Expulsion from cultural childhood. Reflection in the context of the concept of rooting

Abstract

The Silesian/Silesian-German childhood of Horst Bienek, spent in Upper Silesia, has been the exempli- fication used by the author in this text. Both Silesia, as well as its region, that is Upper Silesia – are spaces with a complicated history, determined by a politically ruthless border policy. Its consequences turned out to be severe for Silesians as an ethnic group, particularly in the 20th century. This was a period in the history of Upper Silesia, in which Poland and Germany clashed politically and militarily over the region. As a result of this conflict, certain foreign-national narratives were imposed on Silesia and, as a consequence, a Silesian could only be a Pole or a German. Being a Silesian was only an identity area to be cultivated, or a kind of a political asset in achieving the assumed goal.

The aim of this article is to identify two issues. First of all, how cultural childhood was shaped in this complexity of Silesia in its dimension: Silesian/Silesian-German. The author analyses selected bio- graphical texts of Horst Bienek, a German Silesian who, as a child, experienced the tragedy of expulsion from his childhood and from his homeland / Upper Silesia. Secondly, the author attempts to understand the cultural (Silesian/Silesian-German) childhood in the concept of Simone Weil’s context of rooting, which was reinforced by Hannah Arendt’s thinking about a human being “new by birth”.