The 50th anniversary of the return to Silesia is an opportunity to look at the events that took place 50 years ago from a certain perspective, with some calm distance and without the emotions that had always accompanied us in previous years.
It will also be an opportunity for a new historical approach, correcting many intellectual stereotypes, erroneous assessments, and even blank spots and the deliberate omission of many facts. Let us begin by recalling the basic historical facts. The Conference of the Big Three in Yalta, Crimea, which met from 4 to 13 November 1945 under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, then Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States; and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain. In its resolution, it established: "The heads of the three governments consider that Poland’s eastern frontier should follow the Curzon Line, with deviations from it in certain areas of 5 to 8 kilometres in Poland’s favour.
They recognise that Poland should receive substantial territorial accessions in the North and in the West. They are of the opinion that at the appropriate time the views of the new Polish Provisional Government of National Unity should be sought with regard to the extent of these accessions, and that the final delimitation of the western frontier of Poland should thereafter await the Peace Conference".
It is therefore clear that the main decisions were taken by the Big Three four months before the end of the war.
From 16 July to 2 August 1945, the Conference of the Big Three in Potsdam announced the following: "The three Heads of Government agree that, pending the final determination of the western frontier of Poland, the former German territories east of a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Świnoujście and thence along the Oder River to the point where the western Neisse enters it and along the Western Neisse to the frontier with Czechoslovakia (...) shall be under the administration of the Polish State (...)"
I have omitted the part concerning Warmia and Masuria and Gdańsk. To complete the picture, the same conference in Potsdam adopted a resolution stating: "The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognise that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland... will have to be undertaken." Such were the arrangements made in 1945, mostly without our participation. The matter of establishing (recognising) this border became complicated when two German states were created in 1949. In 1950, the border was established in Zgorzelec with the former GDR, and only in December 1970, during Chancellor Willy Brandt’s memorable visit to Poland, were documents signed in which the other German state recognised this border.
The process of expelling the German population was also a major undertaking for our state. It is worth recalling that one of the main departure points, monitored by the British mission, was the then Kaławsk (Węgliniec).
The process reached its greatest intensity in 1946–49. For many years, we celebrated the anniversary of the return to the Motherland, while Germans commemorated the anniversary of their expulsion from the Motherland. Today, from the perspective of 50 years, when children born in 1945 are entering their half-century, we can acknowledge that both sides had a point.
Silesia, which was separated from Poland at the beginning of the 14th century, remained under the influence of three states for more than six centuries. First Bohemia, then the Austrian Habsburgs, and from 1740, Prussia.
Thus, in the history of Silesia, those 600 years are not a blank spot but the achievement of many generations. Our return in 1945—as a historical consequence of the Second World War—was a return to the Motherland and also the departure of millions of Poles from another Motherland, the one beyond the Curzon Line. Contrary to the opinion of one of the representatives of the authors of the new European border arrangement, W. Churchill, that Poles would not be able to develop these lands, we not only developed them but also expanded them. Bolesławiec, which had approximately 22,000 inhabitants in 1939, is now twice as large and more beautiful. Former residents of Bolesławiec from the friendly city of Siegburg are also pleased with its growth, but they and their children want to—and will—live in Siegburg. This is the optimistic reflection as we begin to enter the second half-century since Silesia’s return.
The quotations are taken from the "Collection of Documents," edited by J. Małowski and published in "Source Texts for the Teaching of History at School."