Lorraine-Banaters
by Günther Philipp
The “French Banaters” mostly originate from Lorraine, which was only annexed by France around the time of their departure (1766) from Lorraine. Before 1766, Lorraine was an independent duchy and part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. It had a mixed Romanesque and German population.
The Romanesque-speaking population, however, spoke a French dialect. Therefore, the Lorrainers before 1766 should be referred to as Romanesque-speaking people of the Empire rather than as “French.” The situation in Lorraine before 1766 was similar to that of French-speaking Switzerland today. These Swiss refer to themselves as Romands but not as French. The Walloons in Belgium , incidentally, also do not consider themselves as French.
When Lorraine was entering under the rule of French kings in the 18th century many of the French speaking population of Lorraine emigrated to Quebec while many of the German Lorrainers went to the Banat area, together with a few French speaking ones.
After the Second World War, in Romania, a communist regime was established featuring among other atrocities deportation into the Soviet Union to forced labour camps and expropriation of the German Banaters, because they were German. So, out of necessity, a “Comite des Français du Banat” (Committee of French of the Banat) was formed in the Banat. It was formed by Banaters who had Lorraine roots primarily who, by claiming to be French, tried to avoid deportation or expropriation as “German Banaters”. This success of this approach was limited though and most following this path could not avoid deportation or expropriation in spite of being a member of the “French of the Banat” Committee.
The situation in Austria also led to a renewed focus on the “French” roots of the Lorraine Banaters. After World War II many of the Banaters (Banat Swabians) ended up in Austria where they were initially not welcomed. This was because at that time the Austrian government struggled itself to be recognized by the Allied powers and did not want to offer protection to the German refugees from East and South East Europe. So, the Banaters in Austria began to look for alternatives to staying in poor camp accommodation in Austria, taking also into account that the US forces had blocked 1946 the possibility to move to West Germany, after Austria had sent about 250,000 German refugees to West Germany. On the other hand ethnic German refugees that stayed in Austria were not granted Austrian citizenship until 1956 when Austria became independent again. This led in the early 1950s to the creative idea of moving from Austria to France by claiming to be of “French” origin. For this the Banaters that became members in this committee considered themselves as “French of the Banat”. On the other hand France had a serious shortage of workforce, both in agriculture and industry (mining) so was very interested to take these Banaters that had a reputation of being a hard working people. I have some relatives who followed this approach from 1949 onwards together with about 10,000 other Banaters, Moreover the Austrian government was very happy to see them leave Austria. After arriving in France they continued to try to resettle to West Germany but it was not until around 1955-1956 that West Germany was ready to open its doors to those that had moved to France. However, these relatives realized even earlier that life in France wasn’t so easy after all, so many of them embraced the opportunity 1953 to come to Canada. This opportunity was offered by the Canadian immigration authorities who at that time were conducting a large scale advertising campaign in Europe, especially in France. The modification of the West German stance from 1956 onwards towards accepting these Banaters from France came too late for those that had lost to a certain extent trust in a future in Europe and had boarded a ship to Canada.
Those Banat Swabians from France who managed in the late 1950 and the 1960 to be successfully accepted into West Germany did not emigrate to Canada.
Back then, you simply had to look out for yourself and be flexible using the available options.
Sourches:
Alliierte Rat für Österreich – 20th Sept. 1945