A language that forgot itself

Abstract

In this essay, as a background, I reflect on how the German language was liquidated in post-1945 Poland’s region of Upper Silesia where nowadays the country’s German minority is concentrated. But the main focus is on the irony that neither this language, nor a genuine German minority education system has been revived during the last quarter of a century that has elapsed since the fall of communism in 1989, despite promises to the contrary.