Powojenne wysiedlenia ludności mazurskiej/niemieckiej z powiatu Ełk

Abstract

The author of the article presents the history of Masurians, an indigenous population of East Prussia, after the end of World War II, in the Ełk district. The town suffered heavy losses during the war, and at the time when the Red Army marched in, it had only about 1 000 inhabitants (from over 17 000 before the war). The researcher shows how the new authorities treated Masurians, to whom corporate responsibility policy was applied. Despite repression and displacement, the Masurian and German populations, usually Protestant, were strongly present in the Ełk area until the early 1970s, when the remains of the population left for the Federal Republic of Germany.