Memorial Inscription
The Danube Swabians
are descendants of German farmers
and craftsmen who, after the
expulsion of the Turks from Hungary,
settled in the area known as the
Pannonian Basin, between the years
of 1630 and 1794.
With the plow, not by
the sword, they established a new
homeland in the regions known as
Banat, Batschka, Syrmia, Slavonia,
Baranya-Tolna and the hills round
Budapest.
The Danube Swabian
people lived in peace and harmony
with neighbouring nationalities.
Through hard work, cultivation of
the soil, and the clearing of the
land, what once marsh and wasteland
became the granary of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
At the end of World
War I, their homelands were divided
between Hungary, Romania, and
Yugoslavia. In the year 1940,
650.000 Danube Swabian lived in
Hungary, 350.000 in Romania, and
550.000 in Yugoslavia.
After World War II,
the Danube Swabian people were
deprived of their rights and
dispossessed of their lands and
properties by the communist
dictators in their countries, they
were banished from their homes,
deported or imprisoned as forced
laborers.
In Yugoslavia alone,
over 100.000 Danube Swabians, mainly
women and children, were killed or
starved to death between 1944 and
1948.
Those who survived
are now scattered throughout the
world. Before 1945, some 220.000
Danube Swabians had emigrated to the
United States, and after 1945,
another 30.000 followed. By 1993,
some 250.000 Danube Swabians have
made the United States their home.
Inscription Transcribed by
Andrea Ballreich
§
Location:
Sunset Memorial Park & Mausoleum
Saint Louis, St. Louis County,
Missouri, USA
Plot: Located on a grassy island
between Sections 15, 16, 17 & 21
We
appreciate
Connie Nisinger for contributing
this information and photos to the
DVHH.
[Published at www.dvhh.org, 2005]
