Figure 1.-- Kischken was a village in East Prussia. As a result of World War II, much of East Prussia ws tranferred to the Soviet Union and Poland. This area was transferred to Soviet--occupied Lithuania. It is now Kiškiai in Lithuania. We have found a photograph of the village school in 1933. It appears to have been a substantial brick building. East Prussia was one of the poorer regions of Germany, a largely agricultural area. Notice thast most of the children were barefoot.

Kischken was a village in East Prussia. It was located close to the northern border of Poland. This was an area famous for its beautiful lakes, over 2,000 lakes--Masuria. Most of the Masurian lake area was located in East Prussia and a smaller area of Poland. As a result of World War II, East Prussia was tranferred to the Soviet Union and Poland. Kischken was transferred to Soviet--occupied Lithuania. It is now Kiškiai in Lithuania. We have found a photograph of the village school in 1933. It appears to have been a substantial brick building. East Prussia was one of the poorer regions of Germany, a largely agricultural area. Notice that most of the children were barefoot. There was also a substantial non-German population in rural areas. We are not sure about Kischken, but assume there were many Poles and Lithuanians. The school, however, was conducted in German. This of course would have put the non-German speaking children at a disadvantage. I am not sure how the teachers handeled this, but we believe that the schools tended to have very strict rules requiring the children to speak German while at school. When the Germans invaded Poland launching World War II, terrible actions were carried out against the Poles, many were dep[orted fron the areas annexed to the Reich. There were, however, no similar action taken against ethnic Poles in the pre-War areas of the Reich. A reader writes, "You assume that the non-German population in that part of East Prussia consisted of Polish or Lithuanian people. There was another possibility--Masuren/Mansurizans. The Mansurians were Slavic people, rather like the Wends. They spoke a language related to Polish, but interestingly many also spoke German. The majority opted for Germany in the League of Nations plebiscites after World War I." The results of the plebecites are a matter of some dispute, but the Masurians do seem to have favored the Germans over the Poles. After the German invasion launching World War II (September 1939), the Germans who deported Jews and Poles to the General Government seem to have granted the Masurians Artyan status and allowed them to remain, depite the fact thst they were ethnically Slavic. As the Red Army advanced west (1944), most of the Masurians seem to have accompanied the Wehrmacht and ethnic Russians. Many of those who remined were deported by Soviet and Polish authorities after the War.

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Created: 9:39 PM 4/30/2011
Last updated: 2:42 AM 5/1/2011