In the course of my bachelor thesis, I created an illustrated book about the life story of my grandfather.

More precisely, it is about the journey of our ancestors to Hungary and Grandpa’s journey back to Germany. About his childhood during the Second World War and his time in the internment camp after it was lost. How it feels to be homeless and discriminated against. In this book I recount his experiences, supported by his personal anecdotes, with drawings of the past and the present.

It all started when our ancestors settled in Hungary in the 17th century as part of the Swabian migration. Under Maria Theresa, poor German peasants were promised a richer life if they agreed to give up their farms and settle the territories that were almost deserted due to the Turkish wars. Unfortunately, after the settlers were brought to the territories they found that they had been shamelessly exploited. They came across heavily overgrown moorland where it was impossible to grow food or build shelters. In the many years it took to reclaim the land, about one in three settlers died either from lack of food, or from disease such as the plague or cholera. Gradually, the german farmers managed to build villages, such as "Laschkafeld", which is the birthplace of my grandfather.

In 1930, my grandfather was born as an only child to one of the most prosperous peasant families in the village. Only German farmers lived in his village and only German children went to his school. The traditions and holidays in Laschkafeld were also similar to those in Germany. So when Hitler came to power in 1933, the idea of National Socialism started to spread in the villages of the German farmers as well. So my grandpa, like all children, went to the Hitler Youth alongside school. During his school years, the first and second grades were taught everything in German and in the Gothic script. From the third to the sixth grade, he learned the state language for one hour a week. After that, the seventh and eighth grade would have followed, but my grandpa was already in the internment camp.

Germany lost the war in 1945, which led to Russians and partisans marching into the villages of the German farmers and taking over their houses and properties. The peasants had to leave their belongings behind and were taken to internment camps with only a sack used for grain. Everything that did not fit into this sack had to be left behind.
The German farmers were brought to the internment camps to die there. They were considered war criminals because of their German origin after Hitler's power epoch. They were given so little to eat in the camp that most died of starvation. The rest were struck down by all kinds of diseases, which of course were not treated, or shot because they were too weak and slow.
My grandfather was 15 when he and his mother were sent to separate camps. His father had been taken earlier and was already dead.

My grandfather survived two years in the internment camp, and in his misery he often had to become inventive and ate rats and insects in order to survive. But at the age of 17, my grandpa was able to leave the camp. The camps had not been dissolved in a regulated manner. Instead, the guards simply stopped coming back at some point, so that the prisoners could disperse in all directions. Most escaped to friends or family. My grandpa reunited with his mother and traveled with her to the mountains to visit relatives.
At the age of 19, my grandpa started an apprenticeship in the metal industry, which he was able to complete in a shortened time. This was necessary because my grandfather was drafted into the military for Yugoslavia at the age of 21.

In order to be allowed to leave for Germany, an application had to be made first. In 1949, my great-grandmother made her first application on the premise of family reunification. Her brothers and parents had already fled to Germany via Austria before the end of the war. But it was not until 1952 that my great-grandmother was able to travel by train to her family in Germany with the help of my grandfather, who had been granted leave from the military for this purpose. My grandfather first had to return to the military until he was allowed to travel to his mother in Griesheim a year later. There, a special settlement had been built by Darmstadt for them with many plots of land that could be purchased and built on. The cooperative in Darmstadt gave the farmers who possessed a lot of land back in Hungary a burden compensation for their loss.
Thus my grandfather was able to buy the land in Sankt Stephan on which he still lives today and build the house on it in which I grew up.