Joanna Konopińska recounts her deportation by the Germans during World War II and her arrival in Wroclaw after the end of the war in 1945 in her moving diary “Tamten wrocławski rok”.

At dawn the wagons were opened and the gendarmes disappeared. Someone stepped down onto the platform, and others followed. We stood on a platform thickly covered with snow, not knowing what to do next. Mom went to the station building and there she learned from the railroad workers that we were in Opoczno.1

Short biographical portrait
Joanna Konopińska was born in 1925 in 
Poznań
deu. Posen

Poznań is a large city in the west of Poland and the fifth largest city in the country with a population of over 530,000. The trade fair and university city is located in the historic landscape of Wielkopolska and is also the capital of today's voivodeship of the same name. Already an important trade center in the early modern period, the city first fell to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793 as part of the newly formed province of South Prussia. After a short period as part of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815), Poznań rejoined Prussia after the Congress of Vienna as the capital of the new Province of Posen. From 1919, the city belonged to the Second Polish Republic for two decades, before it was occupied by the Wehrmacht in 1939 and became part of the German Reichsgau Wartheland (the so-called Warthegau). The almost six-year occupation period was characterized by the brutal persecution of the Polish and Jewish population on the one hand - tens of thousands were murdered or interned in concentration and labor camps -, and the resettlement of German-speaking population parts in the city and surrounding area on the other. In early 1945, Poznan was conquered by the Red Army and became part of the Polish People's Republic. One of the most important events of the post-war period was the workers' uprising in June 1956, which was violently suppressed.

Poznań in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Poznań at Google Maps
 into a wealthy family of a university professor and landowner. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, her family was expelled from their Panienka estate near Jarocin (
Greater Poland
deu. Großpolen, lat. Polonia maior, pol. Wielkopolska

Wielkopolska is the name of a historical landscape in the center and southwest of the present Polish state, which is also considered the historical heartland of Poland. In the southwest, Wielkopolska borders on the historical landscape of Silesia, in the west on the historical parts of the Mark Brandenburg, and in the north and northeast on Pomerelia and Kujawy. Important cities are Poznań and Gniezno.
After Wielkopolska came to Prussia in 1815 as the so-called "Grand Duchy of Poznań" and later "Province of Poznań", the name of the region as "Poznań Land" also became common.

The name and size of today's Wielkopolska Voivodeship, which is populated by approximately 3.5 million people and has an area of almost 33,000 square kilometers, are both derived from the region's historical landscape.

) as early as October 26, 1939, as part of the Nazi General Settlement Plan. After initial internment in Cerekwica northwest of 
Poznań
deu. Posen

Poznań is a large city in the west of Poland and the fifth largest city in the country with a population of over 530,000. The trade fair and university city is located in the historic landscape of Wielkopolska and is also the capital of today's voivodeship of the same name. Already an important trade center in the early modern period, the city first fell to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793 as part of the newly formed province of South Prussia. After a short period as part of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807-1815), Poznań rejoined Prussia after the Congress of Vienna as the capital of the new Province of Posen. From 1919, the city belonged to the Second Polish Republic for two decades, before it was occupied by the Wehrmacht in 1939 and became part of the German Reichsgau Wartheland (the so-called Warthegau). The almost six-year occupation period was characterized by the brutal persecution of the Polish and Jewish population on the one hand - tens of thousands were murdered or interned in concentration and labor camps -, and the resettlement of German-speaking population parts in the city and surrounding area on the other. In early 1945, Poznan was conquered by the Red Army and became part of the Polish People's Republic. One of the most important events of the post-war period was the workers' uprising in June 1956, which was violently suppressed.

Poznań in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Poznań at Google Maps
,  they were deported to Opoczno in the Generalgouvernement. Shortly thereafter, the Konopiński family settled in Słowik (now a district of 
Kielce

Kielce is a large city in southeastern Poland and also the capital of the Holy Cross Voivodeship (województwo świętokrzyskie). The city has more than 190,000 inhabitants, is an important industrial and commercial city and the seat of several universities.

Kielce at Google Maps
). During the war, Joanna Konopińska studied history at the Secret University of the Western Territories (Uniwersytet Ziem Zachodnich) in Kielce, in the organization of which her father participated. After the war, the family moved to 
Wrocław
deu. Breslau, lat. Wratislavia, lat. Vratislavia, ces. Vratislav

Wrocław (German: Breslau) is one of the largest cities in Poland (population in 2022: 674,079). It is located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in the southwest of the country.
Initially under Bohemian, Piast and at other times Hungarian rule, the Habsburgs took over the Silesian territories in 1526, including Wrocław. Another turning point in the city's history was the occupation of Wroclaw by Prussian troops in 1741 and the subsequent incorporation of a large part of Silesia into the Kingdom of Prussia.
The dramatic increase in population and the fast-growing industrialization led to the rapid urbanization of the suburbs and their incorporation, which was accompanied by the demolition of the city walls at the beginning of the 19th century. By 1840, Breslau had already grown into a large city with 100,000 inhabitants. At the end of the 19th century, the cityscape, which was often still influenced by the Middle Ages, changed into a large city in the Wilhelmine style. The highlight of the city's development before the First World War was the construction of the Exhibition Park as the new center of Wrocław's commercial future with the Centennial Hall from 1913, which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006.
In the 1920s and 30s, 36 villages were incorporated and housing estates were built on the outskirts of the city. In order to meet the great housing shortage after the First World War, housing cooperatives were also commissioned to build housing estates.
Declared a fortress in 1944, Wrocław was almost completely destroyed during the subsequent fightings in the first half of 1945. Reconstruction of the now Polish city lasted until the 1960s.
Of the Jewish population of around 20,000, only 160 people found their way back to the city after the Second World War. Between 1945 and 1947, most of the city's remaining or returning - German - population was forced to emigrate and was replaced by people from the territory of the pre-war Polish state, including the territories lost to the Soviet Union.
After the political upheaval of 1989, Wrocław rose to new, impressive heights. The transformation process and its spatial consequences led to a rapid upswing in the city, supported by Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004. Today, Wrocław is one of the most prosperous cities in Poland.

Wrocław in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Wrocław at Google Maps
, as her father had received a call to the university there. Joanna finished her studies and worked briefly at the Faculty of History. In 1947 she retired from regular working life, occasionally writing articles for various magazines, in addition to publishing a book in 1977 along with her memoirs. She died in Wroclaw in 1996.
Historical background
The edition of Joanna Konopińska's diaries provide insight into two periods of forced migration in the mid-20th century: first, at the beginning of the war in 1939, the German conquerors expelled Poles from territories annexed by the Reich to make room for German settlers. The 
Wielkopolskie
eng. Greater Poland, deu. Großpolen

Wielkopolska is a voivodeship in the west of Poland. The capital of the voivodeship is Poznań. Wielkopolska is inhabited by 3.5 million people. Besides Poznań, the largest cities are Kalisz/Kalisch, Konin and Leszno.

‚Voivodeship‘ ‚Voivodeship‘ Voivodeship or voivodship refers to a Polish administrative district. was to become a model 'German' Wartheland. In the region of Wielkopolska/Wartheland, the migration history of Joanna Konopińska and that of the Campenhausen family, who were resettled from the Baltic States to Wartheland to strengthen 'Germanness', thus intersect. The Campenhausen family, for their part, took flight to the West at the end of the war, fearing the violence of the Soviet Army.
On the other hand, Joanna Konopińska describes in her diary her arrival in Breslau/Wrocław in 1945. The victorious powers of World War II had decided that the German population should be resettled from the areas east of the Oder and Neisse rivers to make room for new Polish settlers. The arrival of Joanna Konopińska in
Silesia
deu. Schlesien, ces. Slezsko, pol. Śląsk

Silesia (Polish: Śląsk, Czech: Slezsko) is a historical landscape, which today is mainly located in the extreme southwest of Poland, but in parts also on the territory of Germany and the Czech Republic. By far the most significant river is the Oder. To the south, Silesia is bordered mainly by the Sudeten and Beskid mountain ranges. Today, almost 8 million people live in Silesia. The largest cities in the region are Wrocław, Opole and Katowice. Before 1945, most of the region was part of Prussia for two hundred years, and before the Silesian Wars (from 1740) it was part of the Habsburg Empire for almost as many years. Silesia is classified into Upper and Lower Silesia.

Schlesien in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Schlesien at Google Maps
in 1945 therefore occurred at about the same time as the expulsion and resettlement of the two Germans Eva S. and Hilda J.-S. from Silesia.
The fact that one edition of Joanna Konopińska's diary was published in Poland in 1987, i.e. still during the socialist era, gives an indication of the openness with which this everyday historical perspective on forced migrations was treated in Poland even before the political upheaval of 1989/90. The book edition has been annotated, among other things, to help readers understand the connection between the German Breslau of the past and the Polish Wrocław of the postwar period.
Expulsion from Panienka 1939
„One day gendarmes showed up, shoving us, yelling, onto open trucks that stood outside the camp gate until the wee hours of the morning. Sleet fell, the day was damp and gray. Crammed together we stood close to each other and so we were driven to the train station in Yarochin and loaded onto the train. We left late in the evening. We did not know where we would be taken, since the evening the day before we had not eaten anything, we did not possess any provisions for the way.
We were taken via Ostrów Wielkopolski, Czestochowa, Kielce, Skarżysko-Kamienna. The train stopped constantly and stood in the field for several hours. It was not heated. The night was over and so was the everlasting day, and in the middle of the following night the train stopped at a nameless station.
At dawn the carriages were opened and the gendarmes disappeared. Someone was the first to descend onto the platform, and others followed. We stood on a platform thickly covered with snow, not knowing what to do next. Mom went over to the station building and there she learned from the railroad workers that we were in Opoczno."2
During the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Joanna Konopińska and many other Poles had been interned in the western areas of Poland. In October 1939, the German occupiers abruptly suspended this internment, and the internees were left to fend for themselves in foreign lands:
The map montage shows the route of the expulsion in 1939. The basis of the montage is a traffic map of Poland (from: Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen, 1939, Heft 10, Sign. K32 XIII E2). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
The map montage shows the route of the expulsion in 1939. The basis of the montage is a traffic map of Poland (from: Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteilungen, 1939, Heft 10, Sign. K32 XIII E2). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Excerpt of the map of the Reichsgau from 1941 (reduced in size). The names of the original place of residence of the family (Posen), their estate (Panienka = Klarahof) as well as the place of internment (Cerekwica = Neu Zerkheim) and Jarochin, the town of the beginning of the escape are marked. Traffic map of Poland (from: Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteillungen, 1939, Heft 10), Sign. K32 XIII E2. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Excerpt of the map of the Reichsgau from 1941 (reduced in size). The names of the original place of residence of the family (Posen), their estate (Panienka = Klarahof) as well as the place of internment (Cerekwica = Neu Zerkheim) and Jarochin, the town of the beginning of the escape are marked. Traffic map of Poland (from: Militärwissenschaftliche Mitteillungen, 1939, Heft 10), Sign. K32 XIII E2. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
End of the war 1945: return to the (devastated) old place of residence Panienka
As the Soviet Army was advancing rapidly in early 1945, the family made an attempt to return home from Słowik (near Kielce). In addition to the arduous journey, the circumstances at their old place of residence made it difficult for them. Many houses were devastated, and the restoration of agriculture was connected with numerous existential problems:
 
„As early as February, right after the front passed Kielce, Mama went to Panienka with Maryla and cousin Janek Bąkowski. Since there was no train service at that time, they had to walk most of the way. [...] it was not until mid-March that I set out for Panienka with my friend Ewa Chodźko, who had offered to accompany me on the journey, which lasted four days with interruptions. [...] The house in Panienka was completely empty. Only the furniture from the bedroom and part of the kitchen utensils remained - the rest of the house furnishings Fischer gave to the district administrator in Yarochin. Father grieves most for the paintings, which also disappeared. Allegedly, though the news has not yet been verified, part of them was seized by the Polish authorities in the district office and taken to the museum in Pozna? [...] In the farm buildings there was yawning emptiness. At the time of our arrival in Panienka there were a few dozen cows in the barn, but a few days ago Soviet soldiers drove the livestock to Mieszków. All that remained were two oxen and a limping cow.“3
Getting agriculture going again with (almost) empty hands
Difficulties were caused not only by the lack of goods, but also of labor:
„Since there is no seed, Mama intends to cultivate the soil with potatoes as far as possible. This will not be an easy task, especially since there is a shortage of horses, equipment and, above all, labor. The owners of the large farms who, like us, had been driven from their homes by the Germans, are also returning to Panienka. (...) They return to their devastated estates and start working in the most difficult circumstances that can exist. In Panienka, during the war, only landless people or small landowners remained, who worked all the time as agricultural laborers on the estates of Fischer von Mollard. The rest had to leave their estates to make room for the Baltic Germans [in the original: „Baltendeutschów“] brought from 
Lithuania
deu. Litauen, lit. Lietuva

Lithuania is a Baltic state in northeastern Europe and is home to approximately 2.8 million people. Vilnius is the capital and most populous city of Lithuania. The country borders the Baltic Sea, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Latvia. Lithuania only gained independence in 1918, which the country reclaimed in 1990 after several decades of incorporation into the Soviet Union.

Litauen in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Litauen at Google Maps
 and 
Latvia
deu. Lettland, eng. Latvian Republic, lav. Latvija

Latvia is a Baltic state in the north-east of Europe and is home to about 1.9 million inhabitants. The capital of the country is Riga. The state borders in the west on the Baltic Sea and on the states of Lithuania, Estonia, Russia and Belarus. Latvia has been a member of the EU since 01.05.2004 and only became independent in the 19th century.

Lettland in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Lettland at Google Maps
 [...]“4
Polish landowners who returned to their former estates at the end of the war had to expect that the new communist government of Poland would confiscate these estates and they would have to leave their homes:


For a few days Uncle Walenty Galiński, owner of the neighboring Bielejewo estate, has been staying with us in Panienka. After the war he happily returned to his estate, but after a week the People's Police came and he was ordered to leave Bielejewo. Tomorrow our furniture will be brought, which was given to us by Fischer the District Administrator in Yarochin. At last we will be able to furnish the house, and will no longer have to live all in one room and lie on the bare floor on straw mattresses.5 

From Panienka to Wroclaw. The Search for a New Beginning in Poland's New Western Territories
Given the lack of transportation and the state of the roads, even shorter trips were a challenge:
Joanna Konopińska covered the distance from Jarocin to Hundsfeld and Wroclaw partly by train, partly on foot. The montage is based on two sheets of the Mapa administracyjna Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej [Administrative Map of the Republic of Poland, 1937], on which the pre-war border between the German Reich and Poland, as well as the railroad connections are visible (Q.: HI: K32 II L58, pp. 22 and 23). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Joanna Konopińska covered the distance from Jarocin to Hundsfeld and Wroclaw partly by train, partly on foot. The montage is based on two sheets of the Mapa administracyjna Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej [Administrative Map of the Republic of Poland, 1937], on which the pre-war border between the German Reich and Poland, as well as the railroad connections are visible (Q.: HI: K32 II L58, pp. 22 and 23). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
„This is currently the only railroad line connecting Poznan with Wroclaw. It runs via Jarochin, Krotoszyn, Milicz to Oels, here you change trains and continue with another train to Hundsfeld. We arrived in Oels in the evening. The station is full of Soviet and Polish soldiers, repatriates from central Poland looking for a new place to settle, people returning from forced labor in the Reich and from the concentration camps, often you see the zebra clothing [the striped prisoners' clothing, editor's note]. The station is not lighted, it is dirty here, there is no drinking water, everywhere some rags and dirt, paper, people crowd on each other - a terrible mess. Some people warn us to take care of the luggage, because it is stolen here. We spend the night sitting on some wooden boxes. We don't know when the train to Wroclaw will leave. Every now and then people leave their seats, run to the platform because someone supposedly said that the train was coming. They were false alarms. At daybreak, a train was finally provided, which consisted of some passenger cars without windows, in some compartments the floor was missing. A few coal cars were attached to the passenger cars. The crowd literally threw themselves onto the train while it was still moving. In the crowd, an elderly woman fell - or was pushed - under the wheels. Her daughter screamed horribly. Police arrived, according to a special division of the railroad police. They tried to keep order and pulled people back from the roofs of the cars and from the buffers. With father, we had little chance of getting a place in the wagon. But in the war-tested way, father found a railroad worker who placed us in a bottomless wagon for a bottle of vodka. When we sat on the bench, our legs hung in the air and under our feet we could see the rails and railroad sleepers. It got so crowded on the benches that people sat on their laps.“
Shortly before Wrocław
Shortly before Breslau/ WrocłaThe arrival in the so-called Recovered Territories in the summer of 1945 was no less arduous than in the other parts of Poland. Uncertainty was also caused by the question of whether these western territories (Silesia,
Farther Pomerania
pol. Pomorze Tylne, deu. Ostpommern, eng. Eastern Pomerania, eng. Further Pomerania, deu. Hinterpommern
and the southern part of
East Prussia
deu. Ostpreußen, pol. Prusy Wschodnie, lit. Rytų Prūsija, rus. Восто́чная Пру́ссия, rus. Vostóchnaia Prússiia

East Prussia is the name of the former most eastern Prussian province, which existed until 1945 and whose extent (regardless of historically slightly changing border courses) roughly corresponds to the historical landscape of Prussia. The name was first used in the second half of the 18th century, when, in addition to the Duchy of Prussia with its capital Königsberg, which had been promoted to a kingdom in 1701, other previously Polish territories in the west (for example, the so-called Prussia Royal Share with Warmia and Pomerania) were added to Brandenburg-Prussia and formed the new province of West Prussia.
Nowadays, the territory of the former Prussian province belongs mainly to Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) and Poland (Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship). The former so-called Memelland (also Memelgebiet, lit. Klaipėdos kraštas) first became part of Lithuania in 1920 and again from 1945.

Ostpreußen in the Online Encyclopedia of the Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe (German)
Ostpreußen at Google Maps
) would permanently belong to Poland. Household goods and other items that the Germans had previously been forced to leave behind when they fled or were expelled now appeared to many Poles as ownerless objects. Since there were shortages in many places, the western territories were a sought-after destination for those seeking to remedy the shortages.  Joanna Konopińska describes her own arrival in Wroclaw-Hundsfeld and, at the same time, the departure of those who had provided themselves with all kinds of „Szaber“ [booty]. For orientation in the city, the editors of the diary edition added to the German street names in Wroclaw, as Joanna Konopińska had used them in the diary, the Polish street names.


About a kilometer after the station [Hundsfeld] the train stopped. Continuing the journey turned out to be impossible because the bridge over the river was torn down. Only with difficulty could we make our way out of the wagon. In puddles of water on a large swampy meadow stood wagons; hundreds of different kinds of wagons: children's, garden, wooden, metal wagons with wheels or without, and also bicycles. When some passengers got out, others rushed in with their looted booty: carpets, bedding, and whatever they could pack on the wagons.[...] Most of the travelers went straight on Hundsfelder Street [today Bolesława Krzywoustego]. We turned left into Friedewalder Street [today Aleksandra Brücknera] and Kopernikus Street [today Jana Kochanowskiego], because on these streets we could get to Bischofswalde [obecnie Biskupin] the fastest via the eastern parts of the town [...].6

Through a destroyed city
Wroclaw was in a desolate state in the first months after the war. Most of the city's infrastructure was destroyed. On the streets there were still objects that pointed to the rapid disappearance of their owners:
„In Park Street [ul. Parkowa] we came across three overturned military cars. From one of them I wanted to take a green blanket from the back seat, but after looking at it, it turned out to be stained with blood. I threw the blanket away. The park road is only partially destroyed, but in all the windows the panes are missing. [...] Under a withered chestnut tree I noticed four graves with makeshift crosses. At last we came to Horst Wessel Street [ul. Zygmunta Wróblewskiego]. Some pillars supporting the roof in front of a huge event hall were lying on the ground. Across the street was the zoological garden. Beyond the barrier one could see two walking zebras. [...] Some animals that could not be seen from the road were roaring, whether from hunger or thirst. It made an eerie impression in this deserted landscape.“
The grounds of the Wroclaw Zoological Garden on an aerial photograph from 1925 with the Hall of the Century in the background. Grüneicher Weg (1933-1945 Horst-Wessel-Straße, after 1945 ulica Zygmunta Wróblewskiego) (Inv. Nr. 60082) runs along the Jahrhunderthalle. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
The grounds of the Wroclaw Zoological Garden on an aerial photograph from 1925 with the Hall of the Century in the background. Grüneicher Weg (1933-1945 Horst-Wessel-Straße, after 1945 ulica Zygmunta Wróblewskiego) (Inv. Nr. 60082) runs along the Jahrhunderthalle. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Traces of the war everywhere
The traces of the still fresh German past were visible everywhere amidst the destruction:
„Half of the road overpass that connected the exhibition grounds to the event hall had been torn down. Huge, frayed slabs and chunks of cement hung from it. I had the impression that it was about to crumble. The biggest trouble along the way was caused by numerous bomb craters. Some we managed to avoid, over others we had to drag the car, because they took up the whole width of the road. [...] In front of the destroyed round kiosk house on the rails lay a yellow streetcar with two trailers, around it many glass splinters, scattered rags, garbage, paper, in between an opened ladies handbag and next to it photos of children and an officer in German uniform.“7
The route marked in red between the premature final stop of the train journey at Hundsfeld (Psie Pole) and the Konopiński family home in Bischofswalde (Biskupin) based on one of the last German topographic maps (1:100,000) of Wroclaw from 1939. The route of about 9 km ran east of the largely destroyed city center, which is highlighted in black on the left of the image [K3 II L62, Bl. 424 Breslau, 1939b]. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
The route marked in red between the premature final stop of the train journey at Hundsfeld (Psie Pole) and the Konopiński family home in Bischofswalde (Biskupin) based on one of the last German topographic maps (1:100,000) of Wroclaw from 1939. The route of about 9 km ran east of the largely destroyed city center, which is highlighted in black on the left of the image [K3 II L62, Bl. 424 Breslau, 1939b]. Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
View from the southwest of downtown Wroclaw, which was in ruins at the end of the war in 1945, with the City Hall and the Ring in the foreground. Already in January 1945, the Red Army had advanced close on Wroclaw. The Germans had declared the city a fortress. The fighting for the city lasted until May 6, 1945, destroying much of the city (Inv. Nr. 94295). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
View from the southwest of downtown Wroclaw, which was in ruins at the end of the war in 1945, with the City Hall and the Ring in the foreground. Already in January 1945, the Red Army had advanced close on Wroclaw. The Germans had declared the city a fortress. The fighting for the city lasted until May 6, 1945, destroying much of the city (Inv. Nr. 94295). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Death and horror in everyday life were difficult to bear even for the Polish population experienced in war:
„In a small cemetery there was a cart harnessed to an emaciated horse, from which a man, undoubtedly a German, was treading corpses down into a deep hole. We perceived a foul stench. I felt sick from all this, at that moment I wanted to return to Panienka immediately, I was tired and literally frightened [...]. We continued walking along Wilhelmshavener Street. Once I saw a small swarm of rats coming out of a small destroyed house onto the street: in front, two large, fat-eaten ones, with slippery tails, and a few young rats behind them.“8 
The new inhabitants of the city organized their lives in the occupied houses of the former population, which was mostly no longer there:
„Father brought water from the well in the garden of the neighboring house. After I washed and more or less freshened up, I gathered more courage and started to make the fire under the stove in the kitchen. Gas, unfortunately, was not connected, and there was no electricity. Darkness reigned in the house, because during the first stay father had slammed the windows with boards and taped them with black paper. Only after the windows were opened did the full breadth of the neglect and the mess come to light. [...] As I wrote before, father still occupied the house in May, he repaired the front door, secured the windows with boards, but did not live here. He spent the night in the clinic on Kochstraße because he did not want to live alone, and from the clinic it was closer to Roßmarkt, where the cultural and scientific authorities responsible for organizing the future university have set up shop in the old municipal library.“9
View of Wroclaw-Bischofswalde in 1931. In this new neighborhood was the house where Joanna Konopińska lived with her father after the war ended. Since the photo was taken in 1931, no war destruction can be seen here. The Bischofswalde district was located on the eastern outskirts of the city, which was not as severely affected by the fighting for the city as, for example, the southern districts and the city center. (Inv. Nr. 60455). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
View of Wroclaw-Bischofswalde in 1931. In this new neighborhood was the house where Joanna Konopińska lived with her father after the war ended. Since the photo was taken in 1931, no war destruction can be seen here. The Bischofswalde district was located on the eastern outskirts of the city, which was not as severely affected by the fighting for the city as, for example, the southern districts and the city center. (Inv. Nr. 60455). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Organizing provisions and supplies
The war damage also affected the supply situation for a long time. Even in November 1945, the new residents had to improvise in many areas:
„Father already received food stamps, but only for one person, because the stamps were issued by the district offices only to working people and their families. Since I have already registered on the student list, I believe that I should also receive such stamps. Supposedly, you can get meat, sausages, sugar, pearl barley and flour for them. Although the allotment is small, they already make life easier. In a house on the neighboring street I found two small sacks of flour and a few pounds of beans in the cellar. With the help of Mrs. Weiß and Ewa we brought them to our cellar. In the garden at another house I discovered some beds with cabbage and some carrots. We have to hurry with the harvest because they can freeze or someone else will take them from under our noses.“10
The former police headquarters in Wroclaw (ca. 1935). The Historical Institute was located in this building in 1945, where Joanna Konopińska worked after arriving in Wroclaw (Inv. Nr. 130822). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
The former police headquarters in Wroclaw (ca. 1935). The Historical Institute was located in this building in 1945, where Joanna Konopińska worked after arriving in Wroclaw (Inv. Nr. 130822). Herder-Institut Marburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
In the further text of the diary edition, Joanna Konopińska describes further details of the arduous new beginning in Wrocław. She writes about the emergence of a new Polish urban society as well as about various situations in which they met with the Germans still remaining in Wrocław, who were waiting to be resettled to the West. Joanna Konopińska's attentive observations about this strange parallelism of already „new" Polish Wrocław and still „old" German Wrocław have also aroused interest in historical scholarship in various places, including Gregor Thum's work „Breslau 1945. Die fremde Stadt“.11
Editing:
Source selection and analysis: Dariusz Gierczak
German Translation: Dariusz Gierczak (Polish-German)
English translation: William Connor
Map montage: Laura Gockert
Editing: Christian Lotz
This article is part of the series: „Forced migration: people and their escape routes“
Dariusz Gierczak
Go to author biography
Footnotes
1.
Konopińska 1987, 123f., Entry dated 1945, April 16th – concerning October 1939. ^
2.
Konopińska 1987, 123f., Entry dated 16 April 1945 - concerning October 1939. ^
3.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, p. 26-27, entry from 14. April 1945. ^
4.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, S. 28, entry from 1945, april 14th. ^
5.
Konopińska 1987, p. 29, entry 1945, April 15th. ^
6.
Konopińska 1987, p. 38, entry 1945, June 12. ^
7.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, S. 39, entry from 12 June 1945. ^
8.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, p. 41, entry of June 12, 1945. ^
9.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, S. 42, Eintrag vom 12. Juni 1945. ^
10.
Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945-1946. Dziennik. Wrocław 1987, S. 77, Eintrag vom 12. November 1945. ^
11.
Gregor Thum: Breslau 1945. Die fremde Stadt, Berlin 2003. ^
Literature
  • Konopińska, Joanna: Tamten wrocławski rok. 1945 - 1946. Dziennik. Wyd. 1. Wrocław 1987.
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