In May 1945, the British commanders ordered the residents of Haren to leave the city immediately. Soldiers and displaced persons are said to live there. For three years, Haren becomes the Polish Maczków.
May 20, 1945:The Second World War in Europe has officially ended for almost two weeks. Even in the small town of Haren in Emsland, people assume that they can now steer themselves into the future. But on this Pentecost Sunday, her life was to suddenly take a new turn:by order of the British military government on May 19, the German population of Haren had to leave the city within 48 hours. People should make room for Polish "displaced persons" who cannot or do not want to return to their homeland due to a lack of transport capacities and also because of the political situation in Poland.
After the war again in the temporary
Haren Mayor Hermann Wichers, reinstated by the occupying forces, has the difficult task of announcing the Allied order on May 20:
Haren is to be evacuated for temporary accommodation of foreigners. The receiving area is the surrounding communities. Valuables, clothing and laundry are allowed to be taken - but no furniture, cups and plates.Hermann Wichers on May 20, 1945
Almost 1,000 families - around 5,000 people - have to leave their 514 houses overnight and try to find accommodation with relatives and friends in the surrounding villages, setting up emergency shelters. They have to leave most of their belongings behind.
Maczków becomes a Polish enclave on the Ems
After the end of the war, soldiers of the Polish army in exile, expellees and those liberated from forced camps seek refuge in Haren.The evacuation is completed on May 21, the first Polish families arrive:soldiers of the Polish army, but also displaced persons and liberated people from the labor camps in the Emsland area. More than 40,000 Polish exiles come to Haren in the following days, weeks and months. The city is renamed Maczków on June 24 and becomes a completely Polish city - and thus the center of a Polish occupation area in Emsland. A curiosity of history, about which even the foreign press reports:
Haren is the capital of a small Poland to solve a difficult problem. The problem of Polish forced laborers who have been liberated and who either cannot go home or do not want to go home. Poles have already elected their own administration. They take care of the Germans' plantations and already start with the first harvest.Daily Mail, 1945
Schools, hospital, theater and cinema
Young Poles like the artist Joseph Scheiner had suffered for years in concentration camps. Looking back on his time in Emsland, he writes in a letter:"For the first time in six years I lived in a normal room with a kitchen and toilet. We lived very modestly. In Maczków, people loved each other and started families." The Poles live well in Maczków - with the furniture, with the crockery of the Hareners - and quickly build up a functioning community:with a mayor, city council, schools and a hospital. Two theaters and a cinema offer culture that has been missing for a long time.
Carefree children and a hard life in a wet barn
The Harener, on the other hand, now live on straw in the countryside. Most of the children at that time probably enjoyed the time without school. "We learned volleyball as a child, we didn't know that," recalled Heinz Scheper, who was eleven when the war ended, a few years ago in an interview with NDR. "We played table tennis, boys and girls danced in the hall. We didn't have any worries." The older generation, on the other hand, is worried about the provisional life in the enclave:in addition to losing their home and economic hardship, living in the wet places also leads to hygiene problems.
September 1948:Maczków becomes Haren again
Haren Maczków stays for three years. During this time, German authorities are making intensive efforts to ensure that the people of Haren can return to their homeland. In the autumn of 1946, Poland withdrew the first soldiers from Maczków, in September 1947 the British occupiers handed the town back to the Germans, and the houses were successively restituted. Finally, in August 1948, the last Polish family left their Maczków - and Haren became Haren again with a ceremony on September 10th.