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From: Alan Newark <braveheart180203@hotmail.com> Fri,
21/1/05,
Subject: Polish Life in West Germany After 1945 SR, April 2003
Reprinted from April 2003 Sarmatian Review: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/
Polish Life in West Germany After 1945
A Case Study on Hamburg
Angelika Eder
The author wishes to thank Judith Fai-Podlipnik and Karl Bahm for their critical
and supportive comments on this paper.
The structure of the Polish group in Germany reflects the complex history
of German-Polish relations and the impact the Cold War had on the history
of both nations. As a result, Poles in Germany are a very heterogeneous
group with regard to their migration history and their legal status.(1)
Poles in Hamburg and elsewhere in the Federal Republic of Germany include:
former labor migrants from Prussian Poland and their descendants; former
forced laborers and prisoners of the Second World War who became Displaced
Persons under Western Allied occupation and were later classified as "stateless
aliens" (Heimatlose Ausländer) under German administration after
1950;(2) various groups of political refugees with residence permits of different
grades; Aussiedler, or ethnic Germans living outside Germany, with their
families; and other migrants who all came in different waves depending on
the state of German-Polish relations and the political situation in Poland.(3)
After 1990 new "circular" forms of migration began, such as seasonal
workers on construction sites in Berlin and in south German vineyards.(4)
Return to Poland was again possible and the decision to migrate to Germany
no longer entailed a permanent move.
This is the context of Polish life in Germany that is the focus of this paper.
I am going to look at different groups of migrants from Poland as parts of
a community, even though a unified Polish community does not exist in Hamburg.
To this end, I am going to employ the notion of "Polish life" in
Hamburg which will take all people of Polish background into consideration.
Due to gaps in the archival records (which constitute one part of the Poles'
history in Germany), there are still more questions than answers about the
lives of Poles in Germany. A primary source of information I draw on in this
paper is interviews with people of Polish background who live in Hamburg.(5)
Currently about 19,000 people with a Polish passport and 100,000 people with
biographical bonds to Poland live in Hamburg alone, a city of 1.7 million
inhabitants.(6) They are not, however, as visible on the city scene as one
would expect of the third largest group (or even the largest, if one counts
heritage as well as official nationality) of non-Germans in Hamburg. Here
in Hamburg, the history of Poles in Germany seems to be a hidden one. If
one talks about Poles in Germany, most people think of "Ruhr Poles," worker
migrants who settled in the Ruhr area during the years of the German Empire
and who exemplify "the success story" of assimilation of foreigners
into Germany.(7) Around 500,000 people of Polish origin lived in the Ruhr
area in 1914, some 100,000 in Berlin and another 150,000 in other German
regions, including 15,000-21,000 in and around Hamburg.(8) In the Prussian
town of Wilhelmsburg (today a part of Hamburg and at that time called Little
Warsaw), 1,800 Polish households with approximately 5,000 people were registered
in 1919/20.(9) In spite of these figures, local memory ignores the fact that
there has been a long continuity of Polish life in that area.
The Polish state was reestablished in 1918/19, after 123 years of partition.
Since the majority of Polish workers in Prussian Poland had German citizenship,
they were allowed to stay there after that time. Generally speaking, foreign
Polish labor migrants had been employed only as seasonal workers until 1914.(10)
In this context, national identity becomes a difficult topic: the changing
borders and demographic mix over the centuries make identification difficult.
The shifting of population and territories as a result of National Socialist
politics added another complication, especially the Germanization policy
according to which "Germanizable" Poles could be registered on
a Volksliste 3 which was later used by the Aussiedler to prove their German
origin.(11) Consequently, the question of citizenship and nationality between
Poland and Germany has always been a delicate one. A legal definition or "legal
identity" does not say much about the inner relationship of a person
towards culture, traditions, and a nation's history. Therefore I am applying
a somewhat subjective definition when using the terms Poles, Polish life,
or people of Polish background.(12) I am assuming that people who grew up
in Poland or whose parents came from Poland are somehow shaped by Polish
traditions, history, mentality, and culture, that they bring their own "cultural
knowledge" from Poland.(13) Thus in my study I take into consideration
all groups of people who came from Poland to Germany after 1918, including
the Aussiedler and their families. However, this causes quantitative problems
and results in estimates rather than exact statistics. Nonetheless, it is
essential to include all participants to describe Polish life in Germany
after 1945.
After the Second World War, Polish
life was hidden from the German public who had been aware of the liberated concentration camp
inmates in 1945 but perceived DP camps as something problematic. There were
very few Germans involved in organizing and attending Polish events, and their
efforts were not noticeable on the German scene.
Polish life in Hamburg began to thrive at about the same time that it emerged
in other parts of the region and in the Ruhr area, as well as in Berlin.
In Hamburg, there were Polish workers from the Prussian part of Poland and
(in smaller numbers) from other parts of the country. "Foreign" Poles
returned or were expelled to Poland before or after the First World War.
The Prussian Poles who decided to stay in Germany after the war organized
themselves as a national minority in Zwiazek Polaków w Niemczech (Union
of Poles in Germany, est. 1922) and in other associations, for example in
a Polish school society for Hamburg.(14) The remaining Poles in Wilhelmsburg
and other parts of Hamburg continued to have Polish church services, language
classes for their children, and at least once a year a festive Polish ball.(15)
After 1933 the conditions for Poles deteriorated everywhere in Germany. The
German attack on Poland in September 1939 put an end to any "Polish
life" in Germany. In Hamburg, its leaders and some Polish citizens were
arrested, the use of the Polish language in church was forbidden, and the
teaching of the Polish language became impossible.(16)
During the war, more than one million Poles were deported
to work in Germany.(17)
In the summer of 1944, 5,800 forced laborers from Poland lived in Hamburg
alone.(18) They were liberated by the Allies in 1945 along with the concentration
camp inmates and former Polish soldiers and fighters of the Warsaw Uprising
of August-October 1944.(19) The Western Allies (in Hamburg, the British)
coordinated their temporary shelter and food and assembled them in the Displaced
Persons (DP) and Ex-Prisoners of War (PWX) Camps, separated by nations, with
the plan to repatriate them soon.(20) Research on Poles in Germany distinguishes
between old emigration that arrived before 1918 and new emigrants who arrived
after 1945.(21) However, both groups should be considered as representing
the foundation for Polish life in Hamburg after the Second World War. In
October 1946, 3,886 Poles were located in Hamburg. Polish citizens numbered
1,714, German citizens 921, and the remaining 1,251 had unclear citizenship.(22)
At that time, 80 percent of the 1,534 men and 180 women with Polish passports
lived in a DP or PWX camp. More DPs were in camps at the borders of Hamburg,
for example in the former army barracks in Wentorf which had already become
a camp for Poles in June 1945.(23)
For Polish DPs the repatriation strategy
of the Western Allies failed completely: in September 1945, when
80 percent of all DPs had already been repatriated to their home countries,
the Poles were the largest DP group remaining in West Germany.(24) The reasons
were manifold: the shift of their country's borders to the west and the resulting
loss of homesteads in the east, problems with transportation capacities to
the east in 1945, resistance against or uncertainty about the new political
situation at home.(25) Very few of the old emigrants made use of the repatriation
transports and returned to a country they had left long before the war. Later
on some of them returned to Hamburg again as disappointed Aussiedler and
became active in German expellee organizations.(26)
Until 1950/51 the life
of the DPs and former PWXs (who had been demobilized in 1947) was supervised
by British and international organizations. In 1947 the Western occupying
powers began to resettle the remaining DPs in North America, Australia, and
other countries after repatriation had failed. Polish DPs were still the
largest national group in the camps. There were Polish church services, DP
schools and vocational training courses, as well as some cultural events.
The whole structure of DP life in the camps was separated from the life outside,
therefore also from the life of the old Polonia. New organizations like the
Stowarzyszenie Polskich Kombatantów (Association of Polish Combatants,
est. 1946) had nothing to do with former Polish associations.(27) At the
same time, outside the camps some old emigrants began to revive Polish life
in Hamburg. They maintained old traditions by reestablishing a Catholic church
service in Polish as early as June 1945 and by re-founding a local group
of Zwiazek Polaków w Niemczech - Rodlo which became official in 1948.(28)
For some of the old residents the chance of "bringing a piece of the
home country to Hamburg" was a motive to organize language classes and
a dance group.(29) For others, newly established Polish organizations and
the new emigrants were of no interest at all; they remained in their German
Catholic or Social Democratic milieu.(30)
For the majority on both sides, life was still separate, not
the least because of their different legal status as Germans or DPs. Many
DPs had not yet started to think about a life in Germany but were waiting
for other options. The former DPs remember the interest of people already
living in Germany whose bonds to their Polish background were renewed and
encouraged by listening to the Polish language in the streets, by meeting "new" Poles and
taking part in Polish life.(31) Shortly after the end of the war, Polish
DPs were approached by old emigrants who welcomed the ones coming from "home."
For
some of the permanent residents the presence of Polish DPs offered comfort when
Germans ignored and forgot about their Polishness. The mutual understanding
between some of them was like an "osmosis," one former DP remembered.(32)
Some former Polish soldiers who had good connections to the British remember
that they [the Poles] could help members of the old Polonia who were seen
as Germans by the British, for example, with university applications or with
legal advice.(33) There took place events like the traditional Polish celebration
of Corpus Christi in a DP camp which attracted Polish residents from outside.
On the other hand, the old Polonia invited some DPs to parties they had begun
to arrange.
After DPs had been classified as Heimatlose
Ausländer under German administration
in 1950/51, their numbers decreased further due to migration. The reasons
why some Poles stayed in Hamburg were manifold: the former DPs/PWXs I interviewed
remained in Hamburg due to an ill family member or because they had many
children and could not easily move; or because of a lack of options for emigration;
or because they wanted to remain in close proximity to the home country,
Poland.(34) Camp life continued in the six camps Hamburg had taken over from
the British in 1950, but spheres of life like school and church were moved
out of the camps, while the number of Polish DPs decreased. DP children went
to German schools, DP families attended Polish Catholic services in Protestant
Hamburg. As DP camps began to fill up with Germans, Polish life outside the
camp became more important for the Poles. By the late 1950s, virtually all
Polish DP families found accommodations outside the camps. At that time the
first Aussiedler from Poland had already arrived. The accommodations the
DPs were offered were scattered all over Hamburg. At that time, Polish organizations
and especially the weekly church service also gained significance for youngsters,
or for the DP children who had gone to school together.(35)
Polish life was hidden from the German public who had been aware of the liberated
concentration camp inmates in 1945 but who perceived DP camps as something
problematic. There were very few Germans involved in organizing and attending
Polish events, and their efforts were not noticeable on the German scene.
The majority of Polish DPs worked with the Allied authorities in the 1950s
and did not have much contact with German colleagues. And the political events
in the People's Republic of Poland, in combination with the atmosphere of
the Cold War, made communist Poland the only Polish topic in the German public
sphere, despite the expellees' discussions of former German territories like
Silesia. Furthermore, in the 1950s the German view of Polish life in Hamburg
was influenced by the political division in the migrants' organizations:
Germans were suspicious of the "communist" wing and ignored the
other groups.(36)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In postmodern world, "legal identity" does
not say much about the inner relationship of a person towards culture, traditions,
and a nation's history.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The political division between the Polish Government-in-Exile
located in London and the Soviet-imposed Polish government in Warsaw affected
Polish life in Hamburg just as it did elsewhere. There were liaison officers operating
in DP camps from both sides, and until 1950 Warsaw was represented by a military
mission (consulate) in Hamburg.(37) On the other hand, former Polish soldiers
were instructed by the Polish Government in London to support the reestablishment
of the old Polonia structures in 1945--and they did so until the Warsaw representatives
arrived in 1948. Thus both sides were fighting for the Poles abroad. After
Warsaw had established itself, London began to lose power. However, the Cold
War considerably diminished Warsaw's influence.(38) In the 1950s "the
big shots" supported by London "had already left," as a former
DP remembered.(39)
The question remains to what extent this political
split was important for Polish life in Hamburg. It is undeniable
that many of the newly founded organizations, whether they included "new" or "old" emigrants, declared
adherence either to London or to Warsaw. Thus Polish DP students were either
members of Bratniak londynski or Bratniak warszawski, and the former Zwiazek
Polaków w Niemczech was continued as Rodlo and, after a split in 1952,
also as Zgoda which was supported by the People's Republic of Poland.(40)
This continued all through the years: Zgoda was supported by the Polish state,
Rodlo represented the firm anti-communist wing. Both claimed the Zwiazek
Polaków w Niemczech's tradition for their organization.(41) In reconstructing
the organizational re-establishment after 1945 it is difficult to distinguish
between combined efforts of old and new emigrants until the organizational
split in 1952, because all involved claimed to have revived Zwiazek Polaków
w Niemczech. In later years, one can find members of different migration
groups and generations in both organizations: the old Polonia, DPs, DP children
and later the Aussiedler as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Polonia in Hamburg and elsewhere was divided
between those with closer relations to the People's Republic of Poland and
those who remained political emigrants, and this situation might have been
one reason for the inconspicuous performance of Poles in the German public
arena.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In some ways, this political split in the Polish life in Hamburg and elsewhere
in Germany was of fundamental importance for Poles and for their German surroundings.
But there were not so many differences between the two Polish groups concerning
their daily life. During their meetings, both organizations offered an opportunity
to speak Polish, to meet other Poles, to exchange Polish books, and cultivate
Polish folk dances. Those who were in strong opposition to the People's Republic
founded additional organizations like Stowarzyszenie Polskich Inwalidów
Wojennych (Association of Polish War Invalids, est. 1948) and Zjednoczenie
Polskich Uchodzców w Niemczech (Union of Polish Refugees in Germany).(42)
The former DPs belonged here, especially soldiers of the Polish underground
who had fought in the Resistance. They were strictly anti-communist and voted
against repatriation for political reasons. They maintained close contacts
with the Polish government in London. Their declining status corresponded
with London's dwindling position from 1945 on.(43) The position of the former
forced laborers, however, especially those not interested in politics at
all, is far less clear. Some of them might have expected a more affluent
life in Germany or elsewhere in the West. (44) As to the "old" emigrants
who had already been active in the 1920s and became active again after the
war, the situation is not clear either.(45)
I estimate that the political separation is important but it has been overestimated
so far as the assessment of the structure of Polish life in Germany after
1945 is concerned. Which group one had chosen to belong to would obviously
determine the fundamental thrust of their gatherings; however, I doubt that
weekly or monthly events were dominated by political issues. Some of my first
interviewees have been very active in rebuilding structures of Polish life
in Hamburg. For them the political division was of course of great importance,
but that does not mean that it had the same meaning for all members of the
Polish community in Hamburg: this may be quite different in other Polish
communities abroad such as those in North America. Despite the Cold War,
one's former country was not far away in geographical terms, which is why
some decisions might have been more pragmatic and less ideological. Hence
the "old" emigrants did not always join Rodlo while many former
Armia Krajowa fighters chose not to associate with one of the Zwiazek-organizations
at all.(46) More interesting and less explored thus far are the relations
between resident Poles and DPs. The fact, however, that the Polonia in Hamburg
and elsewhere was divided between those with closer relations to the People's
Republic of Poland and those who remained political emigrants might be one
reason for the inconspicuous performance of Poles in the German public arena.(47)
Two other factors point to the significance of political
division in the
early postwar years. One was the substantial American support for noncommunists
in the 1950s and ‘60s that influenced the conditions of this group
of Poles. In the late 1950s, as the first Aussiedler were coming to Hamburg,
support of Polish events was included in the massive support of non-German
refugees from the communist Eastern Europe, the support distributed through
the Free Europe Citizens Service of the Free Europe Committee. Between 1958
and 1965, American money funded a Common House which sponsored concerts,
exhibits, lectures and poetry readings, language classes (Polish for beginners,
English for emigrants, German for foreigners), Polish dance group practice,
and meetings of Zwiazek Polaków w Niemczech-Rodlo.(48) Hamburg's government
monies helped fund these events as well. Only in 1968 was an institution
called Klub Polski (a meeting place mainly for former DPs) established through
private means. For years, this initiative struggled to find a space without
any support or interest from the German side.(49)
The second factor was religion. The majority of Polish émigrés
are Catholics and religion plays a major role in their life. Therefore the
organization of pastoral care and church life was always important for the
Polonia. It is not a coincidence that the book best documenting Polish life
in Hamburg 100 years of Polish pastoral care in Hamburg was written by a
Catholic priest.(50) Not surprisingly, priests and participants in Polish
Catholic life were anti-communist. The next group of migrants from Poland,
the Aussiedler and
their family members, is by far the largest and the most difficult to assess
because of their heterogeneity.
In the late 1940s, the flow of millions of Vertriebene
(expellees) out of the former German areas such as Silesia, Pomerania,
and East Prussia had ceased. Then, in the early 1950s, some 40,000 "latecomers" from
Poland were transferred to West Germany by the Red Cross. The emigration
of the first Aussiedler from Poland was subsequently arranged in the late
1950s on the basis of "family reunion."(51) Between 1956 and 1959,
247,766 people chose this path to Germany. However, there were already at
that time many exit applications primarily for economic rather than for family-related
reasons.(52) The numbers declined in the 1960s, but the Polish German Treaty
of 1970 opened new opportunities for persons claiming German ancestry. A "whole
little industry" was born to produce documents on a grandfather in the
Imperial Army or other German roots, as Wladyslaw Bartoszewski once remembered
with a smile.(53)
The number of Aussiedler migrating from Poland to Germany
rose dramatically again after 1980/81. The majority of Polish Aussiedler
found Northern Germany including Hamburg more attractive than ethnic Germans
from other regions of Eastern Europe who preferred the South: in the years
1971 to 1988, 18,577 of the 579,547 Aussiedler from Poland settled in Hamburg.(54)
After figures peaked again in 1989, the legal possibilities for the entry
of Aussiedler from Poland were narrowed. For this "ethnically privileged migration"(55)
the motives for coming to Germany included fear of or actual experience of
repression in Poland, longing for a German-speaking environment, desire for
family reunion, and the expectation of better economic living conditions.
Not all Aussiedler from Poland took part in Polish
life in Hamburg, but a
considerable number of them took advantage of its offerings. Considering
the fact that, after 1945, Germans in Poland were subjected to Polonization
and lived in a Polish-dominated milieu, one can assume that decades later
they brought cultural traditions with them that were closer to Polish than
to German culture.(56) They also were often married to Poles and their children
were born in Poland; yet entire such families would come to Hamburg. Therefore
it is necessary to take into account at least some members of this group
with proved "German ethnic origin." (57)
The immigration of such a high number of Aussiedler added
another divisive aspect to Polish life in Hamburg. Differences were of a
less political nature and had their origin in a very "German" attitude of the Aussiedler
who had grown up in Poland. This might have been encouraged by the pressure
to behave and show off as Germans in order to be accepted as the echte Deutsche
and given all the privileges of this legal status by the German authorities.
E.g., in 1971, one of the first German-Polish events was organized in a church
in Hamburg.(58) The young Aussiedler from Poland--all of them speaking in
Polish--hosted a postcard exhibition in little booths representing each Polish
region, while at the same time young members of a Polish dance group--all
speaking in German--changed for their show in the next room. There was no
communication at all between the two groups: an atmosphere of deep mutual
rejection prevailed. The "Poles" warned each other against the "Germans"--in
German--and the "Germans" did the same in Polish. Another example:
when the children of a kindergarten were invited to attend a performance
by a Polish theatre company, the parents of Aussiedler children did not allow
them to go.(59) A third case has to do with a former DP's bitterness about
marginalization of Polish traditions in a church after an increasing number
of Aussiedler had joined the congregation. The church had been a home to
Polish services by the end of the 19th century.(60) Teachers of the first
Aussiedler classes in the late 1950s observed two diametrically opposed attitudes
among their students: some missed Poland and were full of prejudice and resentment
towards Germany; others aimed to forget about everything Polish.(61)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In terms of social life and contacts, however,
the political division among Poles in Germany was hugely overestimated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
However, this division was personal and social rather
than political. On
the one hand, there were "real" Poles who had been living in Germany
for a very long time, on the other, there were "real" ethnic Germans
who had been living in Poland for many years. The separation was primarily
due to problems of acceptance, problems with a "Polish" image prevalent
in Germany. Only after 1990 could some voices be heard suggesting that Aussiedler
were part of Polish life abroad.(62) Earlier research focused exclusively
on their integration in German society. Yet there had always been Aussiedler
participating in Polish life in Hamburg. Only one member of the family had
to be German to allow all of them entry to Germany. So we have got the young
boy who was not happy about his parents' migration to Germany and joined
Zgoda in the 1960s to practice his native Polish and meet other Poles (eventually
including his wife, daughter of former forced laborers).(63) Another example
is the man who was looking for Polish-speaking friends for his Polish wife:
both became members of Rodlo in the 1960s.(64) Others joined Zgoda or Rodlo
mainly because of the possibility of traveling to Poland where they still
had family. Still others, mainly among the older generations, decided for
a membership in German expellee organizations (Homeland Societies) instead.
Until 1980 the majority of migrants from Poland came
as Aussiedler. One exception
was a small group of political refugees in 1968 when the anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic
campaign in Poland forced Jewish Poles to leave.(65) Because of the political
upheaval and economic crisis in Poland after Solidarity was delegalized in
December 1981, legal opportunities of immigration as Aussiedler were largely
taken advantage of, as it was the best way to be allowed to stay in Germany
after the flight from the People's Republic.(66) Many more, however, sought
refuge in the West, and thousands sought acceptance as asylum seekers in
the Federal Republic. Hence the 1980s brought the largest number ever of
people with a Polish passport to Germany. In Hamburg, the number of foreigners
with Polish nationality increased from 1,142 in 1977 to 20,979 in 1990.(67)
With these migrants the structure of Polish life in Hamburg changed completely.
Among them were "intellectuals" and "artists," as some
older immigrants mockingly called them. Their political socialization was
quite different from that of the older migrants. Some participants in Polish
life in Hamburg also remember the new immigrants' sarcastic remarks about
the linguistic mistakes the old immigrants were making when speaking Polish.(68)
But this influx brought new energy and drive to Polish life. Klub Polski,
where Poles have been meeting since 1968, became a center for common activities
in support of the people in Poland and also a center of information for the
new arrivals.(69) But when the borders were opened after 1990, the interest
for Klub Polski and other organizations went down. New forms of Polish life
emerged, but this is no longer my topic as conditions and problems of research
are now quite different.(70)
Summing up, there is and was a Polish life in Hamburg and elsewhere in Germany,
a cultural and political life organized by people from Poland by means of
various circles and organizations. There exists a network of quite a few
people with Polish background. Nonetheless Polish life never played a prominent
role in West German public life, and Poles were seldom noticed in the society
of the Federal Republic until 1990.
Most Germans have never developed a comprehensive understanding
of Polish life: after 1945, German society was no longer aware of the fact that, since
1918 and earlier, people with a Polish background have lived among them.
Their situation was ignored and forgotten by the Germans. The Catholic press
was the sole exception; it wrote about issues linking Hamburg and the Poles
from 1969 onwards, when West Germany's Ostpolitik changed the state's attitude
towards Poland.(71) In the 1970s, when the public debate on Gastarbeiter
started, the alleged positive example of the "integrated Ruhr Poles" was
remembered but without looking at the current situation of Poles in the country.
Right after 1945, no one thought about the "old" Polish emigrants
amid the German population. More visible--although only for a moment--were
the "new emigrants," or thousands upon thousands of deported Poles
liberated by the Western Allies. In the summer of 1945 forced laborers, who
had previously been exploited, were seen as a threat. Tales of crimes committed
by them and their involvement in the black market after liberation are still
alive.(72)
After the occupation of West Germany by the Western
Allies had come to an end in 1949, the number of Poles was reduced drastically everywhere in Germany,
and their fate again was unnoticed. Later on, when the "Ruhr Poles" were
remembered as the role models of well-integrated migrants, no one thought
about the Poles who immigrated (or had been deported) later and lived in
Germany as stateless persons, or as Polish or German citizens. It was only
after Solidarity came to life in 1980/81 that Poland's political fate and
its refugees were seen and to some extent supported. Maybe only then was
a kind of Polish community functioning for a while, ignoring all disagreement
between the groups.
How Polish immigrants have felt about Germany and Germans
is a different story. Old fears and old prejudices were always alive on both sides. The
majority of Polish immigrants, whether refugees or Aussiedler, experienced
anti-Polish prejudice, and many of them tried to hide their past and tradition.
NOTES
1. This is exceptional in migration history. See Stefanski 1995; Wolff-Poweska/Schulz
2000; Korcelli 1994.
2. A term without any connection to their fate as forced migrants. See Jacobmeyer
1985, p. 231.
3. Aussiedler are ethnic Germans coming from outside Germany. This status
could, and in some East European areas still can be claimed by all persons
(as well as their descendants and close relatives) who lived within the borders
of Germany of 1937 or who were German citizens in 1939-45 but lived outside
those borders; and by other ethnic Germans. Between 1950-92 2.9 million Aussiedler
immigrated, half of them from Poland. In 1992 the law was restricted and
Aussiedler from Poland were not accepted any more. See Rudolph 1994, p. 118;
Baaden 1997.
4. Cyrus 1999 and Miera 1997. See also some papers in Pallaske, ed., 2001.
5. Collected in "Werkstatt der Erinnerung" (WdE) in the Forschungstelle
für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg.
6. The Polish Consulate in Hamburg estimates that there are 100,000 Poles
in Hamburg. See Konsul Krzesinski in: die tageszeitung (Hamburg issue), 11
August 2000, p. 23; Statistisches Landesamt, Hamburg, 31 December 1999, states
that the population of Hamburg was 1,704,755; with foreign passports 261,871;
with Polish passports 19,072. The largest foreign group are Turks followed
by Yugoslavs.
7. Blecking 1984, p. 54; Oenning 1991.
8. Polonia w Europie 1991, p. 23; Kleßmann 1978, still the basic study
on "Ruhrpolen," and for Berlin Hartmann 1991, Poniatowska 1996.
Poles from the Prussian partition who migrated to the Ruhr were officially
of "Prussian" nationality. Broszat 1981, 3rd ed., Hauschildt 1986,
pp. 12, 286. Wilhelmsburg, Schiffbek, Altona and other places became parts
of Hamburg only in 1937, but are considered for my project from 1918 on.
9. Hauschildt 1986, p. 34f; Nadolny 1992, p. 15.
10. Herbert 2001, ch. I.1 and I.2.
11. Broszat 1981, 3rd ed., p. 289 f.; Pallaske 2001.
12. As in Wolff-Poweska/Schulz 2000, p. 1 f.
13. Strauss-Quinn 1994.
14. Zwak 1985; Nadolny 1992. StA HH 231--10 Amtsgericht Hamburg--Vereinsregister:
B 1973-24 Polskie Towarzystwo Szkolne na Hamburg i okolice, Hamburg, 1925-1940.
15. See announcements and adverts in Nachrichtenblatt für die katholischen
Gemeinden Hamburgs. 1924 (1)- 1936 (13).
16. Forycki 1984, p. 194. StA HH 132-1 II B 1 49: List of names of interned
Poles, 30 October 1939.
17. The estimates vary between 1,7 million and over 3,5 million. Stefanski
1995, p. 391; üuczak 1991.
18. 3,273 men and 2,527 women made up 11.4 percent of all forced laborers
in Hamburg during the Second World War. Friederike Littmann, an unfinished
dissertation on "foreign work" in Hamburg, 1939-1945.
19. Davies 1989, p. 72 f. Many Polish soldiers imprisoned in the first years
of war were forced to accept the status of forced laborers. See interviews
FZH WdE 283, 341, 342. Interviews with fighters in the Warsaw Rising: FZH
WdE 458, 461, 661.
20. See Jacobmeyer 1985 on DP policy; Wagner 1997 on Polish DPs in Hamburg.
21. Stefanski 1995, p. 394.
22. Stefan Liman of Instytut Zachodni in Poznan quoted different tables of
German statistics as of 29 October 1946: Liman 1975, p. 57.
23. PRO WO 171/8159 War Diary Apr.--December 1945. In November 1945 there
were over 17,000 Polish DPs in Wentorf, see Wagner 1997, p. 20.
24. There were over 800,000 Poles in the Western zones. Jacobmeyer 1985,
p. 83.
25. Jacobmeyer 1985, pp. 64 ff., 86 f., 116 ff.
26. FZH WdE 461.
27. See an interview with an active member in Wagner 1997, pp. 145-8.
28. Nadolny 1992, pp. 42-46, 62. Associations were not allowed earlier. But
the first steps were undertaken in 1945. Zwak and Poniatowska/Liman/Kreìalek
1987, pp. 145-8.
29. FZH WdE 647.
30. Schmiechen-Ackermann 1992, pp. 192 ff. FZH WdE 639 and 662.
31. FZH WdE 461, 661.
32. FZH WdE 461.
33. FZH WdE 661.
34. FZH WdE 458, 461, 641, 661.
35. FZH WdE 641. Between 1956-66 and after 1983 the High Mass in Polish was
held at St. Joseph's in Altona. Nadolny, p. 73.
36. Zgoda, e.g., "'Zgoda'--der Arm Warschaus in der Bundesrepublik," Wehr-pol.-Information,
Köln (4 September 1969), 7-8.
37. Wagner 1997, p. 20; StA HH 352-8/7 190; Jacobmeyer 1985, pp. 92-6. In
protest, all Polish military missions (the consulates of People's Poland)
were closed in protest in December 1950. PA AA B 11 373.
38. Reports by German officials always showed suspicion of Soviet infiltration
via communists in Polish organizations. See PA AA B 11 571, internal report
dated November 1951 and titled "Poles in the Federal Republic of Germany."
39. Quote by Maksymilian Pelc in Wagner 1997, p. 145.
40. FZH WdE 461, 638; Forycki 1984, p. 194; Ruchniewicz 2001, p. 66 f.
41. See for example Zwak 1985, Kucharski 1976.
42. Wir Hamburger aus Polen 1993, 2d ed.
43. Davies 1989, p. 25.
44. This was the case with the father of Kasia Dombrowski (a pseudonym).
FZH WdE 641.
45. Those "old emigrants" were for example Tadeusz åmietana
from Zgoda, already active in the Polish school association, and Aleksander
Mlody from Rodlo. Kucharski 1976, pp. 22 and 24; Zwak 1985, p. 160; FZH WdE
638, 647.
46. Ruchniewicz 2001, p. 66 f.
47. Later on, the main attraction of both Zgoda and Rodlo seems to have been
an offer of reduced visa and group travels to the People's Republic.
48. StA HH 363-3 II 30-035.27/21 Band I: Haus der Begegnung (1958-67).
49. Wagner 1997.
50. Nadolny 1992.
51. Familienzusammenfürung was the motto of the first project. For the
entire Aussiedler question see the essay by Wisniewski including German and
Polish figures.
52. Wisniewski 1992, p. 165, quotes J. Korbel, Wyjazdy i powroty. Migracje
ludnosci w procesie normalizacji stosunków miedzy Polska a RFN (Opole,
1977), pp. 131-44; Polska ludnosc rodzima. Migracje w przeszlosci i w perspektywie
(Opole, 1986), pp. 135-40.
53. An interview in Hamburg, 16/17 June 2000.
54. Schwinges/Kiehl 1989, pp. 15, 42; Wisniewski 1992, p. 166.
55. The subtitle of Münz/Ohliger 1996.
56. Urban 1993, pp. 67-86; Münz/Ohliger 1998, p. 165 f.
57. In short reference essays, Aussiedler are always included as part of
the "Poles in Germany" formation. See Meister 1992, 3.1.1.-28 to
32; Stefanski 1995, p. 397; Wolff-Poweska/Schulz 2000, Pallaske 2001, Cyrus
1999.
58. Hanno Jochimsen. Wir riefen auf zum Frieden 1997, p. 10.
59. FZH WdE 641.
60. E.g., the celebration brochure, FZH WdE 461.
61. StA HH 361-2 VI 695 (Schulleiter Bülaustrasse an Schulbehörde,
February 1956).
62. In the study on Aussiedler integration in Hamburg this question was still
ignored. Schwinges/Kiehl 1989.
63. FZH WdE 640.
64. FZH WdE 638.
65. Kosmala 2000; Keim 1997.
66. Pallaske 2001; Schmidt 2000.
67. Statistical reports: Foreigners in Hamburg, A I 4: j/77 (20 September
1997), states that out of 125,861 aliens 1,142 were Poles; j/84 (20 September
1984): 164,718 aliens, 7,830 Poles; j/90 (31 December 1990): 20,979 Poles.
68. FZH WdE 640.
69. A report by Pelc in Wagner, p. 146 ff.
70. Miera 1997, Cyrus 1999, Pallaske 2001, Warchol-Schlottmann 2001.
71. Kirchenbote des Bistums Osnabrück, Kirche am Strom, e.g., No. 13
of 30 March 1969.
72. Herbert 1999, p. 397 ff.
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