Are Silesians Polish? (Touring Zabrze’s Forgotten Hood)
is the abandoned Evangelical Cemetery yeah inside this Chapel Satanist people made their black messes Etc this place has a kind of reputation for being a little bit rough oh [ __ ] you know either I left my window open or somebody break broken it polish majority still think about silesian people or Germans or stupid people which even cannot speak fluently polish I've seen a lot of cemeteries in Poland abandoned ones as well yeah but this one it's probably in the worst condition this is vandalized simply vandalized and you can see it on your own this this also started to be vandalized and this centory is not destroyed only by time but by people welcome to cult America everyone today we are heading to Poland's coal mining country the heart of salesia Zaba [Applause] [Music] [Music] got to say these roads here are pretty hardcore granted we're off the beaten path I don't think too many tourists come around here but uh if you do you might want to consider having a a bigger car than what I [Music] drive this is just outstanding I mean when you picture cesia like out of a movie or something this is pretty much the image that comes to mind [Music] here nice weather weather is so awful that's why I wrote you this right now we are in the one of the oldest district and in Zaba uh the typical typical worker District in all upper Salia places everywhere in each places in each City we can find the industrial districts here you are in the borberg the German sounds of this districts it's not accidentally because this area before the second world war and before the first world war has been or the owner was uh graph from borik borik ver was the name of his huge complex of Industry which included the coal mine the steel mill and many many industrial things like factories which make coal iron steel PB uh and other material and this district has been built in the end of 19th century till nowadays uh the L landscape hadn't changed so much we are living in 21st century in 2024 but here you can feel the spirit you can feel the real history uh and it's not accident that I've invited you exactly here because not only buildings not only streets which are going one nearby the second uh not only the climate in this weather is even better here is uh one of the most horror places in Zab I'm in the Abundant evangelic Cemetery so now we're about to enter the workers District yes exactly uh to the workers District in my opinion one of the most beautiful worker District in Upper CIA very regular shape I mean this is the six streets uh which are going one next to the second exactly from east to west and between those streets they have built we can name it like a small blocks which in the past those blocks were only for workers of the mine which has been in the neighborhood the mine has been built in the middle of 19th century and mine and other other industrial zones and everything has belonged to one company F borik the the surname of the guy the owner of it that's why this district is still now it's named borik ver like a borik factory and he decided and in all upper cesia that the investor had been built districts for workers for cool miners in 19th century in the end of 19th century the beginning of 20th century this kind of districts has been one of the most modern in the world people from us from New York from Detroit came to Upper cesia to learn how to build very modern very complexive um districts for for workers for example inside Flats in 19th century they had got toilets it was not normal then and these were the guys actually going into the mine and extracting the resource or like the managers Liv here no here miners like a normal workers wow on the other side of the streets they are much prettier much more pretty buildings for for officers for forers for directors so why were people running away to America if the standards were so high here because I've seen in Pennsylvania similar places and I can tell you the worker camps you know they weren't always so great but to be honest if you if you watch into the documents from cesia and we had got not so big immigration to us it was the place where people came especially from poorer regions Around Upper cesia in the beginning of 20th century was one of the richest region in the world because you know we've been the industrial industrial Zone industrial region with a lot of Mines with a lot of factories with a lot of everything Architects and people from Pensylvania not only came here to learn how to build it really really really and in documents in archives you can find a lot of uh a lot of science that that people came here to learn furthermore I was totally shocked when I've been in New York on my on my first time and uh you know I was walking down the Manhattan and I was walking and look around and I said those blocks are so similar to kovit to zabra City Center but of course much more higher and new and and um in very good shape and then I was started to read about Architects and for example German archit Tex which projected districts in West Germany I mean in Dortmund in gsen Ken and also in CIA in kovit in Zab G later they have gone to USA to New York and they have projected buildings over there this area had been built with an idea I mean the uh owner of the mine buil the place for miners but uh remember they have gone to the coal mine for 12 13 14 hours so in the morning they have or the evening they have moved out from the house later they came back they just slept because they had to but their wives and their kids have been over here comfortable here I'm yes exactly not only Flats had been modern on this time I mean at this time 100 years ago but also area around had been um made for them for example they had got the green areas yeah I mean this spark uh uh sport area the the playground um the pitch they had got every everything in the district like a medicine center uh Library school kindergarten in Germany School were very important yeah like folk SCH like people primary schools um have been obligatory in Poland not so the Society of these kinds of districts it was it was small country we name it like a haat like a small country for them because most of time of their life they have spent here because it was um they they didn't need to go somewhere else for something shops um what's more swimming pools everything had been on the on the district very interesting because it was an idea for owners because if workers and their family had got nice conditions for life they could be more effective in the work for people which came from villages to work on the mine it was important to still have a contact with the nature but I mean not like in the modern thinking yeah not beautiful park and zoo or something like that but they wanted to to feel like in their former homes houses that's why those small buildings which now are garages for cars or just a place for some things those Place have been built for animals so people here felt like like they they are living between City and Village so I've got to ask you uh and I think I even texted this that uh I don't want to get stabbed wandering around here so far no one's bothered us at all but this place has a kind of reputation for being a little bit rough how was it in the modern time I mean what's it like growing up in a place like this in 1998 was the first big procceed of closing mines uh in Upper Salia 99% of people which were living here used to work in the mine and When government decided close the close the mine those people lost their one way for living yeah okay it's hard to make a transformation from Miner which are digging the co under the ground into the another profession yeah okay some of them found work in other places but also in 1990s uh in Poland in cesia the government made a terrible thing they gave people money I mean then 40,000 looty and ER had to sign the document that they will change the profession but those people were very simply people yeah so what they have done most of them they hadn't invested this money they hadn't gave this money for education for for changings but they just buy car yeah buy something to house new fridge new television furthermore in 19 in the end of 1980s 90% of society of this kind of districts moved out to Germany for better for better life the add condition of the of the districts started to be lower and lower so nobody wanted to live here that's why uh the city majority put inside those blocks social floods I mean people which have no idea for living poor people pathology people they started to live there and in 1990s these kind of places started to be the worst in the city it's still going on unfortunately but it's changing now for last 10 years it started to change because of the fashion you know those flats are still really good because it has been built over more than 100 years ago very good constructions very comfortable places big spaces big rooms so it is fashionable to buy this kind of the fat um of course make a reparation inside and it's like a loft places this is the type of place in Warsaw for example in the vol dist exact plenty of abandoned warehouses and things like that and now you know hipsters not only hipsters but business exactly uh people like to spend their time there because there Society really enjoys this um feeling of grit exactly you know they add shiny lights they make it kind of fancy but they'll leave the dirty looking wall exactly and uh and it creates some kind of exit patrio uh hoodie and I'm wearing it very very very often yeah in 1990s we started to leave the free country but Polish people polish majority still think about silesian people or Germans or stupid people which even cannot speak fluently polish and still these stereotypes is me for example many times I'm going and I finished the salesian study even not only about language but also about the culture history Etc very often I'm going somewhere to Poland and they ask me like a monkey speak something on Salan try to imagine what could happen if I will go to war so I said speak something in Polish they said you're are crazy why but if you're asking me it's something funny for them yeah even now people are not paying attention for cian identity as an identity it's still like only folklore it's like something interesting but but not serious yeah but we are serious simply if even around 1 million people feel the identity something has to be inside if I can ask you a kind of politically sensitive question know I noticed that the new government promise salesians that they'll make the official language here or the official second language salesian which I know is a very important topic for you guys but at the same time I saw that one of their other goals is to like kind of try to close a bunch more of the coal mines how do the local people feel about that you know it's it's very complicated because we have to also take this problem into two one is the culture the second is the the money from from industry 90% people in salesia knows and we know it perfectly that the European Union is transforming into into the green very ecological place that's why we know that those coal mines in the future that's we have to we have to close it furthermore the coal is finished in yeah because over 200 years people distracting it so we know it perfectly but the main thing in the transformation is to make it responsible first build the economical zones build the new place for workers and then close another because we had got a so bad experience from 199s 90s when after the communism time the government in waro uh in one year they closed 30 40 miles many other places try to imagine in 1989 over half a million people used to work in coal mining industry in 1998 When government closed many of them 100,000 people lost their work it's not so easy to take 100,000 people and put somewhere else yeah so it's very important to make the process of um transformation responsibly totally second side is the culture this year we had got um score of um how I can name it like a civil voting uh that the the the government ask who you are where you live which is your language 700,000 people crossed salesian nation and over 300,000 people cross that they they are speaking salesian language so it's a lot we can find countries in Europe with less population than than salesia has over here and we have 1 millions in Germany still so for us it's very important to make the process but process in government to take care about about the culture and about the language because it's connected unfortunately with money if we'll have money for learning Salan for learning Salan culture it will exist it will survive and it will exist in the future if not schools have no money for teachers for example who teach children to speak Salan and this language started to be smaller and smaller I remember like um 20 years ago to hear the salisian language in zabra was something totally normal totally common yeah everywhere now it's uh maybe not unusual but not so many people are speaking Salan because if everything is connected with the bigger culture or I mean polish culture our smaller one is disappearing every everywhere in the world the process is the same this party which won the voting in Poland uh one also in upper salesia and I think that they have um 10 or even 15% here in salesia just because they they um promised that they will they will take the salesian language as a official language and they will take care about our heritage and about our culture when do you think that will happen they said this year okay hope so oh [ __ ] you know either I left my window open or somebody break broken it not at all but it's pretty hard but you see it's dangerous area it's dangerous area no one it's totally dangerous area the new Audi is staying on the street with open window and nobody even take anything from the from inside so this is the stereo type and this is the reality so that's like a thousand points for celesia I just literally left my car window open by accident car is totally filled with gear I've got drones I've got cameras I've got computers and um nothing happen is the abandoned Evangelical Cemetery yeah Evangelical Cemetery uh I mean abandoned half and half in the past I mean uh when the upper when the upper CIA has been a part of Germany of course uh we had a big mix of religious here we had got the Catholics we had got evangelic and we have got Jewish people and what's happened when the war when the second war uh has been finished um thousands people from upper CIA from Zab which had names Hindenburg in the past immigrated to Germany but Cemetery left uh after the second world war Polish people came to to Zaba a lot of them and in 1960s 1970s 1980s um we had got a huge immigration from Poland uh and in Poland there is no so many evangelic people that's why when older part of society died this Cemetery started to be more and more destroyed furthermore uh even in 1990s now no but even in 1990s it was very popular for example to destroy this kind of places I mean people done it because it was it was like that yeah it is other religion it is not our it is after German people yeah without caress without anything these kind of places started to be more and more destroyed few graves are revitalized I mean when for example in Germany family is living or in Zab still somebody is living um they they made a new Graves but just a few why this cemer is over here it's not it's also not um accidentally the district borberg has been um built in the end of 19th century I mean in 80s ' 80s ' 80s 90s before this area was out of the city and in the middle of 19th century was an epidemia and a lot of people died because of this epidemic and majority of the city decided to make a cemetery for those people uh out of the city and they have started to put bodies over here later change into the normal evangelic Cemetery because in the district called biscop the oldest District of nowadays zabra has been two churches now both are Catholics but before the war one was one was evangelic the second was Catholic uh so here was the just the cementary for evangelic uh people can I ask you do German people come back here to to I don't know their family or sometimes you know very rare I have been here many times because it's not the first record on this Cemetery but I'm I don't know I made um maybe three four five times things over here uh and I also made a project uh with Evangelical Church in zabra to to find some finances to find some money for revitalization and I met only one time the German family which came here and they stand near to near to the Grave because she was a grand grandmother of of those people I've seen a lot of cemeteries in Poland abandoned ones as well yeah but this one there's a tire there there's a Coke C it's probably in the worst condition exactly and what is what is curious that this cemer now is in the city it is not like few kilometers out of the city in the middle of forest yeah or in the abandoned Village or something like that okay like on the east of poet people are living here yeah it is in the maybe not in the middle but it is in the city and looks like uh we are anywhere simply simply anywhere [Music] [Applause] you can see on your on your own that uh many of those graves are destroyed and especially German uh German titles started to be um scratched and and and destroyed why it is because of the history before the war cesia was a part of Germany when borders has been changed as I told before a lot of people run out from cesia to Germany uh or just died here and polish culture make an invasion I mean that polish government communist government um they made a possibility to immigrate for thousand thousand thousands of people now in Zab which has got 60,000 citizens now maybe 3 or 4% are cians like I mean cians uh from from the past the rest is from Poland or mixed and for those people which were which were living in Poland everything what was connected with German history Salan history it was equal to Nazis yeah because Germany has been an aggressor for for Poland for Salan not because we've been closer to German culture so for us has been normal I'm categorically against grave desecration but having heard so many polish people's family stories about what Nazis did you know a little children even yeah it is they probably had such emotion that they were looking to anything but that's amazing so this is this is uh vandalized yeah this is vandalized simply vandalized and you can see it on you own this this also started to be vandalized and this cemeter is not destroyed only by time but by people everywhere in European Union in US mostly people understand that you can have uh not big societies small cultures some cultures exactly can have their own identity even their own identity furthermore in Europe when in in small ARA live is living a lot of cultures a lot of countries are in the past Wars and conflicts had been changing borders many times cesia from 13th century has been not the part of Poland each movement which is not connected with Polish thinking polish history polish mentality polish symbolism Etc is something something dangerous because for example me a lot of people said me many times you are separas you are you are you are German you are folks dut I think that Polish people still don't understand that in one country you can have more than one nation which is strange because this was the Melting Pot of Europe before Hitler had his way exactly wasn't it then it was something normal we've been the Multicultural country so it was but you know during the Communist time everything had everything had to be equal everybody had to be equal it's the primary thing for socialism for communism that you have to destroy all um advantages all lower things so everything has to be equal also mentality also identity so they destroy it into into people but after the communist time still the mentality of Polish people is going it's easier to think for those people that still we are in danger between Russia and Germany so what do you feel you are me 100% a I'm not polish I never said that I'm I'm polish because I don't feel like uh like Polish people interesting radical even [Applause] legend that inside this Chapel Satanist people made their black messes Etc I could kind of believe that almost uh you know in the end of ' 90s was pretty popular for for young stupid people to make these kind of rituals and I can believe that few guys made it because for example over here on the right side it is Satan you see on the oh yeah on the wall so but you know maybe some young stupid people met here and just make a ritual or something like that it is probably it's pretty creepy you have the chairs and everything in there it is it is it just destroyed but to be honest if it will be the the midnight I will never get in here see this is the river yeah the small River bka the first world war finished in 198 but upper CIA uh had got like longer period of of War because after the first world war still upper CIA has been in Germany and uh we had got the free civils Wars small Civil Wars not like like in us us in 1919 in 1920 and 1921 after 1921 the international Society I mean the onz then the Nation League decided to make a voting in Upper cesia where you would like to live in Germany or in Poland because there was there were two sides Germany won this voting uh I mean 56% of society has been um has been on the option of Germany uh 44 was uh was were waiting were voting for for Poland uh but then the third Civil War appeared like the third Civil War had been made and the Nation League decided to divide the upper cesia part of the region came to Poland to to new Poland independent Poland uh with c v a city with Ruda hu and others uh the rest stayed still in Germany and this River was a border between countries wow there was Poland behind the river here uh was Germany [Music] [Music] [Music]
2024-04-27 22:36
