Title: Post World War II Danube Swabian Immigration to Milwaukee Oral History Project Records
Inclusive Dates: 1993-1995

Creator:

• Post World War II Danube Swabian Immigration to Milwaukee Oral History Project

Call Number: UWM Manuscript Collection 112

Quantity: .6 cubic ft. (2 boxes)
Repository:

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives Department

Archival Location:

UW-Milwaukee Libraries, Archives / Milwaukee Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Interviews with Danube Swabian immigrants to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, conducted as part of an oral history course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The interviews provide insights into life in the Danube basin, service in the Hungarian and German armies during World War II, experiences in Russian prisoner-of-war camps, emigration and settlement in Milwaukee, and the German American community. The collection is especially useful for studying the removal of ethnic minorities from eastern Europe, and the life of refugees in Germany after the war.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-mil-uwmmss0112

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"Danube Swabian" refers to individuals or groups who identify as ethnically German, or who are German-speaking, that settled in southeastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. The name partially comes from the Danube River, the second-longest river in Europe. This ethnic group was greatly affected by the World Wars and national borders, many emigrating from their homes to Germany or other nations by the end of WWII.

Citation Guide for Primary Sources

View the digital collection of the Post World War II Danube Swabian Immigration to Milwaukee Oral History Project

Access Restrictions

Researchers must use digital copies of the audio recordings. Additionally, the paper transcript of the A.P. interview is closed to researchers. There are no other access restrictions on the materials, and the collection is open to all members of the public in accordance with state law.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection (Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).

Acquisition Information

Michael Gordon donated the collection to the Archives in August 1997 (accession 1997-018).

Processing Information

Mark A. Vargas processed the collection at the Archives in August 1997.

Preservation Information

Scene Savers digitized the audio recordings in 2015. Preservation master files were created as 96 kHz/24-bit resolution 2 channel .wav files. Access copies were created as 44 kHz/320 kbps bit rate 2 channel .mp3 files.

	A.P. [pseudonym] Abstract: "A.P. was born in Almamellek, Hungary on October 17, 1921. Her parents had a farm and wine field in the Donauschwaben village of St. Laszlo, where A.P. grew up. She helped on the farm, in the wine field, and went to school in the village, where she learned in German and Hungarian. She was married in 1938, at the age of sixteen. Her first husband was killed in the Second World War, leaving her with a small daughter. In late 1944, she and her family were forced to flee their home from the advancing Russian army. They settled in Thuringen, Germany on a farm, where they worked as laborers. It was then that they decided to fulfill their wish to emigrate to America. With help from the Red Cross, and sponsorship from an aunt in Milwaukee, they were able first to move into the western zone in Germany and then to Milwaukee. After eight months living with an aunt, they were able to move out on their own. A.P. remarried in 1952 and had a son. Through hard work and determination, they were able to build two homes, and send their son to college. Although not a member of any German-American club until joining the Donauschwaben seniors, A.P. participated in many of their social functions." — Venessa Radke, 1993 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   1-2	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   1	Transcript, 1993 Access Restrictions: Closed per terms of the interview.
	Abt, Maria Abstract: "Maria Abt was born in Keschinci, Yugoslavia on December 7, 1932. Her father owned a hemp factory. Her family was expelled from their home in spring 1945. After several short stops they finally settled in Leibniz. They spent ten years in Austria living as refugees. Maria married Johann Abt in 1951. He is from the village of Semeljzi in Yugoslavia. In 1955 they immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They traveled to the United States on the refugee transport ship the SS General Lanfitt. Mrs. Abt has been a Boy Scout Den Mother, the leader of the Milwaukee Donauschwaben Youth Group, and currently researches and designs the Donauschwaben exhibit at the International Institute's annual Holiday Folk Fair." — Venessa Radke, 1995 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   3-4	Interview, 1995 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   2	Transcript, 1995
	Euch, Margaret Abstract: Margaret Euch was born in Goynk, in Hungary, in 1919. There she married and lived as a farmer until WWII, during which her husband was killed. She immigrated to the United States in 1955. She recalls her pre-war life and hometown in Hungary, her experiences with wartime displacement and forced labor, life in post-war West Germany, the immigration process, adjusting to life in America, and Milwaukee's German life and culture. Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   5-6	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   3	Transcript, 1993
	Figurski, Maria Abstract: Maria Figurski was born in Budajeno, Hungary, in 1930. She discusses her early life and family in Hungary, her forced deportation to Germany, her marriage and emigration to the United States, experiences as new Americans in German Milwaukee, and the German-American culture and clubs in which she and her husband participated. Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   7-8	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   4	Transcript, 1993
	Fuchs, Alois Abstract: "Alois Fuchs was born in Croatia on September 19, 1930. His family was evacuated from his hometown of Podravska Slatina in 1943. He lived as a refugee in several German cities and in several refugee camps in Austria. The family came to the United States in the 1950s. He married his wife in 1954. He was drafted into the American Army in the mid 1950s. He is currently the third vice-president of the Milwaukee Donauschwaben and has been very active in the club." — Venessa Radke, 1995 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   9-10	Interview, 1995 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   5	Transcript, 1995
	Hahn, Katharine Abstract: "Her family in Apatin on the Danube River in southern Yugoslavia consisted of three sisters, she being the youngest, two brothers, and her mother and father, a wicker furniture maker. Her town of 15,000 was almost entirely German with German newspapers and traded with their neighbors, Serbian and Hungarian. Her home was small, of four rooms, bedrooms, two, a kitchen and a dining room, set down in three hectares of garden and their vineyard. Her school was in German except for the history and geography taught in Serbian, by governmental order. She attended four years in lower grades and two years in upper grades. She left school at age fourteen in 1938 to work in a shoe factory to earn money for dresses or the dances she attended. She was married in 1942 at age eighteen and he was twenty one. Six weeks later, under the German officers the Hungarian Army came and conscripted her husband into the German Army. He was sent to Berlin to learn how to repair tanks. He followed the Panzer tanks to the Russian front where he was captured. She did not see him for eight years. She and the others in the town were placed in a farm labor camp and worked on various farm crops. They were moved around by wagon and by train. They had their homes looted by various Serbs. The Germans assembled everyone in the town square outside the city hall one day as the Russians were advancing and tried to get people to go to Germany by truck to work in the fields there. She was left out, some of her friends died in Dresden during the bombings. The Russians came in the fall of 1942, and all the remaining people were moved out to farm labor camps in the Ukraine, near Cherkoff. She spent three years there. After the war she was repatriated to Germany, and told that there were no family left in Yugoslavia. She walked out twice from the Russian camp in the Russian zone of Germany and finally made it over the border into the American zone in West Germany. She found a brother in Regensburg, and he located her mother. Three years later her husband was released from a Russian prisoner of war camp and sent her a telegram to meet on the train platform in Munich. After a year of looking for work and a new baby they decided to use church groups to immigrate to the United States." — William M. Brennan, 1993 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   11-12	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   6	Transcript, 1993
	Heim, Katharina Abstract: Katharina Heim was born to a family of farmers in 1934 in Klein Bastei (also known as Mali Bastei, located in present day Croatia), married Walter, a German, in 1954, and immigrated to America in 1961. In the interview Heim recalls her family's self-sufficient and agrarian home life before WWII, the death of her family members and destruction of her village during WWII, her experiences fleeing danger, the various jobs she worked after the war, and life in America. Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   13-15	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 3 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   7	Transcript, 1993
	Horn, John Abstract: "John Horn was born in 1921 in Baranya Jeno, Hungary, to Elizabeth and John Horn. His father was a local barrel maker and his mother was a simple housewife. The small village where he lived was a very close-knit community. As a young boy he attended school there and followed in his father's line of work at an early age. Later he married and one year later was drafted by the Hungarian army to serve with the Germans in World War II. At the end of the war, Mr. Horn was captured by the Russian army and sent to a prison camp deep in Russia. Since he knew a trade, he was given the job of teaching the Russians how to make wine barrels. In 1949, he was released and settled with his wife in Germany. On November 24, 1956, they immigrated to the United States along with their two children. Although they couldn't speak any English, Mr. Horn was able to get a job immediately because of his brother-in-law who was living in Milwaukee. Mr. Horn worked as a machinist in a small shop until he was forced to retire due to an accident at work." — Dave Wiedenkeller, 1993 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   16-17	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   8	Transcript, 1993
	Iller, Anna Abstract: "Anna Iller was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on January 7, 1916. Her father was born in Hungary and her mother was born in Austria. She married John Iller, a Danube Swabian from Tolna County, Hungary in 1932. They had three children. They joined the newly created Tolnauer K. Pleasure Club. John Iller was the second president of the Tolnauer K. Pleasure Club. She is the longest standing member of the Milwaukee Donauschwaben." — Venessa Radke, 1995 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   18-19	Interview, 1995 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   9	Transcript, 1995
	Kling, John Abstract: "John Kling was born on July 13, 1925 in Hogyes, Hungary to John and Margaret (Szeldner) Kling. John's father was employed as a carriage driver until 1935, when he and his family moved to Zomba, Hungary. In Zomba, the Kling family were farmers. In 1944, John and his father were recruited in the German army. John was married on September 15, 1953, in Rasantal, West Germany. John immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 11, 1955 to be with his wife. He and his wife have lived there ever since. They have two children, John born in 1956 and Eve Marie born in 1960. In Milwaukee, John has been employed by A and P Bakery (1956-1966), by Heineman Bakery (1966), and by Harnischfeger as a carpenter (1966-1991). John has been very active in the German community of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was a member of the German Language and School Society (1964-1977) and is a member of the Milwaukee Donauschwaben (1972-present). John is currently a delegate for the Donauschwaben to the United Donauschwaben in Milwaukee. John Kling has lived in six different countries, these include: Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Western Germany, and his current address in Milwaukee, Wisconsin." — Timothy E. Baumann, 1993 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   20-22	Interview, 1993 Physical Description: 3 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   10	Transcript, 1993
	Weil, Hedwig Abstract: "Hedwig Weil was born on September 7, 1925 in Dorf an der Pram, Austria. She married Adam Weil, a Danube Swabian from Kapitano, Slavonia in 1925. They came to the United States in 1955. Mr. Weil worked for the Milwaukee Marble Company polishing marble. Mrs. Weil cleaned houses. They had three sons. They became citizens in the 1960s. Mrs. Weil has been President of the Frauengruppe (Women's Club) since 1971. She is also active in supervising the Spanferkel food booth at Germanfest and the kitchen the Danube Swabians run at the Holiday Folk Fair. She is also President of the Women's group in the Landesverband, an organization of Danube Swabian groups in the United States and Canada." — Venessa Radke, 1995 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   23	Interview, 1995 Physical Description: 1 audio cassette
Box   1 Folder   11	Transcript, 1995
	Weiss, George Abstract: "George Weiss, Jr. was born on April 18, 1927 in Felsonana, a village in the county of Tolna, Hungary. His father, George Weiss, Sr., was a farmer and a carpenter. His mother, Katherine Schleicher, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but returned to Felsonana as a child. At the age of 13, Mr. Weiss was apprenticed to a bricklayer in a neighboring Hungarian town for three years. Upon completion of the apprenticeship, he became a bricklayer. In 1944 Mr. Weiss was drafted into the German army and served as a Morse code operator in Czechoslovakia for three months. In September 1947, Mr. Weiss and his family left Hungary for Bavaria. They hoped to emigrate from there to Milwaukee and join his mother who was already in Milwaukee. In July 1949, Mr. Weiss joined the rest of his family in Milwaukee. He began work as a mason. He was drafted into the United States army. He married Anna Kohler in 1954. They have two daughters, Susan and Katherine. In 1955 he started his own successful mason contracting business. Mr. Weiss also plays the tuba in the popular German band Johnny Hoffmann and the Herzbuben. Mr. Weiss has been very active in the German-American community. He has served as head of the entertainment committee for German Fest and has been president and fest director of German Fest for the past seven years." — Venessa Radke, 1995 Listen to this interview and read the transcript online.
Box   2 Audio   24-25	Interview, 1995 Physical Description: 2 audio cassettes
Box   1 Folder   12	Transcript, 1995