Info brochure Remembrance Connects Oder-Warta

The Space of Fate covers the peri- od of National Socialism from 1933 to 1945, including the immediate post-war period and reorganisation. This historically very short period of time was also brutally incisive for the Oder-Warta region and in many re- spects had a lasting impact. The beginnings of National Social- ist tyranny were gradual, as every- where else in Germany, and were accompanied by hope and eupho- ria on the part of the wider masses. Opponents of the regime were per- secuted and imprisoned at an ear- ly stage, e.g. in the former remand prison in Frankfurt (Oder) or in the Sonnenburg (Słońsk) penitentiary and concentration camp, one of the first of its kind ever. Later, Jews and other persecuted population groups as well as prisoners of war were added. In parallel, the infrastructures of the war machinery and the network of labour and extermination camps were established, controlled here by the former administrative district of Frankfurt (Oder) and partly by the former administrative district of Po- sen. Today, memorials in former prisons and camps provide information on the Holocaust, injustice and arbi- trariness in the region and tell the stories of the countless victims. These include the memorial to the euthanasia of over 10,000 disa- bled people in Meseritz-Obrawalde (Międzyrzecz) or the museum of the martyrdom of the Allied prisoners of war Stalag Luft III C in Zagan, with the famous escape attempt that be- came the basis for the film „Broken Chains“. In January 1945, the advance of the Red Army and its allies from the east towards Berlin brought the war to the Oder-Warta region, at the lat- est now in real terms and with all its force. It became the scene of war events that can only be found in such a compressed form in a few other regions throughout Europe. These include, for example: - the massacre in the Sonnenburg concentration camp on the night before its liberation on 31 Janu- ary 1945, represented today by the Słońsk Martyrdom Museum, - the 56-day siege and complete destruction of the old town and fortress of Küstrin in February/ March 1945, represented un- changed today by the „Pompeii on the Oder“ in Kostrzyn nad Odra, - the Battle of Seelow Heights from 16-19 April 1945 as one of the largest battles on German soil, which brought death to over 45,000 people as Nazi Germa- ny‘s last stand against defeat, represented today by the See- low Heights Memorial. More than 30 places of remem- brance in the Space of Fate are dedicated to significant battles, war gravesites, bunker systems, defen- sive bulwarks or armament sites of the Second World War. With the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War in Europe, a profound reorganisation of the Oder-Warta region began. The Victorious Powers created new maps in Europe, which was accom- panied by a far-reaching reorgan- isation of the Oder-Warta region. Poland was shifted about 150 km to the west to give the Soviet Union more space. Since then, the new German-Polish state border has been on the Oder-Neisse line and runs right through the Oder-Warta region. According to Stalin, Poland was to become a communist state and an ethnically homogeneous coun- try. The ethnic German population Space of Fate