[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans speaking Polish

[Posnsrch at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/31/2005 2:12:34 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
ger-poland-volhynia-request at eclipse.sggee.org writes:


I  have no firm facts for this but I believe that, in most cases, the 
Germans  would use German as their primary language but would know 
enough Polish to  function in the marketplace.  The pastor would be 
fluent in both  languages.

 
I do have a few facts from one particular area of America (Dakotas) when it  
comes to Germans speaking Polish.
 
My 4 lines were all German. They and other German-speaking relatives and  
friends in the Dakota Territory could not/ did not/ would not speak Polish. NO  
Polish. 
 
They felt that Germans were "better" than Poles. None of the Germans were  
Catholic...they all were German Lutheran. In Germany, if the Polish people  
spoke Polish on the streets or in the marketplaces, they were disciplined  by the 
German officials. (Not to say this was right, it is just the way it was  in 
the areas of Berlin, Posen, Bromberg, and Novorad, Russia, where my German  
family lived.) 
 
One of the reasons that the whole lot of them (German ancestors) came  to 
America because Germany allowed the Poles to begin to build their own  schools, 
open their own churches, and the Germans had great anomosity toward  them. 
 
This was not just my family; this was a well-known attitude that was held  
with most all the Germans in Dakota Territory. Their sons and daughters  could 
NOT date a Pole here in America; that brought great shame. Many small  towns 
would not allow Catholics to build a church in their towns. This applies  
certainly to all the Germans whom I knew and my gr grandparents knew. It even  
continued in Mpls/St Paul in the 20's 30's and 40's. Germans would not work  along 
side of "Polacks" on the assembly lines of WWII.
 
Now, it may sound radical to say that they thought they were "better", but  
that idea was often held in the old country. i.e. Russians were better than  
Germans, Germans were better than Latvians, etc. When my grandmother was in  
Russia, the Russians would not speak German and did not respect the  Germans. The 
Russians built houses, even towns, for the German workers  who came from 
Germany to work in the fields. (They even had their own  cemeteries. There are 
areas that even today have the German Cemeteries behind  the Russian Cemeteries, 
and the German Cemeteries are grown over with weeds and  not taken care of.) 


 
 It sounds terrible to write, but as a child, I know all of this as a  fact. 
It isn't right, but even today, prejudice and biasness is still alive  
(perhaps not toward a Polish person - perhaps toward a Mexican, a Black, etc.)  It 
does not make it right, and I am just reporting the way it was. If it was  
different in the areas where some of you grew up, that is great, and please  share 
with the list. 
 
Nellie, a  68-yr-old root digger