NEWS AND VIEWS

Mittenwalders slate reunion at Soyuzivka

by Michael Komanowsky

The next reunion of former students of the Mittenwald displaced persons camp and their guests is being planned for October 14-16 of this year at Soyuzivka. The details of this year's program are still being planned.

One proposal includes the presentation for sale of the "Book about the Mittenwald Camp" by Yaroslaw Duzyj, its editor. It is a beautiful and entertaining book with an abundance of pictures vividly portraying our many experiences during our four years of life in the camp.

An interesting event of our reunion last year was the showing of a film of the 1946 Spring Festival (Sviato Vesny). This film will be shown again this year. Conversations with "Mittenwalders" who did not attend last year's reunion revealed that the ability to reach and inform people by means of advertisements is limited, because many readers often overlook them. Therefore, the Organizing Committee requests that those that become aware of the reunion inform and remind their Mittenwald friends and acquaintances about it.

Mittenwald looks drastically different now than it did to 55 years ago when we were there. While the ancient art of violin-making is still practiced there, the town has developed into a popular tourist resort with many attractions such as bike trails, tennis courts, miniature golf courses, swimming pools, skating rinks and the huge "Ski Paradise Kranzberg" that has many ski lifts. Yet most people come there to do what we used to do: enjoy the beautiful mountain views, wander around the hills and mountains and ski in the wintertime.

And while now there seems to be no obvious trace of our former presence (except for many graves at the local cemetery), it is possibly no coincidence that one of the attractions repeatedly advertised in the town's tourist literature is camping.

In 1946 several thousand Ukrainian scouts (plastuny) from all over Germany had their Sviato Vesny about a mile from the camp where local Ukrainian scouts cleared an area on the side of a main road of military debris and built a bridge across the river Isar leading into the woods at the foot of a small mountain.

In 1947 a Displaced Persons' International Scout Jamboree was held in the same place. And every year thereafter, as long as our Ukrainian camp existed, there were scouts of different nationalities, voices and even the same pleasant, attractive, winsome or blithe personality traits.

Most surprisingly, we also found that (as an old German song teaches) true friendship indeed does not wane with distance or the passage of time but lives on in our thoughts. It is these types of experiences that led to the decision that another reunion should be held as soon as possible.

To reserve rooms for the next reunion of students from Mittenwald, contact: Soyuzivka, Ukrainian National Association Estate, P.O. Box 529, Foordmore Road, Kerhonkson, NY 12446; telephone, (845) 626-5641.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 15, 2001, No. 28, Vol. LXIX

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