Hermine Diwald - An Introduction

Hermine Diwald - photo by Nigel A  JAMES

Cunning and Fortitude

There are some people who have an enormous reserve of deep inner passion. They have a certain peace about them that provides strength and meaning to those that they meet, and, one such person is Hermine Diwald. But, Hermine’s strength didn’t come about by pure chance, it grew out of cunning, stealth and great fortitude.

It all began at the end of the Second World War. All over the world, people were returning happily to their homes; their struggle for peace having come to an end. Not so for the Donauschwaben. They had lost all, and, amongst them were Hermine and her family who were from Werschetz in the Banat (Serbia), and they, like thousands of others had been sent to a transit camp!

They had a choice. And it was simple. Stay put in internment and end up somewhere in the Soviet Union (and possibly even dead), or, take your chances and run! And, so it was, that 13 year old Hermine, her family, and others, as well, stepped out after dark through a hole in the fence and embarked upon their sometimes hard, but always dangerous flight to the west.

Hermine’s family found their new home in Vienna where they all succeeded very well. Other Donauschwaben went further a field, and, some didn’t stop until they reached America, and a few even went further a field to Australia and New Zealand.

But people don’t flee from places, they run from people; and those who fled and survived have one very big thing in common, and that is the place that they came from. For them, that will always be home.

And home needs keeping alive. From Vienna, Hermine and others are still busily producing and sending out the Werschetzer Zeitung, a periodical journal containing all that is of interest to this group of very unique survivors. Its news is interesting and factual. But there is one thing that will never be found amongst its pages, and that is bitterness. Yesterday was then and the present is now, and Werschetz will always be Werschetz; and the Werschetzer Zeitung will always continue to connect.

The journal is a very big part of Hermine’s life, and, thanks to her efforts and skills, an important tradition has taken on the importance of historical reality, not only “abroad” but “at home” in the Banat as well!

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