This video is about a visit to Moravia to see ancestral homelands. We found out the Kresha’s are Sudetenland German, not Czech or Austria. However, the Kresha’s (Kressa’s) live in this area for over 600 years, through many wars, peasantry, and the final push to America.
4 Comments
very nice video, really touching Ray! And great usage of short name Czechia, there was for sure no republic around 600 years ago 🙂 http://www.goczechia.com My biological grandfather immigrated into US 1906
Thank you Raymond, well done!
Hi Raymond,
Interesting video, it must have been very exciting to go explore area where your family comes from.
Just a few comments on the use of word 'Sudetenland' and 'Sudeten German' in the context of your family.
At the time your forefathers emigraterd to the U.S. (before the WW1), word 'Sudetenland' was the a name used only for a small area in north-west Bohemia (look up 'Sudeten Mountains'). This did not include area where your family originates. (northern Moravia)
Only after Hitler came to power in neighboring Germany, word 'Sudetenland' started to be used for ALL German speaking territories in Moravia and Bohemia(modern day Czechia)…by Hitler and the Nazi press.
Before that 'Sudetenland' really just meant one small german-speaking region in neighboring Bohemia.
So If your family emigrated before the WW1, then probably most appropriate is to talk about them as either 'Austrians'(most German speaking Moravians identified as such) or 'German Moravians'.
Very nice video about Nová Hradečná!