I have a question about the area that now belongs to Belarus in which the Poles living there were moved to Lower Silesia. What percentage of the inhabitants there were Jewish?
Question about land of former Poland/modern Belarus
Gruffi_Gummi - | 106
8 Dec 2011 / #2
According to the 1921 cenzus for Województwo Nowogródzkie, it was 8.9%. Naturally, the distribution was not uniform.
pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plik:Woj.nowogr%C3%B3dzkie-Polska_spis_powszechny_1921.pdf&page=47
Oh, one more off-topic thing for the sake of correctness: People from the Lwów (Lviv) area were moved to Lower Silesia. Those from the areas you asked about were resettled to Pomerania (Kashubia).
pl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Plik:Woj.nowogr%C3%B3dzkie-Polska_spis_powszechny_1921.pdf&page=47
in which the Poles living there were moved to Lower Silesia
Oh, one more off-topic thing for the sake of correctness: People from the Lwów (Lviv) area were moved to Lower Silesia. Those from the areas you asked about were resettled to Pomerania (Kashubia).
People from the Lwów (Lviv) area
What was the Jewish percentage there (around the time of the relocation)? In what years did the relocation occur? How high was the intermarriage rate between Jews and Poles? Were many of the Jews from there moved to Lower Silesia?
Gruffi_Gummi - | 106
9 Dec 2011 / #4
1. I have no idea, and probably nobody knows, except German Einsatzgruppen.
2. 1944-1946 and 1955-1959.
3. Probably very low. Jews preferred marrying within their own community, and the same applied to Poles. Defying the cultural and religious pressure was always difficult, and even today intercultural/interfaith relationships face obstacles. Consider, for example, this Rabbi's response to a question regarding an interfaith marriage:
4. Related to 1. In this case, the personnel files of Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (communist secret police) may hold the largest part of the answer.
2. 1944-1946 and 1955-1959.
3. Probably very low. Jews preferred marrying within their own community, and the same applied to Poles. Defying the cultural and religious pressure was always difficult, and even today intercultural/interfaith relationships face obstacles. Consider, for example, this Rabbi's response to a question regarding an interfaith marriage:
"For Jews, "marrying within the faith" isn't a cultural preference or prejudice. Rather, it is one the commandments G-d gave us at Mount Sinai. A Jew who marries a
non-Jew transgresses a Torah prohibition. The practice of not "intermarrying" is in fact one of the oldest features of Judaism (...) We were chosen as a permanent protest group against idolatry and immorality. Intermarriage is therefore antithetical to the Jewish purpose and to the Jewish identity."
non-Jew transgresses a Torah prohibition. The practice of not "intermarrying" is in fact one of the oldest features of Judaism (...) We were chosen as a permanent protest group against idolatry and immorality. Intermarriage is therefore antithetical to the Jewish purpose and to the Jewish identity."
4. Related to 1. In this case, the personnel files of Urząd Bezpieczeństwa (communist secret police) may hold the largest part of the answer.
I guess the whole liberal movement within Judaism wasn't popular in Lwow. Over here in America, 50% of Jews intermarry with non-Jews.
Anyway, the reason why I'm asking all these questions is because I'm trying to find out if I have any Jewish ancestry from my mother's side.
I sort of suspect Jewish or some other ancestry for the following reasons
1.) She acts strange when I ask about her ancestry. I feel like she's hiding something.
2.) Her mother might have died from a genetic disease common in Ashkenazi Jewish populations.
3.) Her physical looks don't really fit the stereotypical Pole. Whatever her true ancestry is, I feel that it's not ethnic Polish since she has an olive skin tone that tans very easily. Her facial features seem a bit exotic too.
Anyway, the reason why I'm asking all these questions is because I'm trying to find out if I have any Jewish ancestry from my mother's side.
I sort of suspect Jewish or some other ancestry for the following reasons
1.) She acts strange when I ask about her ancestry. I feel like she's hiding something.
2.) Her mother might have died from a genetic disease common in Ashkenazi Jewish populations.
3.) Her physical looks don't really fit the stereotypical Pole. Whatever her true ancestry is, I feel that it's not ethnic Polish since she has an olive skin tone that tans very easily. Her facial features seem a bit exotic too.
Gruffi_Gummi - | 106
9 Dec 2011 / #6
Both the Ashkenazi phenotype (the "European" looks) and DNA suggest at least some mixing of the genetic material with other Europeans, although those brave souls who were enriching their communities' gene pools were doing it largely without the blessing of either a priest or a rabbi. :) In Poland, this dates back at least to Casimir III the Great and Esther.
Gruffi, it turns out what you said was not entirely true. I asked my mother and her family dates back to the area around Baranowicze which is now part of Belarus. I know for a fact that her family was forced to move to Lower Silesia. What's interesting is that during the 1920s, almost 70% of the population was Jewish according to Wikipedia. My mother's maiden name does sort of sound Jewish to me for some reason. It makes me wonder...
Zman
18 Dec 2011 / #8
Try to connect you your mom while she is around....
Gruffi_Gummi - | 106
18 Dec 2011 / #9
Gruffi, it turns out what you said was not entirely true
It does not have to be true in 100% of cases. However, generally it is true that organized resettlements were done along the lines I described. Lwów -> Wrocław, Wileńszczyzna -> Pomorze. The latter applies to part of my own family; they have been resettled from a village near Nowa Wilejka, a region that now belongs to Belarus, to Kashubia. Conversely, there is a running joke (not devoid of merit) among Polish scientists that Wrocław University is actually a renamed Lwów University.
Conversely, there is a running joke (not devoid of merit) among Polish scientists that Wrocław University is actually a renamed Lwów University.
The various institutions of Lwow (such as they remained after the wartime massacres) and of Wroclaw have a certain degree of continuity.
my grandmother was from belarus when she was born it was under polish occupation and before that apart of russia. they were forced to learn polish at school and not speak there native language which was called polesian (dialect of ukrainian and belarusian) there nationality is poleszuk with is transitional between ukrainian and belarusian.
her family were very rich and because of that were very polanized.
my point is poland is for polish people and belarus is for belarusians
would love to hear from any belarusian or polish people who call belarus there mother land :)
her family were very rich and because of that were very polanized.
my point is poland is for polish people and belarus is for belarusians
would love to hear from any belarusian or polish people who call belarus there mother land :)