[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Tatars

[Günther Böhm]

Richard Benert schrieb:

>Your impression that "Tatar" and "Cossack" were terms that got applied to 
>Ukrainians in general is interesting, Jerry.  Can you recall any specific 
>examples of this?
>
Hello Richard,
no Volhynian example but one from Siebenbürgen, Romania:
I knew a woman from there some twenty years ago. She was of Hungarian 
ethnicity and married to a German from Siebenbürgen whose parents didn't 
accept the daughter-in-law for many years and called her a 'Zigeuner' 
(gipsy). The circumstances were comparable: a German ethnic group of 
decreasing number amidst of a foreign majority struggled to maintain her 
identity and thus tried to segregate and speak ill of the native people. 
The label 'Zigeuner' stood for strangeness, non-sedentariness and 
non-reliability and so were the lables 'Tatar' and 'Cossack'. The lables 
'Hungarian' or 'Ukrainian' weren't disparaging enough. I think the 
pastor himself admitted the orthodox neighboring Ukrainians to use the 
protestant church during the anti-religious campaign of 1929 when most 
of the orthodox churches had been demolished. Note that the German 
protestant churches in Volhynia were not demolished because they were 
not considered to be symbols of the old ruling class. Maybe the German 
pastor felt solidarity with the chased neighboring orthodox parish - but 
the German peasants were not that insightful.

Günther