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The policies of the state also contributed to the integration process: the state created new jobs,
made it possible for people to advance socially and to continue their education, and, in the initial
post-war years, attempted to bring about "external integration" (ie the establishment of strong
links between the north-eastern regions and other parts of Poland) by emphasising patriotism
and the important tasks that needed to be carried out to develop the new state. The
collectivisation of agriculture also had a positive effect on integration processes by creating a
sense of solidarity in the entire population and helping the various groups to forget the conflicts
that had existed between them until then.
In
Upper Silesia, Masuria and Ermland the situation was different. In addition to the above-
mentioned factors that led to disintegration, there was a problem of coexistence with the
indigenous population, who were not regarded as Poles by the new arrivals but as half Germans
and half Poles. They were not trusted, because they were different. Their language (especially
their vocabulary)
contained Germanic elements, and their lifestyle was characterised by
German cultural patterns. In particular, their attitude to work and to duty was different.
A particular problem that arose between the new and the old inhabitants was that of the
disputed farms. Under an order issued by the Upper Silesian provincial governors, all farms
and property abandoned by their owners in Upper Silesia were placed
under the provisional
administration of the state, and the farms were accordingly given to the indigenous population to
settle on. However, in the spring and summer, and in many cases later on too, the owners, who
had fled from the front or had been evacuated by the National Socialists, interned in labour
camps or taken away to the Soviet Union, returned. After their identities had been verified, they
were entitled to claim their former property, and those who had settled on the farms in question
had to leave. In the part of Silesia centred on Opole, 5,024 families, all of them people who had
been repatriated, had to leave the farms they were living on. It hardly needs to be pointed out
that this did not help integration. Like the campaign to make Poland Polish again, one of the
few positive steps taken by the state for the native population ultimately led to further
disintegration.
In 1945, a priority task was to involve indigenous people in the life of the state and the nation
and give them the feeling they were their masters in their own home. As part of the campaign to
make Poland Polish again, courses were held to train staff for local administration, office work,
the "people's own" trading system, and educational and cultural work. Unfortunately, all this
was just wishful thinking.
In reality, the path to a career and social advancement was in most
cases blocked for the indigenous population. Quite often, the Upper Silesian dialect and
regional cultural patterns were despised in the schools, leading the indigenous population to
keep themselves to themselves. Under its integration policy, the state strove only to bring about
swift and complete assimilation, with the result that disappointment and alienation towards the
Polish state increased among large sections of the local population. The state's
economic
policy also had an extremely adverse effect on integration processes. Visible ineptitude in the
organisation of work and in factory management, differences between economic development
and its results in the People's Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany were
seen by the native population as a consequence, not of the politico-economic system in Poland,
but of the stereotype of the
Polish economy
.
In Upper Silesia, the Church contributed a great deal to help people become integrated and
better assimilated and to level out the considerable differences between the indigenous and
immigrant population. It assisted in the integration process not only through the exercise of the
Catholic faith, but also through its impact on community life. One example was the joint effort to
rebuild the churches and presbyteries that had been damaged or destroyed. However, this
51
positive effect was lacking in Masuria and the district of Kluczbork (Kreuzburg) in the part of
Silesia
centred on Opole, where the local people were mostly Protestant. In Poland,
Protestantism was identified with German, and Catholicism with Polish, culture. (Even today,
there is still a widely held view that "a good Pole is a Catholic".) For this reason, the resettlers
in these regions were more disposed to classify the native population as Germans in spite of
their Polish origin. The year 1956 aroused new hopes, but it did not change very much as far as
the situation of the Silesian population was concerned. The disintegration processes gained
strength, and the fact that it was made possible for people to leave for the west to join their
families resulted in a wave of emigration from Poland that led to a further split in Polish society.
Since 1945, the problem of integration in the northern and western regions of Poland, especially
Upper Silesia, has been the subject of many scientific studies. Here, we shall just mention the
results of one of these investigations.
34
The research was carried out between 1982 and 1984
in a small village located in the part of Silesia centred on Opole, in which half the inhabitants are
Silesians and the other half resettlers from eastern Poland.
Although they had been neighbours for forty years, it was discovered
that both groups lived
separate lives. There were no open conflicts between them, but there was no familiarity either.
The reasons were cultural differences (which made mutual contacts difficult), government policy
(which favoured the resettlers) and barriers to understanding (which could be explained by the
different forms of Polish spoken). The separation of, and the differences between, the groups
even existed in the second and third generation. The Silesians only identified with their own
ethnic group, and attached great importance to the external features that showed they were
different (their dialect, their clothing, the appearance and furnishing of their homes). The
resettlers did not want to be perceived as Silesians and described themselves as Poles. The
indigenous population compared themselves with the Germans and the resettlers with the
Poles. The statements made by the Silesians showed their disappointment with the Polish state
and the Poles. The existing differences,
which they stressed, were evidence of the lack of
integration.
The fact that there has been no integration between the native and immigrant population is best
shown by the decades of increasing emigration by the former group to the Federal Republic of
Germany, and by the emergence of the German minority in Poland. This latter fact has once
again led to suspicion among some of the inhabitants of Upper Silesia.
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