Sytuacja Niemców na Dolnym Śląsku po 1989 r. na przykładzie działalności Niemieckiego Towarzystwa Kulturalno-Społecznego we Wrocławiu

Author(s): Irena Kurasz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

With reference to the activities of the German Cultural and Social Association (NTKS) in Wrocław, this article discusses the changes in the position of Lower Silesian Germans following the political changes of 1989. Changes in the lives of Germans, and also Polish society, came about against the backdrop of the then prevailing geopolitical situation and in relation to the new opening of Polish-German relations. Support for the German community stemming from the newly united Germany together with the new legal possibilities appearing in the now democratic Poland led to the rapid development of the cultural and organisational life of the German minority in Poland and the developing of its structures. The article makes reference to part of the author's own research concerning the reconstruction of cultural activities and presents a summary of the organisational achievements of NTKS in Wrocław post 1989.

Migracje zagraniczne mieszkańców województwa opolskiego w latach 1990–2015

Author(s): Brygida Solga / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The Opolskie Voivodeship is a distinctive departure region, characterized for many years by a very intense outflow of people. It is an area where the scale of foreign migration, both in the period before and after the political transformation of the country in the early 1990s and also currently, remains high. It is also a region where the negative balance of net migration diverges noticeably from the national average. It is estimated that from the 1950s to the end of the 1990s over 200 000 people emigrated which accounted for the entire natural population increase from 1975 to 2000. Currently, the scale of permanent and „temporary” emigration is approximately 105 000 people, and so-called incomplete emigration for work purposes (shuttle and seasonal) – 115 000. The significant scale of emigration and its permanent character has a definitive impact on the demographic and economic situation in the region. This, in turn, largely influences the potential for regional development.

Zmiany nazw miejscowych na Śląsku Opolskim po 1945 r.

Author(s): Stanisława Sochacka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

After the end of the war in the Western and Northern Territories, there was a lack of many rules relating to individual important expressions of life, among others, naming conventions, which demanded total harmonisation. There was a need to rename towns, villages, settlements, farms, mountains, lakes and rivers, all of which functioned under official German names. The article presents and evaluates the process of determining place names in Opolian Silesia after 1945. The study is divided into several parts and discusses, among others, the following issues: the origin and history of the Commission for Determining Place Names, convened in January 1946 by the Ministry of Public Administration; the contribution of the Commission of the Silesian Institute in Katowice, which played a key role in the Recolonization of Silesian nomenclature, as Silesia had a rich archive of historical documents at its disposal; the Recolonization of place names in Opolian Silesia rooted in the reconstruction of former Polish names based on historical records; the Polonization of the names of places which before 1945, had German names from their beginnings; temporary names (pre-commission stage) given spontaneously by local and migrant people; changes in naming after 1989 effected at the behest of rural residents. To this end, the Commission for Determining Place Names adopted a policy to govern the process of submitting requests through local authorities.

Wprowadzanie podwójnych nazw miejscowości w województwie opolskim

Author(s): Monika Choroś / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The law regarding national and ethnic minorities and regional languages passed by the Polish parliament in 2005 regulated the rules governing the introduction of additional place names in minority languages. Districts in the Opolskie Voivodeship immediately acted to implement this. However, several years passed before signs with German place names were erected. The first of these appeared in September 2008 in the Radłów district. Currently, there are 28 districts from the Opolskie region on the Register of districts where names in minority languages are used. A further two have passed the appropriate resolutions and are awaiting listing in the Register. German place names on road signs are witness to the multiculturalism of Opolian Silesia and to its rich and difficult past. These are also a visible element of the „politics of memory” and an example of the emancipation of minorities. They show the region to be an open, multicultural and tolerant community. Yet, these symbols also generate many emotions and controversies by being an alien presence for some residents and in turn, irritating and hurting their feelings.

Wokół zmian nazewnictwa ulic na Ziemiach Zachodnich i Północnych po 1945 r. – wybrane aspekty

Author(s): Maria Wagińska-Marzec / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The situation in the Western and Northern Territories of Poland after 1945 was especially difficult for many reasons; in particular, because these areas had to be given a new identity as quickly as possible. One of the most urgent tasks at that time was the regulation of the far-reaching issue of naming towns, villages, geographical entities, and streets. The process of giving a Polish timbre to street names proceeded differently in individual town centres. The extent of this issue was different in large agglomerations and smaller townships. This study shows the liquidation of traces of anything German in street names and their acquisition of Polish names. This is achieved on the basis of selected examples from the largest and smallest towns and cities in the Western and Northern Territories (Wrocław, Gdańsk, Zielona Góra, Świdnica, Bytom, Legnica, Będzin, Reszel and Maszewo). These examples highlight different aspects and characteristics of this phenomenon, and also the difficulties connected with it. The analysis of examples of the renaming of streets enables the identification of certain tendencies and criteria which were in play at that time (e.g. memorialisation of people important to Polish history, culture and science as well as national heroes, campaigners for the freedom of the Polish nation, politicians and independence activists, and also important historical events and facts, including those connected with the perpetuation of the achievements of the communist authorities). The range of street patrons and the symbolic meaning that they contained played an important role not only in strengthening Polish ties of these territories but also in the legitimisation of the new authorities. The majority of streets in the towns of the Western and Northern Territories had received Polish names by the end of 1946. The second stage of the Polonization of street names ended in Autumn 1947. However, in large agglomerations this process was still ongoing in the years 1948–1949. Sometimes, the names of streets were changed several times, dictated by politico-ideological concerns.

Zmiany cywilizacyjne w województwie opolskim w latach 1950–2015

Author(s): Krystian Heffner / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

This article characterises the demographic, socio-cultural, economic and spatial processes impacting upon the area of the contemporary Opolskie Voivodeship in the post-war period. The focus is on issues connected with transformations of the population structure. An attempt is made to indicate the causes of these population changes and also to evaluate their effects for the functioning of the regional system linked with Opolskie. It is established that population processes, and in particular migration, are a reflection of social and economic changes, which assume the character of civilizational changes at the time when their effects are new and different from the starting social structures. In the regional systems of historical Silesia it is also possible to identify this type of process resulting in new population structures. The term „civilizational change” here denotes such transformations in population structures and in the demographic behaviour of residents that leads to the formation of a new type of regional community. This can be understood as a historical process which unfolds differently in each region (including in the Opolskie Voivodeship). The article shows that the population, socio-cultural, economic and political transformations occurring in the Opolskie Voivodeship, mainly under the influence of a permanent state of emigration, are systematic and enduring and also so deeply rooted that one can reasonably term this to be a migration region. On the level of the Opolskie Voivodeship as a whole, the migration preferences of residents are no longer linked to the traditional dichotomous division of eastern (emigration) and western („settling”) parts; rather, to an ever greater degree, the current differentiation is socio-economic, in which not only the constant outflow abroad, but above all the fluctuating inflow of people holds significant meaning as a conditioning factor for the socio-economic development of the region.

Z dziejów elektryfikacji Dolnego Śląska w latach 1891–1939

Author(s): Wiktor Krajniak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The article presents the development of the power supply in Lower Silesia in the years 1891–1939. On the basis of subject literature, archive sources, and statistical materials, the article recreates the network of electric power stations set up by local industry and electrification companies during this period. Significant attention is paid to the mechanism of electrification, in particular, to the issues of cooperation between local authorities and large energy companies. In addition, tables are used to present basic data about power stations, the production of energy by electrification companies using various sources of energy and factors characterising Lower Silesian energy against the background of the development of this industry in contemporaneous Germany.

Gorolski Święto w XX w.

Author(s): Leokadia Drożdż / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The article presents an abridged history of the Gorolski Festival, an important element of the folk culture of Cieszyn Silesia. The author discusses exhibitions accompanying the festival and presents individuals which were connected with the history of the festival for generations. Subsequent sections include photographs of this important Polish event which takes place each year in Zaolzie.

Osadnictwo żydowskie we wspomnieniach Pionierów tzw. Ziem Odzyskanych. Fragmenty pamiętników z Kamiennej Góry i Szczecina

Author(s): Marek Szajda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

This text presents two source narratives entered in the competition for the diary of a settler in the Recovered Territories in the years 1956-1957 organised by the Western Institute in Poznań. These are the recollections of local government workers from Kamienna Góra (Lower Silesia) and Szczecin who in the first months after the end of the war were concerned with the settlement of these cities and their immediate vicinities. These narratives present fragments describing the arrival of Jewish people from the USSR to the Western Territories and the process of settlement. The authors describe both the living conditions of the Jews and their own personal relationships to the migrants as well as the decision to settle these people in certain villages and towns, especially in the farms located there.

Pamiętnik Heleny Wróblewskiej, mieszkanki Ziem Zachodnich

Author(s): Jakub Isański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The diary was written by the teacher Helena Wróblewska, who came to Western Pomerania from the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. She received her education in post-war Poland and was first employed in office work, and then, after completing her education, fulfilled her dream by beginning to work as a teacher. Her story illustrates the societal progress and the steady and systematic work of a woman who recorded her memories from the perspective of a person with a stable professional and material situation, despite the collapse of her marriage. The author describes her own part in the reconstruction of the country after the destruction inflicted by the war, as well as in the development of the school system and care for the young.

Wincenty Kuć, „Pamiętnik”

Author(s): Jakub Isański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The diary of a pre-war tailor forced to move post-war from Warsaw to Wrocław. The diarist is a person who was extremely engaged in community life and thus his description contains many details illustrating community life from the first years after the war until the 1970s. Despite his pre-war leftist leanings, the author critically evaluates the post-war reality of Poland - from the first days of his settlement in Wrocław to the general conditions affecting community life in the 1970s. The diary contains a multitude of interesting information about community life in those times.

Między historią a pamięcią. Wspomnienia i pamiętniki w zbiorach biblioteki Ośrodka Badań Naukowych im. Wojciecha Kętrzyńskiego w Olsztynie (cz. 1)

Author(s): Alicja Dobrosielska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

This article represents the completion of the inventory drawn up by Zbigniew Fras (Diary materials from the collection of the Wojciech Kętrzyński Academic Research Centre, ed. Z. Fras, „Informator Ośrodka Badań Naukowych im. W. Kętrzyńskiego w Olsztynie”, no 37 (1986), pp. 148) concerning diaries and recollections relating to the Eastern Borderlands, experiences during the Second World War and education in Warmia and Masuria in the interwar period and after the war. These documents were collected after 1985 in the Special Collections section of the Wojciech Kętrzyński Academic Research Centre library in Olsztyn. The article also contains texts which add to previously submitted narratives, autobiographical recollections connected with Polish education in Warmia, Masuria and Powiśle, including those recorded in questionnaires sent to schools by the centre. This distinct group of diary materials is part of a 1989 submission to the „Testify to the Truth” competition.

Syberyjska zsyłka oczami dziecka, późniejszej mieszkanki Olsztyna, Ireny Moszczyńskiej z domu Bujko

Author(s): Danuta Bogdan / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The narrative of Irena Moszczyńska is an example of the recollections submitted to the „Testimony to the truth” competition organised in 1989 by the Wojciech Kętrzyński Research Centre and the Olsztyn branch of the Polish Historical Association. The author describes the tragic circumstances of one of the first transports (February 1945) from Vilnius - soldiers from the Vilnius Division of the Home Army and civilians suspected of supporting the Polish underground independence movement. Moszczyńska recollects the scenes which have remained most vivid in her memory (e.g. the situation of a man in a dressing gown). The author's brother was among those taken away. He ended up in a camp in Donbass. The story of his experiences (escape and successful return to Poland) constitutes a significant part of the narrative.

Dwa listy Karola Małłka do Andrzeja Wakara (napisane w Krutyni 17 VII 1957 r. i Rudziskach Pasymskich 23 I 1958 r.)

Author(s): Marcin Wakar / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The presented source materials come from the papers of the Olsztyn historian, journalist and publisher, Andrzej Wakar, which are lodged in the family archives of his heirs. This article discusses two letters addressed to Wakar from Karol Małłek. The documents date from 1957 and 1958 and tell us of the friendship which existed between these two men of culture who came from such different backgrounds: Wakar from the Warsaw intelligensia, Małłek from a simple family in Masuria. However, it is not this friendship that is the most important element in the above texts. They show, inter alia, the complicated relationships between the „King of Masuria”, as Małłek was called, and the Regional Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, the conflict between Małłek and another local Warmian activist, Jan Boenigk, and also the background to the celebrations which Karol Małłek organised at the Masurian People’s University.

Pismo Pełnomocnika Rządu RP na Okręg Mazurski dr. Jakuba Prawina do starostów powiatowych i prezydenta Olsztyna w sprawie przygotowania kwaterunku dla osadników zamierzających podjąć pracę w przemyśle

Author(s): Ryszard Tomkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The Masurian region did not belong to those areas where it was possible to find attractive employment. The majority of workplaces in this area were either thoroughly looted or destroyed. This hindered the realisation of the plan for the rapid settlement and activation of the region's economy (this area never had many advantages to aid the development of industry). The decree from the plenipotentiary of the government of the Republic of Poland, Colonel Jakub Prawin, is not an incentive for potential settlers, and also overlooks the problem of the devastation of the local economic infrastructure. The letter relates to the issue of bringing, in the first instance, qualified workers to the Masurian region, who would be able to regenerate the economic potential of the region (in the majority of cases settlers came here aiming instead for a career in local government). Representatives of the local authorities were to aim to fulfil this goal, but the incentive to settle was to be the guarantee of advantageous living conditions to new arrivals.

Kwestie terytorialne i etniczne na pograniczu polsko-czeskim w latach 1945–1946 w świetle opracowań dotyczących pogranicza raciborsko-głubczyckiego

Author(s): Piotr Pałys / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The presented documents were produced within the framework of preparations for Czech-Polish negotiations planned for February 1946. These were aimed at addressing the issue of mutual territorial claims. The documents discuss language issues in the border regions of Racibórz and Głubczyce, and contain concrete proposals on the eventual mutually acceptable borders. An analysis from the beginning of the 20th century in papers relating to the Czech population living in the said area is also included.

Górny Śląsk – tożsamość i autonomia. Dwie nowe monografie socjologiczne

Author(s): Andrzej Sakson / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Mniejszości narodowe i etniczne w Polsce w świetle Narodowego Spisu Powszechnego z 2011 roku, red. Sławomir Łodziński, Katarzyna Warmińska, Grzegorz Gudaszewski, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warszawa 2016, ss. 312

Author(s): Marek Mazurkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Eugeniusz Piotrowski, Nie umiem się nisko kłaniać. Zapiski wrocławskiego lekarza z lat 1944–1945, 1957, 1972–1990, wstęp i opracowanie Grzegorz Wołk, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej., Warszawa 2016, ss. 536

Author(s): Kamil Dworaczek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

Próba syntezy czy rocznicowa publicystyka? Słowo o książce Huberta Mordawskiego, Ziemie Odzyskane 1945–1956, Wydawnictwo Poligraf, Brzezia Łąka 2015, ss. 623

Author(s): Radoslaw Domke / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017