Nationalization campaigns and teachers' practices in Belgian–German and Polish–German border regions (1945–1956)

Abstract

This contribution looks into nationalization and education in European borderlands in the early post-World War II period. Belonging to Belgium and Poland, respectively, in the interwar years, the Eupen–St. Vith–Malmedy and the East-Upper Silesia regions came under German rule during World War II. Returned to the Belgian and Polish nation-states once the war was over, the regions experienced a pronounced upheaval in the population profile as a result of population transfers and reorientations in education curricula. The aim of these measures was to guarantee the national reliability of borderland inhabitants, with a special role being designated for teachers, who were perceived as crucial in the raising of children as national citizens imbued with certain core values. This contribution compares the methods employed by the authorities in selecting educational personnel for their borderlands, the nationalizing role teachers were to play and the way teachers gave meaning to their professional practices.

Keywords:

• nationalization
• teachers
• education
• border regions
• Belgium
• Poland

Acknowledgement

The research for this article was conducted during a Lise Meitner Fellowship (M 1311-G15) at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History in Vienna and financed by the Austrian Fund for Scientific Research (Der Wissenschaftsfonds).

Notes

1 The figure does not include trans-Olza Silesia, which had been returned to Poland following the Munich Agreement of 1938.

2. Next to the pre-war Polish East-Upper Silesia region, the Silesia Voivodeship encompassed what had been called the Regierungsbezirk Oppeln until 1945 and the Zagłębia Dąbrowskie region. The latter belonged to the Kielce Voivodeship in the interwar period and became included within the Regierungsbezirk of Katowice during World War II. Detailed regional statistical figures provided information concerning the surface area and number of inhabitants of the pre-war East-Upper Silesia terrain for the years 1945 and 1950.

3. Archive Stadt Eupen. Nachkriegzeit Sig. Nr. C.4.8.II. 1373 Emigranten. Verzeichnisse der Personen die nach dem 10 Mai 1940 in das Innere des Landes ausgewandert sind. Figures of official transports are only available for persons domiciled in Eupen.

4. Archive Bezirkskommissariat(further Bezirkskommissariat). File 285. Liste des membres du personnel enseignant en cause 1945.

5. Royal Belgian Archive Eupen. GS MAP 2 Gesetzesammlung. Mémorial administratif de la Province de Liège. Tome CXXXVIII, 1945, deuxième semèstre. “Membres du personnel enseignant…”; see also the Royal Decree of, for example, 5 September 1945.

6. Bezirkskommissariat. File 283, 284 and following files. For the right to appeal, see the Royal Decree of 9 April 1951.

7. Bezirkskommissariat. File 303. Unterrichtspersonal. Gehaltszulage.

8. Bezirkskommissariat. File 285. See the Royal Decrees of 29 March 1946, 6 June 1946, 6 July 1946, 13 August 1946, 27 August 1946, 17 December 1946, 7 January 1947, 30 January 1947, 18 March 1947 and 11 April 1947; Lettre de H. Hoen aux bourgmestres de 12 February 1946.

9. Bezirkskommissariat. File 313. Frau Dizelle, Lehrerin. Lettre du personnel des écoles industrielles et ménagères du soir à Monsieur le Bourgmestre de Malmédy (no date).

10. See, for example, also: Archive Stadt Eupen. Nachkriegzeit Sig. Nr. C.4.8.II. Map 1389 Unterlagen betr. die Unterstützung von Familien von Reichsdeutschen, die vor 1940 nach Eupen umgesiedelt sind.

11. See, for example: Bezirkskommissariat File 291. Du registre aux délibérations du conseil à Raeren de 2 June 1953.

12. Bezirkskommissariat. Files 289, 290, 291.

13. For an example of a young teacher, see Bezirkskommissariat. File 290, Registre aux délibérations du Conseil Raeren 16 October 1952 Françoise Hurdebise.

14. Bezirkskommissariat. File 291. Lettre de H. Hoen à J. Détilleux de 29 December 1954.

15. Bezirkskommissariat. File 291. Lettre de division délégué à Brabant à H. Hoen 28 February 1956.

16. Zimmerman on a meeting with the Belgian Minister of Internal Affairs and other mayors of the Eupen–St.Vith–Malmedy District in 1948 (Grenz-Echo, 20 January, 1948, pp. 3–4).

17. Belgian Royal Archive Eupen, H. Hoen, Commissariat d´arrondissement adjoint 1945–1965, p. 25.

18. Le Soir, 19 June, 1946.

19. Bezirkskommissariat. File 299. 19 December 1947 Composition du corps professoral du Collège Patronné; 5 January 1947 Liste du personnel d'Athéné Royal de Malmédy.

20. Belgian Royal Archive Eupen, H. Hoen, Exercise 1951, p. 97.

21. Bezirkskommissariat. File 309. Réunion du 7 janvier 1952 concernant l'étude du plan d'éducation populaire pour les cantons de L'Est, p. 10.

22. Jenniges (2004), Lejeune and Klausner (2008), Mennicken (2005) (interviews are referred separately to below), Mertes (2005). Archive Zwischen Venn und Schneifel. Erlebnisberichte. IV, E, 41. René Thomas 10 May 1940 Auf der Flucht geboren … 10 May 1940 (further: Thomas).

23. Thomas. See also Jenniges (2004, 76).

24. Interview. Josef Genotte, pp. 18–19.

25. Interview. Josef Genotte, p. 18; Interview with Mrs. Annemie Havenith, p. 15.

26. Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 15.

27. Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 15; Bezirkskommissariat. File 290. Du registre aux délibérations du conseil communal, séance 16 October 1952. Création d'un instituteur à titre provisoire, and file 295. Letter of H. Hoen to Monsieur Le Gouverneur de la Province de et à Liège 8 August 1961.

28. Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 15.

29. Interview. Josef Genotte, p. 20; Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 16.

30. Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 16.

31. Interview. Josef Genotte, p. 18.

32. Interview mit seiner Ehefrau Annemie Havenith, p. 16.

33. See also the interview with Bruno Kalbuch, the son of the local teacher Jakob Kalbusch, in which he recalls how he needed to leave the comfortable teachers’ service house (Mennicken 2005, 33).

34. Interview with Johanna Knippert, p. 26.

35. Interview with Herbert Schumacher, pp. 23–25.

36. See also the interview with Alois Neissen, p. 42.

37. Archive of New Acts, Warsaw, PKWN, Resort Oświaty, Wydział Reformy Szkolnej, Ogólny zjazd oświatowy 6.1945, p. 1.

38. In 1945, East Upper Silesia encompassed pre-war Polish Silesia as well as the Dąbrowa Basin.

39. Rocznik 1955, p. 98 and Rocznik 1956, p. 100, provide figures for the Voievodship of Katowice, since 1950 the administrative unit encompassing the pre-war Polish Silesia and the Dąbrowa Basin.

40. Archive of New Acts, ASS, Wybrane zagadnienia z zakresu opieki inspektora nad bibliotekami szk. 1949 r., 478/168, k. 55 (cited in Kosiński 2006, 131).

41. Unpublished testimonies were gathered in: Ośrodek Badań Naukowych (Olsztyn – OBN), Instytut Zachodni (Poznań – IZ) and Instytut Śląski (Opole – IŚ). Published testimonies were found in Chałasiński (1965), Dulczewski and Kwilecki (1970), Karp and Traba (2004), Harvey (2003), Wieczorka (1988), Filipkowski (1978) and Popiołek and Szefer (1970).

42. Popiołek and Szefer (1970, 102–104). Also Franciszek Iwanowski provides information about the disinterest of local children for Polish schools (Dulczewski and Kwilecki 1970, 634); archived school inspectors’ reports and reports of teachers give insights in the material situation of schools: OBN file R-158.

43. IŚ. Pamiętniki trzech pokoleń mieszkańców Ziem Odzyskanych. Konkurs ogłoszony przez Instytut Śląski w Opolu i Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Pamiętnikarstwa w Warszawie w 1985 r. Zbiory Specjalne Biblioteki IŚ, A 3156. Vol. 98. Maria Kryweń-Golda, p. 5. See also: OBN R-13 and IZ Pamiętnik 67.

44. Heinrich Piskorski in Karp and Traba (2004, 331). One can also read about negative attitudes of autochtons in, for example, OBN R-158-X-1, p. 9, Weronika Michałowska.

45. Chałasiński (1965), testimonies no. 2979 and 3421 offer similar life paths: “Uczę w rodzinnej wsi”: 669, 674; see also Filipkowski (1978, 169).