When three months ago, I flagged the notion of a book about the micro-Geislingenians, at times I wondered if I was creating a fantasy: a fantasy about another fantasy; that of the intersupportiveness of the people among whom I lived as a small child.

I was wrong. It was no fantasy. How quickly people responded. Much of the early support and good wishes arrived from people who had attended the high school at the time: A time when I and my cohort were but pesky “sipelgad” under their feet, as they tried to turn their young adult lives around to overcome major losses. Among the high school cohort who responded and have been enormously helpful are Arved Plaks, Ülo Randpalu and Rein Lints.

Quite rapidly I had the “gümnaasium’ memoirs in my possession. From that book I had access to the names of most who had attended the high school. This permitted an e-mail and mail around to these people seeking out younger siblings and contacts. A wonderful bonding has developed among many of us already.

Simultaneously a small group of us, mainly from Hospitalweihe way began a photo e-mail around looking for new names for faces in the photos. There has been an exponential increase in the numbers of people on the e-mail list: And of course an exponential increase in the number of photos. I muse to myself when I look at some of the addresses and ask of myself — how is it possible to live proverbially a walking distance from someone from whom one, half a century before too lived a walking distance away from, on the other side of the world, and not know about them? How fast the treadmill must turn.

Perhaps the greatest beaver with the photo e-mailing has been Tiit Telmet. He has really got some order into the group photos. His preciseness amazes me. However there are many other beavers in different capacities. I am grateful to each and every one of them.

We are all in regular e-mail contact, with snail mail contact among some of us. There is such a lot to be shared and such a lot to be learnt. I think that each of us is already feeling that we, like the people whom we live among in our respective communities, are beginning to be able to touch our roots. How much I have already learnt about material which I had no means of accessing in my youth.

The information pool has been further widened by others of our cohort who lived in different camps, thus allowing us to understand our youth in a broader context. The information exchange has assumed the role of an interesting forum among us. It is also a forum of exchange about our lives at our differing destinations.

The ultimate climax for us will be the reunion. By the time this occurs I am sure that we will know each other well and we will meet as if time had stood still. But the hope is to increase the numbers who will be present at the reunion, and of course the numbers who contribute their memoirs to the book. My hope is to launch the book at the reunion.

Do you know anyone who attended primary school or kindergarten in Geislingen? Indeed do you know of anyone younger who lived there? They too are one of us, as their life too was shaped by their beginnings in Geislingen? If you do know of someone please pass on this piece of writing to them. They don’t have to do anything unless they wish to; just to have them in e-mail contact with us is reward enough.

Should this be your first contact with the project, just a little about me: I lived in Hospitalweihe mostly. I am a family doctor in Melbourne, Australia. I was taken away from Geislingen just after my seventh birthday.

My current passion is to write a book about the memoirs of the younger cohort in Geislingen; a book where each person shares their own story in their own way. A book where they tell us what they remember of that time, what they remember of what their elders shared with them, how that experience affected their journey through life, and a little of where they are at now.

I am aware that some of our cohort will have had more torrid journeys through life than others. I feel certain that there is agreement that it is particularly to them that those of us already involved in the project, would like to extend our warmth.

To me, Geislingen and the people who shared it with me will always have a special place in my heart.

MAI MADISSON

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