The Karlswalde Web Pages

[ Introduction ][ History ][ Maps & Photos ][ Research ][ Contact & Exchange ][ Links ][ Personal ]

History, stories and reports about visits

 

Claire Schachinger Krause, log of trip to Karlswalde, 1994

May 19, 1994.
The tour group first visited the city of Ostrog which was near the village of Karlswalde. While walking in the area of the old castle, an archaeologist (Alexander Mukaiououz) was found who knew of the village of Karlswalde. He agreed to go with us on the bus and helped us to find the village. Alexander showed us where the sites of the cemetery and church were. The church was destroyed in 1956 and the cemetery in 1984. Harold Krause picked up the remains of a cemetery stone that was still on the ground. We met Nikolai Petrovitch, who is Russian and his Ukrainian wife who said that he did not live there when the Germans were there but recalled the names of Krause and Handwerke. Using a map of the Karlswalde village drawn by an uncle of Claire and Harold Krause, Claire walked down the road and found the old schoolhouse. There she found her great grandfather's house (Jacob Schairer) which was next to the school. Further down the road was a bridge over the "ritschka", shown on the map, but the rest of the houses were no longer there, just one large field. Just half of the village remained.

May 22, 1994.
The Krauses took another day on their own to revisit Karlswalde. They hired a car, driver, interpreter, and the archaeologist agreed to come along again. We spent more time in the village who new name is Prikerdonne, meaning "near the border." We walked the area stopping at homes. Also viewed the Vilya River, and the "ritschkal", which the former residents of Karlswalde always spoke of fondly. The archaeologist explained the difference between the German houses and Ukrainian houses, showing that German houses had very steep roofs. The custom of the Ukrainians was to move their homes closer to the road, while the Germans left them farther back. There were at least 6 German houses that we saw in Prikerdonne. Again using the map, Claire located her grandfather's house, (Christian Schachinger), that was still away from the road. We went to the door, but nobody was home. We walked to the schoolhouse and were told that it had not been used for a long time. Across from the schoolhouse was the site of the church. We were told stories that the people would not let their children play on the former church grounds because it was spooked. Bad things happened to people who used the church wood and stones also. So the site remains unused and useless. Some who remembered said it was a very beautiful, large church and served other villages. One German houses was being restored and the present owner was very proud of it. He said he had documents to show that it was an authentic German house. We had lunch in a state forest near Stonytsche, a village where my mother spent the first 5 years of her life. We found an old German cemetery near there hidden in the woods and overgrown with weeds and brush. Our day ended back in Ostrog. Alexander asked us for any information we had on Karlswalde and also wanted a copy of our map. I gave him a copy of a short history of Karlswalde that I had written. There seems to be interest in that period of Ukrainian history.

May 27, 1994.
We visited the archives in Zhitomir and with the help of our interpreter Julia, we received a copy of the deportation list of Karlswalde people in 1916.

Claire Schachinger Krause cskrause@snet.net

 

 

Return to History Index

Return to Karlswalde Home Page

Comments and suggestions regarding this page should be sent to
Karlswalde Webmaster