Place:Neu-Beschenowa, Banat, Austria

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NameNeu-Beschenowa
Alt namesNeubeschenowa, Banat,/Hungary
Ujbesenyo, Banat, Hungary
Dudestii Noi, Romania
TypeUnknown
Coordinates45.833333°N 21.1°E
Located inBanat, Austria     (1718 - 1773)
See alsoUjbesenyo
Dubestii Noi
Bumbarcari,

Neubeschanowa The village was formed between 1748 – 1749 and named the German name Neubeschenowa in 1750. But the name uses on Passenger records, was Hungarian, Ujbesenyo (Oy-besen-u). Today the Romanian name it Dudestii Noi (Du-dest-e Noi) The village was laid out by the Hapsburg government, in a checkerboard pattern, with the catholic church in the center of the town square. The buildings were a modified Baroque and the schools were built close to the church. Houses were built perpendicularly to the street and were a series of adjoining rooms, with the parlor on the end that faced the street and the sheds for animals on the opposite end. A long covered porch extended the full length of the house. Each house plot was surrounded by a fence, then a courtyard within the fence contained the household garden. The Swabians were known for keeping their houses and gardens, clean . Streets in the villages were wide, and were used for community activities, such baptisms, weddings and funeral processions. Cattle were led down the streets to common pasture that surrounded the village. The land was very fertile, crops of sugar beets, hemp, wheat, corn and alfalfa were grown in the fields around the village. The farmers had horses, cattle, pigs, chickens and geese. Each house had a house number recorded in their birth, marriage and death record kept by the church . They had many hard years, with droughts, floods, freezes. hail, earthquakes, arson, cholera , invasions of mosquitoes, mice, hamsters, and phylloxera (a small fly that destroys the grapes) With the changing of the borders after WWI. Neubeschenowa was now in Romanian. Romania changed the name of the villages to Romanian names, Neubeschenowa/Ujbesenyo became Dubestii Noi (Du-dest-e Noi)

During WWII in Neubeschenowa, 37 men died in the service of the Romanian army, and 83 men in the German Army. After Romania changed sides and joined the allies, 19 families fled in September 1944, and all remaining inhabitants were evacuated to the neighboring community of St. Andreas during September 29 – October 10.

1945 Neubeschenowa is now behind the Iron Curtain under Russian government. Jan 6 1945, Russians soldiers came to the villages and 75,000 Swabian Germans were forced to work in coal mines and labor camps in the Soviet Union. They took German woman between ages 18-32 and German men 17 to 45. but the younger and older were also deported.

From Neubeschenowa, 297 men and women were deported to the Ukraine, 68 died in the coal mines as forced laborers. They were released between 1949 and 1951.

June 17th, 1951, in the late evening, Romanian Soldiers came to Neubeschenowa and beat on doors telling the occupants they have till morning to pack for their families. Each family were packed into box cars with their belongings and livestock and a wagon. The trains went east for 3 days ending close to the Danube. Their new home was the Baragan-Steppe. This was a barren plain, with no civilization, no water and lots of thistles . There were 17 other new villages, from the same area in Banat , with new names, Neubeschenowa was Bumbăcari . After 4 years they were relased. From the village Neubeschenowa/Bumbarcari, 62 families, of the about 170 people deported, 22 did not return. Those who did return to Neubeschenowi/Dubestii Noi either their houses had deteriorated or the Romanians had taken over their homes and property. Many of the Swabians went to America, Canada , Germany or Austria. The Village of Bumbăcari still exist there today but very little is known about it. Many of the villages in Baragan Steppe were bulldozed after 1955. {source-fhlc|73385}}


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{If you are interested in their life on the Baragan Steppe, there are many articles at Donauschwaben Villages Helping Hands, a Nonprofit Corporation Representing the former Danube Swabian villages situated in the six settlement areas which were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918: Banat, Batschka, Hungarian Highlands, Sathmar, Syrmia, Slavonia dvhh.org {place-stub}}