The Magnet & Sudetenland

Sat 9. Aug. 2003

The Magnet & Sudetenland

By Udo Strasilla

Thoughts to the Texas Tech Essay on the gathering:

Last month we went to Sudetenland the fifth time after our expulsion in 1945.
This is probably more than all my relatives together, who live much closer to their former home.

What causes this attraction?

It’s like the salmon returning to the place where it has spawned.

It’s like a magnet.
Have you ever done the experiment of placing a magnet on the table. Now put a metallic object at a distance of it. The object experiences the pull of the magnetic field. However, the field is too weak to overcome the friction. Now, slowly push the object closer to the magnet. Suddenly, with a snap, the object shoots toward the magnet, and is clinging on it. Thus I can explain my situation. Being here in California, the thought of Sudetenland seems to be only a figment of imagination. Once I cross the Atlantic on visits to Germany or Austria, I feel the strong pull of my old home-country. Then I am not satisfied until I see the land of my childhood.