Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1939-08-30
Disputes Nuzi Claim
To Conquered Areas
Writer Urges Maintenance Of
PoIund's Territorial
Integrity
To the Editor Of The Star:

TO the Editor Of The Star:
On January 8. 1918. in his address to
the joint session Of Congress, Woodrow
Wilson stated as number 10 Of his IA
points:
IAN independent Polish state should
be erected which should include the
territories inhabited by indisputably
Polish populations, which should be as
sured q free and secure access to the
sea, and whose political and economic
independence and territorial integrity
should be guaranteed by international
covenant"
1t is difficult to understand by what
right Hitler refers to the "rebellious"
Poles in that land once German"
These lands "once German" were
German only by conquest. For more
than century, in spite Of terrific handi-
caps, the people of Poland struggled to
maintain their identity, their language,
and their religion. In 1915, Frederick
William III promised the people of
Poland to respect their nationality and
to give their language an equal position
with German in public meetings. Down
to 1870, the promise was kept to some
extent. About 1880, Gov. Flottwell of
the Province of Posen commenced the
policy of Germanization.
After 1870, under the leadership of
Bismarck. an intensive campaign was
commenced against the Polish people
In 1872, the campaign was directed
against the Roman Catholic Church.
Bismarck, in his Reflections and Remi-
niscences" states, THE beginning of the
struggle was decided for me preponder-
antly by its Polish SIDE" and Bismarck
seeks to prove that the progress of the
Polish nationality was at the expense
of the German. He complains, there
were whole villages in Posen and West
Prussia containing thousands of Ger
mans who, through the influence Of the
Catholic section had been educated &C.
cording to Polish ideas, and were offici-
ally described as Poles, though In the
previous generation they were officially
Germans
Bismarck thereupon, by the law of
1872, deprived the Catholic clergy of the
right to inspect schools. In 1873, an
administrative order required that the
German language alone should be en-
ployed in schools. In 1883, it was decreed
that religious instruction should be given
in German, and later the order was en-
forced with greater vigor on the grounds
that "the awkwardness of a bilingual
system of education, and still more the
persistent efforts of the Poles to make
their privileged position a means Of
racial isolation
In 1899 a decree required German
teachers who had Polish wives to cease
the use Of Polish language in their
homes. Possession of Polish books deal
ing with Polish history and literature
rendered pupil liable to exclusion from
secondary schools. Children were pun
ished for not giving their answers in
German during lessons on the cate
chism. Others were imprisoned for
speaking REASONABLY about current poll
tics. 1t is said the fines on parents
totaled $4,000. A system of school
strikes resulted and in 1906 there were
10000 children on strike; in 1907 as
many as $4,000. The German govern
ment replied by wholesale dismissals,
imprisonments and fines. For incite-
ment to school strikes IS priests were
sentenced to periods of Imprisonment;
1,450 parents were fined for non-at-
tendance of their children at school.
In 1913 Prussian postmen were refusing
to transmit or deliver letters addressed
in Polish. Persons with Polish names
were compelled to change them to a
German form. A Pole called "Szuman''
could be fined if he failed to write him
self "Schumann." The names of over
1000 streets were changed to German.
Signs on stores had to be in German
Inscriptions on tombstones were In Ger
man; railway bookstalls were forbidden
to sell Polish papers. No Pole was
permitted to plead his cause before q
court in his mother tongue. Polish
theatrical performances we're forbidden
and stopped. Polish papers were SUBJ
ject to rigorous supervision and editors
frequently jailed.
But, in spite of all oppression, ex-
tending over one hundred years, the
spirit of the Poles proved to be I'M
conquerable. In 1914 there were said
to be as many as 1000 "Sokol" associa-
tons and Polish culture was fostered
West Poland, in spite of starvation and
frightfulness during the World War
never was made over into a German
province. The country was completely
devastated by the retreating Russian
Army and the oncoming Germans. A
million people were driven from their
homes; thousands persisted by the way
side. Warsaw was utterly stricken
Starvation was everywhere: the Ger
man government issued proclamation
| ordering all able-bodied Poles to go to
Germany to work. Families were sepa-
rated. Gen. Won Kries, the governor
announced that it was a country Ger
| many needed, better suited to German
expansion than distant possessions. Il
the Poland that was had to perish, sc
| much the better for Germany"
! Remove the men, let the young an6
weak die, graft German stock on the
women" stated Gen. Won Kries, "Polane
will reappear as German province.
In 1904 Friedrich LANCE, in "Reines
| DeutSchtum," said: