Monday, July 7, 2008

The Long Trek

From August 1943 to July 1944, nearly 350,000 ethnic Germans were evacuated from Nazi-occupied Ukraine to the Warthe District in Nazi-annexed Poland. It marked the end of a 150-year history of Germans in Ukraine. Their story is told through various documents and eyewitness reports, along with other surviving literature on the subject, in The Long Trek workshop. It is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. and again at 3:30 p.m., Saturday, August 2nd during the 2008 International Convention of Germans from Russia at the Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Center in Casper, Wyoming. The Long Trek session will take place in Ballroom C.

The presenter will be Dr. Eric Schmaltz, an assistant professor at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, where he teaches Modern European and World History. Both sides of Eric’s family claim some Black Sea German ancestry, and their odyssey across half the globe influenced him to pursue the history profession.

The Long Trek is one of more than 40 interesting workshops that are planned July 28-August 3 during the Germans from Russia convention. As many as 1,000 people are expected to attend the 2008 gathering, which is a joint meeting of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia and the Germans from Russia Heritage Society.

Eric J. Schmaltz was born and raised in North Dakota. He had double majors in History and German Language at Saint Olaf’s College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he earned a B.A. with honors. After receiving his M.A. in History at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, he completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. For almost 15 years, Eric has written and spoken about Germans from Russia in a wide variety of publications and venues.

The weekly North Dakota newspaper Emmons County Record is publishing a significant series of his comprehensive history of the Schmaltz family in Germany, Ukraine and south-central North Dakota.

No comments: