The Kriegsdorf/Voynovice Saga - Visit
Email from Pietra Hagenberger, SSND to Camilla Burns, March 3, 2000:
Yesterday I received a FAX from our Tzech sisters concerning Kriegsdorf. They had contacted the Mayor of Mesto Libava, the only town on the newer map near the area of the former Vojnovice - Kriegsdorf, According to what they have found out through him the place is in fact an inaccessible military zone. Where the village used to be there is no longer any house, all has been leveled to the ground. I guess, the sisters were told that the Mayor might be willing to accompany us to the spot but that there would not be a possibility to take pictures. It was a kind of vague promise. What do you think about it? It sounded so exciting to go there and bring pictures home!!!! You must be disappointed and I am sorry about this. This does not mean that we could not go near the place at least and get an idea of the surroundings. The invitation of our sisters stays!!!! We could take a three-hour bus ride to Prague and stay there for a few days. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen - and miraculously was not bombed during the war!! Well, we will have time to talk about it. I am sorry for your brother, too, because this might be the end of his research.
The sisters had a 1994 map and there was just a plain green spot where Kriegsdorf had been. Sorry, that my findings are not more joyful. I hate those "relics" of the war that you come across even now. At a certain time Kriesgsdorf must have played a major role in a battle because the name translates as "village of war".
Camilla Burns wrote August 26, 2000:
GETTING TO KRIEGSDORF/VOYNOVICE
Pietra Hagenberger, SSND (School Sister of Notre Dame) is a friend of mine who was born in Munich and presently living in Rome as a general councilor of the SSND’s. Pietra and I met when I gave a series of talks to the SSND’s of the Chicago Province.
The SSND’s have been in the Czech Republic (formerly Czechoslovakia) for a long time. During communism, they were moved (along with other religious women) to a compound in Bila Voda (near the Polish border). They were not permitted to leave the camp except those under 50 who were picked up each day at 8:00am and returned at 8:00pm after a day of factory work. However, several were permitted to attend the General Chapters for a maximum of four weeks. They were confined to this camp from 1950-1989. All of their houses were confiscated so they stayed in Bila Voda until they could build. They chose Slavkov (Austerlitz of Napoleon fame) as their motherhouse (name used for provincial headquarters).
Pietra was the generalate liaison for this building project so she made many trips to Brno by bus and then driven by the SSND’s to Slavkov. Pietra made the plans to visit Kriegsdorf/Voynovice through Sr. Illuminata, the Provincial at Slavkov. Sr. Illuminata discovered that this area was in a military zone. In 1949 it was a Czech Military Zone. The Russians occupied it from 1968-1989. It is again in the hands of the Czech military. Sr. Illuminata contacted the Mayor of Mesto Libavá who gave us papers to visit the area by escort and on a Sunday when there were no military maneuvers in progress.
Pietra and I went by train from Munich to Vienna on Saturday, August 12, 2000. We went by underground to the Vienna bus station. It was a hot day and the bus station did not have many benches to accommodate our three-hour wait. We looked for a cold drink and somewhere to sit. I’m not proud to say that the only place with that combination was a McDonalds’s. One redeeming feature was a Kandinsky print on the wall in McDonalds’s! We took a bus from Vienna to Brno where the SSND’s met us and brought us to Slavkov/Austerlitz.
We left Sunday at 9:00am for Mesto Libavá via Olumuc. The driver was Sr. Vojtecha (lived in Opava as an underground religious during the communist regime) who was accompanied by Sr. Illuminata, Sr. Pietra and myself. The two Czech sisters had a very detailed map of the area but were surprised to discover the difficulty in finding Libavá. Many of the roads on the map have been closed and all signs to Libavá have been removed. We drove a very circuitous route after asking direction from several locals. Sr. Vojtecha was a determined driver and the trip began to feel like the Indy 500.
We arrived in Libavá at 11:15am. It had the drab look of a communist village and was nearly deserted on Sunday. There is an active Catholic Church and a catholic mayor. The mayor regretted that he could not accompany us but sent Mr. Zdenek Dvorák as his representative. Zdenek was quite accommodating and got into the spirit of the visit.
We followed his car into the military zone. He had the key for the gate, which closed the road at the entrance. The road was in poor condition. We drove 5 to 10 minutes to a hill covered with weeds which had the Kriegsdorf/Voynovice (1456-1946) marker erected in 1996. On the marker is the outline of the village church.
Zdenek suggested that this area was bombed during the war but the destruction looked less like bombs and more like destruction with large machinery. It was perhaps destroyed when the Germans were expelled from the Sudetenland. See Jim’s careful explanation of this complicated history. In 1968 the Russians built an underground military city near Koszlov. It is still in use but the SSND’s did not want to ask our guide about it.
Zdenek led us up this hill to a large pile of stones and rubble. These were the ruins of the Kriegsdorf village church. He pointed out the area of the altar. There were a few wild raspberries growing between the stones so I ate them and thanked Grandma for her hospitality. I took two stones from this area, one to include with this account and one for Jim who did all the research that made this possible. Very near the church was the cemetery. The headstones had been broken but some names were discernible. I did not have time to investigate them in detail.
Zdenek then led us to a beautiful lane lined with Linden trees. It was the lane the villagers took to the church. We walked further on to the Odra River. We stood on a bridge, which was the beginning of the village, whose length was 1 ½ km along the Odra. I walked a little further along the road but the banks of the Odra (its source is 20 km away) were quite overgrown. I saw no evidence of stones from houses but I didn’t’ get near enough to investigate. We were there for 1-½ hours. On the way home we stopped along the road to eat a picnic consisting of two very large pieces of rye bread holding a Wiener schnitzel and juice. We left on Monday for the rest of the week in Prague and Vienna.