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The Former German Village Neu-Beschenowa in Banat
by Anton Zollner
Translated by
Erwin Deininger
Last of the
German Village
of
Neu-Beschenowa
[German]
The village Neu-Beschenowa had in 1930,
2223 inhabitants that were to 93% of German decent. German colonists from
the Mainz, Trier and Lothringen area arrived there in 1748. The first
Romanian colonists came only in 1945 to the village when the number of
German people started to decline. The census from 1977 revealed that
in the village lived 1117 Germans, 1359 Romanians and 133 gypsies.
After Ceausescu’s execution in 1989, almost all Germans of the village
emigrated to Germany. Only a few remained because of personal reasons.
The census from 1992 showed that in the village were only 92 people with
German nationality left.
Neu-Beschenova became just one more village
in Romania to be declared as a former German village. The last article in
the press, related to the village featured a story about the life of the new
inhabitants of the village:
Nicolae Chirvasitu from Neu-Beschenowa
received after the last land reform 5 hectares of farm land. Last year when
he began to crop the corn from his fields he realized that 60% of the corn
was already stolen. The next night he and his son in law remained out in the
fields to lay in wait. Soon after sunset the thief arrived again to load his
car with corn. Caught by the land owner the thief Dumitru Savu admitted that
he had stolen all the corn that Nicolae Chirvasitu was missing and promised
to pay for the inflicted damage. As a guaranty he left his car behind.
Soon after this incident however, the chief
of the police station charged Nicolae Chirvasitu with car theft. The police
chief who allegedly pressed Dumitru Savu to steal the corn for him charged
Nicolae also for removing of gold jewelry and one million Lei out of
Dumitru’s car. Desperate Nicolae Chirvasitu sought help at the district
prosecutor’s office. And so it happened that the police chief left the
village after he loaded a truck with fresh meat and other foods that are
short in supply in Romania and headed towards Bucharest to bribe his
superiors. The prosecutor’s investigation in the case is not closed
yet, but it is very likely that Nicolae Chirvasitu will be on the loser’s
side.
It appears that after the Banater Swabians
left, not only the economical situation became worse in the village but also
the new inhabitants struggle to live together in a peaceful and orderly
way.
Anton Zollner,
July 1995
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