Humanities & Social Sciences
August 2019
Taubenblut. Die Siedler
Eine sächsisch-polnische Familiengeschichte (1697–1939)
by Bosri, Maria
For centuries young pigeons were considered a delicacy. Broth boiled from them allowed sick people to recover and women in childbed to regain their strength. Not so in times of war. Then the farmers slaughtered all the pigeons in no time at all so that their flight would not show the plundering troops the way to the farms. Mostly in vain. Now the blood of women and girls also flowed, whom the soldiers jokingly called their pigeons before they committed suicide. And there have been many wars over the last centuries. Even on the territory of the then Polish noble republic.In 1698, after the election of Augustus the Strong as Polish king, five Saxon peasant families of Lutheran faith were resettled in Poland. They were to grow tartufflis (potatoes). A risky enterprise in the arch-catholic country. Lutherans were still considered heretics here. Near Petrikau (today Piotrków Trybunalski) they lived for almost 250 years in more or less good Polish and Jewish neighbourhood. And, depending on the ruler, in prosperity or in need. This was their home. Until Hitler came to power.
