Stosunek mniejszości na Górnym Śląsku do pamięci powstań i plebiscytu (część 3). Niemiecka wizja 40. rocznicy plebiscytu
The attitude of the minorities in Upper Silesia towards the memory of the Silesian Uprisings and the plebiscite (Part 3). The German vision of the 40th anniversary of the plebiscite

Summary/Abstract: The article provides the analysis of the place, the role and the significance of the memory of the Silesian Uprisings and the plebiscite for various groups of inhabitants, primarily minorities. The basic source is the press of a given group and the literature on the subject. The Silesian Uprisings became the Polish founding myth in the region as early as in the interwar period, despite sharp conflicts over the memory of them. For understandable reasons, a negative attitude towards them was expressed by Germans, who represented their own narrative concerning the victorious plebiscite of March 1921, disavowed by the decisions of the Geneva conference in October of the same year. After World War II, the People’s Poland took over the narrative about the victorious military act with slight modifications, having put emphasis upon the peasant-worker origin of insurgents. The German story of Upper Silesia was attributed to the complex of expulsion, and the occurrences of 1945 became its main point of reference. The third part of the series, based on the press of individual Silesian homeland associations, focuses on the manner and form of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the plebiscite in the Federal Republic of Germany, confronting it with the celebrations of the Uprisings in Poland. In its conclusion, it undertakes an endeavour to explain the influence of the celebrations on the remembrance of those occurrences in Upper Silesia.

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