Goralenvolk – kryzys tożsamości
Goralenvolk – an Identity Crisis

Summary/Abstract: The text attempts to resolve several questions. Who betrayed and why? Who created the theory about the Teutonic origin of the Polish Tatra Mts. highlanders? At the time of the Nazi occupation Goralenvolk was the most significant and largest organised form of collaboration in Poland. This certainly black page in the history of the Podhale region has been rarely discussed. Rejected, it gives rise to various emotions and for years has been surrounded by a sui generis conspiracy of silence. Unsurprisingly, the topic is not readily broached in Podhale, an attitude that was conducive for the communists, on the one hand, and for the surviving participants of the wartime events, on the other hand. Censorship effectively assisted in this conspiracy of silence and Goralenvolk was mentioned in few scattered, fragmentary and low-circulation publications. Praise is due to those authors who endeavoured to write about it, i.a. Janusz Berghauzen, Henryk Jost, Sylwester Leczykiewicz, Adam Palmrich, and Włodzimierz Wnuk. The first monograph on the history of Goralenvolk appeared 66 years after the war: the book by Wojciech Szatkowski demonstrates the mechanisms of treason.

• Details
• Contents