Gain Weight, Have Fun, Discover the Motherland: The German–Polish Children's Summer Camp Exchange and Interwar Era Revisionism

Peter Polak-Springer

doi:10.1017/s096077732000051x

Abstract

This article examines a previously un-researched aspect of nationalist politics, borderland contestation, national indifference and the politicisation of youth and cultural diplomacy in interwar Central Europe: the German–Polish ‘summer vacation exchange for children’ (Ferienkinderaustausch). The Versailles territorial settlement, which left nationalists in both countries in discontent about territories and minority groups remaining in the hands of the neighbour, formed the basis for this venture in cultural diplomacy. Each party gave the other the right to rally ‘its youth’ living on the other side of the border to travel to its ‘motherland’ for summer camp. Focusing on the case study of the heatedly contested industrial borderland of Upper Silesia, this article examines the German–Polish children's exchange on two levels. On the local level it examines how youth were rallied and transported to their ‘motherland’ for the summer and what treatment and experience they received. On the international level it explores the paradox of German–Polish cooperation and the conflict that was an inherent aspect of this venture.

Highlights

In mid-July 1936 Ostland, the flagship publication of Nazi Germany’s eastern borderland organisation, the Bund Deutscher Osten (BDO), published an article entitled ‘German Children in Polish Summer Camps’
Threatened by this revisionism, since Polish Upper Silesia was the new Poland’s most important coal mining and industrial region, Polish nationalists responded by advancing their own claims to additional areas on the German side of this border.[5]
What Zahra argued with regards to Czech and German nationalists in the Bohemian borderlands was the case in Upper Silesia: German and Polish state activists did not trust children’s upbringing to their nationally indifferent parents.[45]

Summary

Introduction

In mid-July 1936 Ostland, the flagship publication of Nazi Germany’s eastern borderland organisation, the Bund Deutscher Osten (BDO), published an article entitled ‘German Children in Polish Summer Camps’.

Results

Conclusion