VISITING
AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE
JANUARY
2011
St.
Louis German Cultural Society
My
Hobby
by
George Taubel
Forwarded
From German Cultural Society, St. Louis
I have been a stamp collector for many years; the hobby has given me a
lot of pleasure and diversion. I have met a lot of nice people and
corresponded with many collectors in foreign countries for years. I
even visited some of them while traveling in Europe and was welcomed
warmly.
I started stamp collecting about the time I attended Grade School. In
our village we spoke only German. The classes were taught in German
and the subjects were history, poetry and grammar. We even had to
learn to write in the old Gothic script and since the Cyrillic letters
were the official alphabet of the country, we had to be able to read
and write it also. In daily usage the “Latin” lettering was in use
– actually, we had to know three alphabets.
Most of the older men of our village had served in the
Austro-Hungarian Army and were stationed all over the Empire. They
sent letters and postcards home which were eventually stored in attics
and other out-of-the-way places. I started rummaging through our attic
and found many interesting things, amongst them old letters, postcards
and documents with stamps on them. The stamps showed pictures of
kings, cities, countries, different people in various clothing and
other fascinating things. I asked my friends to look for letters and
postcards and let me have them.
I collected the stamps on my own initiative without knowing how to
save, display or store them. I tried to peel the stamps off the
envelopes but did not succeed, I only tore up the stamps. I cut off
the comers with the stamps and put them away. Once, when rummaging
through my hoard, one stamp still on paper, fell into a wash basin and
when I removed it I could easily peel the paper off its back. When dry
I stored them in books to keep them flat. I had no idea how to store
and display my stamps, there was nobody around who could tell me as
stamp collecting was not known in our area.
When I completed Grade School and there was no higher school in our
village I was enrolled in high school in a nearby city. I walked to
school, it was not far away. The only time it was uncomfortable was
during inclement weather. The school I attended was only taught in
Croatian and I had a rough time, discipline was strongly enforced and
it was not unusual to get slapped in the face. At the time political
tensions rose and there was talk of war. Ever since the state of
Yugoslavia was established a noticeable trend of Pan Slavism was
evident.
Some teachers indicated that our ancestors were settled there to take
the land over. Towards the end of my first year of High School war
broke out and our area was occupied by the German Army. A German High
School was established and German speaking students from surrounding
villages were urged to transfer to the German school from the Croatian
School. A director from Vienna was hired for the school. Because there
were a lot of German speaking students from the surrounding villages
all lessons were conducted in German.
As time went by living conditions became more and more difficult,
particularly as food was concerned. It was too far to go home for
lunch so my mother fixed lunch for me which consisted mostly of
homemade bread and homemade smoked cold cuts. My Sandwich could be
smelled in the whole classroom and made the hungry city dwellers
drool. One day I was approached by one of the boys who told me he had
heard that I was a stamp collector and offered me five stamps for part
of my sandwich. I agreed to the trade and he gave me five stamps every
day.
Living conditions in our area became worse every day. Guerillas
attacked villages, blew up railroad tracks and made life miserable. In
late 1944, I was ordered to report to the Croatian Labor Service; I
was 16 years old at the time. While I was gone my parents were forced
to flee from our village and I lost contact with them.
When the war was over I searched for my family and finally found them
in Steyr, Austria. One day I ran into the boy who had traded stamps
for food and we talked about our wartime experiences. He asked me what
happened to my stamps and I told him they were lost like all of our
possessions. He said he was an altar boy while we were at school and
helped the priest on every morning to get ready for mass. Every day he
stole 5 stamps from the priest’s collection and gave them to me as a
trade for part of my Sandwich.
We lived in Austria for seven years, and then immigrated to the United
States. After I learned to speak English, I started to look for stamp
collectors. I found several collectors clubs and joined the “Germany
Philatelic Society”, I have been a member for 40 years and have
enjoyed my association with the friendly and helpful members.
by
George Taubel
