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GERMAN SILESIA -- THE LAND THAT CEASED TO EXIST 1/3/2010 5:08:44 AM
By Cindy Rodriguez, Commander, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Mom would like me to focus on Silesia today.
When someone asks Mom where she's from, she says Berlin. The place where she was born, Fellhammer, Silesia, doesn't really exist anymore. Historically, the province was part of Prussia until it became part of the iconic German Empire in 1871. German Silesia even had its own language (Schlesisch), which Mom can still speak despite her hoch Deutch education.
Today, Silesia is part of Poland.
Silesia's future was originally brought up at Yalta in February 1945, when the Big Three (FDR, Churchill, and Stalin) met to discuss the end of WWII. Stalin expected many concessions at this conference because of Russia's role in the war and the damage Germany had exacted upon his countrymen. Already thinking of expanding his empire westward, Stalin wanted Silesia to be turned over to Poland, which became part of the Soviet Union.
By this time, FDR was very ill and conceded pretty much everything to Stalin. Churchill, staunchly loyal to FDR, reluctantly agreed despite his great dislike of Stalin. Silesia's fate was later sealed at the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945, when Truman reaffirmed the change in Silesia's borders.
After the war, Germans in Silesia were forced out of their homes and off their lands as everything reverted to Poland. Even the names of the towns were erased as new ones were selected in Polish. Fellhammer became Sil Kuznice Swidnickie (PrussianPoland, 2004) and my grandfather lost his farm and the land that had been with his family for generations.
Now homeless, Opa showed up at my grandmother's apartment in Berlin with a single cloth bag over his shoulder. His wife's grave would never be visited.
