The Specificity Of Oral History Research In The Warmia And Mazury. The Concept Of Interdisciplinary Project

• Authors: Izabela Lewandowska
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Until 1945 former East Prussia /Ostpreußen/ was relatively homogenous in terms of culture. Germans, native Mazurians and Warmiaks dominated, Poles lived in the southern part of Warmia and Mazury, the Jewish minority inhabited towns and the Old Believers /‘starovyery’/ lived in the area of the Piska Forest /Puszcza Piska/. The evacuation of German civilians fleeing the advancing Red Army in January 1945 marked the beginning of a post-war expulsion of Germans from East Prussia, which was endorsed at Potsdam Peace Conference in July/August 1945 by the Big Three (Stalin – Churchill – Truman). Those who decided to stay here were soon forced to ‘claim’ their nationality. Polish authorities, just like their German predecessors, were aiming at an ethnic unification of the region. Following some political decisions the majority of the remaining German population were displaced and Warmiaks and Mazurians had to pledge their allegiance: either German or Polish. At the same time Polish settlers began to pour in. By the end of 1948 ca. 330 thousand had come from central Poland and slightly over 115 thousand of so called ‘resettlers’ had arrived from pre-war Eastern Borderlands /Kresy Wschodnie/. In addition, 55 thousand Ukrainians were later relocated to the region under so called ‘Operation Vistula’. Considerably smaller representations of Belorussians, Lithuanians and Romani community members closed the list of new settlers1. Germans had to conceal their national identity.

Keywords

EN

oral history; research; Warmia and Mazury

• Publisher: Instytut Profilaktyki Społecznej i Resocjalizacji UW
• Journal: Papers of Social Pedagogy
• Year: 2016
• Issue: Family in the process of changes 2 (5)/2016
• Pages: 75-82

Dates

online

2016

Contributors

author

Izabela Lewandowska

• University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

References

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Identifiers

ISSN

2392-3083