Saturday, June 14 – Touring Zichydorf area and Werschetz

We began our day with a stop in Gross Gaj, just northeast of Zichydorf. I think we have been in this village on all four of our trips. We identified a location for the cemetery, but it was overgrown with thick brush and we never penetrated beyond a few feet to find one or two headstones. On this trip, Stasa asked if part of it could be cleared. They gave it a valiant attempt, but had to give up, just as we did. We were able to see a tall cross a bit further into the bush and to reach one headstone, but did not make much more progress than we ever had before.

We then went to Zichydorf. This was supposed to be a short stop because all the people with a Zichydorf interest have been here before. Guess again! After the cemetery we went to the church where we were greeted by a handful of the ladies, including our bike lady friend from our last visit. They presented us each with a card commemorating the church’s 200^th anniversary last year, a few sheaves of wheat, and a rose. 

From there we went a short distance down the street to the cultural centre where they had laid out a large selection of goodies. We did our main business there – making donations on behalf of the Zichydorf Village Association to the church, the cemetery, and the cultural centre. We did not get out of there until 11:30, but we could eliminate our lunch break!

Next stop was Georgshausen, just about 15 minutes away, accompanied by our bike lady with the bike in the cargo hold. 

We were given access to tour the old, dilapidated Birg villa and the Birg brick plant, places we had just photographed from the road before. They are trying to restore these sites as places of interest for the future and are naturally looking for people who might help finance them. As interesting as these places were, they gobbled up a lot of time. We then went on to the new, small church in town. There another handful of people had prepared another small reception for us. 

Meanwhile, the priest had arranged for Barbara and three others to examine some tools and implements nearby that supposedly had belonged to her family. The man’s house and the church are both on the plot of land her family owned. Their host was well into the sauce already around lunch time and he would not let them get away. He kept claiming that everything he showed them was from her family, but she was skeptical. While these artifacts were interesting and could have come from her family, they could also have come from any number of other places.  When they finally escaped, we made a quick stop at the cemetery. There we were told that our previous information was incorrect. We believed that there was a mass grave of exhumed bones under the large crucifix. The priest and a local history buff were in agreement that those bones were all buried in the one German grave we had noted before. We found two additional German graves on this trip that apparently existed there under special circumstances. We finally got away after 2 PM.

We returned to Werschetz and found the site commemorating our relatives who were brutally killed in the camp there. Groups of survivors in Germany have managed to erect several monuments to those people throughout Serbia in the last several years, but her, despite ten years of trying, all they have been allowed to do is erect this simple sign.

From there we toured St. Gerhard Cathedral, the largest Catholic Church in Serbia, and listened to a brief concert on its organ. 

Then it was off to Kudritz for a quick cemetery tour and a wine tasting party. Earlier in the day I thought I might miss my most important stop here because of all the delays, but the group pulled together for me and we got it done.

Weather was a bit cooler, but still comfortable and sky was overcast with a couple of brief occasions of light drizzle.