Title: Werschetz (Versecz – Vrsac) Kommunale Entwicklung und deutsches Leben der Banater Wein- und Schulstadt
Author: Helmut Frisch
Year: 1982
Media Type: Book
Lending Status: Borrow
How Acquired: ZVA purchase for SGS
Review/Description: This large volume is 785 pages of text, including a 40 page index of surnames, plus another 270 pages of pictures. The supplement adds 90 pages of text and 45 pages of pictures. This monumental work is very thorough, covering all aspects of life in Werschetz in great detail, from its founding right up to the NATO bombing in 1999. It includes a very detailed Banat history. The author includes songs and poems, and backs up his text with first person accounts, contemporary newspaper accounts and analysis, and other miscellaneous sources. Based on a quick scan and my limited grasp of German, he provides a balanced account of events before, during, and after World War II, explaining the harsh treatment of the Serbs and Jews by the Nazis as well as the mistreatment of the Donauschwaben by the Partisans. Although some Zichydorfers had connections to Werschetz, most researchers will not find this pair of books very useful unless they are searching Werschetz itself. As you may have guessed from the title, these books are in German.