Polish letters from the pre and post-war years and from during the war, taking Rhine-land-Palatinate as an example

Letters as testimonies of Polish life in the region

These memories of Poles in Germany from the period of the Second World War but also from the post-war years and in the years before war broke out, which are still preserved in German households to this day, include private letters written by Poles in German and in Polish. Three groups can be identified in relation to the given periods:

The first group includes letters written in German by Poles who corresponded with Germans before the war – within the context of seasonal labour migration to Germany – to sort out their stays so that they could work in their households and on the land. Just how many of these letters still exist today is completely unknown and is hard to estimate. Either way, they are valuable sources because they give an insight into the personal exchange between Germans and Poles at a micro level; an exchange that was still possible and still done until shortly before the outbreak of the war.

The second group relates to letters written in Polish from the time of the Second World War that Poles under German occupation wrote to their family members who had to do forced labour in Germany. How many of these letters still exist is also completely unknown. The fact that these letters were written, censored and ultimately then delivered is at first glance not unusual. What is remarkable, however, is that such letters have been preserved in Germany because, for them to have survived, the Pole to whom they were addressed, if they survived the war, must have left these letters behind after the war in the agricultural operation or household in which they had to work, instead of taking them with them or destroying them. Then, the people who lived in the house must have intentionally saved these sources, which typically they were not even able to read, or at least they did not get rid of them. The reasons why such sources have been preserved will certainly differ and, of course, we can speculate. It could be, for example, that they just were not important to the Poles or to the Germans so that they eventually forgot that they existed at all. Perhaps in some cases, there was also an interest in knowing at some stage what was in the letters, or the need to preserve a memory of a person who one had possibly seen each day for years, with whom one had worked, who one had also really liked.

The third group was created in the first years after the war and involves letters that were written in the German language by former Polish forced labourers, now displaced persons, who were staying in occupied post-war Germany, and were addressed to those people for whom they had had to work during the war. This third group, therefore, marks the start of extensive decade-long correspondence between Poles and Germans, who had known each other from the war years.

So while letters from the first and third group were written by Poles to Germans before and after the war, the second group involves letters that Poles wrote to each other - sanctioned by the Nazi regime. It should also be noted that, in the groups named, only one half of the correspondence exists. To be able to evaluate the entire correspondence, it would be of great value if the letters that the German employers wrote to Poland before the war, the letters that the Polish forced labourers wrote to their families during the war, and the letters from Germans that they in turn wrote after the war to Poles that had previously had to work for them, could be found. It would generally be interesting to evaluate these kinds of letters that were sent from Germany to Poland. This would require extensive research, not just in Poland.

Below, the three groups mentioned are presented by way of example based on the letters that survived from the Rhine-Hesse rural communities of Mauchenheim (which historically belonged to the Palatinate), Gabsheim and Sprendlingen.

Mauchenheim

The imprints left by Poles from the time of the Second World War in the region of what is today Rhineland-Palatinate have a prehistory as part of a German-Polish migration story. One does not have to go all the way back to the passage of Polish insurgents through Germany after the suppression of the November Uprising of 1831 to access this prehistory because part of it also includes the voluntary labour migration to Germany in the interwar period, which is very much in contrast to the deportations to Germany for labour which were carried out forcibly and violently during the war.

The labour migration of the interwar period did not just affect the hundreds of thousands of Polish agricultural workers who came to Eastern Prussia as a labour force, but also the Palatinate community of Mauchenheim in the southwestern province which today belongs to the Rhine-Hesse district of Alzey-Worms in Rhineland-Palatinate. Władysława Kuźniak had worked previously on the farmyard belonging to the Boos family there, when she wrote another letter to the family on 3 January 1939 in which she expressed her happiness at being able to work in Mauchenheim again, and this time with her sister Cecylia. Sisters Władysława and Cecylia Kuźniak were living in Siemianowice, or Ożegów, Wieluń county, south of Łódź, when Władysława Kuźniak wrote her letter dated 3 January 1939:

“Ożegów, 3/1/39

Dear Mr Boos

First, I’d like to let you know that I am hale and hearty and I hope the same is true for you. I have received your letter for which I heartily thank you. And I was extremely happy that I received the letter from you and read in it that you have already given the papers to the employment office so that I can come to you again. Would you be so kind and put in the contract which day and month you want to have me there to work. I will be sent to you to work in the month and on that date. Thank you for the lovely letter. Dear Mr Loos, now I would like to inform you that from 15 December 30 we had a lot of frost and snow. But as of 30 December, it is a mild winter.

I think about you all every day and the days are very boring for me in Poland. If only the day that I can come to you again would come quickly. Now I have not one to write as I you your wife and Ruth and Otto I now warmly greet your grandmother and Lehne [Translator’s note: in parts, the German is not expressed very clearly]

My dear Ruth and Otto, I am very bored without you, you are always in my thoughts.

Your Wadi

Please reply.

Your Wadi

Now, my sister and I send greetings to your brother-in-law Albert Knobloch and my sister is very happy that she can come with me this year. We are very happy that we will not be working far from one another. Now we send greetings to Mr Albert Knobloch with wife and son, warmest regards to all the Knobloch family. Please reply.

Your Zezilie and Wadi

Good bye.”

Along with other letters, a letter from 6 March 1939 has been preserved in which Władysława and Cecylia Kuźniak contacted their employer in Mauchenheim.

“Siemanowice 6/3/39

Mr Boos

Thank you for the letter which I received. I was very happy that you answered my letter. Everything is OK with us just that you sort yourself out there so that I can come to you there as quickly as possible because I am really bored here. I dream every night that I’m there at yours again. We have lovely spring weather here so that the work in the field has started

Please write to me when you hear something new

Warm regards

Wład[y]sława to

Mr Boos and wife and your children.

Heil Hitler

Warm regards to Leonhardt

To Ruth and Otto as well.

Mr Knoploch [Knobloch]

Thank you for your letter that you have written a reply to me. I am very happy Zella [Cecylia]

that you sent me the

contract. I would like to come to work

for you as quickly as possible. The main thing is that you have sorted well. Warm regards

to Mr and Mrs

Hanz grandmother

grandfather

from Wadi u Cyla

When you hear something new write to us straight away.

Such a truly heartfelt exchange was motivated on the one hand by the desire on the part of the Poles to improve their financial circumstances by working in domestic service and in agriculture abroad and, on the part of the Germans, it came about because additional labour was required; but it also shows two self-reliant women who were prepared to work far from their homeland for a long period of time on their own or at least with their sister in the same place. Of course, such a journey, combined with all the new people that they got to meet met, was also a special experience, and the fact that Władysława Kuźniak had also received a warm welcome at her place of work was part of this experience. The children Ruth and Otto, who were mentioned in the letters, are the siblings Ruth Becker, née Boos (born on 14 September 1928) and Otto Boos (29 September 1926), who today still hold fond memories of Władysława.

 

Gabsheim

The Pole Juliusz Górski, who was born in Tarnów county (today Southeast Poland) on 2 May 1917 worked as a forced labourer in Gabsheim in Rhine-Hesse. By profession, Górski was a gardener and, before he was brought to Germany, had lived in Lwów in Poland, today L’viv, a town in Western Ukraine), at Hauke-Bosak-Straße 20. His parents were Kazimierz and Eleonora (née Kwapniewska) Górski.[1] First, he was taken to what was Buselwitz in Silesia (today Polish Bogusławice) on 5 February 1940; via stops in Buchenwald and then Limburg, he reached Gabsheim on 1 May 1940 where he was initially employed by Jacob Michel I. on the land, but was soon assigned to Johann Kreit, also in Gabsheim.[2] During his time on Johann Kreit’s farm, Juliusz Górski received letters and postcards from his family which have been preserved to this day and are looked after by Johann Kreit’s son, Erich Kreit. Among them is this postcard dated 15 September 1943, which Eleonora Górski wrote to her son Juliusz:

“SENDER: E. Górska

Lemberg

Hauke-Bosaka 33/4

To Mr

Górski Juliusz

c/o J. Kreit

Gabsheim 89

Kr. Alzey in Rhein-Hessen

Dear Juleczek!

We received your card. Recently, I’ve let my writing slide but I only have to work for […] for another three weeks and then I will take care of the household chores. Yesterday, Miecio Słodcki and [Kimczyk] came round, we had a lovely time with our memories. Papa has two weeks’ holiday, he feels healthy and has been wanting to write to you the whole time but [in …]. Aunty Lenia wants to come and visit us but I don't whether she will decide to or not.

The weather here is very good, but it is also quite cool.

I send you big kisses my dear Julu. Basia asks if you have received her letter.

Your Ma[ma]

15/9/943”

 

And on 6 July 1941, for example, Górski received this letter from his mother:

“Dear Juleczek!

I received your letter from May today in which you write about work clothes for 9.60 RM [Reichmark]. My Juleczek, it isn’t possible at all for us Poles to buy clothing or material, you can get them with cards but getting cards is very difficult. In the park, decent clothes cost 1000 zł. I am happy that you have bought work clothes at least and when you can, your host will perhaps give you his […] because these are for Germans and Poles who live in the Reich territory. As far as Leszek is concerned, he is not a bad person, as you know, but he doesn't have basic values – his home is wherever he is OK. That’s his nature. Don't be surprised that there were Jews in his family and the egoism emerged in the fourth generation. But let’s leave him in peace, the world also has this type of people. As she gets older, Aunty Lenia is feeling sad that she doesn't have any children because, although they cause their parents to worry, they are also a fulfilment, but not having any in later years is sad. Perhaps God will allow that she returns to Uncle healthier and that they will be OK again – financially they are not doing too badly. Uncle Niemkiewicz was detained for a long time and aunty hid with her sons in the village and I don't know how it is now because they didn’t […] go for civilians. Lwów is suffering.

Julek, don’t worry about us or about Jędruś. We are healthy, thank God and foreign aircraft have not searched for us at all up to now. Jędruś sent me 50 zl by telegraph again. Julenek don’t worry, you don’t need to send us money or presents, you will bring them with you in person one day. I bought 2 books for you. “Pościg” [Persecution] by Baxter [Frederick Schiller Faust] and “Na kawalerce” [ The Small Bachelor] by Wodehouse. Both are good. Read them and give them to the others. I will send them on 7/7 and I imagine that you will get them in two weeks. Basia has a 2-day exam at the School of Arts. The result will be out on 7/7 at midday. The exam was held in a pretty building.

The first work was a perspective of a box and a chair, the second a sculpture […] of a head, then a head from the imagination made of clay and a written part which Basia and a few others were exempt from because they had finished the course. High above the blackboard, there was an inscription from older pupils “Your fellow artists wish you much success in your exam”. A friendly atmosphere. Basia is such a beautiful girl, she is a bit scared to walk around on her own because she is often approached and she is a little wild one and she doesn’t know how to help herself. There are also boys in this school so she will get used to it.

We send you big kisses Julu

Your Ma[m]

6/7/941”

This letter alone shows just how much these sources reveal about everyday life in occupied Poland, for example what they lacked on a daily basis, which is more surprising when you consider that it was not possible for them to write freely.

Sprendlingen

In Sprendlingen, Eleonore Renner, who remembers the Polish forced labourers in Sprendlingen (Rhine-Hesse) and at her home from her childhood,  still keeps a letter from Kazimierz Wojciechowski, who worked as a forced labourer on Eleonore Renner’s parents’ farm during the war. The letter dated 29 December 1947 shows just what a heartfelt relationship had developed between the family members and Kazimierz Wojciechowski during the war:

“Fulda from the Bleidorn Barracks Block E Pokoj 40

To:

French Zone

Philipp Schnell

Sprendlingen, Kr. Bingen/Rhein

Schäfergasse 5

Fulda,  29/12/47

Dear Schnell Family!

I would like to thank you very much for your lovely letter and for enclosing a banknote, I was very happy and have seen from your letter that you are still all very well. Josef has been home for a long time, I’m the only one in Fulda, and I don’t know yet how long we can come any way back to the company [Translator’s note: the German is not always clearly expressed]. And a question for you, how is your daughter and Hanna and Mrs Renne[r] Mrs Lina. Are they all still in good health, which I can also say about me. Is Philipp already home or not yet. How was Christmas for you. I can say that I really enjoyed it. I got your lovely lines, but unfortunately I can’t read them, I had them translated, in the next letter I would ask if you could write in Latin. It is better when one reads one’s letter alone. When I get holiday next year, I will come to you whether the vineyards are all OK.

So will close to get an answer soon because we are not here for much longer

Warm regards

Your Kazimierz

I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.”

The letter is thus also an example of how the Nazi regime, with its criminal decrees which discriminated against the Polish forced labourers, with the aim of exploiting their workforce as much as possible and in so doing of minimising contact between Germans and Poles, did not succeed, that sympathies crystallised between Germans and Poles which also endured in the new reality after the German surrender.

The groups of letters and postcards mentioned represent an important source of Polish imprints in Germany which help in the investigation of the German-Polish relationship. Finding them and evaluating them in the context of extensive research, is a rewarding challenge.

 

Christof Schimsheimer, November 2021