Ethnic left-overs

ojewriej wrote: »

Be careful what you wish for...

It's a good question, and quite close to my heart, as I am from the parts of Poland which were German before the war.

There is few things you have to remember here:

1. I think it's wrong to look at this issue as just a 20th century one. The disputed areas had a mixture of Polish, German and Czech inhabitants over the last 1000 years, every now and then one of the nations getting an upper hand.

2. The concept of Nationalism wasn't that important up until the 19th century really, before that the loyalties were much more local. To this day there is plenty of people living in Upper Silesia, who regard themselves as Silesians, not Polish or Germans. Their language is a mixture of Polish and German too. As for Germany - it wasn't one country until the end of 19th century, before that it was more of a coalition of German nations. So it's not as simple us Poles vs. Germans really.

3. I'm not sure how much you know about the partitions of Poland. Basically, at the end of 18th century, our land was taken from us by Prussia, Austria and Russia. See the map here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rzeczpospolita_Rozbiory_3.png

There was no such a country us Poland (with the short exception of Kingdom of Poland given to us by Napoleon) for 126 years, until the WWI ended. During this period, parts of Poland anexed by Prussia and Austria were under very intense germanisation. Polish language and culture was basicaly outlawed. Because of that, a lot of people declared German at the end of WWII, were in fact of Polish/Slav descent, particularly Silesians and Kashubs. So claiming that all areas given to Poland were populated by germans is not entirely true.

4. After the war, we lost much more land than we gained. Another map for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Curzon_line_en.svg

Remember, every polish person who moved to the "Regained Lands" as they were called, was kicked out from somewhere else.

5. It was Germans who started the war. When you do that, you might loose, and then you have to deal with the consequences. Even if you put the atrocities aside because it was Nazis who committed them, ordinary Germans were quite happy to use slave labour sent to Germany from occupied territories. Slaves worked on the farms and factories all over Germany. They weren't generally treated that badly, but the fact remains that they were there against their will, kidnapped from Poland, Russia and other countries

6. As for harshness of the expelling process itself. It's true, it was brutal at times, but firstly, remember that it happened after 6 years of extremely brutal German occupation, and secondly same thing were happening to the Poles being moved to the west from our eastern parts.

So having all this in mind:

I don't think Germans got a particularly raw deal. This land changed hands loads of times, first half of the 20th century was just another turn of the wheel. I know that being Polish I'm biased, but I will still say what we got was much worse. I mean, we were invaded, occupied for 6 years - during this time a quarter of the civilian population was killed -, and then our land was robbed (I know we got land in exchange, but we didn't really asked for it, in fact our exiled government in London tried everything to stop it, but it was decided by the Big three, and we had to deal with it) and then left on Soviet mercy for 50 years. Sorry to sound so dramatic, but this is the truth. Quite simplified I admit, but still the truth.

So in short: It's Wroclaw, and it's polish coal.

@tomster - no need to get so defensive. OP asked a very legitimate question. Remember that being Polish, we know the Polish history better, but we are also biased. it's good to get outsider's point of view, and to be able to give our side of the story to people who are actually interested.