As it is known, Recovered Lands, i.e. western and northern areas of contemporary Poland, which were part of Polish Piasts centuries ago, were within its limits 80 years ago.
This was the consequence of the decision of the Allies as compensation for the destruction, operation and execution of the Polish population, in any way in exchange for the pre-war east Borders captured by the Soviets.
In 80 years, the Polish people have made large efforts in the field of the improvement and association of these lands with the remainder of the country. A hard area in this improvement was to address the material remnants of German culture, primarily due to the memory of crimes committed before 1945 in the Polish people by German Nazis. I hope that the following memory will be accepted by readers as a reason to commemorate the mentioned past process.
It was 1946. I was 8 years old at the time, and I was aware of fresh German-Nazi crimes, due to the fact that during the fresh war with the National Army, my parents made me aware of the realities of the war-occupational reality around us. My father Kazimierz Strzelecki had taken up a fewer months earlier work in the town of Morąg picturesquely located among lakes in the north-western part of Mazury, as the Regional Inspector of the Universal common Insurance Institution (PZUW). In the spring of that year, as a family, we made a painful journey by trains from Krakow through Warsaw to Morag. In Warsaw, we got through the Vistula River to Prague in an open truck. I was shocked to see the ruins of the left-hand part of the city, so I was relieved to see Prague unruly.
In Morag too, we were not free from the sight of ruins. However, they performed in large numbers only in the oldest part of the township, around the town hall. We watched them all week, following from 3 Żymierski Street for Sunday Mass to the church. I remember erstwhile soldiers from the local garrison entered the church with an equal marching step and sang beautifully during Mass. Years later, my parent made me realize that in this church for a time the faithful learned to sing celebrated spiritual songs in a unified way under the direction of priests, since they knew them in different versions from different parts of Poland. I besides remember walking with my parents and sisters to the lakes and meadows surrounding the city.
In the school I attended together with the oldest of 3 of my sisters Marta, there was a large number of post-German books from various local libraries. The decision to liquidate this harvest has been made. As I recall, it seems that the students and students were twice allowed to bring as many volumes as they could carry in both hands. However, the chosen books had to be shown to teachers before leaving school. The publications they considered peculiarly valuable remained in place. As a result, many books with Hitler’s portraits, including albums depicting him among children, were found in our parent home. On our own initiative, we were eagerly smearing, we children, his face with pencils or crayons. I found it interesting to see books depicting German colonists in German colonies before planet War I. They aroused my interest in geography, undoubtedly besides in history. To this day, 1 of the valuable items in my family's collection is the monograph Morag published in 1927 ("Mohrungen in Ostpreussen").
One day I was “surprised” by the sight of a “tabun” of horses driven by 1 of Morąga streets in a direction unknown to me. shortly I learned that the USA presented a large number of horses to impoverished farmers due to the war of Polish farmers. Years later, I came across a press article stating that the riders rushing these animals were genuine American cowboys who volunteered to work for this American relief action.
One of the well-remembered experiences of staying in Morąg was the occasional journey to Gdynia in 1946 to participate in the first postwar celebration of the festival of the Sea. We took this journey in an open truck. In Elbląg the driver accidentally turned into the wrong, full of ruins and rubble street. As all tour participants withdrew from there, he mastered the fear of possible unexploded assault. As we passed the Malbork castle, my attention was caught by a destroyed russian tank with a barrel pointing towards this fortress. I was aware of the pronunciation of what I saw, due to the fact that earlier adults had made me aware that we were passing the “symbol” of the Teutonic Knights, the hostile Germanic Poland. Soon, in the Żuławy, we were amazed to find that we were driving along roads among immense floods, flooded fields. More than 20 years later, in the 1970s, I saw these areas as full developed, following the summertime “little” with my household to the sea, to Wiślana. On this occasion, I besides visited the beautifully restored Malborsk castle and got acquainted with the Memorial in Sztutów, 1 of the symbols of the crimes committed by the Nazi government in Pomerania.
Morag (1948). Author with Sisters
Due to the persecution of the Father by local safety in 1948 we left Morąg and returned to the south of Poland. In a 20th century diary, Father recalls these dramatic events:
"Just before the elections to be held [which took place on 19 January 1947 – footnote A.S.] was arresting me on charges of storing weapons and subversive activities. The arrest that took place on 5.XII.1946 was preceded by a review. Just erstwhile they came after me I was busy painting the heads of Santa Claus, to the baked by (my wife) Hanka Mikołajów from gingerbread, there was no trade ready. This revision was carried out in specified a way that even children were ordered to be pulled out of their beds. They looked under mattresses, on ovens, in ovens, in closets, couches, and all that.
I was most afraid they wouldn't give me anything compromising. They came with tenants from the bottom, i.e. Mr Popiel – teacher and Mr Stefan Roman, a masseur with a masquerade on the ground level and basement of our house. Participation in this revision was imposed in the erstwhile years. Although they did not find anything incriminating in my house, due to the fact that there was nothing in my house, I was arrested and locked up in the basement of the safety Office after a very boring interview.... I'm tired of sleeping until morning.
After a while, I was brought out for questioning again. On the way to the office, I saw Hankak sitting there, who came to intervene in my case... First, the sentry wouldn't let her go. The second time she tried, there was no guard, only 1 of the secretaries brought her into the office where she worked. There, she waited a long time for a boss who was reportedly missing. At 1 point, she abruptly saw me being brought into the boss's office. We only managed to look at ourselves. Right after closing the door behind me, she heard a loud conversation “where did she come from and who brought her here”. And immediately from the bottom of the hall, a soldier started hailing her, “Come here now, you must not be there.” erstwhile she did not respond to this cry, he addressed it as “Mrs” and it was only then that she realized that this call was about her. On her way home tortured, she was detained by a soldier moving behind her, who ordered her to return at the command of the head of UB... She was advised to give a message in writing about my hostile activity to the regime. After a firm refusal to compose anything, due to the fact that nothing bad about me can write, she was released home. They besides promised her that if she wrote, her husband would be free....
After interviewing me, or alternatively urging me to admit voluntarily to my harmful activity, which I did not do, I was taken distant by a car-inmate to Olsztyn. There, in the building of the safety Office, I was locked up again in a basement tiny cell where there were already about 20 people.”
Time passes fast. In the mid-1970s, in the summer, led by curiosity, I came to Morąg. In a fewer hours, my wife and a fewer years old daughter, I visited the corners of my home, having a affirmative experience everywhere. 1 of them was the “discovery” of a memorial commemorating the moradian, prominent German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. I most likely heard of him years ago as a boy. The monument was erected on the square other the property on which the household home of the thinker was demolished during the war.
To this day, I am impressed by the more than a week's stay, shortly after 1980, at the vacation hotel then operating in the buildings of the erstwhile monastery in Wigra (as it is known, until 1939, belonging to Poland), besides traveling by car from Wigier to the west, through Gierłoż (remains after Hitler's quarters) and St. We visited Frombork respective times in the 20th century, connecting in feelings, like all tourists there, with the personality of Nicholas Copernicus.
Beginning in the 1960 ’ s, I visited many different towns on the Recovered Lands, frequently in ruins after the war. Looking at rebuilt cities, I felt that Poland was here again.
At the time, you were riding incredibly overloaded trains. During the game period, erstwhile small Fiats moved through Poland, I was there with my wife and daughter Anna. I had the chance to compare beautifully rebuilt Gdańsk with what I saw in 1946, which was in ruins. I then gave my daughter cognition of Westerplatte and Postzcie Gdańsk and another events related to the past of these lands.
W Szczecinie I was shortly after 1945, along with Sister Marta. Our guest uncle Dambski (the erstwhile residents of Warsaw destroyed during the Second planet War) immediately after our arrival, informed us that in urban terms it is simply a unique city, like Paris, it has a starry layout of streets. Following the instructions of our uncles, we visited in this city, among others, the objects about the past of the Piasova. I reached Kołobrzeg for the first time in 1961, popular among youth (well organized by the Polish authorities) by hitchhiking to meet the youngest of my 3 Mary Sisters who participated in the youth camp. Immediately after arriving there, I noticed meaningful empty spaces in the center of this city. They were created as a consequence of the demolition of many ruins resulting from intense fighting there in 1945. Later, my wife, Irene, and I spent respective times in the city. However, I could not once, as a historian, distance myself completely from the tragic past of it. With my thoughts, I was returning to 3 objects there, whose sight moved me: a ellipse of boulders commemorating the deportation of the Jews of Kołobrze to the Auschwitz camp, a monument of the Polish orderly at the seaside boardwalk, remains of the German combat aircraft excavated after the war from the sea level and exhibited in the local museum.
I besides spent a good “soon” with my relatives in various another towns on the Coast, including Interzdroje, Rewal, Miernie, Ustka... – in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in well-functioning holidaymakers offering modest but satisfactory conditions for leisure activities of the Workers' vacation Fund (FWP). In the 21st century, I stated that in general these towns were highly expanded, they erected quite a few fresh vacation centers, so that once, for example, in the Reval, led by curiosity, despite an intense search, I was incapable to find the centre of the erstwhile FWP-wski centre. A year ago, in a much expanded post-war mouth caught my attention by comparatively many historical houses with a pole-rigel structure.
During a short stay in February this year in Międzyzdroje I “discovered” a evidence of interesting fact about post-war Polish-German relations. I accidentally stated that 2 of the pre-war German residents of Interzdroy (Misdroy) who managed to avoid displacement were declared posthumously by the local authorities and society to be worthy of this city, its honorary citizens. Their characters were commemorated, among others, by placing commemorative plaques dedicated to them on grand boulders. As part of an inscription dedicated to the deceased in 1953, Dr. Alfred Trost, a Dr. med. From the first day after the end of the war they built bridges of agreement between Poles and Germans. Thus, they laid the foundation stone for a united Europe.... Interzdroje 3 May 2014.’
A akin inscription in the pronunciation was placed on a plaque dedicated to the prominent artist Eryk (Erich) von Zedtwitz, who died in 1965 of the anti-fascist, during the Second planet War repressed by the Nazi authorities, unveiled solemnly in 2013. He painted over 2,000 paintings, 14 of them donated by his son, is simply a permanent exhibition at a local cultural centre. I want it was decently advertised. In 2024 German documentaryist Edda Gutsche published as a consequence of her collaboration with many Polish citizens a 3rd volume of documentation entitled “Malar, Villages and Views of Western Pomerania in the first half of the 20th century = Maler, Orte und Landschaften in Hinterpommern in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts”, in which she presented, among others, the character and artistic achievements of Eryk v. Zedtwitz, besides the accomplishment of another German artist operating in Inter-Health before the war. "Unfortunately, the promotion of this book (in January this year – a quote on the Internet) attracted fewer residents of the municipality (interzdrojska), which may have disappointed the author". possibly the “antidotum” for this disappointment would be a publication presenting the achievements of both German and Polish artists who were active in Western Pomerania in the 20th century, or in Interzdroje and the area...
I will besides not forget that around 1961 I participated in the voluntary departure of a large group of students from Cracow universities for a alleged harvest action in 1 of the PGRs (State Farms) in West Pomerania, close Szczecinek. The conditions were far from comfortable. In about 10 days, we prepared grain cut down to be removed from the fields. 1 of the participants of this expedition was Irena, my wife's future. We were photographed at 1 of the corn mounds. Then in Krakow we were offered a satisfactory gratification for publishing this photograph as a propaganda aphiss. We didn't agree to that. Unfortunately, it has not been preserved in my collections.
Dr Andrzej Strzelecki
Retired investigator at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum
PS.
Similar memories, if I can compose them, will concern the Silesian Lands recovered. We must want the Earth all the more prosperity.
Think Poland, No. 19-20 (11-18.05.201025)
