Who burnt Słupsk in March 1945? A case of a Pomeranian town captured by Red Army

Abstract

Undefended by the Germans, Słupsk suffered heavy losses during the World War II, which changed forever the town’s building s. The inhabitants, both the former and the present, the Germans and the Poles, have for decades asked who is to blame as there was no fighting? According to the history of Słupsk edited by Stanisław Gierszewski – until this day the basic synthesis of the town’s history – 25–30 per cent of Słupsk was destroyed in March 1945 as a result of Red Army fights with the German s. These fights were described. During the Polish People’s Republic period a whispered word of mouth history existed in the background of these false statement s. According to this construc tion, it were the Red Army soldiers who set the undefended Słupsk on fire several hours after capturing the town. Such conclusion was drawn from the memories of the Germans, the Polish pioneer settlers in Słupsk, and from the West German historiography. After the collapse of communism, the word of mouth version, more and more precisely described and justified, was commonly accepted. It was accepted with bitterness, as Słupsk, re garded one of more beautiful Pomeranian towns, “could survive”, because its devasta tion was not a consequence of military action. It was ascribed to the „barbarism” of the Soviets. This belief can be revised under the influence of the memories of the Germans, published in the 1950s in a journal of the “expellees” from Słupsk, „Stolper Heimatblatt”. Issue 6 contains a letter from Margaret Dähling who eye-witnessed the described event s. She was in the city centre when it went up in flame s. Her report is surprising, it contra dicts the commonly accepted belief s. The course of events immediately after entrance of the Soviet troops could have been more complex, and the perpetrators could have differ ent motivation than it is assumed.