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Polish letters from the pre and post-war years and from during the war, taking Rhineland-Palatinate as an example

The imprints left by Poles that have survived the Second World War and the pre and post-war years include letters written by Poles, who had to work as forced labourers in Germany, to their family members, as well as letters which Poles wrote before the war to Germans for whom they wanted to work, and letters from Polish displaced persons who still stayed in contact, even after the war, with the people for whom they were to work as forced labourers during the war. The fact that letters like this existed is not surprising, but the fact that they still exist today is astounding in many cases. These exciting sources, which give a micro-historical insight into the German-Polish relationships at that time and into the correspondence between Polish forced labourers and their family members under the repressive regime of the Nazi state, and which have also been preserved in the communities of Mauchenheim, Gabsheim and Sprendlingen in Rhineland-Palatinate, are presented below.

A contribution as part of the joint project with the German Institute of Polish Studies in Darmstadt: Lebenszeichen ⋮ Znaki Życia Polen und der Zweite Weltkrieg – Erinnerungsorte in Deutschland.

Siblings Ruth Becker, née Boos (1928) and Otto Boos (1926), 16. June 2021, in Mauchenheim

Christof Schimsheimer

Along with other letters, a letter from 6 March 1939 has been preserved in which Władysława and Cecylia Kuźniak contacted their employer in Mauchenheim.

“Siemkowice 6/3/[19]39

Mr Boos

Thank you for the letter which I received. I was very happy that you answered my letter. Everything is OK with us just that you sort yourself out there so that I can come to you there as quickly as possible because I am really bored here. I dream every night that I’m there at yours again. We have lovely spring weather here so that the work in the field has started

Please write to me when you hear something new

Warm regards

Wład[y]sława to

Mr Boos and wife and your children.

Heil Hitler

Warm regards to Leonhardt

To Ruth and Otto as well.

Mr Knoploch [Knobloch]

Thank you for your letter that you have written a reply to me. I am very happy Zella [Cecylia]

that you sent me the

contract. I would like to come to work

for you as quickly as possible. The main thing is that you have sorted well. Warm regards

to Mr and Mrs

Hanz grandmother

grandfather

from Wadi u Cyla

When you hear something new write to us straight away.

Such a truly heartfelt exchange was motivated on the one hand by the desire on the part of the Poles to improve their financial circumstances by working in domestic service and in agriculture abroad and, on the part of the Germans, it came about because additional labour was required; but it also shows two self-reliant women who were prepared to work far from their homeland for a long period of time on their own or at least with their sister in the same place. Of course, such a journey, combined with all the new people that they got to meet met, was also a special experience, and the fact that Władysława Kuźniak had also received a warm welcome at her place of work was part of this experience. The children Ruth and Otto, who were mentioned in the letters, are the siblings Ruth Becker, née Boos (born on 14 September 1928) and Otto Boos (29 September 1926), who today still hold fond memories of Władysława.