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A Remembrance of the Past; Building for the Future." ~ Eve Eckert Koehler



Remembering Our Danube Swabian Ancestors
     
 

The Cemetery

by Dr. Viktor Pratscher
Translated by Brad Schwebler

   The first cemetery was on the west end of the community.  It has been left open for a long time and today it is surrounded by more streets, rather far from the end of today's village.  The first Germans who died in Feketitsch are certainly buried here.  In 1830 the Reformed and Evangelical congregations acquired their cemeteries next to one another on the north end of the village which are also still used today.  Since 1900 there has been a communal cemetery at the south end of the village where more Germans are also buried.   

 

In the Akazian Forest of the old cemetery to the east. A youth group at great and great-great grandfather's grave in 1860.

Cemeteries are everywhere on the hills. Neither the church nor the political community have the need for a nice proper part of the cemetery.  Graves and vaults were made without giving or demanding completely exact application, it is no wonder vaults of neither the same height nor the same width or length are found.  The distance from one another is completely different and not once is there a straight line in front.  At the grave sites it still looks so varied. How can the Germans in the Serbian community Kac have such an exemplary ordered cemetery?  Because the dimensions because not every neighbor, but only the church servants may make the graves and because the cemeteries of the ancestors were not abandoned to become overgrown. We hope that we make up for this neglect later! Animal carcasses were collected by the (Wasenmeister?) and buried in the animal (carrion) cemetery. He received 5 Dinar for  calves, 10-20 Dinar for larger animals, besides a free apartment and 100 Dinar a month from the community.  A carrion oven was erected for the purpose of cremating the carcasses, which was not thought of until then even though bad abuses had occurred.

[Published at DVHH.org 2004 by Jody McKim Pharr]


Last Updated: 18 Aug 2020

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