Institute of National Remembrance - text version
Deportations of the Upper Silesians to the USSR in 1945 - wersja graficzna tekstu
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[JPG] Members of Russian Military Headquarters in Katowice. The photo belongs to the Silesian Museum.
[JPG] Military barracks in Gliwice - one of the camps were interned people were held before being deported to the USSR. Town Museum in Zabrze is the owner of the photo.
[JPG] Note to a family, thrown from a train by one of the interned persons. The document belongs to Mr. Gabriel Tomczyk
[JPG] Wooden cigarette case and wooden spoons made in labor camps by Jan Serete. Jan Serete was a sculptor, well known in Upper Silesia. The items belong to Biliana Holewik
[JPG] Certificate of National Repatriation Office regarding homecoming of one of the deported persons. The document belongs to Mr. Antoni Musioł.
[JPG] A copy of „List of Polish citizens-miners deported to the USSR at the beginning of 1945 from the Upper Silesia and Opole Silesia”, including 9 877 names. The document belongs to the Departmental Commission for the Crimes against the Polish Nat
On the 18th of November 2003 in the Upper Silesia Museum in Bytom, exhibition “Deportations of the Upper Silesians to the USSR in 1945” was opened. The organizers are: IPN Public Education Office Branch in Katowice and Upper Silesia Museum. The exhibition is held under the auspices of prof. Leon Kieres, President of the Institute of National Remembrance, Archbishop Damian Zimoń, Metropolitan of Katowice, bishop Jan Wieczorek, Ordinary of Diocese of Gliwice, bishop Tadeusz Szurman – Superior of Diocese of Katowice of Evangelic-Augsburg Church, Mr. Lechosław Jarzębski – voivod of Silesia, Mr. Michał Czarski – Marchal of Voivodeship of Silesia, Mr. Piotr Uszok – President of Katowice and Mr. Krzysztof Wójcik – President of Bytom.
During the winter of 1945 thousands of people from Upper Silesia were sent into soviet labor camps. Those displacements constitute only a small part of the deportations of Poles to the USSR which started when Red Army entered the territory of occupied Poland. The scale and character of those deportations differ since not only members of the resistance movements suffered, but also anyone who (according to the “liberators”) might threaten the new regime. The majority of the displaced were civilians, later exploited to rebuild the devastated soviet economy.
The authors tried to depict the complexity of the deportation problem, paying close attention to the industrial region of Upper Silesia, and to avoid the stereotyped belief that only miners suffered in the effect of displacements. Therefore, the exhibition includes detailed information about expulsions of members of other professions as well as Resistance’s soldiers and artists.
The main part of the exposition deals with deportation process, the life in labor camps and homecoming. The following, less known events, such as the search for missing families, the process of retracing their fates and graves, as well as the way those issues were handled after 1989 are also included in the exhibition. Unique documents, photos and souvenirs from private collections, as well as the available documents from the Polish and Russian Archives are shown. The most recent document, Mr. Leon Rzychoń’s letter to IPN, requesting to establish the last traces of his father, dates from 2001.
Two documentaries accompany the exposition: Andrzej Soroczynski’s “Szychta niewolników”, depicting deportations from Upper Silesia in 1945 and Wojciech Sarnowicz’s “Końca wojny nie było”.
The exhibition in Bytom will be held till the 15th of February 2004. Later the exhibition tours Knurów, Katowice, and Chorzów.
PHOTOS
17 August 2006
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