War Incidents around Glogowatz

Mountains and War Incidents

Introduction by Dr. Hans Gehl=

As is known, toward the end of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy (from 1910-1= 918) our hometown community Glogowatz was called Öthalom “Five Hills Village” (cf. Hungarian = öt “five” and halom “hill”) after the five truncated-cone-shape earth heights, visi= ble in the distance, situated east of the community on the Arad-Deva Highw= ay and on the streetcar line (former narrow-gauge railroad). The regular layout of these earth heights suggests their artificial construction, but their origin and their purpose could not be ascertained in spite of multiple excavations by the Ar= ader archaeologists. It can be rea= d in Historia Domus I that the Calvary Chapel and the 14 C= alvary stations were erected in 1852 on the southernmost hill by devout donations.=

In the local dialect, the earth heights are called “fimf Hiegl” (<= span style=3D'color:red'>five hills).&nb= sp; The field name “Fimfhiegläcker” (five hills acres) was modeled after this toponym, although small earth elevations usually are called “Hiwwl” (aft= er Middle High German hübel, = with ü>i de-labialization and b>w change). (More about that in Hans Gehl: The Upper Ge= rman fescht-dialects of the Banat. Stuttgart 1991, in the section “Bodenerhebungen” [= Earth Heights], page 59.)

Before the Second World War, church celebrations still took place in the Calvary Chapel; in addition, the Way of the Cross was also said in prayer later at = the stations. In my childhood 50 = years ago, the faithful went from the “big” to the “little church” (which was always officially only called Holy Trinity Chapel)= and to the chapel at Mt. Calvary to pray on = Good Friday. Before, the children = were able to gather the first grass to be able to make a nice nest for the Easter bunny on the way home. And in= the mostly snowy winters, the children went to the five hills with their “Schliede,” the simple manual sleds, to sleigh there. For that, the first hill was not suitable because of the building; the second was so much the better for tha= t, where one could climb up the roughly 5 meters (16= .4 feet) and then whistle down the slope on the sled. It was not too steep so that every= thing always went smoothly.

&= nbsp; From the path to Neupanat (Ujpanat, Horia) and = from the five hills, the foothills of the West Carpathian= s could be seen as a blue streak, during clear days the contours of the medie= val castle ruins of Hellburg as well, which were said to have been inhabited by giants according to old traditions. Likewise, there were said to have been warnings of approaching enemi= es by fire signals next to the castle ruins of Schoimosch (Solymos, Şoimoş) in the Marosch valley (near Maria Radna), Hellburg (Wilagosch, Şiria) a= nd on the five hills. Although the = modest chain of hills from Pankota (Pîncota) beyond Hellburg, Galscha (Galşa)= , Gyorok (Ghioroc), Minisch (Miniş) Paulisch (Păuliş) and Radna, as foothills of the Zărander Mountains, do not exceed a few hundred meters (yards), one knew them as “mountains” among us. Many Glogowatzer farmers traveled = by the electric narrow-gauge railroad called “Motor” ins Gebirig (to the mountains) to cultivate their own or a leased vineyard. Because earlier there was a lack o= f time for that, it probably was not to climb to the top of the castle ruins. Friendly and also family relations= hips also existed to the New or German Paulisch situated east from Gyorok. During the pilgrimages to the plac= e of grace Maria Radna, there was resting in Paulisch and praying at a cross. And our teacher Jakob Wolz came for years from Paulisch traveling to the Glogowatzer school= .

Finall= y, in September 1944, hard battles between the Hungarian and Russian-Roma= nian armies took place between Paulisch and Radna. On the 20^th of Septembe= r, the Hungarian resistance was destroyed and the Russian offensive overran Glogow= atz as well on the 20^th and 21^st of September. There were fires and three local inhabitants died due to fragments of cannon projectiles. Pastor Johann Wolf reported about that in our Historia Domus Glogowatz II. Like most of the village inhabitan= ts, I spent the hard days, while the front passed through, in the shelter of a cellar. = In addition beforehand, we were supposed to catch the last train ready to leav= e in Arad in= order to flee. Since our father was= in the war and the grandfather in an internment camp, the decision fell very heavily to our mother (with three small children), the aunt and grandmother, and they hesitated a long time. When we then already on the horse wagon to Arad heard the cannon thunder from= a distance, the continuation of the journey seemed too risky. We gave up the—obviously sta= rted too late—flight and sought refuge from bombs, shots and looting soldi= ers in a cellar. Our fate was det= ermined, and in this way I was able to begin the trip to Germany only 42 years later.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Whether it would have been better = under other circumstances is hard to decide today: Everyone must make the best ou= t of his life himself, independent of the place and of the conditions with which he is confronted.

As a supplement to our war experiences, I publish a relevant report from Hell&= shy;burg. The front passed through there at = the same time, but the war tore even worse wounds in this community than with u= s.

It would be reliable, possible besides and also in the mind of all compatriots even if older Glogowatzers would describe the war incidents from their point of view.

*** *** ***

Dr. Otto Gref= fner

“Don’t forget George!” – After sixty years = of decreed silence, the veil over the tragedy of Hellburg is raised: Nine inno= cent civilians became victims of an act of revenge in autumn 1944=

In late summer of the year 1944, a bloody tragedy occurred in Hellburg (Roma&s= hy;nian Şiria [Schiria]; Hungarian Világos [Wilagosch]). What really happened in the Sep&sh= y;tember days of the year 1944 is only fragmentally known to many Hellburgers. A cloak of decreed silence covered= up the truth for decades. The fa= mily members of the victims were intimidated in such a way that the events were = only spoken about behind a hand held in front of one’s mouth. If a few brave people tried to tur= n to the court to bring the truth to daylight and to punish the guilty, it was nipped in the bud. One who as= ked for a clarification of the case was declared an enemy of the state and thus forced to give up the battle for the victory of the truth. Today, after sixty years, we are i= n a position to reconstruct the events in autumn 1944 in broad strokes and= to bring some light into the dark, even if the question of guilt cannot be completely settled and the culprits could no longer be called to account be= cause they died a long time ago.

The multi-district community Hellburg/Schiria, one of the largest villages of t= he Arad County with its 9,000 inhabitants, certainly always had a mixed population which consisted of Romanians (majority), Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Serbs and Gypsies. The community has a = rich historical and cultural past. On the highest hill of the community, sit enthroned the remains of a medieval castle, which played their last great roll in the battles against the Turks. An important event even connects the community with world history: In 1849 near Hellburg, the Hunga= rian revolutionary army under General Görgely surrendered in the face of the Russian troops under General Paschkievics who had rushed to help the Austri= an Kaiser (Emperor). In practice, the great revolution o= f the 19^th century in Europe w= as considered finished due to this defeat on the 13^th of August 1849.

&nbs= p; “Pay respects to everybody in h= is language.”

Hellbu= rg is both the birthplace of the great Romanian author Ioan Slavici and the ho= me of other personages of the Romanian and Hungarian cultural life like Traian Mera, Ioan Rusu-Şirianu and Papp Lászlo. The spirit of the great son of the community Ioan Slavici characterized the behavior of the population for a l= ong time. Slavici wrote: “W= hen you meet a German, say Guten Tag to him, you greet a Romanian with Bună ziua and a Hungarian with Jó napot. = (All of them mean ‘good day.’) Pay respects to everybody in = his language.”

War and clash of arms apparently made this spirit vanish in September 1944. At the front, the situation of the German and Romanian troops had gotten worse. The opposition to the Antonescu dictatorship became stronger and stronger.= On the 23= ^rd of August 1944, an armed rebellion had brought Antonescu down a= nd set up a new government. (King Michael was a leader of the coup and arrested Gene= ral Ion Antonescu.) This b= roke off the connections with the brother in arms Germany and placed Romania on the side of the Anti-Hitler Coalition.&= nbsp; Over night, enemies grew out of friends: Romania declared war on Germ= any. The German population in Romania was put into the worst difficulties by this change of front. Fear of reprisals spread. It became especially critical in t= he western border areas where many Germans and Hungarians lived in particular. The Russian = and the Romanian armies were on the advance in the direction of the west.

&nbs= p; The war moves closer.<= /p>

In the first days of September, the first refugees arrived in Hellburg. In these days, the city of Arad and the surro= unding villages, Hellburg among them as well, were occupied by the Hungarian army. In the course of this, = there were not greater clashes because the Romanian troops withdrew to the <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Zărander Mountains east of Hellburg. There were hard battles, however, = in the area Radna-Paulisch-Kladowa (Cladova). The Hungarian counteroffensive began to flag. Meanwhile, the= din of battle also approached the Hellburg community. On the 18^th of Septembe= r, the supply points of the Hungarian army and the headquarters left the community= in the direction of the west. In= their place, Romanian and Russian formations marched in immediately.

Above in the castle ruins, a group of about 80 men of the Hungarian army had entrenched themselves and offered bitter resistance. In the end, the fighters had to su= rrender. After their seizure, they had to s= et out on the path to Russian captivity. The dead were buried in the Catholic cemetery of Hellbur= g. Many soldiers who managed to hide succeeded in escaping in civilian clothes due to the assistance of the Germ= an and Hungarian population from Hellburg and Galscha. On the 20^th of Septembe= r, the clashes on the territory of the community were concluded. Nevertheless, the murder did not c= ome to an end. Already in the evenin= g of the 19^th of September on orders of the authorities and the milit= ary, armed agents (Romanian civilians) swarmed out to take action against Hun&sh= y;garians and Germans in the village.

Accord= ing to reports of some contemporary witnesses, a large part of the German and Hungarian young people was supposed to be shot and abducted. On the streets, the chief presiding judge of Hellburg, Potoran, bellowed: “Toţi ungurii şi nemţii trebuie extirpaţi; nu-şi au locul in România.” (All Hungarians and Germans must be exterminated; they have no place in Romania.)

&nbs= p; The naked despotism

In the following days, naked despotism was rampant; the armed national guards&= shy;men raged in the village. They se= ized the only 16 years old high school student Georg Herrling and the minor Maria Csismadia and shot them. An additional victim was Stefan Herrling (the father of Georg Herrling), a talented painter who had studied in Budapest and whose works already had been shown in several art exhibitions in the Banat. His pictures, which decorated many Romanian churches in the area, should not go unmentioned. Julius Stre= mpel, father of five minor children, was also murdered. He had a haberdashery store in the Romanian part of the village. One accused him of having sold cigarettes and bread to Hungarian soldiers. The married couple Sandor and Mari= a Csisnadia (both artisans), the farmer György Kiss, the day workers István= and Peter Szekely as well as the village barber Géza Hanula also became victims of the despotism.

Many of the victims were driven barefoot through the village and finally shot at= the execution place at the edge of the village in the vicinity of the Orthodox cemetery. There, they were al= so buried in all haste. Only mont= hs later, was it possible to bury them humanely and as Christians. According to eyewitness reports and written records, the persons mentioned were accused of collaboration with t= he enemy. A military court put together on the spot condemned them to death; there was no possibility of defense.

In those days, many additional Germans and Hungarians were taken captive and brought to the cellar of the police station. They were also threatened with dea= th and marked as partisans. Finally,= they were set free on orders of a Russian officer and the harassment was discontinued. My investigatio= ns reveal that this happened on the protest of some brave Hellburger Romanians, thus of the big landowner Secula, of the former politician and senator Romu= lus Laza, of the former community judge (mayor= ) Matu and of the lieutenant of the Royal Romanian Guards Mircea Ciurdariu as well= as other citizens of the greater community.

The kingpins of this bloody deed were not old-established Hellburger citizens.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Mostly, they were immigrants from = North Transylvania (so-called “Refugiaţi”; refugees), who had to leave their home after the accession of North Transylvania to Hungary in 1940 and harbored a blind hatred of the Hungarians. The notorious presiding judge Poto= ran came from the small North Transylvanian city Harghita and the relentless Colonel Săndulescu from B= ucharest.

After sixty years of silence, this dark chapter of the local Hellburger history m= ust also be spoken about. However= , the fact must also be put forward that transgressions like those in Hellburg ca= nnot be traced back to earlier hostilities between the ethnic groups; there were= no retaliatory measures. The gro= unds for that were missing in this village, especially since the ethnic gro= ups living there lived with one another in perfect harmony. Also, the march of the Hungarian a= rmy into the village did not justify the transgression described because the Hungarian soldiers and officers behaved correctly toward the civilian population. A written document confirms that. After the with= drawal of the Hungarian army, the Arader prefecture demanded a report about economic losses and about injuries to life and limb in a circular to the communities of the Arader area. In the written reply of the Hellburg community, which is signed by the Romanian notary Mihai Nistor, is recorded on the 5^th of October that the Hungarian occupying forces have caused no damages worth mentioning.

When we, the friends of Georg Herrling, many years ago visited his seriously ill mother, she told us: “Don’t forget Georg!” She did not say more to us, but we= understood her. Her words accompanied us= for many years without our being able to do anything...

The article of Otto Greffner appeared in the:

Banat Post= , Number 20, from the 20= ^th of October 2004, page 8.

English Translation by George P. Bretträger (translator notations in red)