TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE POLISH-GERMAN-CZECH BORDER AREA IN 1938-1945 IN THE LOCAL COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF BIELAWA AND THE OWL MOUNTAINS AREA

Abstract

Th e local community of Bielawa and the areas in the region of the Owl Mountains is an interesting object for studies of sites of memory represented in local consciousness. Like most of similar communities on the so-called Recovered Territories, it started to form aft er 1945 on “raw roots” aft er the German inhabitants of the area were removed. Th ey were replaced with people moved from the former eastern provinces of the Second Republic, among others from Kolomyja, but also from regions of central Poland. Also Poles returning from Germany, France and Romania sett led there. Th e area taken over by new sett lers had not been a cultural desert. The remains of material culture, mainly German, and the traditions of weaving and textile industry, reaching back to the Middle Ages, formed a huge potential for creating a vision of local cultural heritage for the newly forming community. Th ey also brought, however, their own notions of cultural heritage to the new area and, in addition, became subject to political pressure of recognising its “Piast” character as the “Recovered Territories”. Th e present research is an att empt to fi nd out to what extent that potential was utilised by new sett lers, who were carriers of various regional (or even national) cultures, for their creation of visions of the future, as well as how the dynamics of those transformations evolved.