First reunion of Mittenwald students held at Soyuzivka (06/25/00)

First reunion of Mittenwald students held at Soyuzivka

by Michael Komanowsky

KERHONKSON, N.Y. - The first reunion of students who attended schools in Mittenwald, Germany, took place at the Ukrainian National Association estate Soyuzivka on May 21-23, almost 55 years after those schools were organized.

The reunion was very well planned by a committee composed of Orest Kuzma, Michael Mochula and George Ukrainskyj. Beautiful pictures of each class displayed in the foyer of the main house of the estate attracted the attention of the arriving attendees and helped to recall former classmates, to recollect old memories and to ignite exciting discussions.

Mr. Kuzma, chairman of the organizing committee, asked a representative from each class to share his or her knowledge about the lives and whereabouts of their former classmates. Lubomyr O. Hewko spoke for the 1947 graduating class. From the classes that existed in spring of 1949, Mr. Kuzma, Ihor Zielyk, Ivan Haftkowycz, Olga Harmatij Mychajliw, Alex Piaseckyj and Roman Andrushkiw spoke about classes 8, 6, 5, 4, 2 and 1, respectively. The spokesman for the Teachers Institute was Roman Kaniuka.

All speakers readily recalled the names of their former classmates and teachers and related some of the interesting experiences of their class. A memorial service was held in memory of those who have already departed (all but one of the teachers and close to 20 percent of members of one of the classes are known to have already passed away).

A highlight of the event was a banquet. George Soltys, master of ceremonies, expertly conducted this affair and entertained the attendees with his many amusing descriptions of life and linguistic peculiarities that he observed in Ukraine where he recently spent several semesters teaching at a university.

"The first three speakers at the banquet were Prof. Roman Rakoczyj, the only surviving member of the faculty; Jaroslav Duzyj, the head of the association of former residents of the Mittenwald displaced persons (DP) camp; and the priest of the local Catholic parish. All three expressed their heartfelt greetings and wishes of success during the meeting, as did George Nakonechnyj, Bohdan Tuziw, Ivanka Jarosh and Vasyl Mackiw, who sent their greetings by mail.

Mr. Hewko related the interesting history of the gymnasium in Mittenwald. Most of the teaching staff was originally from the Ukrainian Gymnasium in Modrany, Czecho-Slovakia. The gymnasium they organized in 1945 in a DP camp in Haunstetten near Augsburg, Bavaria was moved to a DP camp in Füssen and, a short time later, in 1946, to Mittenwald.

Because of its excellent teaching staff and its history, the Ukrainisches Realgymnasium in Mittenwald was always fully accredited by the government and the institutions of higher learning of Germany. It is no wonder, therefore, that according to Mr. Hewko's information, close to 90 percent of members of his and all other classes eventually received at least one university degree.

Mykola N. Latyshko of the 1949 graduating class read a poem especially dedicated to this occasion. In the poem he ably described the typical course of life of students of the Mittenwald camp noting both its harsh and more pleasant aspects, the diligence of the students, their hopes and their dreams, their life's struggles and successes, their present relatively comfortable living conditions, and, alas, the inevitable changes wrought by time that not only changed them, but shattered their hopes of returning to their homeland.

All speakers, without exception, expressed astonishment at the ability of their teachers, despite the disorderly conditions of DP camp life, to preserve strict discipline in the schools, to maintain high academic standards in the almost complete absence of textbooks and other teaching aids, and to instill in the minds of their students respect for hard work in the pursuit of knowledge.

In his public appearances prior to and during the banquet, Mr. Duzyj stressed that the book about the DP camp in Mittenwald will be published this year and may be purchased for $50.

All were in agreement that another reunion of students who attended school in Mittenwald should be planned for next year. A committee was organized and authorized to plan such a reunion. Members of this organizing committee are: Luba Ivanchuk Fedun, Nadia Haftkowycz, Mr. Hewko, Halyna Loschtschenko Kis, Mr. Kuzma, Mr. Mochula and Mr. Soltys.

Although the 2000 reunion was well publicized in newspapers, the ability to reach everybody solely through advertising was found to be limited. Therefore, to facilitate better contact in the future, the organizing committee is urging all former students who did not attend this year's reunion to call Mr. Mochula at (973) 390-8995 and submit their addresses for inclusion in a database of addresses.

Bidding farewell, one of the participants described her impressions of the reunion as follows: "After 50 years memories become dulled as more immediate problems of health and family take precedence. Yet, despite the urgencies of daily life, old memories of good and bad experiences as well as of dear old friendships keep recurring. Sometimes one even wonders if those feelings of friendship and closeness one experienced so long ago were indeed as sincere, real and mutual as they appeared to have been. It is feelings like these that made me almost miss this reunion. I know now how wrong I was and I will definitely not miss the next one."

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