Editing Masuria (section)

=== Masuria after World War II ===
[[File:Budynek w Parku etnograficznym w Węgorzewie.jpg|thumb|right|A reconstructed Masurian house in an open-air museum near [[Węgorzewo]]]]
According to the Masurian Institute, the Masurian members of resistance against Nazi Germany who survived the war became active in 1945 in the region, working in [[Olsztyn]] in cooperation with new state authorities in administration, education and cultural affairs.<ref name="O nas"/> Historic Polish names for most of towns of Masuria were restored, but for some places [[Commission for the Determination of Place Names|new names were determined]] even if there were historic Polish names.

On 16 February 1946, the village of [[Gajrowskie]] was the site of the largest battle between Polish [[Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953)|anti-communist partisans]] and communist forces in Masuria.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wydminy.pl/skwer-zolnierzy-wykletych-w-wydminach/|title=Skwer Żołnierzy Wyklętych w Wydminach|website=Wydminy.pl|language=pl|access-date=12 December 2024}}</ref>

German author Andreas Kossert describes the post-war process of "national verification" as based on an ethnic racism which categorised the local populace according to their alleged ethnic background.<ref>Kossert, Andreas: Masuren, p.363, 364: "Ähnlich wie die NS-Volkslisten seit 1939 im Reichsgau Wartheland und in Danzig-Westpreussen die Germanisierbarkeit der dort lebenden Deutschen und kleiner polnischer Gruppen festlegte, indem sie sie nach einem biologischen Rassismus in vier Kategorien einteilten, nahm die polnische Provinzverwaltung nach 1945 eine Klassifizierung der Bewohner Masurens nach einem ethnischen Rassismus vor."</ref> A Polish-sounding last name or a Polish-speaking ancestor was sufficient to be regarded as "autochthonous" Polish.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNV5uIIKJjkC&q=autochton&pg=PA287
|title=Polish-speaking Germans? language and national identity among the Masurians since 1871|first1= Richard |last1=Blanke|publisher=Böhlau|year=2001|isbn=3-412-12000-6|page=285}}</ref>
In October 1946, 37,736 persons were "verified" as Polish citizens while 30,804 remained "unverified". A center of such "unverified" Masurians was the district of [[Mrągowo]], where in early 1946 out of 28,280 persons, 20,580 were "unverified", while in October, 16,385 still refused to adopt Polish citizenship.<ref>{{cite book|title=Ostpreussen. Geschichte und Mythos|first1=Andreas|last1=Kossert|publisher=Siedler|year=2005|isbn=3-88680-808-4|page=353|language=de}}</ref> However, even those who complied with the often used pressure by Polish authorities were in fact treated as Germans because of their Lutheran faith and their often rudimentary knowledge of Polish. Names were "Polonised" and the usage of the German language in public was forbidden. In the late 1940s the pressure to sign the "verification documents" grew and in February 1949 the former chief of the [[Ministry of Public Security of Poland|stalinist secret Police (UB)]] of [[Łódź]], [[Mieczysław Moczar]], started the "Great verification" campaign. Many unverified Masurians were imprisoned and accused of pro-Nazi or pro-American propaganda, even former pro-Polish activists and inmates of Nazi concentration camps were jailed and tortured. After the end of this campaign in the district of Mrągowo only 166 Masurians were still "unverified".<ref>Kossert, Andreas: Masuren, p. 366</ref>

In 1950, 1,600 Masurians left the country and in 1951, 35,000 people from Masuria and [[Warmia]] managed to obtain a declaration of their German nationality by the embassies of the United States and Great Britain in Warsaw. Sixty-three percent of the Masurians in the district of Mrągowo received such a document.<ref>Kossert, Andreas: Masuren, p. 367</ref> In December 1956, Masurian pro-Polish activists signed a memorandum to the Communist Party leadership:
<blockquote>"The history of the people of Warmia and Masuria is full of tragedy and suffering. Injustice, hardship and pain often pressed on the shoulders of Warmians and Masurians... Dislike, injustice and violence surrounds us...They (Warmians and Masurians) demand respect for their differentness, grown in the course of seven centuries and for freedom to maintain their traditions".<ref>Andreas Kossert :”Masuren”, pp. 371, 372</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Pasym Kościół ewangelicko-augsburski 03.jpg|thumb|right|An active [[Lutheran]] church in [[Pasym]]]]

Soon after the political reforms of 1956, Masurians were given the opportunity to join their families in [[West Germany]]. The majority (over 100 thousand) gradually left, and after the improvement of [[Germany|German]]-[[Poland|Polish]] relations by the German [[Ostpolitik]] of the 1970s, 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to West Germany in between 1971 and 1988.<ref name=AK,358>{{cite book|title=Ostpreussen. Geschichte und Mythos|first1=Andreas|last1=Kossert|publisher=Siedler|year=2005|isbn=3-88680-808-4|page=358|language=de}}</ref> Today, between 5,000 and 6,000 [[Masurians]] still live in the area, about 50 percent of them members of the [[German minority in Poland]]; the remaining half is ethnic Polish.<ref name=Eberhardt>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLfX1q3kJzgC&q=Masurians&pg=RA1-PA166
|title=Ethnic groups and population changes in 20th century Central-Eastern Europe: history, data, analysis |access-date=2009-10-08 |publisher= Piotr Eberhardt, Jan Owsinski|year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7656-0665-5}}</ref> As the Polish journalist [[Andrzej Krzysztof Wróblewski|Andrzej K. Wróblewski]] stated, the Polish post-war policy succeeded in what the Prussian state never managed: the creation of a German national consciousness among the Masurians.<ref name=AK,358/>

Most of the originally [[Protestantism|Protestant]] churches in Masuria are now used by the Polish [[Roman Catholic Church]] as the number of Lutherans in Masuria declined from 68,500 in 1950 to 21,174 in 1961 and further to 3,536 in 1981. Sometimes, like on 23 September 1979 in the village of [[Spychowo]], the Lutheran Parish was even forcefully driven out of their church while liturgy was held.<ref name=AK,358/><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3eNOIYcwnmwC&q=puppen+ortelsburg&pg=PA116
|title=Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte und Kirchenkunde |access-date=2009-07-27 |publisher= Peter Hauptmann |year=1984 |language=de |isbn=978-3-525-56382-3}}</ref>