We are going east to Breslau, todays Wrocław and look into our Grandfathers family, the Hilbigs. In this Episode, we briefly look into the history of Silesia (Schlesien), how our ancestors got to Fürsten-Ellguth and what they did there. We then dive into World War 1 and how it effected our family life and dynamics. And in the end, Katha challenges Tobi in his way of relating to his family of origin. Extra Resources:
Here is the wikipedia page to Wrocław (Breslau) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wrocław and this is another great insight - https://enrs.eu/article/wroclaw-in-the-history-and-memory-of-poles and another fun approach to the city of Wrocław (Breslau) https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/wroclaw-gnomes-history-dwarves-poland
Silesia or as we refer to in German Schlesien. Take a deeper dive into its history here: https://www.britannica.com/place/Silesia and here is another great insight: https://culture.pl/en/article/what-is-silesia
Fürsten-Ellguth where our ancestors lived is today called Ligota Książęca. Here is the very brief wikipedia entry to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligota_Książęca,_Opole_Voivodeship otherwise, there really isn't much. Here is a video of someone driving through the town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGb7Nmvrx1s
Here is a good read on World War 1 from a German perspective: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/german_experience_01.shtml here is a good read on the German perspective on the Somme: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/the-german-perspective
Here are two Podcast suggestions I have on WW1
Not So Quiet On The Western Front: The podcast that takes you beyond the trenches and dives deep into the untold stories and surprising truths of the First World War. Join us as we lift the lid on one of the most pivotal periods in human history, busting myths and unravelling the complexities of a conflict that shaped the course of the 20th century. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-so-quiet-on-the-western-front-a-battle-guide-production/id1716885995
The Old Front Line: Walk the battlefields of the First World War with Military Historian, Paul Reed. In these podcasts, Paul brings together over 40 years of studying the Great War, from the stories of veterans he interviewed, to when he spent more than a decade living on the Old Front Line in the heart of the Somme battlefields. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-old-front-line/id1505204931
This read on the Christmas Truce was helpful: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-real-story-of-the-christmas-truce. Here is a cute video on it, though it probably wasn’t like this. And if you watch it till the end, you’ll actually see what this vide is all about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KHoVBK2EVE
We mention All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen Nichts Neues in the podcast. It's originally an anti war book written by Erich Maria Remarque. Here is some history on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front
It was made into a movie and was released in 2022 that really shows how terrible war is. It’s available on netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81260280
