Remembrance
Mennonite cemetery in Stawiec (germ. Ladekopp) on Żuławy. Photograph by Ł. Kępski.
The history of the Mennonites in Poland was tragically interrupted by World War II. Afterwards, they left the Vistula Delta and the regions where their ancestors had lived since the sixteenth century. For the new Polish settlers, Mennonite history remained an unexplored issue for many years. Decaying cemeteries and abandoned churches were the only reminders of the former Dutch and Norther German settlers. The official policy of the state authorities also contributed to the ‘disappearance’ of the Mennonite past.
The situation changed with the political transformation of 1989. Later generations of Polish settlers began to get more and more involved in uncovering the history of their towns and cities, and their former inhabitants. Walks through the overgrown Mennonite cemeteries and observations of the polder landscape, typical of the Mennonite settlements, with houses erected on terps, led to rumination and reflection on the past. Who were the representatives of the families buried in cemeteries: Classen, Wiebe, and Dyck? What influence did they have on the history of our towns? – these are just a few of the questions that were asked at that time. They coincided with increasingly frequent visits of the descendants of the former Mennonite inhabitants of Żuławy, and, later, also of other areas located on the Vistula.
Mennonite and Polish groups are cleaning up the cemetery in Stogi Malborskie (germ. Heubuden), 1991. Source: Archiv of the Klub Nowodworski.
When it comes to preserving the memory of the Polish Mennonites, the turning point came in 1991 when a group of a dozen or so Mennonites from Germany, the Netherlands and Paraguay visited Stogi Malborskie. Their goal was to tidy up the Mennonite cemetery located in the village. This was the first contact between the descendants of the old Mennonites and the contemporary inhabitants of Żuławy. In the following years, both groups began to cooperate on a cyclical basis. The Mennonite cemeteries in Stawiec and Markusy were cleaned up thanks to their common effort. Organisations created to protect the cultural heritage of the former Mennonite inhabitants of Poland and promote knowledge about their history also began to emerge around that time. They include e.g. Doopsgezinde Stichting Nederland-Polen in the Netherlands, the German association Mennonitischer Arbeitskreis Polen, and the American Mennonite-Polish Studies Association. One of the Polish organisations, The Nowy Dwór Gdański Friends Association – Nowy Dwór Club, played an extremely important role in the dialogue and cultivation of the memory of the former Mennonite inhabitants of Żuławy from the beginning.
VIII International Mennonite Meetings in Żuławy, 2017. Photograph by M. Opitz.
This international cooperation resulted also in the Helmut Reimer International Mennonite Congresses in Żuławy which are attended by people living in the Vistula Delta and a group of Mennonites from Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. They consist of conferences, working group meetings and trips to places related to the Mennonite history and culture in the Vistula Delta. From the very beginning, the congresses bear the name of the initiator of the project, Helmut Reimer, who died during the cleaning of the cemetery in Stogi Malborskie in 1991.
VIII International Mennonite Meetings in Żuławy, 2017. Photograph by Ł. Kępski.
VI International Mennonite Meetings in Żuławy, 2010. Source: Archiv of the Klub Nowodworski.
VIII International Mennonite Meetings in Żuławy, 2017. Photograph by Ł. Kępski.
Scientific works play a huge role in preserving the memory of the Mennonites. The publications which came out in the recent decades include the doctoral dissertation of Professor Edmund Kizik, published in 1994, titled: Mennonites in Gdańsk, Elbląg and Żuławy Wiślane in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century and in the Eighteenth Century. A Study from the History of a Small Religious Community. To this day, it is an extremely valuable source of knowledge for historians, regionalists and enthusiasts of the topic. Another highly influential work written by Professor Peter J. Klassen was translated into Polish and published in 2016, thanks to the efforts of the Ethnographic Museum in Toruń, under the title Mennonites in Poland and Prussia in the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century.
The exhibition "In the Polish polder. From the history of the Mennonites - the Dutch religious minority "at the Żuławy Museum in Nowy Dwór Gdański. Source: Archiv of the Klub Nowodworski.
Title page of book from Edmund Kizik. Photograp by Ł. Kępski.
Museum and dissemination activities play a significant role in popularisation of knowledge about the Mennonites and their cultural heritage in Poland. The Żuławy Museum in Nowy Dwór Gdański is one of the key institutions engaged in this work. It houses the largest and also the only permanent exhibition in Poland devoted to the history of the Mennonites in our country. Titled In the Polish Polder. From the History of the Mennonites – a Dutch Religious Minority, it was gifted to the Nowy Dwór Club by Doopsgezinde Stichting Nederland-Polenn in 2006, as part of Polish-Dutch cooperation. Knowledge about the Mennonites was also widely popularised by the 2007 exhibition prepared by the Department of Ethnography of the National Museum in Gdańsk titled Mennonites in Żuławy. A Heritage Recovered. The Wooden House in Chrystkowo, which operates as part of the Landscape Parks Complex on the Lower Vistula River, also plays a very important role in popularisation of knowledge about the Mennonites. In 2018, the Olender Ethnographic Park in Wielka Nieszawka, which also includes information on the Mennonite settlement in the areas between Toruń and Kwidzyn, was opened to visitors.
The exhibition "In the Polish polder. From the history of the Mennonites - the Dutch religious minority "at the Żuławy Museum in Nowy Dwór Gdański. Source: Archiv of the Klub Nowodworski.
