In 1939, a plan emerged to live by traditions kept sacred, with a vision of preserving Polish features in every facet of communal life and a promise to work together toward shared aims.
Quite by chance, on December 31, 2023, a document crossed my path. It was familiar, yet it lay dormant in memory until that moment. More than eighty-four years had passed since it first appeared, and the text can still serve as a stark model for any occupying power or any governing authority attempting to shape life in a conquered or controlled territory. It spoke of social life regulated by general rules, yet those rules were presented as the occupier’s understanding, meant to keep hope alive without creating immediate terror or complete submission.
If a few minor nuances were altered, the proclamation could seem strikingly modern, as if issued at year’s end as a message or program statement. Although the historical text appeared in public spaces rather than through modern broadcast channels, its purpose was clear: it diagnosed the situation and laid out norms intended to guide daily life under occupation.
Relying on external and internal pressures alike, the end of the year 2023 invites reflection on whether a scenario resembling previous events could unfold once more. The central question remains who might issue such a proclamation today and whether the source would be an outside force or a local authority aligned with it, given ongoing national and European developments that would not easily align with traditional practices. Perhaps the concern is less about outright coercion and more about subtle forms of mental occupation, a quiet form of control that curtails freedom and cultivates fear.
The proclamation from more than eight decades earlier appeared first in German, with a bilingual version available as well. The Polish translation from October 26, 1939 was not ideal, but the original wording held the most authoritative weight, so revisions are not warranted here. The historical text is presented below, with the opening sentence omitted for directness.
With the establishment of the General Government, following the military security of Polish areas within the German sphere of influence, a chapter long ago closed opened another. The German army restored order in Polish regions. The renewed threat to European peace, stemming from unjustified demands by a state entity born from a violent treaty, was dismantled once and for all.
Polish citizens are addressed: the authorities instructed that, as the Governor General of the occupied Polish territories, decisive action would ensure lasting peace in this country and the proper development of neighborly relations with the powerful nation to which the empire belongs. People were urged to live by their preserved customs and maintain Polish characteristics in all expressions of social life. Yet the land, burned by the crimes of its former rulers, required strong organizational efforts to unite everyone in common work. Under the protection of a larger empire, and in fulfilling a universal duty to labor, individuals would do what was necessary for this purpose. A just government would secure daily bread for all.
It was declared that there would be no room for political agitators, economic predators, or those who exploited the population within the area under German rule. Any attempt to challenge the issued regulations or disrupt the peace would be met with firm, uncompromising force, using the power of the Greater German Empire. Those who chose to accept the fair rules of the Reich, which aligned with daily life, would be able to work in peace. The decree promised to lift many of the severe burdens created by the prior regime’s economy.
The document bore the title of Governor General for the Occupied Polish Territories, Frank. Had it appeared a couple of months later, it might have been framed as a plan for the coming year—an agenda of peace and life lived according to preserved customs, with a promise of improved organizational collaboration. This is a historical text, and any analogy drawn from it carries personal risk for the reader.
Note: wPolityce