 You Land, of My Forefathers' Choice: History of the Bessarabian
Germans
Produced by Dwayne Janke, Calgary, Alberta, copyright
Dr. Erwin Ziebart
and Dwayne Janke, 2005, DVD
"You Land, of My Forefather's Choice: History of the Bessarabian
Germans," a new English film resource for those researching
their
Bessarabian-German heritage is now available.
The film was produced several years ago by Dr. Erwin Ziebart,
who was born and raised in Bessarabia and was a professor at
the University of München.
The 70-minute film chronicles the period from the early 1800s,
when German colonies were established in southern Bessarabia,
through to the resettlement of 90,000 of the colonists to
Hitler's Germany. The film tells the story through Erwin's
narration, with paintings, maps, and still photos, as well as
personal interviews of nearly a dozen former residents and
researchers of Bessarabia (including those at the Heimatmuseum
der Deutschen aus Bessarabien in Stuttgart). One of the
exciting features of the film is the use of archival
black-and-white footage, taken in 1937-38 by an amateur
filmmaker, Emil Hübner. It shows farming, school and church
life typical of that time in the Bessarabian German colonies.
Converting the high-quality amateur film into English was initiated
by Dr. Elvire Necker-Eberhardt so it could be understood and enjoyed
by a wider audience during a showing at the Medicine Hat Germans
from Russia festival, held September 23-25, 2005. Dr. Necker-Eberhardt
translated the film's script and on-screen text. Dwayne Janke did
further English script editing and audio recording of the film's
various voices into English, by using friends, family and work colleagues. 17-year-old, Michael (a Calgary high school film festival finalist),
did the digital editing for the English version.
Review of documentary
Dwayne Janke and his compatriots have made an excellent effort
to
make a video produced in Germany in German available to people in
the
United States and Canada in the English language. It is a job well
done
with a some minor editing glitzes.
The DVD uses many old pictures as well as old film to tell the
story of the
settlement in Bessarabia from the beginning in the 1800s to the
resettlement
back to Germany in the 1940s. The use of interviews with people
who grew up
in the villages and are able to explain what they saw and remember
is a great
way to tell the descendants of the colonists who today live in the
United States
and Canada how things used to be.
This DVD should help make the history come alive for the English
speaking descendants
of these German settlers from Bessarabia.
Well done.
Victor Knell
Fargo, North Dakota
You Land, of My Forefathers' Choice: History of the Bessarabian
Germans
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