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1998 Woman of the Year American Legion Auxiliary
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For more than thirty years Ms. Elizabeth Walter has been the director of the Kindergruppe Children's Group of the Chicago American Aid Society of German Descendants, a cultural group founded to help displaced Donauschwaben, Danube Swabiens, after World War II. The group folk dances, sings and performs plays in German. Ms. Walter was born in Karlsdorf, Yugoslavia. She spent almost three years in Communist Yugoslavian concentration camps AFTER World War II. Why? Because she was an ethnic German. She and her family escaped on foot across Hungary to Austria. The family was reunited with her father in bombed out Munich, Germany. In 1950 the family emigrated to America. On September 8th 1998 Ms. Walter received the prestigious American Legion Auxiliary 1998 Woman of the Year award for sharing her personal story of survival in the face of physical and emotional suffering, by writing the book Barefoot in the Rubble, to inform the public about the inhumanity of post-war ethnic cleansing that continues to this day! Her book Barefoot in the Rubble is included in the bibliography of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois. From October 12th to October 16th 1998 Barefoot in the Rubble was displayed in the Senate Russel Rotunda in Washington D.C. entitled "ETHNIC CLEANSING 1944 - 1950, The expulsion of ethnic Germans". On November 12th 1999, she spoke at the International German American Book Fair at Wayne State University in Michigan, U.S.A. . On October 19th 2000, Ms. Walter was the Guest Illinois Author of the month, and read in the Illinois Authors Room at the state library in Springfield, Illinois, U.S.A. . In November of 2000, she was invited to speak in a Symposium on Ethnic Cleansing at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. . On July 26, 2002, Ms. Walter participated in the ISSEI - International Society for the Study of European Ideas, VIII International Conference 2002, at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, U.K. . |
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Click here if you would like to learn more about another individuals' experiences Katherine Hoeger-Flotz. |
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