**3.2 The organization and cultural needs of indigenous Gottscheers**

In this study, we approached the questions of heritage, identity, and cultural needs of indigenous Gottscheers through the perspective of the activities of two Gottscheer cultural associations (*The Society of Native Gottschee Settlers* and the *Peter Kosler Association*). Due to the small size of the community and substantial differences in views expressed by the two societies, the study was supplemented with interviews with Gottscheer descendants, who are not directly involved in society activities, or are not listed as members of these societies, or are professionally involved with Gottscheer heritage and its preservation, and are striving towards connecting cultural activities in the field of Gottscheer heritage and dialect into a more cooperative, synergic and internally coordinated, complementary, but at the same time diverse creative dynamic (*Institute for Preservation of Cultural Heritage Nesseltal Koprivnik*).

<sup>12</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

### *Disappearing Community and Preserved Identity: Indigenous Gottscheers in Slovenia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110382*

*The Society of Native Gottschee Settlers*13 comprises the abovementioned Cultural Center of Native Gottschee Settlers in Občice which is where all of the society's activities take place; the Center also houses a small museum in the attic. The society has a special unit responsible for promoting the Center and tourism. The unit organizes visits and meetings of expatriates in Slovenia, prepares programs for visitor groups from Slovenia and abroad, offers guided tours of the Cultural Center, and guided tours around the surrounding region, where Gottscheers used to live and where there are still remains of Gottscheer villages, sacral monuments (churches, cemeteries, and chapels), natural heritage, and developing industries (such as the Podstenice Beekeeping Museum). Special attention is granted to Gottscheer descendants, who, when possible, are the ones guiding tours around the region where their ancestors used to live. INT7, a member of the society, states (2012, September 13) that Gottschee and their Center were first visited by those "who knew where they were going and why they were going there"; these groups were followed by others, who were not personally connected to this place, but were attracted by the Gottscheer story and the story of this space. Over the past years, schools started appearing in the latter group, too. Often, the Gottscheer topic is linked to the umbrella theme of people within the region that speak different languages and live in their own particular way, such as the Uskoks. "We, who have our homeland, do not know what it means not to have one or to have one somewhere but to be unable to reach it, and not to be part of it anymore. We will never be able to feel that. But this is what the Gottscheers are feeling" (INT7 2012, September 13).

The society has explicit demands regarding formal, official recognition of the status of a German minority; it shares these with the Styrian Germans, which it also cooperates with as part of the abovementioned *Association of Cultural Societies of the German Speaking Ethnic Communities in Slovenia*. According to INT2 (2012, September 18)14, INT4 (2012, September 18)15, and INT5 (2012, September 24)16, only official recognition allows one to ensure legal protection and a dignified attitude of the state and the citizens of the Republic of Slovenia towards the Gottscheers and the Germans left in Slovenia. Namely, among other things, such recognition would be a legal basis to secure legally guaranteed financial means for the societies' activities.

<sup>13</sup> The *Society of Native Gottschee Settlers* (*Gottscheer Altsiedler Verein*) was established in 1992 by Gottscheers from the Črmošnjice-Poljanska valley and is a full member of *Federal Union of European Nationalities* (FUEN), as well as founding member of the *Association of Cultural Societies of the German Speaking Ethnic Communities in Slovenia*. The aims of the society are: cooperation in order to preserve linguistic, cultural, ethnic and architectural characteristics of indigenous Gottscheers that are an important part of the shared reality of Gottscheer–Slovenian history in 1330–1941 and preserving their identity, Gottscheer culture, and the Gottscheer dialect among Gottscheer natives and expatriates; establishing and reinforcing links with the remaining Gottscheers and their descent dents in Slovenia, as well as expatriates and their descendants; collecting historical and contemporary materials about Gottscheers in the past and present, at home and abroad; carrying out educational activities for its members, organizing cultural and social events; cooperating with related societies in Slovenia and abroad; caring about and restoring monuments and other features reminiscent of the existence, culture, and other characteristics of indigenous Gottscheers' life, cooperating with state organs, and with the Catholic church in order to preserve Gottscheer heritage in sacral objects; occasionally, the society also publishes the *Bakh* newspaper in Slovenian and in German.

<sup>14</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

<sup>15</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

<sup>16</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

Today, these means are very limited, forcing societies to seek funding abroad.17 The society's activities are mostly funded by the Republic of Austria and the provincial government of Carinthia, and partly by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

The primary aim of the second society, *Association Peter Kosler*18, is first and foremost to achieve peaceful coexistence of the Gottscheers and the Slovenians and to ensure the preservation of Gottscheer cultural heritage and Gottscheer cultural identity, which are also Slovenian heritage and identity. According to one of the leaders of the association, the association expects the state to guarantee organized funding for the preservation of the Gottscheer dialect and culture as a unique phenomenon in Europe. This way, it would become a generally known fact in Slovenia that Gottscheer culture is "built into the culture of the entire nation" and that it enriches the latter. INT10 (2012, September 17)19 believes that the atmosphere in places where the association's activities take place has greatly improved lately. She wishes to distance herself from the topic of minority issues and refrains from using the term minority, preferring to speak about a linguistic group. INT10 believes that opening up the minority problem in relation to German speakers in Slovenia would ignite repulsion against everything linked to the Gottscheers (INT10 2012, September 17).

INT9 (2012, September 18) believes that all of the abovementioned circumstances indicate that it would be sensible for the state to grant the Gottscheers some sort of official recognition, but she also feels that minority status is not a necessary must. The state has to decide on the form and way of recognition. As a Gottscheer, she does, however, expect that the association would at least be granted the right of using its German name (e.g. in formal correspondence, …) without being accused of "German agitation", and using Gottscheer or German location names when referring to places inhabited by Gottscheer descendants, whereby she does not call for official bilingualism. The state's policy ought to be—publicly—positive about the presence

<sup>17</sup> In 2006, the association published a "Memorandum for the legal resolution of the status of the Germanspeaking community in the Republic of Slovenia", which underscores the "autochthonous" nature of the German-speaking community in Slovenia, the problematic conclusions reached by the census, and calls for collective protection on the level of the Slovenian Constitution and laws, substantial and legislative reinforcement of the legislative branch of power in Slovenia with clear and unambiguous articles about persecuting discrimination and sanctions against hate speech, for taking into account and implementing international agreements signed by the Republic of Slovenia with other states (such as Austria) and for organized (and not merely project-based) funding of the activities of the association and particular societies. <sup>18</sup> *Slovenian Gottscheer Association Peter Kosler* was established in 1994 and received its current name at the general assembly on 1 September 2012 in Kočevje, which also confirmed the move of the association's headquarters from Ljubljana to Kočevje. It retained the name of Peter Kosler, a Gottscheer who published a map of Slovenian lands in 1853, and strived for peaceful coexistence of Slovenians and Gottscheers. The aims of the association, apart from the aforementioned ones, are representing and preserving Slovenian and German cultural heritage in Gottschee and abroad, overcoming prejudice, preserving Gottscheers' and their descendants' traditions, such as the Gottscheer dialect, respecting human rights and developing democratic principles of the state. Moreover, the association offers Gottscheer dialect and German lessons (including in kindergartens and schools); carries out publishing activities (e.g. publishing CDs of concert and song recordings in the Gottscheer dialect, books, including a textbook for teaching Gottscheer dialect, a Slovenian-Gottscheer dictionary, etc.); organizes exhibitions and lectures (Gottscheer song nights, …), etc. It collaborates with local communities as well as state and educational organizations in Slovenia and abroad, Slovenians in Austria and other states, and other minority groups [10].

<sup>19</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

### *Disappearing Community and Preserved Identity: Indigenous Gottscheers in Slovenia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110382*

and activities of Gottscheers and their societies. Gottscheer descendent INT8 (2012, September 27)20 who is not a member of any of the two societies has a similar opinion. Anyway one puts it, Gottscheers require some sort of a mechanism of state support: a mechanism allowing to understand historical events linked to Gottschee, a mechanism securing targeted financial support for work in the interests of the Gottscheers, Gottscheer history, and their cultural heritage (museums); Gottscheer dialect lessons—at least in order to keep in touch with the dislocated Gottscheers and their descendants, and Gottscheer societies abroad, as, according to her, these links have been reinforced since 1991; a mechanism for preserving memories (e.g. using announcement boards, monuments, …) of destroyed Gottscheer villages, which were practically wiped out, a fact that had been exploited by the state for over 60 years. "Today, these are abandoned and devastated places, but also places where one can see daffodils, peonies, semi-dried out apple trees" which are the elements that most strongly indicate that there used to be a village there at some point" says INT8. All of this can be used to attract tourists, but this would require collaboration between societies, the local community, and the state, which "should, even from the point of view of responsibility towards its own history" somehow formally acknowledge the existence of indigenous Gottscheers (INT8 2012, September 27).

*Institute for preservation of cultural heritage Nesseltal Koprivnik*21 was established in 2008, as a natural and cultural heritage care and preservation institution, as well as an institution dedicated to promoting the village of Koprivnik, Gottschee, and its inhabitants. According to one of its founders, the basic guidelines of the institute's activities are professionalism and working towards a greater visibility and acknowledgement of Gottscheer heritage. The institute actively avoids politicization of both its work and the topics it deals with. At first, they concentrated on the region of the extended Gottscheer linguistic island and acted locally, in the municipalities of Dolenjske Toplice, Kočevje, Semič, Črnomelj, Kostanjevica on the Krka, and Novo mesto; lately, they have expanded their activities towards Ribnica and beyond. Furthermore, they have begun to devote special attention to the Kvarner region in Croatia; according to INT11 (2012, December 14)22, there are many traces of Gottscheers in the region, particularly around the islands of Rab and Mali Lošinj, as well as Rijeka and Opatija. Their funding comes from three levels: municipal calls of the aforementioned municipalities, state calls (chiefly those issued by the Ministry of Culture), and European calls. INT11, a Gottscheer descendent, who "has only begun to learn Gottscheer as an older man" (INT11 2012, December 14), believes that while Gottscheer topography is well researched and documented, the most important topic related to Gottscheer heritage, requiring further research today, is Gottscheer customs. Preserving and spreading knowledge about Gottscheer cultural heritage is, according to INT11, a task that should primarily be carried out by societies, institutes, and municipalities, as well as by the state, on a secondary level. She believes that collaboration of particular societies is exceptionally precious in this regard; this is why the institute has already connected with *Association Peter Kosler*, as well as some younger individuals that it wishes to collaborate with and perhaps formalize the organization of their collaboration.

<sup>20</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

<sup>21</sup> The institute carries out various programs in the spheres of education, culture (especially painting and photography), cultural tourism, and other related activities with an emphasis on Gottscheer heritage.

<sup>22</sup> Audio recording of the interview, in the form of raw data, is available from the author.

#### **3.3 Indigenous Gottscheers' identity perceptions**

Having the preserved and non-preserved cultural heritage, organization, and expressed cultural needs as described above in mind, how can one conceive of Gottscheer identity—today, and in an historical perspective? How did they identify themselves, what was their national identification, and how (if at all) were they recognized in a predominantly Slovenian environment? Demographic censuses in the Austrian state, as well as those carried out in the subsequent Yugoslav state, are not of much help when it comes to Gottscheers. All they allow us to find out is the proportion of the German population in Slovenia, the most numerous non-Slovenian community until WWI (7.2% in 1890, 7.3% in 1900, 8.1% in 1910) ([11], 115), but not the actual share of Gottscheers. Their identity was of explicitly regional or local character, and, as such, difficult to "grasp" using ethnic or national definitions, which was also confirmed by our interviewees. Indigenous Gottscheers would identify themselves (or were forced to identify themselves) during censuses either as Slovenes or as Germans, or avoided national identification altogether, preferring local or undefined.

Therefore, discrepancies in naming the indigenous community arise among Gottscheers themselves, as well as on a broader level (in scientific and local history literature). INT3, of Gottscheer descent, disagrees with the term Gottscheer German, convinced that the term was coined in the times of National Socialism, to underscore the German identity of the Gottscheers. "A Gottscheer is a Gottscheer," she says, "Gottscheers never considered themselves as Germans, as they never found national identification to be of any relevance." If anyone identified themselves as Gottscheer Germans, it was Gottscheers in the 1930s and 1940s, who sided with Nazism (INT3 2012, September 10). INT6 (2012, October 4) shares this view: "While Gottscheers are of German descent, they were never Germans". From the point of view of today, INT8 also points out the ambiguity of associating Gottscheers with Styrian Germans. On the one hand, it is perfectly understandable that the small number of Gottscheers makes it difficult for them to voice their demands and make them heard if they do not form ties to the broader German community, leading to a loss of their identity. On the other hand, forming such ties bears the danger of dissolving Gottscheer characteristics and particularities in the interests of the more numerous Styrian Germans. "Personally, this bothers me, because Gottscheers are not a German community; these are two distinct phenomena, which is why Gottscheers should receive special attention" (INT8 2012, September 27). INT11 also insists on preserving and maintaining the difference between Gottscheers and the German-speaking community. In terms of history, the former were isolated from Styrian Germans; this isolation led to the formation of important historical, cultural, and ethnological particularities, as well as a distinct attitude towards the environment they inhabited. Therefore, INT11 believes this specificity, as well as the collective memory of it, should be cherished, and promoted on the local, state, and broader level. A broader recognition of the Gottscheer community, its existence on Slovenian territory, its customs, special dialect, important personas, etc., would be a great contribution to this goal (INT11 2012, December 14).

INT9 defines her identity as composite, defining herself as "Gottscheer, but also Slovene" (2012, September 18). She believes that what really distinguishes Gottscheers from Slovenes is their language or dialect, which is why she is focusing her activities on preserving the Gottscheer dialect as much as possible. In the past, certain individuals and media pressured kindergarten and school (including language schools) principals and teachers that offered courses in Gottscheer dialect, by

#### *Disappearing Community and Preserved Identity: Indigenous Gottscheers in Slovenia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110382*

encouraging an anti-German attitude, creating a feeling of threat due to alleged "Nazi activities" and prejudice, and even hatred among Slovenes. She believes it would be good if the state publicly expresses recognition and support to such activities that are neither forbidden by law nor bad, and do not threaten, but, on the contrary, connect Slovenes. Furthermore, she feels it should be publicly underscored that due to historical circumstances that resulted in the extremely small population of Gottscheers in Slovenia, this population has remained in touch with its relatives or even mere acquaintances and descendants of Gottscheers that had been moving abroad since the nineteenth century. These connections have allowed them to preserve their dialect, history, and heritage. INT9 even says that even expatriate Gottscheers abroad have lately begun to express an interest in learning the Gottscheer dialect. Furthermore, she believes the general atmosphere in places where such activities take place, especially in Kočevje, Semič, and Dolenjske Toplice, has also changed. Over the past decade, people have begun to accept the fact that "history is not just national /history/", but also history of a certain region, place, or space. People are also willing to learn about these matters, as they no longer feel threatened by the presence of different languages, identities, … Younger generations in particular "are becoming curious", states INT9 (2012, September 18) about Gottscheer culture, their cuisine (e.g. *pobolica*, white potato soup, …), attire, rituals and customs, folk songs and dances, which differ from Slovenian ones when it comes to detail (e.g. ancient Germanic mythology as part of Gottscheer folklore, etc.).

Dialect is certainly an important identification indicator of indigenous Gottscheers. However, when it comes to defining the Gottscheer dialect (*Göttscheabarisch*), a peculiar German dialect with many preserved elements of medieval Alpine languages, and some internalized elements of Slovenian, Gottscheers do not all share the same view. Some define it as archaic German, while others insist it as archaic German with Slovenian and even Croatian, etc., influences. Due to the impact of colonizers that arrived in the region from various areas during the period of colonization (the region of the Lienz basin, the valleys of Mitermöll and of the Drava, and southern regions on the border between South Tyrol and Carinthia), the dialect is also internally differentiated, sharing basic characteristics, but varying in nuances, which differed in various parts of Gottschee (Hornung in Petschauer 1984, 194, cited by [12], 96).

German language certainly played a special role in Slovenian lands. German colonization resulted in the emergence of numerous German linguistic islands in the region, and for a long period of time, German had been the administrative language in Slovenian lands. It started losing this role in the nineteenth century and finally lost it with Slovenians' political independence within the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in 1918. Later historical circumstances also dictated a particular attitude towards the dialect, which was forbidden in public after WWII, as emphasized by the interviewees (INT5, INT7, INT8). INT8 (2012, September 27) mentions her personal experience with censuses, when censors "did not give you an opportunity to identify yourself as you wanted to: official instructions are one thing, but the person in charge of the census is something different. He comes up to you, and when you say: "I am Gottscheer," he responds "Why Gottscheer, you are Slovenian"." Of course, older people and rural residents did not resist this type of census, and there are no numbers that would reveal these practices. She believes matters were similar when it came to linguistic affiliation. "Not many censors listened to what they were told […]. People let the censor lead them on […]. And even if people were brave enough to identify as Gottscheers, they were often not heard, and their real identity did not make it to the lists." Gradually, their traces began to disappear from the collective memory of the

nation, which, according to INT3 (2012, September 10), was a loss for the Slovenian identity as well. Some of the interviewees (INT2, INT4, INT5) believe the current state of affairs is still problematic, marked by the gap in history which occurred in 1941–1942, with the emigration of the vast majority of Gottscheers. This period was followed by post-war anti-German (and anti-Gottscheer) politics (including executions, stalking23, victimization, a ban on the public use of Gottscheer dialect and on any kind of contact with expatriated Gottscheers until 1972), which had been implemented despite the fact that the Gottscheers who stayed had mostly cooperated with the resistance against the occupier.

On the one hand, the resultant problem is related to the small number of people that actually identify as Gottscheers, which is one of the important reasons for the *Society of Native Gottschee Settlers'* decision to form a common association with cultural societies run by the German-speaking community in Slovenia; on the other hand, it reflects the (albeit latently) persistent fear among the people, the split within the cultural battle, and stereotypes, including antagonist associations of Germanism with Nazism. According to one of the interviewees (INT5 2012, September 24), people are still possessed by an old fear that "being German is something negative in Slovenian society and that we should not be heard speaking German aloud." Therefore, if our criterion in assessing Gottscheer identification is knowledge of the Gottscheer dialect, we are left with several tens of people who still speak it; however, the historical circumstances that we have outlined indicate that this is not the most relevant identity indicator. Judging by origin or descent, there are around 250 Gottscheers left in Slovenia today. However, if we choose this criterion, we encounter the problem of classifying children born in mixed marriages (INT7 2012, September 13). Interestingly enough, three interviewees found out they were of Gottscheer origin very late: INT7 was 28 (her father was Gottscheer, and her mother was Slovenian), and INT5 was 14 (her father was German, and her mother Slovenian) when her teacher at trade school told her she was German because her surname was German, exposing her to repeated stigmatization. INT8 mentions a high school encounter in Črnomelj, when her classmate from Krško found both her and her origins disturbing. In 1941–1942, Krško was part of the region populated by Gottscheer settlers and abandoned by Slovenians, and many people retained a negative attitude towards Gottscheers later on.

There had been reciprocal assimilation between Slovenians and Gottscheers in Gottschee, as noted by Marjan Drnovšek ([7], 10); however, it was not strong enough to make the German linguistic island disappear, probably due to the fact that German settlements were very compact. The island emerged as a result of wartime emigration and primarily of mass Gottscheer emigrations to various parts of the world, mainly to the USA, after the war.

The results of the Preserving Gottscheer Identity Study, which surveyed over 100 indigenous Gottscheers from Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Canada, and the USA in 2007–2010, state that most (64,8%) of those who speak the dialect, only know its basics, which means they are only capable of describing themselves and their life circle ([12], 92). The dialect is most widespread in the USA (in New York, Cleveland, and Milwaukee), where Gottscheers had begun to emigrate to in the 1870s, and where they are most widespread today. Nevertheless, most Gottscheer parents in the USA

<sup>23</sup> INT4 and his father, as well as INT6 were all monitored by the UDBA (Yugoslav Secret Police). The UDBA started with the so-called OO Nemčurji action (Nemčurji—a pejorative term used to describe Germans and sympathizers) in 1966 and concluded it in 1986 (INT6 2012, October 4).

#### *Disappearing Community and Preserved Identity: Indigenous Gottscheers in Slovenia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110382*

and Canada preferred to teach their children, born in these lands, German rather than Gottscheer, because this made it easier for them to communicate and collaborate on an institutional level with members of the wider German national community. Many Gottscheers believed that German would be more useful to their children than a dialect. Another reason for teaching Gottscheer children German was an interest in marrying individuals of Gottscheer or German origin. When the spouse was of German origin, usually, German would be spoken at home. All of this caused a notable decline in dialect speaking skills exhibited by today's younger generations (in the USA, Canada, Germany, and Austria): they are familiar with it on a passive level, i.e. they understand it but do not speak it. Many are familiar with certain expressions, insults, sayings, swearwords, and songs, but are unable to use Gottscheer to communicate in everyday situations. Starting with the third generation, English replaces Gottscheer and German, as these individuals of 25–55 years of age mostly identify English as their mother tongue. But half of the participants in the survey still speak the dialect at home ([12], 93–96).

Younger generations of Gottscheers in Slovenia also speak the dialect much less frequently than older generations. Thirteen years ago, there were only around five persons under 40 years of age, who were still active speakers of the Gottscheer dialect. There are many reasons for this, ranging from the broader historical and socio-ideological ones described above, to more intimate ones, such as ethnically mixed marriages, a wish for non-discrimination and greater social mobility, and the accompanying voluntary assimilation, as well as a lack of interest (Jaklitsch in [12], 103–104).

INT4, one of the former presidents of the *Society of Native Gottschee Settlers* believes (2012, September 18) that the dialect is "leaving", practically wiped out due to historical and politico-ideological reasons; it is impossible to preserve a dialect that is no longer alive among the people. And because younger generations lack knowledge of the dialect, they cannot develop their Gottscheer identity, according to one of the interviewees from the Preserving Gottscheer Identity Survey (in [12], 98). According to some, indigenous Gottscheers should be included into general Slovenian collective memory at least on a declarative level. It would also be very important to secure more detailed thematization of the Gottscheer issue in Slovenian textbooks in order to contribute to a de-tabooization of the topic, which had become taboo particularly after WWII. "This should be everyone's issue, and not just an issue of a bunch of those engaged in it on a more or less expert level" (INT6 (2012, October 4), INT7 (2012, September 13), and INT8 (2012, September 27)). INT8 (2012, September 27) speaks about historical damage, related to Gottscheer expatriation and post-war stigmatization of everything German. Although the Gottscheers that remained sympathized with and actively took part in the National Liberation Struggle, they emerged from the war as scapegoats, black sheep needed by each epoch, especially a post-war one, when "times were completely mad", still drenched in wartime events. In these circumstances, Gottscheers did not teach their children the dialect in those times, nor did they mention their Gottscheer origins. Gottscheer was banned in postwar Yugoslavia, as well as in the German Reich; being a Gottscheer was the worst insult imaginable in those times, explains INT3 (2012, September 10). "In postwar times, when those Gottscheers created their families, being a Gottscheer was something so negative that we never talked about it. We had our surnames written in the Slovenian manner, too," states INT8 (2012, September 27).

Although officially surnames did not undergo slovenianization, the "custom" was widely practiced in those days. Her own surname, for example, had consistently been slovenianized. Only by leaving for high school, located in a different place, was she able to preserve the original form of her surname. "And no one dared say anything about it, due to the presence of the idea that German was something negative." The story of INT6, born to Gottscheer parents in Srednja vas near Črmošnjice, whose family stayed in Gottschee during the war, is an illustrative example. According to her father's words, wartime and post-war life was "marked by constant fear about our survival, as we were treated as the remainder of the German minority, i.e. Schwabs, who were not wanted in these lands." Partisan violence took the family's mother in 1945. As for her, she was discriminated against ever since she had entered primary school, where her teacher often called her "German gypsy". In year eight, her name was changed from German to Slovenian, against her own will; as she refused to respond to that name, her behavior was evaluated as bad. She was renamed to a Slovenian name in her report card, too, and her surname was slovenianized, so she had to later officially change it back into its original form. In 1957, she entered a professional college in Ptuj, where the teacher insulted her on the very first day, saying: "Who allowed this Schwab into the class?" (INT6 2012, October 4) These circumstances forced Gottscheers into dire self-censorship, so-called parental silence, intended not to pass their identity, especially their dialect, onto their children. This created a breach in historical continuity. With no historical continuity or conscience among Gottscheers and their descendants, today, preserving what can still be preserved, is left to societies and several individuals. Therefore, in spite of all of the facts described above, activities of these societies bear "the noble vocation of preserving the last sparks in the field of Gottscheer history and identity", when they should be encouraging younger generations to take part in their activities in their own ways (INT3 2012, September 10).
