Lubuskie Region / Rąpice Cemetery

My family came from the villages of Rampitz and Kloppitz (now Rąpice and Kłopot) in what is now the Lubuskie region. It is my understanding that the Lutheran Church and Cemetery in Rampitz were razed by the Poles when they moved into the village after WW2. I have been to these villages, and found no trace of either church or cemetery (except the "new" Polish Cemetery). Do old village maps exist that might show the locations?

Also, does anyone know how the Poles came to reside in these villages? From what I have read, Poles from the eastern part of the country were "given" new homes in these formerly German villages. Were they simply allowed to pick and choose? Did they pay the government for the property?

I'm interested in hearing from anyone with a connection (past or present) to these villages.

That is a truth.Till '60 it was like that (my grandfather was allowed to choose a house in 1961) without paying anything.

While there may be some individual difference, Poles who were forced to settle in the said territories lost their properties in the East (now Ukraine, Belorussian Republic etc). In other words, they did not get anything for free.

Some Poles moved to the areas willingly, but the initial settlements were generally forced. The intensity of the communist driven policy Poles diminished with time, but people are known to have been resettled even in late 1960's

Looks like someone just woke up from a very long sleep and now wants everything ready & please explain on his plate.
kurt428 why don't you make yourself familiar with the area's history and what happened after the WWII, starting from the year 1945 .
You'll learn a few very important facts about the Poles loosing their houses and farms on the eastern side of Poland and beeing forced to move to the unknown western area, a part of new Poland.

This western side was already in Russian hands who were managing the process of moving people from (Germans) and to the area.
Before Polish people could move to the area anything what looked too nice and too good or too Bourgeoisie was destroyed by the commie Russian soldiers ie: churches, too nice looking houses, roads and many beautiful parks etc.). I know this because I was born and rised in Lubuskie region and I know a lot of stories told by the people living over there.

And what wasn't destroyed by the Russians was then often vandalized by the Poles who moved into the ethnically cleansed regions. Protestant churches and cemeteries destroyed, everything German erased, etc. - sometimes ordered by the Polish communists, sometimes out of pure hatred. Given what those people went through, I can somewhat understand the latter though.

Why would Poles want to destroy anything in their new place??? They were glad if the houses were livable, if the roads were drivable etc.

Have a look on the internet how nice and clean western Poland look today, if Poles were about to destroy the region, as you suggest, many old buildings shouldn't exist today.

Even Polish communists were not interested in destroying anything.
Soon after the war Poles opened their eyes and had more hatred towards Russians than civilian Germans but they could do nothing about it. There was noone to help.

kurt428
if you really want to know how it worked go to professional history sites or get some serious books about the subject. The worst idea is go to chitchat forums like that and ask a serious questions to random people only because they are from conutry or connected to it in some ways

What I said is based on eye witness reports from both Germans and Poles whom I've personally met, and not on official Polish or German history books. The Polish communists for example were very eager to erase everything that reminded of the German past of the new territories, so they flattened German cemeteries, removed German inscriptions from buildings, destroyed protestant churches, burnt church books, and so on. Of course they didn't destroy the houses they were living in - the people were not stupid. Whether the Polish communists received specific orders from their Soviet masters to behave as they did or not, that I don't know for sure.

I was rised in the western part and I know & saw how it was in one specific area of Lubuskie Wojewodztwo.
It shouldn't be a surprise if Poles were burning German books or vandalising signs written in German as it could be seen as a way of manifesting the freedom. That's understandable, don't you think so?

In the area where I grew up all the existing churches were transformed into Catholic churches! Not even one has been destroyed and I don't believe people were different on other parts of the western side.

Anyone can go and visit the western part of Poland and see for yourself, see those nicely kept and renovated very old churches.
On the contrary, on the eastern side, all of the Polish churches were adopted by Russians into farm buildings and left to deteriorate. I don't know this from books but from living people or their relatives who went to the area many years after the war.

The Germans cemeteries, believe it or not were not always destroyed but often used by the Poles - at least that's how it was in my area. Those cemeteries were kind of parted into "old" and "new" sites.

Over the time Poles build completely new cemeteries and everyone was able to move the bodies of their relatives to the new site. I remember that some German families came over to the area to collect their relatives bodies, I think it was in '70 or start '80. Somehow they find out about the relocation.

Also, there were some German families who didn't left the area after the war -surprisingly they were permitted to stay and live among the Poles.

Probably it wasn't easy for them to stay but it was their choice.

if it is such an issue for you to reply, why do you bother? i'm just looking for some local impressions of what went on, the processes and the results. i don't take everything i read here as fact, but i do appreciate people's input, including yours, for the most part.

My husband's grandfather Hugo Miessner was born in Kloppitz in 1856. Came to the US in 1872.

Are you sure it wasn't Meißner or Meissner rather than Miessner?

We have a letter to Hugo's parents who were living in the Kloppitz area from F. Berndt, who lived in Furstenberg on Oder, dated November 1856. Herr Berndt spelled it Mießner. Seven of the eight Miessner children as well as their mother, came to the US in the 1870s; the name is spelled in Castle Garden records as I have given it. Also in Filby.

Hi Betty,
Have you been successful in finding any records from Kloppitz? The church in Rampitz is gone, as well as the church records - I'm told. I visited those two villages in March of 2008. My great grandfather left Kloppitz in 1885.

Hi Kurt - sorry for the delay in answering - no, I have not found any Kloppitz records. A Chicago researcher found records for our family in the Frankfurt (Oder) district. This was for a Proof of Heirship case filed in 1962.

My great great great grandparents were born around 1800 and buried in Rampitz (Rapice). I don't have a burial date but received a picture from a relative of the cemetery in that area where they are supposedly buried. The first part of the name has been marked over and I can't determine what it says but the last part reads: RAPICACH. Can anyone help me with this?

It simply means (In Rapice) be it born, lived or was buried in Rapice, the meaningful information lies in what precedes it in the epitaph on the gravestone. If you have a good quality photo of the gravestone perhaps someone can help you if you post the image here.

I have a picture but don't know how to paste it here. The word is not on a gravestone because none exists but rather on the entrance wall to the cemetery.

My dad born in 1912 and his parents lived in Rampitz before WWII, All Jewish ... My dad left to France in 1931, came back once in 1933, but my grand parents were caught when trying to sell their hosue and they disappeared in 1941 ...

Why do I write here: I still have a Postcard found in my dad's belongings when he dies in 2002, of their WareHaus, KrigerDenkaml Churcj, Rampitz School, and Hubbe's GastHaus.

Of course none of these buildings can now be seem when using Google Streetview in Rapice.