Sulęcin ( Polish pronunciation: [suˈlɛɲtɕin] ; German : Zielenzig ) is a town in western Poland with 10,117 inhabitants (2019), the capital of Sulecin County , since 1999 in Lubusz Voivodeship .
126-629: Sulęcin is located in the center of Lubusz Voivodeship (Lubuskie province), by the river Postomia , tributary of the Warta River , in the historical Lubusz Land . The surrounding landscape is formed by many hillocks on the plateau of Lubusz. The highest of them is the Bukowiec (227 m). The closest big city is Gorzów Wielkopolski (45 km). Over 50% of the area of the Sulecin Commune is occupied by forests. Excavations have shown that
252-482: A "dormant Polishness" and to determine which were redeemable as Polish citizens; few were actually expelled. The verification procedure varied in different territories and was changed several times. Initially, the applicants had to prove their past membership in a Polish minority organization of the German Reich, and in addition needed a warrant where three Polish locals testified their Polishness. In April 1945,
378-733: A Brandenburg invasion. After disbanding of the Knights Templar Order by Pope Clement V in 1312 Sulęcin was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller . They leased the town in 1318 to the Brandenburg Margrave Woldemar. After a war broke out over control of the region in 1319, the town came under Polish control again, as part of the Duchy of Głogów . Duke Henry IV the Faithful confirmed the rights of
504-624: A chaotic situation in the American and British zones of occupation. The Soviet Union transferred territories to the east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland in July 1945. Subsequently, most of the remaining Germans were expelled to the territories west of the line. President Harry S. Truman complained that there were now five occupation zones because the Soviets had turned over the area extending along
630-483: A demand intentionally excessive to serve as an initial negotiating bargain, actually aiming to restore the 17 voivodeships existing prior to 1975 as an ultimate compromise. As Poland was at the time governed under political cohabitation, the opposition party constituting the political background of the President decided to capitalize on the popular discontent which erupted against the government on an unanticipated scale;
756-533: A fierce battle in the Lubusz Voivodeship regarding the seat of the institution. There have also been numerous attempts to relocate some of the existing public institutions under various pretexts from one city to another, in some cases successful, as well as of merging a pair of equal institutions of a type existing in both cities, in order to make one of them a branch of the other, with obscure or no justification in most cases for such merger. Nevertheless,
882-456: A general local majority consensus prevails that the compromise, although unsatisfactory for any of the two cities, spared both of them the fate of a number of cities which lost in 1999 entirely the status of a voivodeship capital and all voivodeship-level institutions, along with the associated attractiveness and prestige of the city as a place to live, crucial for its growth, with the ensuing profoundly detrimental phenomena. The Lubusz Voivodeship
1008-784: A general loss of sense for right and wrong. Much abuse also came from large Soviet contingents stationed in Poland after the war . A high number of crimes committed by regular Soviet soldiers - on both Germans and Poles - had been reported (see Rape during the liberation of Poland ). A high death toll among the few Polish officials who dared to investigate these cases followed. Yet, Soviet troops played an ambiguous role, as there are also cases where Soviets freed local Germans imprisoned by Poles, or delayed expulsions to keep German workforce, for example on farms providing Soviet troops (for instance in Słupsk ). The damaged infrastructure and quarrels between
1134-476: A lesser extent, even the newly arrived Poles were facing was an enormous crime wave, most notably theft and rape, committed by gangs not only consisting of regular criminals but also Soviet soldiers, deserters or former forced laborers (Ost-Arbeiter), coming back from the west. In Upper Silesia , a party official, complained about some Polish security forces and militia raping and pillaging the German population and
1260-518: A letter to Roosevelt expressed his concerns about the idea of compensating Poland in the west. However, pressed by Churchill, he was forced to accept the Tehran decision, which was the direct cause of his resignation from his post. The next Polish Prime Minister, Tomasz Arciszewski claimed that Poland did not "want neither Breslau nor Stettin". Although the Polish government-in-exile was recognised by
1386-464: A proof of a continual Polish settlement. The Polish government aimed to retain as many "autochthons" as possible, as they were needed both for economic reasons and also for propaganda purposes, as their presence on former German soil was used to indicate an intrinsic "Polishness" character of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish state as " Recovered Territories ". "Verification" and "national rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal
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#17327877399841512-587: A small cellar were set up. The attitude of Polish civilians, many of whom had experienced brutalities during the preceding German occupation , was varied. There were incidents when Poles, even freed slave labourers, protected Germans, for example by disguising them as Poles. The attitude of the Soviet soldiers was ambivalent. Many committed numerous atrocities, most prominently rapes and murders, and did not always distinguish between Poles and Germans, often mistreating them alike. Other Soviets were taken aback by
1638-748: A treaty regulating the new Polish-Soviet border. A year later, before the Potsdam Conference, the western Allies followed Stalin, recognized the Soviet-sponsored government, which accepted the shift of the borders westwards, and withdrew their recognition for the Polish government-in-exile. Poles were classified as sub-humans (Untermenschen) by the Nazis, with their ultimate fate being slavery and extermination, while Germans occupied position of privileged "Uebermenschen" that were to rule over Poles and other nations; when Stanisław Mikołajczyk joined
1764-428: Is a land of forests and lakes; forests cover 48% of the area. The river Oder , flowing through the voivodeship, is one of the few large European rivers retaining broadleaved and riparian forests . Areas with the highest natural values are protected as national parks ( Drawa National Park and Warta Mouth National Park ), landscape parks and wildlife reserves . The 19th century Muskau Park , located on both sides of
1890-741: Is a memorial to the victims of the Stalag Luft III murders of Allied POWs, perpetrated by Nazi Germany in World War II. There are multiple other memorials to victims of Nazi Germany in the region. The garrison town of Żagań hosts Poland's oldest monument of Wojtek , the soldier bear of the Polish II Corps . One of the world's tallest Christ statues, the Christ the King Statue is located in Świebodzin , whereas Słubice hosts
2016-410: Is divided into 14 counties ( powiats ): 2 city counties and 12 land counties. These are further divided into 82 gminas . The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population). The gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 10.8 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 2.2% of Polish economic output. The GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power
2142-573: Is uncertain, though it is generally assumed that the majority emigrated. The German society of Wałbrzych has maintained a continuous existence since 1957. People from all over Poland moved in to replace the former German population in a process parallel to the expulsions. While the Germans were interned and expelled, up to 5 million settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the area. The settlers can be grouped according to their background: After 1 January 1948, Germans were primarily shipped to
2268-752: The Armia Krajowa , Soviet records indicated 506 of the Poles died in captivity. Tomasz Kamusella maintains that in early 1945, some 165,000 Germans were transported to the Soviet Union, where most perished. According to Gerhardt Reichling, 520,000 German civilians from the Oder-Neisse region were conscripted for forced labor by both the USSR and Poland, he maintains that 206,000 perished. Ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland, who collaborated with
2394-695: The Bohemian Crown in 1373, Poland made a peaceful attempt to regain the northern portion of the area. In 1402, the Bohemian rulers reached an agreement with Poland in Kraków . Poland was to buy and re-incorporate the northern outskirts of the present Lubusz Voivodeship, but eventually the Bohemian rulers sold the area to the Teutonic Order , who in turn sold it back to Brandenburg in 1454 to raise funds for war against Poland . The southern part of
2520-542: The Gross-Rosen concentration camp and a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , in which mostly Jewish and Polish, but also French, Russian, Czech, Italian, Greek, Yugoslav, Dutch, Romanian, Hungarian, Lithuanian and German prisoners were held. Obrzyce was the place of Aktion T4 murders of mentally ill and disabled people. The region was the site of fierce fighting during the war in 1945. Under
2646-779: The Knights Templar and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in the past, contains the Castle of the Order of St. John , and several other medieval structures. Major museums dedicated to the history of the region are located in Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra. There are museums dedicated to Allied prisoners of war at the former German POW camps in Dobiegniew and Żagań. In Żagań, there
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#17327877399842772-483: The Middle Ages , including the current regional capitals of Zielona Góra and Gorzów Wielkopolski . The youngest towns are Łęknica , Czerwieńsk , Nowa Sól , Szlichtyngowa and Zbąszynek , all either first mentioned or established in the later periods. Following the fragmentation of Poland into smaller provincial duchies, various portions of the present Lubusz Voivodeship were part of various duchies, initially
2898-552: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland , and the Saint Michael's Honey Fair held annually in Gorzów Wielkopolski. The southern part of the voivodeship with Zielona Góra is one of the leading winemaking regions of Poland, and other traditional beverages from the voivodeship are beer , mead , nalewki and vodka . Various types of traditional Polish kiełbasa , also designated as traditional foods by
3024-495: The Oflag II-C , Stalag III-C , Stalag VIII-C and Stalag Luft III major German prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, French , British, Belgian, Canadian, Serbian, Italian , American, Australian, New Zealander, Soviet, Norwegian, Czech, Slovak, South African, Dutch, Greek, Yugoslav, Senegalese , Algerian and Moroccan POWs were operated in the territory. The latter was the site of the "Great Escape" in 1944. There are museums at
3150-692: The Piast dynasty , the town with 10 surrounding villages was handed over by Polish Duke Henry I the Bearded to Mroczko from Pogorzela, who in 1244 gave it to the Knights Templar . In 1249 Zielenzig became a part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg . In 1269 Otto, the Margrave of Brandenburg ordered to build a castle in the town. It was destroyed by the Polish army of Duke Bolesław the Pious in retaliation for
3276-605: The Polish Government were not present at any of those conferences and felt betrayed by their western Allies who decided about future Polish borders behind their backs. Following the Tehran Conference (November–December 1943) Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill made it clear that the Soviets would keep the Polish territories east of the Curzon Line and offered Poland territorial compensation in
3402-696: The Polish nobility and clergy of Greater Poland welcomed in Zielenzig the first elected King of Poland , Henry of Valois . In 1591, the first school was established in the town. In 1689, Polish princess Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska stayed in Sulęcin. From the 18th century the town was part of the Kingdom of Prussia , under the Germanized name Zielenzig . In 1733 Frederick William I , King of Prussia visited
3528-551: The Polish–German border , has entered the UNESCO World Heritage List . The voivodeship abounds in lakes, especially in its central and northern parts; around those lakes numerous bathing resorts, holiday centres and farms offering tourist services have been established. The voivodeship, especially its northern part, is a notable for production of honey, with several varieties listed as traditional foods by
3654-824: The Soviet occupation zone (after 7 October 1949, the German Democratic Republic (GDR)), based on a Polish-Soviet agreement. Most Germans had been expelled by the end of 1947. In entire 1948, a relatively small number of 42,700 were expelled, and another 34,100 in 1949. In 1950, 59,433 Germans were expelled following a bi-lateral agreement between the People's Republic of Poland and the GDR, 26,196 of whom however headed for West Germany . Between October 1948 and December 1950 all 35,000 German prisoners of war detained in Poland were shipped to Germany. On 10 March 1951,
3780-778: The Misplaced Pages Monument . Motorcycle speedway enjoys a large following in the province with the Stal Gorzów Wielkopolski and Falubaz Zielona Góra clubs being among the most accomplished in the sport in the country. The teams contest the Lubusz Voivodeship Derby, one of the fiercest speedway rivalries. 52°11′43″N 15°20′51″E / 52.19528°N 15.34750°E / 52.19528; 15.34750 Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland
3906-475: The "Government of National Unity" as a deputy prime minister in 1945, he justified the expulsions of Germans by national terms following communist Władysław Gomułka , but also as a revolutionary act, freeing the Poles of exploitation by a German middle and upper class. In general the Polish historiography views the expulsion of Germans as justified and correct, even when describing it as a "lesser evil". The majority of German citizens and ethnic Germans who left
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4032-579: The 17 voivodeships existing prior to the 1975 reform . As a consequence, the original draft made no provision for a separate Lubusz voivodeship – Gorzów was to become along with Kostrzyn , Strzelce Krajeńskie and Drezdenko a part of West Pomeranian Voivodeship , Zielona Góra was to be included along with Krosno, Nowa Sól, Żagań, Gubin and Żary in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship , while a narrow horizontal strip encompassing Międzyrzecz , Sulęcin , Świebodzin , Słubice and Sulechów
4158-538: The 18th century, Wschowa was an important royal city of Poland , as it often hosted Polish kings and several sessions of the Polish Senate, hence being dubbed the "unofficial capital of Poland". King Augustus III of Poland also often stopped in Brody . In 1701, the Kingdom of Prussia was established, which included Brandenburg-held Lubusz Land, and various areas were eventually gradually annexed by Prussia in
4284-453: The Allied authorities in the occupation zones of Germany and the Polish administration caused long delays in the transport of expellees, who were first ordered to gather at one of the various PUR transportation centers or internment camps and then often forced to wait in ill-equipped barracks, exposed both to criminals, aggressive guards and the cold and not supplied sufficiently with food due to
4410-738: The Allies at that time, the Soviet Union broke off all diplomatic relations with it in April 1943 after Polish government demanded the investigation of the Katyn massacre . On April 20, 1944, in Moscow, the Soviet sponsored Polish Communist cell founded the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) on Stalin's initiative. Just one week later the representatives of the PKWN and the Soviet Union signed
4536-600: The German minority engaged in mass murder, rapes and plunder of Polish citizens, in addition to making lists of people that were to be sent to German concentration camps. Poles wanted to avoid such events in the future and as a result, Polish exile authorities proposed a population transfer of Germans as early as 1941. In 1941, Władysław Sikorski of the Polish government-in-exile insisted on driving "the German horde (...) back far [westward]", while in 1942 memoranda he expressed concern about Poland acquiring Lower Silesia , populated with "fanatically anti-Polish Germans". Yet as
4662-600: The German occupiers, were considered "traitors of the nation" and sentenced to forced labor. In territories that belonged to Poland before the war, Germans were treated even more harshly than in the former German territories. Deprived of any citizen rights, many were used as forced labor prior to their expulsion, sometimes for years, in labor battalions or in labour camps. The major camps were at Glatz , Mielęcin , Gronów , Sikawa , Central Labour Camp Jaworzno , Central Labour Camp Potulice , Łambinowice (run by Czesław Gęborski ), Zgoda labour camp and others. When Gęborski
4788-515: The German population. In July 1945, at the Potsdam Conference , the Allies placed most former eastern territories of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line under Polish administration. Article XIII concerning the transfer of Germans was adopted at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. It was an emergency measure, drafted and adopted in great haste, a response to the wild expulsions of Germans from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which had created
4914-518: The Germans have to be driven out. The main objective has to be the cleansing of the terrain of Germans, the building of a nation state". To ensure the Oder–Neisse line would be accepted as the new Polish border at a future Allied Conference (Potsdam Conference), up to 300,000 Germans living close to the rivers' eastern bank were expelled subsequently. On May 26, 1945, the Central Committee ordered all Germans to be expelled within one year and
5040-555: The Germans in Poland to go west, to Germany proper, where they belong". On February 6, 1945, Soviet NKVD ordered mobilisation of all German men (17 to 50 years old) in the Soviet-controlled territories. Many of them were then transported to the Soviet Union for forced labour . In the former German territories the Soviet authorities did not always distinguish between the Poles and Germans and often treated them alike. German civilians were also held as "reparation labor" by
5166-583: The Knights Hospitaller to the town and the castle, by virtue of a document issued in 1322 in nearby Lubniewice . By 1326 the town fell to Brandenburg again. It stayed under the supremacy of the Knights Hospitaller until 1810. Between 1373 and 1415 it was part of the Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown . In 1419 Sulęcin suffered a severe damage, as the Hussite Wars reached the city. In 1574
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5292-553: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland, are produced in the Nowa Sól , Wschowa , Zielona Góra , Żagań and Żary counties in the southern part of the Lubusz Voivodeship, whereas Siedlisko, Nowa Sól County produces a variety of traditional cheeses and quarks . The voivodeship contains 3 cities and 40 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (as of 2021): Towns: Lubusz Voivodeship
5418-429: The Nazis to replace Poles removed or killed during the occupation. Germany deported millions of Poles either to other territories, to concentration camps or as slave workers. Many others were deported by the Soviet Union during the years 1939-1941, when Germany and Soviet Union cooperated against Poles . German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland participated in wartime German activities, starting with
5544-453: The Oder and Neisse rivers eastward before Polish authorities closed the river crossings, another 800,000 entered Silesia from Czechoslovakia, bringing up Silesia's population to 50% of the pre-war level. This led to the odd situation of treks of Germans moving about in all directions, to the east as well as to the west, each warning the others of what would await them at their destination After
5670-477: The Oder and western Neisse to Poland and was concerned about Germany's economic control and war reparations. Churchill spoke against giving Poland control over an area in which some eight million Germans lived. Stalin insisted that the Germans had all fled and that the Poles were needed to fill the vacuum. On July 24, the Polish communist delegation arrived in Berlin, insisting on the Oder and western Neisse rivers as
5796-428: The Polish "Bureau for Repatriation" (PUR) was disbanded; all further resettlement from Poland to Germany was carried out in a non-forcible and peaceful manner by the Polish state travel agency Orbis. According to the Polish census of 1946, there were still 2,036,400 Germans in the " Recovered Territories ", 251,900 in the pre-war Polish territories (primarily eastern Upper Silesia , Pomerelia and Greater Poland ) and
5922-405: The Polish administration had set up a State Repatriation Office ( Państwowy Urząd Repatriacyjny, PUR ), the bureau and its administrative subunits proved ineffective due to quarrels between Communists and opposition and a lack of equipment for the giant task of expelling Germans and resettling Poles in an area devastated by war. Furthermore, rivalry occurred between the Soviet occupation forces and
6048-437: The Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their place of residence was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. Many areas located near
6174-600: The Potsdam Conference, Poland was officially in charge of the territories east of the Oder–Neisse line. Despite the fact that article 12 of the Potsdam agreement from August 2, 1945, stated that "population transfer" should be performed in ordered and humane manner, and should not commence until after the creation of an expulsion plan approved by the Allied Control Council, the expulsions continued without rules and were associated with many criminal acts. While
6300-549: The Soviet Zone from Poland in 1947. An unknown number remained; a small German minority continues to reside in Upper Silesia and Masuria. The regions were typically evacuated of its population village by village. On short notice, Germans were ordered to assemble in the local market square to march on to a relocation camp (obozy tranzytowe), allowed to take with them as much as they could carry. Deportation of Germans
6426-539: The Soviets, reparations were more important than boundaries, and Stalin might have given up on the Poles if they had not so vociferously protested when, in spite of his 'illness', he consulted with them during the evening of July 29. With German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland, there was an expressed fear of disloyalty of Germans in Eastern Upper Silesia and Pomerelia , based on wartime German activities. As Germany invaded Poland,
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#17327877399846552-815: The USSR. Data from the Russian archives published in 2001, based on an actual enumeration, put the number of German civilians deported from Poland to the USSR in early 1945 for reparation labor at 155,262 where 37% (57,586) died. However, the West German Red Cross estimated in 1964 that 233,000 German civilians were deported to the USSR from Poland as forced laborers where 45% (105,000) were dead or missing. The West German Red Cross also estimated 110,000 German civilians were held as forced labor in Kaliningrad Oblast where 50,000 were dead or missing. The Soviets also deported from Poland 7,448 Poles of
6678-437: The Upper Silesian voivode declared the fulfillment of only one of these requirements to be sufficient. In Masuria, a Polish last name or a Polish-speaking ancestor was sufficient. On the other hand, in areas like Lower Silesia and the province of Pomerania , verification was handled much more strictly. Of the 1,104,134 "verified autochthons" in the census of 1950, close to 900,000 were natives of Upper Silesia and Masuria. To
6804-426: The West. The final decision to move Poland's boundary westward, preconditioning the expulsion of Germans, was made by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, when the Curzon line was irrevocably fixed as the future Polish-Soviet border. The precise location of the Polish western border was left open and, though basically the Allies had agreed on population transfers,
6930-419: The area around Sulęcin was inhabited already in the 2nd century BC. The area formed part of Poland after the establishment of the state in the 10th century. The town developed from a Slavic settlement. The town was mentioned for the first time in documents in 1241 when bishop Henry granted nobleman Mrotsek the right to build a new settlement for Germans. Until the 12th century under dominion of the Silesian line of
7056-458: The area of post-war Poland fled or were evacuated before the arrival of Polish authorities. After the Red Army had advanced into the eastern parts of post-war Poland in the Lublin–Brest Offensive , launched on 18 July 1944, Soviet spearheads first reached eastern German territory on 4 August 1944 at northeastern East Prussia and Memelland , causing a first wave of refugees . With the Soviet Vistula–Oder Offensive , launched on 12 January 1945, and
7182-472: The area settled with some 3.5 million ethnic Poles; 2.5 million of them were already re-settled by summer. Germans were defined as either Reichsdeutsche or Volksdeutsche, resembling the 1st or 2nd category in the Nazis' Volksliste . People who had signed a lower category were allowed to apply for "verification", which was to determine whether they would be granted Polish citizenship as "autochthons". Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 Germans managed to cross
7308-408: The areas east of the Oder–Neisse line before Soviet and the attached Polish Army took control of the region. Refugee treks and ships which came into reach of the advancing Soviets suffered high casualties when targeted by low-flying aircraft, torpedoes, or were rolled over by tanks. The most infamous incidents during the flight and expulsion from the territory of later Poland include the sinking of
7434-510: The breakthrough reconciliation accord known as the Paradyż Agreement, brokered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów and formalized in a document signed during a highly publicized local summit in the Gościkowo-Paradyż Abbey on 13 March 1998. This compromise agreement, was negotiated and concluded between the delegations of both rival cities, composed of the respectively aligned most powerful local and national scene politicians and business people, with its most important provision being
7560-423: The brutal treatment of the Germans and engaged in their protection. According to the West German Schieder commission of 1953, the civilian death toll was 2 million. However, in 1974 the German Federal Archives estimated a death toll of about 400,000 (including the victims of those deported from Kaliningrad ). German settlement in the former eastern territories of Germany and pre-war Poland dates back to
7686-479: The creation of a Greater Germany , which was to be built by means of removing a variety of non-Germans from Poland and other areas in Central and Eastern Europe, mainly Slavs and Jews believed by Nazis to be subhuman . These non-Germans were targeted for slave labor and eventual extermination . While Generalplan Ost's settlement ambitions did not come into full effect due to the war's turn, millions of Germans mostly from Central and Eastern Europe were settled by
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#17327877399847812-471: The current voivodeship remained part of the duchies of Żagań and Głogów, ruled by the houses of Piast and Jagiellon , with the Żagań duchy eventually passing to houses of foreign background, including Czech, Saxon and French, whereas other areas were gradually incorporated directly into the Kingdom of Bohemia . In 1635, most of the south-western part of the present Lubusz Voivodeship passed from Bohemia to Saxony , and from 1697 formed part of Poland-Saxony . In
7938-441: The duchies of Greater Poland and Silesia , and later also Legnica , Głogów , Lubusz and Żagań , ruled by various lines of the Piast dynasty . Overtime, portions of the present Lubusz Voivodeship were lost by Poland. In 1250 the Lubusz Land was acquired by the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg . In 1319–1326 it was contested by various Polish and German rulers, before falling back to Brandenburg. After Brandenburg passed to
8064-432: The east (today mainly parts of Ukraine , Belarus and Lithuania ) settled in large numbers everywhere in the Recovered Territories (but many of them also settled in central Poland). During the war the population of the annexed areas of Poland was classified by the Nazis in different categories according to their "Germanness" in the Deutsche Volksliste . While most of the Volksdeutsche population of pre-war Poland fled or
8190-594: The eastern territories was composed of both spontaneous flight and organized evacuation, starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through the early spring of 1945. Conditions turned chaotic in the winter, when miles-long queues of refugees pushed their carts through the snow trying to stay ahead of the Red Army. From the Baltic coast , thousands were evacuated by ship in Operation Hannibal . Since February 11, refugees were shipped not only to German ports, but also to German occupied Denmark , based on an order issued by Hitler on 4 February. Of 1,180 ships participating in
8316-729: The establishment of nationality. From the spring of 1946 the expulsions gradually became better organised, affecting the remaining German population. By 1950, 3,155,000 German civilians had been expelled and 1,043,550 were naturalised as Polish citizens. Germans considered "indispensable" for the Polish economy were retained; virtually all had left by 1960. Some 500,000 Germans in Poland, East Prussia, and Silesia were employed as forced labor in communist-administered camps prior to being expelled from Poland. Besides large camps, some of which were re-used German concentration camps , numerous other forced labour, punitive and internment camps, urban ghettos, and detention centres sometimes consisting only of
8442-413: The evacuation plans was delayed until Soviet and Allied forces had defeated the German forces and advanced into the areas to be evacuated. The responsibility for leaving millions of Germans in these vulnerable areas until combat conditions overwhelmed them can be attributed directly to the draconian measures taken by the German authorities against anyone even suspected of 'defeatist' attitudes [as evacuation
8568-453: The evacuation, 135 were lost due to bombs, mines, and torpedoes, an estimated 20,000 died. Between 23 January 1945 and the end of the war, 2,204,477 people, 1,335,585 of them civilians, were transported via the Baltic Sea, up to 250,000 of them to occupied Denmark. Most of the evacuation efforts commenced in January 1945, when Soviet forces were already at the eastern border of Germany. About six million Germans had fled or were evacuated from
8694-402: The expulsion of Germans: "We must expel all the Germans because countries are built on national lines and not on multi-national ones" was demanded by participants of a Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party on May 20–21, 1945. On the same Plenum, the head of the Central Committee, Władysław Gomułka, ordered: "There has to be a border patrol at the border [Oder-Neisse line] and
8820-438: The extent remained questioned. Concerning the post-war western frontier of Poland, the agreement simply read: " If a specific problem such as the frontiers of liberated Poland and the complexion of its government allowed no easy solution, hopes were held out for the future discussion of all outstanding problems in an amicable manner. " Upon gaining control of these lands, the Soviet and Polish-Communist authorities started to expel
8946-405: The families of the retained or the parts thereof remaining with them. About 250,000 had been issued East German passports in the 1950s, ending their former statelessness. Many were concentrated in the areas of Wrocław (former Breslau) Wałbrzych (former Waldenburg), and Legnica (former Liegnitz), all in Lower Silesia, and in Koszalin (former Köslin) in Pomerania. How many actually left
9072-508: The fighting in their homelands ended. Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 crossed back over the Oder and Neisse rivers eastward, before Soviet and Polish communist authorities closed the river crossings; another 800,000 entered Silesia from Czechoslovakia. The Polish courier Jan Karski warned US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the possibility of Polish reprisals, describing them as "unavoidable" and "an encouragement for all
9198-536: The following centuries, starting with the south-eastern part of the current voivodeship in 1742, followed by eastern portions (western outskirts of Greater Poland) in 1793 (briefly regained by Poles in 1807–1815 as part of the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw ), and the south-western part in 1815. Within Prussia and Germany the territory was divided between the provinces of Neumark / Brandenburg , South Prussia / Posen , and Silesia / Lower Silesia . During World War II ,
9324-644: The former eastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. West German government figures of those evacuated, migrated, or expelled by 1950 totaled 8,030,000 (6,981,000 from the former eastern territories of Germany; 290,800 from Danzig , 688,000 from pre-war Poland and 170,000 Baltic Germans resettled in Poland during the war). Research by the West German government put the figure of Germans emigrating from Poland from 1951 to 1982 at 894,000; they are also considered expellees under German Federal Expellee Law . The German population east of Oder-Neisse
9450-430: The frontier, and they vehemently argued their case before the foreign ministers, Churchill, and Truman, in turn. The next day Churchill warned Stalin: "The Poles are driving the Germans out of the Russian zone. That should not be done without considering its effect on the food supply and reparations. We are getting into a position where the Poles have food and coal, and we have the mass of (the) population thrown at us." To
9576-565: The guards, who insisted the internees should speak Polish, even if they were Germans born in German-speaking Silesia or Pomerania." Among the interned were also German POWs . Up to 10% of the 700,000 to 800,000 POWs of the respective battlegrounds were handed over to the Poles by the Soviet military for the use of their work force. POW labor was employed on the reconstruction of Warsaw and revival of industrial, agricultural and other productive enterprises Their number in 1946
9702-401: The internment "resulted in numerous deaths, which cannot be accurately determined because of lack of statistics or falsification . Periodically, they could be 10% of inmates. Those interned are estimated at 200-250,000 Germans and the local population, and deaths might range from 15,000 to 60,000 persons." Norman Naimark cited Zygmunt Woźniczka as maintaining "that the death toll in all camps
9828-416: The invasion of Poland. Created on order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler , a Nazi ethnic German organisation called Selbstschutz carried out mass murder during Intelligenzaktion alongside operational groups of German military and police. In addition, the German minority engaged in such activities as identifying Poles for execution and illegally detaining them. To Poles, moving Germans out of Poland
9954-464: The local German Nazi authorities headed by gauleiter Karl Hanke . The Polish historians Witold Sienkiewicz and Grzegorz Hryciuk maintain that civilian deaths in the flight and evacuation were "between 600,000 and 1.2 million. The main causes of death were cold, stress, and bombing". The Nazi German Ministry for Inner Affairs passed a decree on 14 March 1945 allowing abortion to women raped by Soviet soldiers. Many refugees tried to return home when
10080-432: The local administration exercised through the 49 existing voivodeships established in 1975 was inefficient, anachronistic, impractical, detrimental to maintaining regional identity, and untenable. However, the reform draft accepted by the government surprised the public and caused widespread outcry, as its authors foresaw creation of only 12 large voivodships, thus going much further than the widely expected reconstitution of
10206-524: The local elites in Zielona Góra was in turn to become a single capital centre, reverting to the situation before 1975, while any prospect of sharing the governing institutions was for a long time treated with their hostility. In spite of that, the looming threat of a "everybody lose" scenario set to materialize in case of a possible implementation of the original reform draft, paved the way for neutralizing this argument through forcing both rival sides into
10332-622: The medieval Ostsiedlung . Nazi Germany used the presence and the alleged persecution of Volksdeutsche as propaganda tools in preparation for the invasion of Poland in 1939. With the invasion, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . This was followed by population exchanges, and included Baltic Germans who were settled to occupied Poland. The Nazis' Generalplan Ost strategy for Central and Eastern Europe envisioned
10458-524: The military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff by a Soviet submarine with a death toll of some 9,000 people; the USAF bombing of refugee-crowded Swinemünde on 12 March 1945 killing an estimated 23,000 to 25,000; the desperate conditions under which refugees crossed the frozen Vistula Lagoon , where thousands broke in, froze to death, or were killed by Soviet aircraft; and the poorly organized evacuation and ultimate sacrifice of refugee-crowded Breslau by
10584-418: The most obvious mean readily available for the opposition was a presidential veto, which in fact ensued. In order to salvage the reform from being killed altogether, the government was, in the face of lacking the supermajority required to overturn the veto at the time, forced to reconsider the original shape of the reform and to reconcile it with the reservations of the President and his political background, with
10710-484: The newly installed Polish administration, a phenomenon dubbed dwuwladza (double administration). The Soviets kept trains and German workmen regardless of the Polish ambitions and plans. There was a simultaneous unorganized resettling of displaced and homeless Poles. Polish settlers, who themselves had been expelled from areas east of the Curzon Line, arrived with about nothing, putting an even higher pressure on
10836-512: The north, Greater Poland Voivodeship to the east, Lower Silesian Voivodeship to the south, and Germany ( Brandenburg and Saxony ) to the west. The first leaders of the Polans, Mieszko I and especially Bolesław I the Brave added a number of surrounding territories to the newly established core Polish state, and Lubusz Land came under Polish rule. Part of the historic province was located on
10962-495: The official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the so-called Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the lands initially faced a severe population shortage. By early 1946, 932,000 people had been "verified" as having Polish nationality. In the February 1946 census, 2,288,000 persons were listed as Germans and 417,400 became subject to verification aiming at
11088-478: The other one as the voivodeship capital, and hoping to use the engineered scare as the main argument in the ongoing discussions against creating the Lubusz voivodeship, The animosity, existing indeed between the cities, has been historically rooted in a widespread perception among Gorzów inhabitants that the 1950 decision to designate Zielona Góra as the voivodeship capital instead of their larger and more populous city,
11214-572: The overall shortages. The "organized transfer" as agreed at the Potsdam Conference began in early 1946. Conditions for expellees improved, yet due to the lack of heating facilities, the cold winters of both 1945/46 and 1946/47 continued to claim many lives. On September 13, 1946 President Bierut signed a decree on "the exclusion of persons of German nationality from the Polish National Community" The major evictions were completed in 1946, although another 500,000 Germans arrived in
11340-780: The parallel East Prussian Offensive launched on 13 January 1945, Soviet gains of pre-war German and annexed Polish territory became permanent. With the subsequent East Pomeranian , Lower Silesian and Upper Silesian Offensives in February and March, the Red Army seized control of virtually all territories east of the Oder river. Wehrmacht counter-offensives like Operation Solstice and Operation Gemse were repelled, and only shrinking pockets like Breslau , Danzig , Heiligenbeil , Hela , Kolberg , Königsberg , and Pillau remained German controlled. Soviet soldiers committed reprisal rapes and other crimes In most cases, implementation of
11466-626: The pre-war German border were resettled by people from neighbouring borderland areas of pre-war Poland. For example, Kashubians from the pre-war Polish Corridor settled in nearby areas of German Pomerania adjacent to Polish Pomerania . People from the Poznań region of pre-war Poland settled in East Brandenburg . People from East Upper Silesia moved into the rest of Silesia. And people from Masovia and from Sudovia moved into adjacent Masuria. Poles expelled from former Polish territories in
11592-470: The remaining Germans to leave. For the Germans, the Potsdam Agreement eased conditions only in one way - because now the Poles were more confident in keeping the former eastern territories of Germany, the expulsions were performed with less haste, which meant the Germans were duly informed about their expulsions earlier and were allowed to carry some luggage. Another problem the Germans and, to
11718-492: The result of a compromise adjustment increasing the number of voivodeships to 16, with Lubusz Voivodeship included among the four additional ones created according to the agreement. The path leading to such and outcome was far from smooth. The government made an effort to highlight and exploit the decades-long animosity between the approximately same-size two principal cities, spreading scare against its inevitable re-ignition and explosion in any of these two cities after designating
11844-479: The seat of the centrally-appointed voivode , or governor, and Zielona Góra is the seat of the elected regional assembly ( sejmik ) and the executive elected by that assembly, headed by a marshal ( marszałek ). In addition, the voivodeship includes a third city ( Nowa Sól ) and a number of towns. The region is mainly flat, with many lakes and woodlands. In the south, around Zielona Góra, grapes are cultivated. Lubusz Voivodeship borders West Pomeranian Voivodeship to
11970-669: The site of the camps in Dobiegniew and Żagań , and there is a memorial to the victims of the Stalag Luft III murders in Żagań. Particularly infamous camps in the region were the Oderblick labor education camp in Świecko and the Sonnenburg concentration camp in Słońsk , in which Polish, Belgian, French, Bulgarian, Dutch, Yugoslav, Russian, Italian, Ukrainian, Luxembourgish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech, Slovak and other prisoners were held, and many died. There were also eleven subcamps of
12096-547: The surrender in May 1945. In 1945, the eastern territories of Germany as well as Polish areas annexed by Germany were occupied by the Soviet Red Army and communist Polish military forces . German civilians were also sent as "reparation labor" to the USSR. The Soviet Union transferred former German territories in the east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland in July 1945. In mid-1945, 4.5 to 4.6 million Germans remained on
12222-513: The terms laid down by Joseph Stalin in the Potsdam Agreement , the borders of Poland and Germany were redrawn and the area of the Lubusz Voivodeship fell within the new borders of Poland. In 1998, the government of Jerzy Buzek decided to introduce an administrative reform , with its principles including the restoration of counties and a steep reduction in the number of voivodeships. A general consensus existed among scholars that
12348-563: The territories that were given under Polish control pending a final peace conference with Germany, which eventually never took place. Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Soviet-backed communist military authorities in Poland even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"), to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland as envisioned by the Polish communists. Between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected. Contrary to
12474-464: The town. During the Napoleonic Wars , from 1806 to 1812 the town remained under French control. As a result of the new Prussian district division of 1818 a new district Landkreis Sternberg was established. Zielenzig was its capital of until 1852. In 1873 Sternberg was divided into Oststernberg district with Zielenzig as a capital and Weststernberg district. At that time the city's industry
12600-548: The town. The number of residents in 1939 according to the last German census was 5867. On 2 May 1945 Sulęcin was taken by the Red Army . Although there was no resistance, the houses in the city center were plundered by the soldiers and set on fire. As a result, around 50% of Sulęcin was completely destroyed. After Nazi Germany 's defeat in World War II , the town once again became part of Poland, and its German population
12726-525: The unjust favoring of their own seat, the city of Zielona Góra; a sentiment reinforced further by the surprise relocation of the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gorzów to Zielona Góra in 1992, renamed as a result the Roman Catholic Diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów , and finally and perhaps most importantly, by the historical, perpetual and almost sacred rivalry between the motorcycle speedway clubs located in both cities. The objective of
12852-517: The unusual arrangement to divide and distribute the governing institutions of the voivodeship more or less equally between the two cities. On the basis of this broadly supported agreement, an effective public pressure endorsed jointly by the two centers was successfully exerted on the central government which ultimately acquiesced to the demand of establishing Lubusz Voivodeship. Nevertheless, creating any new type of public institution at voivodeship level in Poland continues to ignite almost automatically
12978-1008: The voivodeship Furthermore, there are several preserved old towns with historic town halls and market squares (i.e. Zielona Góra , Wschowa , Świebodzin and Bytom Odrzański ). Of the historic town halls, the one in Kargowa was the site of an armed defense against the annexation by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland in 1793. Several towns contain entirely or partly preserved medieval town walls with towers and gates, i.e. Kożuchów , Strzelce Krajeńskie , Gorzów Wielkopolski , Wschowa. There are multiple castles, including Piast Royal and Ducal castles in Krosno Odrzańskie , Kożuchów , Międzyrzecz and Żagań . There are also numerous palaces, including at Brody , Dąbrówka Wielkopolska , Glisno , Jędrzychowice , Kalsk , Mierzęcin , Trzebiechów , Żary . The village of Łagów , which hosted
13104-541: The war went on, Lower Silesia also became a Polish war aim, as well as occupation of the Baltic coast west of Szczecin as far as Rostock and occupation of the Kiel Canal . Expulsions of Germans from East Prussia and pre-war Poland had become a war aim as early as in February 1940, expressed by Polish Foreign Minister August Zaleski . After Sikorski's death, the next Polish Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk in
13230-480: The war. Numbers of how many were offered to stay in Poland as Poles and eventually did are not available, but it is assumed that the vast majority had rather opted and left for Germany by 1960. Those of mixed descent from within or without the borders of pre-war Poland were also allowed to stay on the premise of Polonization, yet likewise no comprehensive data exist. Some Germans were exempted from expulsion and retained because of their professional skills, if no Pole
13356-599: The war. A similar fate occurred to the Czech speaking residents of the Czech Corner in Kladsko Land who were transferred to Czechoslovakia . The word "autochthon", introduced by the Polish government in 1945 for propaganda purposes, is today sometimes considered an offensive remark and direct naming as Kashubians, Silesians, Slovincians, and Masurians is preferred to avoid offending the people described. During
13482-673: The west of Cassubia in the area of Slovincian settlement, some residents were expelled along with the German population, but some remained. In the 1950s, mainly in the village of Kluki (formerly Klucken), a few elderly people still remembered fragments of Slovincian. Some non-German residents of the Recovered Territories and the Kaliningrad Oblast who were not of Slavic descent, such as the Lietuvininkai and Kursenieki were also expelled to Germany after
13608-480: The western bank of the Oder River , where the main settlement Lubusz, later known as the German town of Lebus , was located. The entire territory of the present Lubusz Voivodeship was part of Poland by 1002. The oldest towns in the region, dating back over 1,000 years, include Trzciel , Skwierzyna , Iłowa , Szprotawa , Jasień , Krosno Odrzańskie , Międzyrzecz and Żary , with most other towns also founded in
13734-495: Was expelled in accordance to the Potsdam Agreement . It was initially renamed as "Cielęcin" in 1945 and finally Sulęcin in 1946, it was repopulated mostly by Poles expelled from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and settlers from nearby Greater Poland . From 1945 to 1975 it was the capital of its county , at first in Poznan Voivodeship (1946–1950), later Zielona Gora Voivodeship (1950–1975). It
13860-615: Was 17,600 euros or 58% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 67% of the EU average. The sole airport in the voivodeship is the Zielona Góra Airport . The A2 , A18 and S3 highways pass through the province. Protected areas in Lubusz Voivodeship include two national parks and eight landscape parks . These are listed below. There are four Historic Monuments of Poland and one World Heritage Site in
13986-677: Was 40,000 according to the Polish administration, of whom 30,000 were used as miners in the Upper Silesian coal industries. 7,500 Germans accused of crimes against Poles were handed over to Poland by the Western Allies in 1946 and 1947. A number of German war criminals were imprisoned in Polish jails, at least 8,000 remained in jail in 1949, many of them also being POWs. (see also Supreme National Tribunal ) Some Nazi criminals were executed ( Category:Nazis executed in Poland ), some died in prisons ( Erich Koch in 1986), Johann Kremer
14112-420: Was at hand to replace them. These Germans were treated as second class citizens, especially regarding salary and food supply. So-called "abandoned wives", whose husbands found themselves in post-war Germany and were not able to return, were compelled to "seek divorce" and were not allowed to leave for Germany before 1950–52. The other ones retained were not allowed to leave before 1956; these measures also included
14238-423: Was based on textile production and mills. In the middle of the 19th century the number of inhabitants reached 4500. After the discovery of lignite in the vicinity of the city a briquette factory was set up in Zielenzig. This led to the development of infrastructure and resulted in an increase of the population to 5769 inhabitants in 1885. After World War I a number of companies involved in timber processing set up in
14364-441: Was between twenty and fifty percent of the inmates." Zayas states that "in many internment camps no relief from outside was permitted. In some camps relatives would bring packages and deliver them to the Polish guards, who regularly plundered the contents and delivered only the remains, if any. Frequently, these relatives were so ill-treated that they never returned. Internees who came to claim their packages were also mistreated by
14490-847: Was by trains to the west that in reverse direction brought Polish displaced persons such as former forced laborers. Trains were sealed to prevent flight of the deported and often took days or even weeks, during which many of the old and young people died. The condition of the deported as they arrived in the British occupation zone impelled the British to raise a formal protest on April 11, 1946. Close to three million residents of Upper Silesia ( Silesians ), Masuria ( Masurs ) and Pomerania ( Slovincians , Kashubians ) were considered of Slavic descent but many of them did not identify with Polish nationality, were either bilingual or spoke German only. The Polish government declared these so-called "Autochthons" to be Germanized Poles, who would be re-Polonized and serve as
14616-452: Was considered] and the fanaticism of many Nazi functionaries in their execution of Hitler's 'no retreat' orders. Hitler and his staff refused to accept Soviet military superiority. Hitler called the Red Army "gleaned punks" and "booty divisions", who were not able to win decisive battles. Himmler called the preparation of the early 1945 Soviet offensive "the biggest bluff since Dshingis Khan". The first mass movement of German civilians in
14742-492: Was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Gorzów Voivodeship and Zielona Góra Voivodeship , pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province's name recalls the historic Lubusz Land ( Lebus or Lubus ), although parts of the voivodeship belong to the historic regions of Lower Silesia , Greater Poland and Lusatia . The functions of regional capital are shared between two cities: Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra . Gorzów serves as
14868-539: Was demoted as a borough (gmina) centre in Międzyrzecz county of Gorzow Wielkopolski Voivodeship between 1975 and 1999. It has been a county center in Lubusz Voivodeship since 1999. See twin towns of Gmina Sulęcin . Lubusz Voivodeship Lubusz Voivodeship ( Polish : województwo lubuskie [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ luˈbuskʲɛ] ) is a voivodeship ( province ) in western Poland . It
14994-472: Was estimated at over 11 million in early 1945. The first mass flight of Germans followed the Red Army 's advance and was composed of both spontaneous flight driven by Soviet atrocities , and organised evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through to the spring of 1945. Overall about 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to
15120-455: Was expelled, some were rehabilitated and offered their pre-war Polish citizenship back. While those who had signed Volksliste category "I" were expelled, rehabilitation was offered to people who had been subject to forced labour before, spoke Polish and were rated as not constituting a threat. Once granted Polish citizenship, they were encouraged to Polonize their names, or to restore their original Polish names if they had been Germanized during
15246-466: Was released in 1958 and returned to Germany. In 1945, the territories east of the Oder-Neisse line ( Silesia , most of Pomerania , East Brandenburg and East Prussia) were occupied by Soviet and Soviet-controlled Polish military forces. Polish militia and military started expulsions before the Potsdam Conference, referred to as "wild expulsions" (German: Wilde Vertreibungen ), affecting between 700,000 and 800,000 Germans. The Polish communists ordered
15372-674: Was seen as an attempt to avoid such events in the future and, as a result, the Polish government in exile proposed a population transfer of Germans as early as 1941. During World War II, expulsions were initiated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The Germans deported 2.478 million Polish citizens from the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany , murdered 1.8 to 2.77 million ethnic Poles, another 2.7 to 3 million Polish Jews and resettled 1.3 million ethnic Germans in their place. Around 500,000 Germans were stationed in Poland as part of its occupation force; these consisted of people such as clerks, technicians and support staff. Representatives of
15498-564: Was taken by the anticlerical communist government due to a hidden motivation of punishing Gorzów for becoming the see of the newly established Roman Catholic apostolic administration governing the majority of the Recovered Territories , with the ensuing discrimination of the city by the voivodeship authorities in the years 1950-1975 in terms of establishing any new public cultural and educational institutions, other public investments or public funds allocations, in vivid contrast to
15624-493: Was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II . The German population fled or was expelled from all regions which are currently within the territorial boundaries of Poland: including the former eastern territories of Germany annexed by Poland after the war and parts of pre-war Poland ; despite acquiring territories from Germany, the Poles themselves were also expelled from
15750-543: Was to be assigned to the Greater Poland Voivodeship as a bizarre sort-of corridor to the German border. However, mass protests broke out as a result in the cities such as Bydgoszcz, Koszalin, Opole or Kielce. Many of the people opposing the draft reform initially demanded retaining as many as 25 voivodeships (including the 2 ones seated in Gorzów and Zielona Góra), a number nevertheless widely regarded as
15876-451: Was tried by the Polish authorities in 1959 for his wanton brutality, he stated his only goal was to exact revenge for his own treatment during the war. The German Federal Archives estimated in 1974 that more than 200,000 German civilians were interned in Polish camps, they put the death rate at 20-50% and estimated that more than likely over 60,000 persons perished . The Polish historians Witold Sienkiewicz and Grzegorz Hryciuk maintain that
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