[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Germans speaking Polish

[Posnsrch at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/31/2005 8:25:49 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
albertr7 at juno.com writes:

My  grandmother (1867-1955) was born into a German Protestant family  in
the
village of Kondrajec Szlachecki not far from Warsaw.  She  spoke German at
home and her father hired a tutor to teach all his children  to read and
write.  She 
could also speak fluent Polish and once  had a great time chatting with a
lady..............
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.
 


Hello Al,

Thank you for sharing about your family. It sounds like her father was  
affluent, if they "hired a tutor", and it seems that acceptance and tolerance  
often comes with education. 
 
My family were all farmers. The 3 from Empire of Germany all went to public  
school and learned high German which was taught in all of the  German schools. 
(One family spoke Low German at home, and he was not as  respected as others 
who spoke high German at home. As I am sure that you know,  Low was usually 
spoken in the northern lowlands and high was usually spoken in  the southern 
high lands. Unless, again, you went to school...then you  learned high wherever 
you lived.) 
 
I would assume (I do not know) that many of the boys were kept home to  farm, 
so didn't attend school regularly. I do know that the one grandparent from  
Volynia (Russia) only attended 2 years of school, and although she could "write 
 a letter", speak German and fluent English after she came to America, she 
had  little education. 
 
I could also assume that if your family was from Russia, it may be that in  
their locale, they worked/talked/associated with Poles more often than perhaps  
the Germans to the west, since most Germans were fairly cloistered while 
living  in Russia...Do you know what your grandmother's father did for a living? 
Did  your family ever say if they spoke Russian, or talked/intereacted/visited 
with  the local native Russian populace? That would be interesting to find out.
 
Again, thanks for sharing. It was very uplifting to hear. 
 
Nellie, a  68-yr-old root digger