Film (“They Built Our Houses”; Polish with German subtitles) and reading and discussion with Karolina Kuszyk (Polish with German interpreting).
The evening kicks off with a film by Małgorzata Frymus and Łukasz Nyks about lapidaries in and around Goleniów.
For 80 years, West Pomerania has been home to many Poles whose grandparents and parents came here after World War II. Today, many of them wonder who “built their home.” Traces of the former inhabitants can now be found in lapidaries that have been set up in recent years in the villages around Goleniów and in Goleniów itself. Lapidaries were created for various reasons: out of shame at showing descendants the destroyed cemeteries, which were overgrown with greenery or covered with rubbish; because someone had dug up fragments of gravestones from their own garden, where they had been knocked over by a bulldozer years ago; because cast-iron, buried crosses were sticking out of the ground... Wojciech Janda – a long-time resident of Goleniów – feels calmer on November 1 when he can light a small candle to thank those who “built our home.” The search for the DNA of this land is his passion and mission.
Documentary / PL 2025 / Director: Małgorzata Frymus / Camera: Łukasz Nyks / Original Polish version with German subtitles / PG12
Following the film screening, Karolina Kuszyk will read from her book “In the Houses of Others: Traces of the German Past in Western Poland,” published at the end of 2022.
In Poland, Poniemieckie refers to what was formerly German: places, buildings, and objects left behind by millions of Germans when they fled to the West at the end of World War II. The new owners were Poles, often displaced persons or resettlers themselves. What was a loss of home for some was a new beginning in a foreign land for others. Two ends of a story that shows how biographies and objects are interwoven across time, national borders, and generations to this day. This book is a helpful resource for anyone who wants to understand the relationship between Poles and Germans in recent history: thoroughly researched, sensitive, and intelligent.
Author: Karolina Kuszyk / Translator: Bernhard Hartmann / Publisher: Ch. Links Verlag
Doors open: from 7.30 pmStart: 8 pmAdmission: free
There will be a book table in cooperation with the Scharfe bookstore. (cash only)
An event organized by STRAZEkultur as part of the Greifswald Literature Spring and the ID:Pomerania project, funded by the Interreg VI A Cooperation Program Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania / Brandenburg / Poland 2021–2027.
Verlag: Ch. Links Verlag; Umschlaggestaltung: zero-media.net, München; Coverfoto: Grzegorz Lityński