Czarne in Galicia: “Nasi Niemcy” (Our Germans) (PL)

“Post-German” is a word that automatically brings to mind the western regions of Poland or Warmia and Mazuria. Few people realize that many villages formerly inhabited by Germans can be found in Mazovia, the Lublin region, or Małopolska. German colonists were drawn east by the Silesian Piast dynasty, Kazimierz the Great, and the Teutonic Knights, Russians, Prussians, and Austrians, as well as Polish estate owners and administrators. The newcomers founded villages and towns, transformed fallow land into fields and orchards, drained marshes, and battled flooding rivers. They introduced innovations, opened factories, and developed industry. Many, especially Catholics, did not retain their German identity and eventually polonized.

Around a million Polish citizens of German nationality lived within the borders of the Second Polish Republic. For most of them, their centuries-long presence was ended by World War II and the post-war policies of the Polish state. Today, this history is primarily evidenced by forgotten Protestant cemeteries, as well as buildings and farms, canals, willow rows, and terps.

Maciej Falkowski searches for such traces. He discovers iron houses in the Pyzdry Forest, remains of Olęder settlers along the Vistula River, descendants of the Walddeutsche in the Podkarpacie Region, and the Bambers in Poznań. He tells the stories of Protestants, Moravian Brethren, and Mennonites. He strives to save from oblivion the world of those who were forced to leave Poland after 1945, and describes the fate of those who chose to stay and became an integral part of Polish society.

This is an accompanying event organized by the Galicia Jewish Museum in cooperation with the Czarne Publishing House.