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 USCS News
University of South Carolina Spartanburg
800 University Way
Spartanburg, SC 29303
For Immediate Release
Spartanburg: (864) 503-5210
Greenville: 271-9111, ext.5210 September 20, 2002
USCS Faculty Members Co-Author Book and Include Art of Susanna Tschurtz:
 Spartanburg, S.C. - Dr Brigitte Neary, associate professor of sociology at USCS, and Holle Schneider-Ricks, librarian at USCS. have co-authored a book that is a collection of personal narratives of German women from Eastern Europe who were displaced from their homeland between 1944 and 1950 because of World War II.
To write Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-1950, the authors travelled seperately to Germany in 1998 to meet with the women where they taped their stories as they recollected their forced leaving home over 50 years ago.
Both of Neary's parents were among the estimated 15 million Germans who were either expelled from their homeland or fled the Russian front and an estimated 2 to 4 million people died.
"I grew up with the consequences of the displacement, initially experiencing absolute deprivation," said Neary. "The shadow of the tremendous loss to my parents lingered on and was like a concrete presence in our lives."
Neary met Schneider-Ricks at USCS and mentioned to her that she was thinking of undertaking the project and learned that Schneider-Ricks was interested in also pursuing the project.
"Expelled with my parents in 1946, my childhood and youth were marked by the stigma of "refugee" which made me feel different and somehow less than whole," said Schneider-Ricks. "Working on this book, and listening to those women's narratives, provided closure for me and acceptance of who I am."
The pair made a great team, combining Schneider-Ricks' technical expertise and Nearys' academic training. In an effort to fund the project, they applied for and recieved a competitive grant from USCS with additional money from the Office of International Studies at USCS and Teaching Excellence funds.
In the process of searching for a publisher, they became aware of the artist, Susanna Tschurtz, who exhibits her work, "The Continuous War," at USCS from October 3rd to November 1st. Tschurtz was six years old and an ethnic-German when her family fled from Romania more than 50 years ago. Before settling in the United States and becoming a citizen, she spent eight years in refugee camps. She tells her story through her art and graciously allowed some of her work to be included in the book written by Neary and Schneider-Ricks.
For more information contact Brigitte Neary at (USA) 864-503-5834.
You may download the original press release from University of South Carolina Upstate in Microsoft Word format Here
To purchase "Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion From East-Central Europe, 1944-1950 please go to the publisher's website, Picton Books.
Publishers website is Here
The German World Alliance/Deutsche Welt-Allianz Book Store is opening soon on germanworldalliance.org whereby you will be able to find this book for purchase as well as others listed on the German World Alliance/ Deutsche Welt Allianz website.
From Barnes Review.......
Compiled by B. U. Neary and H. Schneider-Ricks. The editors or their families, now living and holding professional positions in education in the United States, experienced the great expulsion from their homelands in central and eastern Europe aftern Prussia, Brandenburg, Silesia, Sudetenland and other areas until the expulsion by the communists, with the approval of the Western Powers, made them suffer terrible atrocities. These are voices of survivors of communist crimes; they give their moving accounts of the fate that befell them. Foreword by Alfred M. deZayas. With illustrations.
Barnes Review Here
From Picton Books......
Author: Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks
SKU: 1997
ISBN: 089725435X
Our Price:$26.50
Description:
Compiled and edited by Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks. Foreword by Alfred de Zayas; illustrations by Susanna Tschurtz. 256pp, illustrations, soft cover. 2002.
"...Brigitte U. Neary and Holle Schneider-Ricks should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. They are the modern day Sojourners of Truth.... who have given voice to 30  wounded women caught up in the cauldron of expulsion, rape, and unbearable experiences... Read the book. It is unforgettable."
Dr. Albert E. Jabs, World Council-Columbia, SC
“Emotionally gripping oral narratives and provocative sociological analysis.... Readers will be astonished that such a heart-rending event has gone almost unnoticed for over 50 years.”
Alice Henderson, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of South Carolina-Spartanburg
“The accounts often make grim reading, telling of great suffering, fear, terror, but also of marked heroism. Their accounts... deserve to become part of the important literature on World War II and its consequences.”
John Zeender, Professor Emeritus of History, The Catholic University of America
“This volume of testimonies from 60 and 70-year old German women forced to leave their homes by the advancing Russians presents for the first time the tragedy of mass internal displacement in the heart of Europe. We know the saga of the Armenians in Turkey, of the Rwandans in Central Africa, of the Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia; this volume adds the Western European dimension. This is not a faceless account of mass migration but a highly personalized look at the lives of a few women traumatized until today, some still afraid to be identified.”
Miriam Cooke, Professor of Arabic, Duke University
“A celebration of a community of German women whose voices and acts of courage have gone unheard and whose experiences have long been overlooked. Informative and written in an approachable style, this book is of interest to the wide-ranging popular audience and of relevance to readers concerned with the study of gender, history, communications, and language.”
Tamara M. Valentine, Professor of Linguistics and of English, University of South Carolina
In a shameful episode of ethnic cleansing at the end of World War II, the Allies expelled some 14.5 million German civilians from their homelands — both German citizens (Reichsdeutsche) living within Germany in the areas of East Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia and ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) whose ancestors had lived for many centuries in areas outside the German borders — in Czechoslovakia, the Baltic States and Memeland, Danzig, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania. Over 2.1 million civilians died as a result, an horrific total which should stain the conscience of us all.
This forced Vertreibung or expulsion represents the largest mass migration of modern times. Astoundingly, it has received minimal attention in history books, particularly in America. Often it has been swept under the rug — relegated to a footnote and never mentioned to students.
This book is a memorial to those millions of civilians, and especially to the women, who were punished cruelly and stigmatized because they were German. The authors interviewed many women who were in the Vertreibung, and have included here some thirty of their riveting interviews. For the first time, their voices are heard, their torment shared, their stories told.
Source material and for more information click Here
From University of South Carolina Upstate;
USCS Upstate Faculty Member Publishes Two Books in Two Languages on Two Continents:
10- 29- 2008
Spartanburg, S.C. - Dr. Brigitte Neary, associate professor of sociology at the University of South Carolina Upstate, has distinguished herself among her fellow faculty members by becoming the first to publish two books in two languages on two continents.
Frauen und Vertreibung, scheduled for release this month from Stocker/Ares Verlag, Graz, Austria, is a socio-historical research project that contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the wounds of women in both war and peace. This book is an extension of Dr. Neary’s 2002 English-language U.S. publication.
Frauen und Vertreibung provides poignant materials on the suffering of East European German women caught up in the cauldron of flight and forcible expulsion from their homeland in the aftermath of World War II. Neary invites inter-subjective understanding as she captures the trauma and violence unleashed on these women, including mass rapes. Her women’s centered studies, focused on the waning months of World War II through 1950, can be extrapolated to the carnage confronting the women in Chad, the Congo, and Darfur. However, the German case has largely been excluded from the embrace of sisterhood and attacked by historians and feminist scholars.
Neary’s first book was a co-authored collection and analysis of personal narratives of German women from East Central Europe, displaced from their homeland in the aftermath of World War II. Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion from East Central Europe, 1944-1950, allowed the women to be taped as they recollected their forced departure from home when they were girls, young women or young mothers.
Both of Neary’s parents were among the estimated 14.5 million Germans who were either expelled from their homeland or fled the Russian front -- 2.1 million perished.
“I grew up with the consequences of the displacement, initially experiencing absolute deprivation,” said Neary. “The shadow of the tremendous loss to my parents lingered on and was like a concrete presence in our lives.”
 Since her 2002 publication, Neary learned the hard way that her scholarship challenges the Nazi stigma of collective guilt still imposed today on all manner of German. Paradoxically, this stigma of group belonging functions to simultaneously legitimize and nullify the most inhuman treatment of millions of German women. These women, as well as all messengers, who provide them a voice, are targets of “racial discrimination.”
According to Article 1 of the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), “the term `racial discrimination’ shall mean any distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”
In addition to contributing to the body of scholarship on women and armed conflict, the purpose of Neary’s work has increasingly become to foster “recognition” and establish an “equal footing of human rights” for these women that can be generalized to all manner of German – nothing less.
For more information, contact Dr. Brigitte Neary at (864) 503-5834.
Source material and for more information click Here.
Julius Loisch Reviews Frauen und Vertreibung on Amazon.Com & Institute of German American Relations......
Frauen und Vertreibung: Zeitzeuginnen berichten
(Women and Expulsion: Time-Witnesses report)
Graz, Austria: Ares Verlag. 2008
In her book, Frauen und Vertreibung, the German-born American, Prof. Dr. Brigitte Neary, permits fifteen German women from Eastern Europe to recall their brutal ordeals, 1944-1950. This historical time period witnessed the destruction of Eastern European Germans by the advancing Russian front and the subsequent "liberation" of Germany. The women describe in their own words the trauma they experienced decades ago as young girls or young women, of starvation, rape, beating, murder, plundering, and abduction. Red Army soldiers, but also Poles, Czechs, and Serbs were the perpetrators. These gripping accounts of human suffering at the hands of other humans demand questioning of what kind of human beings we are today and what, if anything, we have learned.
Prof. Neary is a sociologist and human rights advocate. The Foreword is by the prominent human rights advocate and scholar, Prof. DDr. Alfred de Zayas. He repeatedly condemns the persistent lack of interest, imposed silence, and violation of human rights surrounding these crimes.
The 160 pages long book includes timely and telling photographs. Past and present go hand in hand. In the not so distant future, our descendants and historians will be the bearers of history. We must insure there is a record of the collective trauma of millions of Germans. Frauen und Vertreibung significantly contributes to balancing the grossly distorted reporting of history. This book represents a step toward reconciling the publicly constructed memory regarding Germans and the personal memories of those who experienced the carnage: the time-witnesses and any others, eager for a balanced accounting.
Julius A. Loisch
February 2009
Amazon Source Here
IGAR Website Here
GWA Member Dr. A.E. Jabs Offers Some Perspective to Brigitte Neary's Books;
NEW BOOK BY DR. BRIGITTE NEARY AFFIRMS ROLE
IN HUMAN RIGHTS LEAD;
Brigitte Neary's Books;
Voices of Loss and Courage: German Women Recount Their Expulsion from East-Central Europe, 1944-50, and
Frauen und Vertreibung
The Confessing Church in war torn Germany of l945 announced a Proclamation of Guilt for its responsibility in WW II. In the whirlwind of shame, blame, and suffering at the time these German believers still wrote the statement as their Confession.
Yet, these words in too many instances were thought not to be sincere, and subsequent research established that in the midst of these harrowing sufferings and Confessional times the Allied and Soviet skirts were not altogether clean either. As a matter of fact, research by Jim Bacque, Alfred de Zayas, and other researchers provide substantial evidence that neglect of German POW's, and other civilian deaths may have approached the three million mark in the l945-l948 period.
Yet, Dr. Brigitte Neary, growing up in this post war climate, has now written another blockbuster of a book entitled Frauen und Vertreibung. ..which really are classic stories of the wounds of women in war and in the fragments of the largely unrecognized suffering of women and children in the East Central Europe region also referred to as the Vetreibungsgebiete.
These are new stories, the majority of them, and they can mesmerize the reader, as Neary tells the stories of wounded women which she has interviewed.
Let me assure the prospective reader that Professor Neary tells her story, and as a woman (our stories) as only a sensitive woman can do. In her initial work entitled "Voices of Loss and Courage (Picton Press), I was struck with the stories of another twenty five women, who really had to deal with demonism of death, and in several instances one would have to describe
the unspeakable events that would border on the psychopathic,
pathological, and worse, the darkness of the satanic. Woman have always suffered in war, and perhaps they bear the brunt of any war, if it involves their own country.
This second work by the distinguished American professor is a reflection of her auspicious career in teaching, community service, and academic leadership in spite of long battles with professional and academic discrimination.
Dr. Neary, in many ways, reminds one of other women, even the civil rights worker, Rosa Parks, who did not get up from her seat, so that other women could stand tall.
Dr. Neary, is an advocate for fair justice with all women
whether in Chad, Darfur, or the Congo, and helps those who have to deal with the shame, blame, and guilt of past events.
As these lines are being written, two million of women are trapped in war zones, which means that Neary's book and its lessons can be extrapolated to these contemporary challenges concerning women caught up in war contingencies. Perhaps borrowing a page from that Stuttgart Confession of l945, present day ELCA Bishop Mark S. Hanson calls for public acts of
repentance, confession and prayers from public venues...could one hope the United Nations.
Finally, Professor Dr. Brigitte Neary, in her personal and professional life has demonstrated the qualities that are gifts of leadership to the GWA organization; the awarding of the Human Rights Award to Dr. Neary, as a servant of fair justice and mercy, would redown to the dignity of the Award itself, and
in a proper public setting would bring distinctive notice to universal goals of fair justice and mercy that represents the best of GWA, and thereby serves the entire global community
Dr. albert e. jabs
Lexington, South Carolina
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Frauen erinnern sich an ihren Leidensweg zu Kriegsende: Es ist der radikal subjektive Ansatz dieser „Oral-History“, mit der die Herausgeberin in den USA so große Resonanz erzielte.
Die gebürtige Deutsche Brigitte Neary läßt Frauen aus Schlesien und Ostpreußen, Rußlanddeutsche, Donauschwäbinnen und viele andere zu Wort kommen.
Quelle Hier
FZ Freiheitlicher Buch- und Zeitschriften-Verlag GmbH
Postfach 60 04 64, 81204 München
Tel.: (089) 89608521, Fax: (089) 834 1534
Brigitte Neary (Hrsg.):
FRAUEN UND VERTREIBUNG
Zeitzeuginnen berichten
159 Seiten, gebunden, s/w-Abbildungen
Anlässlich der gegenwärtigen hitzigen Diskussionen um ein Zentrum der Vertreibung ist das Werk von Brigitte Neary (Hrsg.) geeignet, die damaligen schrecklichen Ereignisse wieder in Erinnerung zu rufen.
Es waren insbesondere auch deutsche Frauen und Kinder, denen bei Kriegsende 1945 und darüber hinaus großes Leid widerfahren ist. Stichworte hierfür sind Flucht, Vertreibung, Vergewaltigung, Mord, Verschleppung und Arbeitslager.
Die Herausgeberin zeichnet den Leidensweg einiger dieser Frauen nach und lässt sie als Zeitzeugen zu Wort kommen. Befragt wurden Frauen, die sowohl der Gruppe der sogenannten Reichsdeutschen als auch der Volksdeutschen angehören und in Ostpreußen, Schlesien, Galizien, im Sudetenland, im Banat, in der Vojvodina und in Siebenbürgen ihre Heimat hatten.
Sie alle geben Auskunft über sehr individuelle, teilweise tief erschütternde Erlebnisse und erzählen, wie es ihnen mit großer Energie und Überlebenswillen gelungen ist, das Leid der Flüchtlingszeit zu überwinden und ein neues Leben zu beginnen. Ein Buch, das niemanden unberührt lässt.
Quelle Hier
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