THE PICTURE OF A GERMAN IN THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE NEW INHABITANTS OF A GERMAN TOWN (Obraz Niemca we wspomnieniach nowych mieszkanców niemieckiego miasta)

The authoress tries to analyse the picture of a German as emerging from biographical interviews with the oldest generation of the new inhabitants of an ex-German town (Krzyz, German Kreuz Ostb.), the first post-war settlers in the 'recovered territories'. The authoress shows how people coming from the Polish Eastern Borderland, Great Poland and Central Poland remember their pre-war German neighbours, the German invaders and the Germans expelled from Krzyz. The reason for the predominantly favourable picture of a German may be found in the experiences of the interviewees' lives, who during the war and in the post-war period suffered the greatest wrongs not on the part of the Germans, but the Soviets. It is also noteworthy that the repatriates from the Eastern Borderland perceive a similarity between the fate of the Poles and Germans expelled from their homes, though they do not deny the Germans' guilt and responsibility for starting World War II.