Ethnic groups based on 1931 Census, population size based on 1939 Statistical Yearbook. By the way my great-uncle was a merchant in Gdynia in 1939. He was later murdered in Intelligenzaktion Pommern.
By the way, is it possible that the Russian-speaking population in Bialystok (and to a lesser extent Vilno) were actually Belarusians using the Russian language, rather than genuine Russians? What do you think?
Posted by Litvinski
6 Comments
There are no Lithuanians in Vilnius?
The entire eastern side of the country at the time was a sea of rural Lithuanian (in the north) and Ukrainian/Belarusian peasants – many of whom had not developed a strong national consciousness for either yet – with “islands” (cities, some towns, shtetls) of mostly Poles and Jews, who had lived there for many generations. What a tragedy in all that were to happen over the next few decades.
Why you used spellings Vilno and Lvov instead of Wilno and Lwow? It’s quite peculiar to see Russian spellings in such context.
Poznan, Gdynia and Bydgoszcz being the most Polish is so peculiar, considering they were under Prussian germanisation. I suppose that mainly affected local Jews, and most of them just started to identify as Germans, and then as Polish by citizen nationality? While conservative class-religious social system and lack of integration in Russian and to lesser extent Austrian empires made Jews here retain their religion and identity?
sorry to hear about your great uncle. is he the reason you study the topic?
Current population of Jews in modern Poland (which is obviously a different geographic area than what’s pictured here) is estimated at between 10 and 20 thousand. In 1939, there were around 3.5 million. That’s roughly a 99.5% decrease.
Gdansk only has 120k people?