrs. Rosina Schmidt
Bio: Mrs. Schmidt wrote a Families book on her grandfather’s birthplace of Hrastovac. She developed a webpage under the same name, which took a life of its own and it is now a home away from home from all those ethnic Germans of that area, which were blown in all four-wind directions during and after WWII. She is active on Danube Swabian Forums in Germany, Croatia and North America.
Speaking on: “Danube Swabian Lost Children”
Towards the end of 1944 Tito’s government of the newly established Yugoslavia imprisoned the 200,000 ethnic Germans (Danube Swabians) who did not manage to flee their ancestral lands ahead of the Soviet Union’s Red Army invasion, and imprisoned them in various starvation camps. About 45,000 of them were children below the ages of 14. Eventually 20,000 of those children were sent to orphanages across Yugoslavia, to raise them as Tito’s true patriots. What became of those children?
4:30pm – The Forgotten Genocide Film
Day 2 – Friday, April 29, 2011
Master of Ceremonies: Mr. Robert Filippi
9:00-9:50am – Dr. Zoran Janjetovic
Bio: Dr. Janjetovic earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Belgrade in 2004. He is senior researcher at the Institute for More Recent History of Serbia since 1995. He’s taken part in several research stays abroad, participated in three international projects and has taken part in over 40 international conferences. He has published four books (the fifth is awaiting publication) and over 70 articles (almost a half abroad). His fields of research include national minorities in former Yugoslavia (particularly Germans), post-WWII diplomatic history, social history of Serbia and Yugoslavia in WWII and after. He speaks English and German and reads Italian, French, Slovenian and Macedonian.
Speaking on: The relations between Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with Ethnic-Germans through history and the influence these relations had on the fate of Germans at the end of WWII. I would like to present how many-faceted these relations were and what led to their eventual fatal outcome. In that context, nationalism, communism and Nazism will be discussed as relevant ideologies which brought about the German tragedy.
10:00-10:50am – Marta Istvan
Bio: Mrs. Istvan was born in Kikinda, in Serbian-Banat and raised in a multicultural heritage. Her ancestors
were Danube Swabians, Hungarians, Serbs and French and she speaks all but French. She spent 25 years as a librarian in Kikinda and taught German in the elementary school. At present she works as a freelance journalist writing for Serbian and Hungarian journals and represents the Nordbanater as a correspondent for the Danube Valley Magazine published in Germany. Her interest lies in the documentation and conservation of her racial heritage in the Banat. She documents the lives and outstanding personalities of the people from her home town and their final resting place. Mrs. Istvan sits on the board of the Vojvodina Hungarian society; local historian and member of the State Commission for the processing of the Hungarian victims, the 2nd to the mass graves in unknown World War II were buried in Vojvodina and works for and with the Danube Swabian genealogists in Sindelfingen (Germany) in close cooperation.
Speaking on: The creation of a visual documentation of the Danube Swabian mass graves in Vojvodina, entitled “Memorials of the Danube Swabians in the Banat in Backa and Srem” in cooperation with the Danube Swabian Josef Lang. I’ll be talking about the problems, difficulties and experiences in our travels on foot, by bus and by car through the towns of Vojvodina. The documentation is for people to see the success in the construction of the memorials and monuments and how they will live on into the future.
11:00-11:50am – Julius A Loisch
Bio: Mr. Loisch was born in 1931 in a village in Slovakia called Muhlenbach. His grade school education began in Unterschwaben in a small Swabian community by the border of Poland. Two of his high school years were spent at Kesmark in Slovakia. The school children were evacuated to Austria/Germany in September of 1944. He graduated from high school in Dinkelsbühl/Germany. After Earning his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering he spent one year at White Sand Missile Range followed by working on Aerospace projects like Solar Wind spectrometer (Apollo 12 lunar landing), various Military defense projects followed by developments in medical instrumentation. He retired in 1992.
Speaking on: The history of the people from Slovakia, a part of the Carpathian Mountains where he spent his childhood. He was born in the village of Muhlenbach, but lost his youth after the Second World War ended. He’ll explain the consequences of the expulsion and life in post war Germany.
12:00-1:00pm – Lunch / Erika Neumayer
Owner/Designer of Rare Dirndls and show coordinator
Bio: Miss Neumayer is a Chicago-based fashion designer that has a passion not only for modern and high fashion, but also traditional and cultural clothing and textiles. After her study abroad program in Ghana, Africa in 2007, she realized how much of an impact fabric and clothing can have on a culture. This inspired her to further research the clothing of her own culture, resulting in an honors project focused on the regional differences in dress among Donauschwaben communities. Since graduating from Dominican University, she has been working hard to build her own line of dirndls. Although not traditionally Donauschwaben, it allows her to be creative and stay active in the community she loves.
A Rare dirndl is exactly that, rare! It is unique in its fabrication and style and you will not find anything like it in America. Rare is committed to providing its customers with high quality and high fashion dirndls as well as helping make the world a better place. Owner and designer, Erika Neumayer created the Rare line to bring more color, texture, life and fashion the American dirndl market. In addition, she is dedicated to using her talents to help a world in need. With that in mind, 10% of all sales will go to her favorite charity, Global Goods Partners. Take risks, help others and be Rare!
1:00-2:15pm – Dr. Eleanor Johnston & Rev. Dr. Wayne Fraser
Bio: Dr. Johnston and Rev. Dr. Fraser have recently retired from teaching and administrative work in Niagara private schools. She is a chorister and lay leader in the Anglican Church where Wayne preaches the exciting new ideas of progressive theology. They work together on numerous justice issues, and they share the joys of loving each other, their children and grandchildren, reading and writing, dancing, bird-watching, gardening, and enjoying music and Niagara foods and wines with their friends and relatives.
Speaking on: “How Far To Go Home” (Dramatized Reading)
“How Far to go Home” began as the Memoirs of Guenter Schemeit, after Guenter died in 2009 Eleanor with co-writer Wayne Fraser rewrote and produced the war and genocide stories from his Memoirs as a one-act two-person staged reading drama. Born in East Prussia in 1927, Guenter was a Christian pacifist who witnessed and survived many horrors, including the firebombing of Tilsit and Koenigsburg and the refugees’ flight from the Soviet Army across the frozen Lake Frishing to Danzig.
3:00-3:50pm – Dr. James Bacque
Bio: Mr. Bacque was born and educated in Toronto. He attended Upper Canada College and Trinity College, University of Toronto. He has been farm worker, truck driver, construction worker, stagehand, journalist, magazine editor, book editor and author. His books have sold over 200,000 copies in 14 countries around the world through forty years. His work has been the subject of four TV documentaries, a book and many articles.
Mr. Bacque was unfortunately unable to attend in person, but supports Ann and her efforts in full by donating copies of his works. Thank you !
4:00-4:30pm – Prof. Scott Dorough – Principle Editor
Bio: Prof. Dorough has been working in professional video and independent film since 2002. He is an experienced cinematographer and editor, working on numerous independent shorts, documentaries, and the full length motion pictures RHINELAND and Game of the Year. Scott also teaches audio and video production for Webster University and St. Louis Community College.
Speaking on: The production process surrounding the making of the 6 part documentary series. He will give a brief background into how the process began, where the project stands at the time of this conference and talk about the next steps. He will then introduce the 30 minute overview of the coming series, which is at this time being titled the “Précis”.
7:00pm – Ron Morrison’s Fireside Chat
Bio: Ron Morrison is husband and willing assistant to Ann Morrison. Ron has many years experience in photography and now videography while working on the film “The Forgotten Genocide”. Ron also assisted during interviews while traveling to several cities during the pre-production phase of the film.
Ann's Films 