Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 58

56 ICELAND REVIEW
Sixty-five years ago, 314 young Germans, mostly women, moved
to Iceland to work on farms. Many of them never left and are
now spending the evening of their lives like any other Icelanders.
Gisela Schulze and Hildur Björnsson tell their stories.
In 1949, Iceland saw its first and only
group immigration organized and
paid for by the government when
314 Germans, mostly between 20 and 30
years old, among them 139 refugees, were
hired to work on farms across the country.
Icelanders were increasingly moving from
the countryside to towns and villages, and
as a result, farmhands were needed. as part
of the initiative, 284 farmers requested 316
laborers, 231 women and 85 men.
boMbingS and bleSSingS
In the wake of World War II, poverty was
widespread in Germany, food was rationed,
unemployment was rife and millions of
refugees from the eastern territories were
spilling across the new borders into poland.
With a promise of a monthly income and
all expenses paid, approximately 2,000 men
applied, but considerable effort had to
be made to find the required number of
female applicants.
“Germany was in ruins. There was noth-
ing to miss,” says Gisela Schulze when I
ask if she never got homesick after the
move to Iceland. at 18, she was one of
the youngest immigrants. “I was born in
Stettin.” located on the Oder river, the
now-polish port city is known as Szczecin.
“While the war was still ongoing, our house
was bombarded by the Russians, and so
I left for Stolp [Słupsk] near Danzig.” as
the polish border was shifted west, ethnic
Germans were forced to move. “So you
escaped,” interjects Gisela’s husband Árni
Jónsson. “I didn’t escape. I left!” she snaps.
By eygló Svala arnarSdóttir. PHoToS By Páll StefánSSon.
the immiGraNtS
who diSappeared
german laborers arrive in reykjavík on passenger ship Esja on June on June 8, 1949.
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