journey at the border of More than 70 years after the outbreak of the war, many Germans for the first time he sees his "Heimat." They come to her hometown fearful, often prejudices, and come back with a different opinion about Poland and Poles. In the autumn season ended with a sentimental journey.
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| In search of traces of the past helps guide of Nancy Waldman (middle) |
Janina Bomberowska found a walking Germans down the street when she returned from shopping. "That's how I imagined it" - she heard a woman says to a man - "Avenue was lined with linden trees, sidewalk and had electric lighting. At the beginning of the street stood a sawmill, just like today. " For many years, Mrs. Janice worked for the Oder and the German people are talking aroused her curiosity. Do not have imagined that after a while, unusually zastukają guests at her door and explain that by 1945 the house at 27 Linden Street belonged to Adolph and Anna Linde, grandparents, Elizabeth Mallon present here. German woman living here in last years of the war. Two year old child is not memorized escape the Red Army and a small farm known only from the stories his mother and grandmother. First came to see the house and the street and confront ideas with reality. On the occasion of the family's history to fathom. Accompanied by her husband - Gottfried, who is also derived from Osiek nad Notecia (Piła district) and in the seventieth birthday gift he gave himself a sentimental journey.
Mr Mallon, a retired pastor from a town in Hesse Taunusstein, travels the pilgrimage routes in Western Europe. When he retired, he decided to make a pilgrimage to the sources of their own lives. First he went to see Trzcianka hospital, where two months after the outbreak of the war came into the world. In Osiek on Notecią, Gottfried looked around the empty square in the middle of the village, where the seventies became the Evangelical church, where he was baptized. During the four-day trip would find in the archives of the certificate of the sacrament. Then Mallonowie visited the rectory. From the pastor, the researcher of local history, they learned, among other things, that the German colonists were criminals. More information of their ancestors won in the State Archive in Pila. The list of dead Gottfried learned that one of the great-grandmother's name was Luther. Pastora very pleased this information.
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| Mallonowie the family home in Osiek |
Pole stereotype - Catholic and Protestant German-Osiek was in its full confirmation . Over the past 250 years the village once belonged to the Polish, once to Germany, but the close correlation between origin and religion did not change. After the partition of the village named in the share accounted for Netzthal Hohenzollerns, Napoleon, however, it soon turned the boundaries of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Posen. Springtime of Nations brought over Noteć German domination, which persisted until 1920. Then Osiek for 19 years returned to the Polish, with about 350 Germans, living among thousands of Poles. Most Germans left in the last year of the war. Adolf and Anna Linde did not want to leave the village. They joined the children and grandchildren in the Ruhr until 1953. In the archives USC and the state militia, Mallon found the files and documents of German ancestry-copies of birth, marriage.
Mallonowie are not typical sentimental travelers. Most Germans organizes trips on their own, making their numbers difficult to pinpoint. Without the knowledge of Polish and local realities, they stay in the "Heima" is limited to visits the local church, visit the Catholic cemetery, posed pictures before the family home. Courageous zastukają to the door, and then, if the landlord will understand what is going on, look at the angles known from their own memories or stories. Not everyone, however, satisfied smiles for the camera, tears of emotion and talk in sign language.
Elisabeth and Gottfried Mallon benefited from the services of the company, which specializes in organizing trips sentimental. Similarly, H did Ørsta Heinze in Leipzig together with my cousin Hanelleore Groening. Two May days Relatives spent in the village of Birch near Bydgoszcz. Hanelleore was not quite seven years old when his family fled to the west. In my head, but left her family home memories and pictures of the village Hopfengarten. For many years the Germans wore with the intention of coming to Birch. Only when Horst was in the newspaper advertising bureau Heimatreise "dared to go for the first time on a visit to the family.
Office "Heimatreise" has its headquarters in Frankfurt. "We seek and organizing individual trips to places associated with personal and family history "- explains Matthias Diefenbach, chief" Heimatreise "-" We accompany those traveling, helping to establish contacts and understand during the interviews and meetings. " In four years, Diefenbach and his colleagues have organized more than 120 trips to destinations in Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast. Diefenbach avoids the word customer. Solo is divided into three groups. The first includes oldies, returning from death to the places which are associated with their personal experiences. The second group includes the post-war generation, not having any memories, seeking only to trace family roots and ancestors. The third group includes those who during the war were young children, such as H Ørsta Heinze and State Mallon.
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| A Visit to prooszcza |
pastor and his wife Nancy travel companions in the Waldman-guide, tour guide and translator all in one. During the four days of travel did not waive marriage the step. Ordering dinner in a restaurant, mediated in the talks, looking for information in offices and archives, to buy bread for breakfast. In this way he meets lots of families embroiled in a great story, a witness a meeting of former and current residents of the borderland. The first contacts between Poles and Germans typically run in a friendly atmosphere, free of hostility and prejudice. "Only once, when we wanted to see the house, the host said it was not a museum. At first he refused, but after a while agreed to let us inside. But this is the only such case "- says Waldmann.
Poles on the so-called Recovered Territories in the north of Great Poland and other formerly inhabited ternach by the Germans in the minds of concerns about the former owners of their homes and farms. Janina Bomberska of Osiek without resistance welcomes guests to the center and coffee and regales with tales of zarobkowaniu in Germany. Claims and returns the property issues have not borne Polish-German relations, at least in the lands of the north-west. "The disputed cases are rare" - confirms prof. Andrzej Sakson, Director of the Western Institute in Poznan, "Judgement of the Court in Strasbourg on the Prussian Trusteeship actually closed the road to the former owners to seek compensation through the courts. Pending before the courts of the cases involve so-called displaced late, so the group which left the Polish, at his own request, in the seventies and eighties. "
Osiek encountered residents eagerly gets into a conversation, offer advice and assistance. The owner of a local bar obwoził Mallonów selflessly around the area by car.
charmed by the hospitality we and friendly attitude of the people "- says Ms Mallon. not have happened with astonishment when the seller gave her vegetables at the market of pickled cucumber. Also Horst Heinze and Hanelleore Groening were impressed by the openness of the current county population of Bydgoszcz. "After visiting the birch completely changed our perception of Poland and Polish people" - admits Hanneleore Groening. Relatives searched the widespread stereotype of the Oder niegospodarnego Pole enamored of disorder. "I remember a small, poverty village" - Hanneleore says - "After 65 years I found a small city with banks and hotels."
view most pleased her family farm in birch. Rabatki run in the same place, planted vegetables and flowers. Wooden Toilet garden is restored for the safes tool. Chicken coop and barn converted into apartments. "Current residents can be proud of his farm" - says happy Heinze, and after he adds: "Just please write that do not want to return the farm." Gottfried and Elisabeth is also not forget to mark the farewell: "We do not want this house. We came to know "Heimat" and the history of the family. "
View cared farm and a young family living in it calmed cousins. Not going to the event for the Polish. You Mallon contrary, for the year planning a trip to Kujawa, hence the part of the family Gottfried. Already enjoying the new experience of meeting and accompanied by experts from the sentimental journey to the "heimatu.
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