Talk:2012-11-23 49 8

Awesome spot (and a Holy Hash, too) - it's always interesting to explore a graveyard! I'm curious who'll get the Coffin Potato Achievement. Have fun! I would love to go there myself, but I have absolutely no time to spare tomorrow. --ilpadre 01:31, 22 November 2012 (EST)

It was great, thank you RecentlyChanged 14:38, 25 November 2012 (EST)

I have come to this page quite late, but I just got interested in other Coffin Potatoes after recording one myself. This is a really strange graveyard, I would love to be able to research more.

The last names of the deceased are definitely Ukrainian (or possibly, but much less likely, Belarussian). Last names ending in -uk or -enko are very common there, such names as Мацюк (Matsyuk), deriving from biblical name Mathew and Мельниченко (Melnichenko), roughly meaning 'miller', are actually quite popular. Forshtat is a bit of a curiosity. It is likely an imperfect (should read Forshtadt) transliteration of Russian/Ukrainian transliteration/loanword Форштадт, taken from German Vorstadt 'suburb' (especially in the medieval sense as a village outside of city walls).

First names Ilya (east Slavic version of Elijah) and Valentina are also very common there. Berta is likely an effect of assimilation into German culture.

But there are also Hebrew inscriptions. Were these people Ukrainian Jews? The German-sounding name Forshtat could be actually Yiddish. Birth years are also close, during the timeframe of Stalin's rule in the USSR, Ukraine being a part of it then. Karlsruhe had a significant Jewish community before the Holocaust, and has one - again. Very interesting historical puzzle... (Malgond)

Nice to see that someone's looking at the old expedition pages. Now that you told me I think you're right, it is quite interesting! Thank you for sharing your insight ---RecentlyChanged (talk) 18:27, 15 July 2017 (UTC)