Published: 2025-12-15

Podróże sentymentalne mennonitów i ich potomków na Żuławy jako przykład kształtowania pamięci o przodkach i ich dziedzictwie kulturowym [Eng. Sentimental Journeys of Mennonites and their descendants to Żuławy as an example of shaping the memory of ancestors and their cultural heritage]

Aleksandra Paprot-Wielopolska
Etnografia Polska
Section: Thematic section "The Meanders of Local Heritage" edited by Anna Szymoszyn
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/EP69.2025.4104

Abstract

The article deals with the sentimental journeys of the descendants of Mennonites who migrated to Poland from the Netherlands and northern Germany in the 16th century, fleeing persecution. They settled mainly in Żuławy, where they improved the hydrographic network and engaged in agriculture and trade. As a result of the political situation – the partitions and the decisions ending World War II – they migrated from Żuławy to many countries around the world. From the end of the 1970s, Mennonites began to come to Poland as part of sentimental journeys and in search of their ancestral roots and co-religionists. The article analyses the formation of Polish-Mennonite relations on the example of the activities of several organisations, the International Mennonite Meeting and the sentimental journeys of individual Mennonite families and communities, which were juxtaposed with the statements of guides in Żuławy. The analysed data were presented in the context of the issue of post-memory and the negotiation of ancestral memory in the field of socio-cultural memory.

Keywords:

Mennonites, Żuławy, sentimental journeys, nostalgy, postmemory, migrations

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Paprot-Wielopolska, A. (2025). Podróże sentymentalne mennonitów i ich potomków na Żuławy jako przykład kształtowania pamięci o przodkach i ich dziedzictwie kulturowym [Eng. Sentimental Journeys of Mennonites and their descendants to Żuławy as an example of shaping the memory of ancestors and their cultural heritage]. Etnografia Polska, 69. https://doi.org/10.23858/EP69.2025.4104

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