2 sides of the war
Poland is a country scarred by wars and agression from both East and West. Nowhere else is the history so apparent as in its Western parts. A large chunk of areas which are now Poland used to be ethnically fully German, which is evident by the store front sign displayed on the picture. An ordinary "Räucherei / Konditorei" (Smokehouse and Confectionery) in the city of Glatz (now Kłodzko) stands to this day, presrved by layers of plaster put on the building after world war two, to cover up the scars and the past itself.
The image also displays another key part of Poland's history. On the left-hand side a more modern sign is hanging at the entrance to "Świetlica Sybiraków" - a tiny room owned by the Polish society of former prisoners from Siberia, who were sent to the far East for forced labour, due to their ethnicity or political stance. They constitute a considerable part of the people who inhabited the ex-German areas in 1945, together with other Poles which were forced out of former Polish areas in the East.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus
2 sides of the war
Poland is a country scarred by wars and agression from both East and West. Nowhere else is the history so apparent as in its Western parts. A large chunk of areas which are now Poland used to be ethnically fully German, which is evident by the store front sign displayed on the picture. An ordinary "Räucherei / Konditorei" (Smokehouse and Confectionery) in the city of Glatz (now Kłodzko) stands to this day, presrved by layers of plaster put on the building after world war two, to cover up the scars and the past itself.
The image also displays another key part of Poland's history. On the left-hand side a more modern sign is hanging at the entrance to "Świetlica Sybiraków" - a tiny room owned by the Polish society of former prisoners from Siberia, who were sent to the far East for forced labour, due to their ethnicity or political stance. They constitute a considerable part of the people who inhabited the ex-German areas in 1945, together with other Poles which were forced out of former Polish areas in the East.
Photo by Piotrek/Toprus