21-year-old Janina Jagodzińska describes the arduous beginning of 1945 in Poland's new western territories.
Short biographical portrait
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Janina Jagodzińska was born in 1924 in Kievo near (today Ukraine). In 1942, the young agricultural worker was deported by the Germans to (Zielona Góra), (Głogów), where Jagodzińska settled down as a farmer's wife.
Charkiv
rus. Charʹkov, rus. Харьков, rus. Charkow, ukr. Харків, rus. Kharkov, ukr. Kharkiv, ukr. Charkiw, rus. Harʹkov, ukr. Harkìv
Kharkiv is the second largest city in Ukraine and today had about 1.5 million inhabitants in 2019. The city was founded in 1630 or 1653 in the "Wild Field", as the steppe landscape in what is now southern and eastern Ukraine was called at the time. With the shift of the Russian border to the south, it lost its importance as a fortress, but subsequently became a center of trade and crafts. From 1918 to 1934 Kharkiv was the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.
Since February 2022 Kharkiv has suffered heavy shelling in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
(today Grabków) in the district of Krossen in Silesia to do forced labor. After the Soviet Army conquered the Krossen district and liberated the laborers, she set out on foot with a number of others who had suffered the same fate, including her fiancé Józef. This was still before the end of the Second World War. They headed east, via
(Krzystkowice),
(Nowogród Bobrzański),
Zielona Góra
deu. Grünberg in Schlesien, ces. Zelená Hora
Zielona Góra is a city in the Lubuskie Voivodeship in western Poland. The city is inhabited by almost 140,000 people and is one of the two capitals of the voivodeship. Zielona Góra is situated about 140 km northwest of Wrocław and is part of the northern part of Lower Silesia.
Historische Orte
Grünberg
(Nowa Sól),
on the Odra (Bytom Odrzański) and
(Skidniów) to
(Kotla) near
Głogów
deu. Glogau, deu. Groß-Glogau
Glogów (Polish Głogów) is a city in western Poland. It is situated in the Lower Silesia Voivodeship (Polish dolnośląskie) and is inhabited by just under 67,000 people. Glogau is situated about 100 km north of the capital of Lower Silesia, Wrocław/Breslau.
Historical background
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In the life story of Janina Jagodzińska, two periods of forced migration in the middle of the 20th century are condensed: Like thousands of other people in East-Central Europe, she was deported by the Germans to the Reich to do forced labor during the war. By the end of the war her old homeland had become part of the Soviet Union due to new border demarcations, she sought a new place to live in Silesia, which was ceded by Germany to Poland. Here the paths of the liberated forced laborers, who were heading east, crossed with those of the German refugees and displaced persons, who were heading west.
In 1957, Janina Jagodzińska submitted an account of her experiences as part of a competition held by the West Institute (Instytut Zachodni) in Poznań. The original is still housed in the archives there (shelf mark IZ 103/1957). Parts of the manuscript were published in 2014 in the book Mój dom nad Odrą by Beata Halicka. The book has now also been published in German.1
Fear of the liberators
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In late February 1945, the Soviet Army had conquered parts of Lower Silesia and freed the forced laborers there from German control. Although the power of the National Socialists had been broken, the rule of the Soviet Army was also characterized by arbitrariness, which women in particular had to fear:
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„We were afraid in our hiding place. The night was terribly dark, so Aleks went out to check the situation. These [Soviet] soldiers caught him and demanded that he go with them to look for us. He said he didn't know where we were and they held a gun to his forehead and started shouting that if they didn't find us, they would burn the whole village. Aleks led them to other houses and finally he came to a hut where there were German women. There they ordered him to leave and fell upon their victims. Aleks did not wait long, came running to us and we made ready to escape. I remember that it was already 3 o'clock in the morning. We were afraid to get our things ourselves, so they [the soldiers] put them on the wagon and told us that they had already brought everything that was there, and believed them, got dressed and set off. We traveled all day. On the way, someone wanted to take the horse away from us, so we bandaged one of its legs to make it look as if he were sick.“2
The map shows the route taken by Janina Jagodzińska in February 1945. A few months later, Poland's western border was established along the Oder and Neisse rivers - in the map image on the left, roughly along the line Frankfurt/Oder-Guben-Forst. Map: Andrees-Handatlas, Leipzig 1937, p. 17f.: Germany. Free access - no reuse
The map shows the route taken by Janina Jagodzińska in February 1945. A few months later, Poland's western border was established along the Oder and Neisse rivers - in the map image on the left, roughly along the line Frankfurt/Oder-Guben-Forst. Map: Andrees-Handatlas, Leipzig 1937, p. 17f.: Germany. Free access - no reuse
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During the final months of the war, many population movements became chaotic. People often had to surrender their belongings en route. The Soviet soldiers confiscated things that would be of use to them:
„We all arrived in Christianstadt [Krzystkowice]. There the Russian soldiers stopped us immediately and ordered us to put out the fire and to leave the things and the wagon for inspection. [...] They were supposed to look for weapons, but took away all our new things. [...] And when you traveled along the roads, on either side you’d see different things scattered, including bicycles and feather and wool blankets, so my fiancé suggested we collect some of the old things and we hoisted the better pieces onto the wagon with a stick. And the boys fixed up bicycles so that no one had to walk.“3
View of Christianstadt (today Krzystkowice, a suburb of Nowogród Bobrzański) in 1931 (HI, Inventory number: 61498). Herder-Institut, Free access - no reuse
View of Christianstadt (today Krzystkowice, a suburb of Nowogród Bobrzański) in 1931 (HI, Inventory number: 61498). Herder-Institut, Free access - no reuse
Blocked bridge near Bytom on the Oder River
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In February 1945, Janina Jagodzińska reached the small town of Bytom on the Oder River. Crossing the Odra River here was a great challenge:
Section of a perpendicular aerial photograph taken by German military reconnaissance on February 7, 1945 showing Bytom on the Oder River (today: Bytom Odrzański) with the Oder Bridge, just a few days before Janina Jagodzińska's arrival in the city. (HI, Kartensammlung K10 7191 016). Herder-Institut, Free access - no reuse
Section of a perpendicular aerial photograph taken by German military reconnaissance on February 7, 1945 showing Bytom on the Oder River (today: Bytom Odrzański) with the Oder Bridge, just a few days before Janina Jagodzińska's arrival in the city. (HI, Kartensammlung K10 7191 016). Herder-Institut, Free access - no reuse
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„When we got to Bytom, the Russian soldiers wouldn't let us cross the bridge and we had to take a boat across the river. We had sold two horses for two liters of methylated spirits and we took ourselves and our things to the other bank. The boys got drunk and almost drowned us in the Oder. [...] The Strauchmann family had quite a bit of luggage and they had to be helped, so we put everything on a small wagon, and since the roads were sodden, it was very difficult to make any progress. Our wagon wasn't one of those itty-bitty ones, but it wasn't one of the big ones either, but because it was fully loaded with all kinds of things and had to be pulled through this mud – it was February – it seemed terribly heavy and we had to pull it ourselves because the horses had been exchanged for booze and you couldn't find any horses on this side of the river.“4
Mines
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Mines also posed a significant danger in March 1945:
„The entire estate was surrounded by small boxes arranged in a kind of checkerboard pattern. Stefka and I wanted to get these boxes, but Milan and Aleks saw that we were going there, got very scared and started shouting that they were mines. And they were right, all around lay the ripped apart remains of pigs, horses and cows.“5
Arrival in Kotla
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After a long period of traveling on foot, it was once again possible to arrange horses. Soon chance would also decide on where the migrants would establish themselves:
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The boys made us bridles out of woolen blankets and reins made of a strong cord and we were able to go on. But the Germans told us that there was still war in Głogou [Glogau] and you really could hear shots and explosions. They said that Głogów did not want to surrender, so we could not travel through Głogów. We went to Kotla where we were immediately surrounded by Russians who said that there was a lot to do, that everyone should work, and that we all had to hand in their papers.6
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Both living and working conditions were very difficult:
„There was a huge mess in the servants' quarters, and the whole house had been turned upside down. You didn't know whether to clean up first or cook first. There were pigs running around in the street; the boys caught a big one and slaughtered it so we had something to cook.“7
A new beginning
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Following the Soviet model, small farms in Poland were grouped together in cooperatives (kolkhozes). The farm workers were poorly paid, sometimes only 'in kind', for example with alcohol:
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The Russians put the distillery back into operation and the boys worked there. In the evening, everyone came home with a liter of alcohol. That was all their pay. [...] At that time many Poles came to Kotla, so the Russians immediately rounded up everyone to plow and plant potatoes. My fiancé was also plowing, and once the guard who was supervising them didn't like something and he screamed terribly and threatened to shoot him with a pistol. [...] So with a lot of effort and shouting, they somehow managed to plant the potatoes in one big field and in another, and they said they would show us how to work in a collective farm first. Everybody was kind of afraid of these collective farms.8
The disadvantage of privately run farms
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Initially, the new settlers were able to take over former German farms. However, anyone who did not join a production cooperative found it difficult to do business; finding tools, for example, was difficult. In some cases, the cooperative confiscated agricultural equipment:
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„The Russian soldiers said we could take over a farm and work there as farmers. At that time many Poles came from the other side of the Bug, and my fiancé also took over a farm. A big house with a garden. [...] So our farm included 25 hectares of land, which had belonged to the Germans when they lived here. The rye had already been sown and the field had to be cleared. We had neither a horse nor a cow, only a goat. Harvest time came and we started to harvest the rye. It was very laborious, because we cut everything with a scythe. [...] Our friend Milan was a blacksmith and mechanic by profession. He went to another village, assembled a tractor, and we gathered the rye from the field. [...] Towards the autumn we had to plow the field and sow it. In Kotla there is an estate, so the caretaker and the estate manager and many other people came and, since they needed many tractors, they also took ours. We still managed to plow the field, but we had to sow by hand.“9
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New settlers such as Janina Jagodzińska played a prominent role in the integration of the western territories into the new Polish state and the socialist social order that was to be established. State propaganda stylized them as „pioneers“ of Polish culture; at the same time, they were irreplaceable for the everyday economy in Poland's western territories, since the expulsion and resettlement of the Germans had caused a significant personnel shortage in agriculture and industry. The influence of the new settlers on society immediately after the end of the war has already been explored in research, for example in the article by Włodzimierz Borodziej.10
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Editing:
Source selection and analysis: Dariusz Gierczak
English translation: William Connor
Map mounting: Laura Gockert
Editing: Christian Lotz
English translation: William Connor
Map mounting: Laura Gockert
Editing: Christian Lotz
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This article is part of the series: „Forced migration: people and their escape routes“
