Beitrag von John Tschinkel » Fr 15. Mai 2015, 21:14
Henry Stalzer writes in Facebook Group GOTTSCHEE FORUM:
"If you wish to learn more about our Gottschee history, read The Bells Ring No More. Reviewers claim it to be the most comprehensive book on our former homeland. Read 19 highly positive reviews by Gottscheer descendants. Go to Amazon.com to see the details". [/b]
The book is also available in Slovenia under "Zvonovi so umolknili" It was published by zalozba Modrijan in 1910. Below are reviews from the Slovene press:
“There is little in the recent past that moved me as much as the tale of John Tschinkel, revealed in his book The Bells Ring No More. Of the Gottschee Germans who for six long centuries lived a part of southern Slovenia we know very little. It is therefore even more precious to read the revelations of one who describes his early life there, his roots and the fate of his family in such a simple and sensitive manner. He left behind him a trail that can not be erased”.
Zlatica Kasal, Primorske Novice, Oktober, 2010
“The bells in Tschinkel’s book, in addition to ringing historical and ethnographic melodies, above all ring a melody of the tragic destiny of over twelve thousand members of a people who had surrendered to the ideological fanaticism of Nazi youths. Youths, who were assigned the task of convincing their own people to give up their homes and way of life for nothing more than a promise”.
Milan Vogel, DELO, November, 2010
“The author grew up in a self sufficient village in Slovenia until its entire population surrendered to the pressure to resettle in 1941. Not ‘Home to the Reich’ as promised, but to another part of annexed and ethnically cleansed Slovenia from where they were expelled in 1945 to become homeless refugees. He settled in America in 1950.
The book is a merging of at least four aspects of a story running in parallel: history, politics, cultural awareness and personal narrative. Because of this intertwining, the tale never gets boring. The expressive power of the book has several peaks. The last is the description of how the family is trying to outrun the Communist Partisans”.
Prof., Dr. Marjan Kordaš,
Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts, December, 2010
“With his memoirs, intertwined with historical facts and data, John Tschinkel has made certain that the fate of the Gottscheer will not be forgotten. With the critical distance of an educated American immigrant, one who can not get rid of a burning sense of permanent loss, he has assembled a coherent mosaic of a vanished community”.
Mojca Ramšak, Večer, January 2011
John Tschinkel