**
Polish borders World War I First Silesian rising
Polish Borders: First Silesian Rising (August 1919)
Figure 1.--We have not yet been able to find details on this photograph. We believe in may be a German Freikporos unit in Silesia dfuring 1919, but one of the caps nlooks Polish. The ease with which the Germans had supressed the First Rising onscured a fatal flaw in the German position. While the German Army which had supressed the Poles, the Freiokorps which was so effecrive in other areas of Germany, was not a dominate force in Silesia with its majority Polish population. The Poles were thus able to organize stronger para-military groups than the Germans.
Poles in Silesia staged a series of risings. This was done by the Poles because the Allies at the end of the War had left the German authoirities in charge. The situation exploded when hyped-up German border guards were brought in during a labor dispute at the Mysłowice coal mine. The Germans favoring the German mine owners over the mostly Polish miners murdered 10 strikers (August 15). Armed Polish militias roseup and took control of several small towns in Silesia as well as launching a guerrilla camapign in the countryside against the German authorities. The First Silesian Rising was lasgely spontaneous. It was not coordinated by any central authority. And it did not last long. The German Government acted swiftly and sent in the army. Some 61,000 well-equipped German soldiers quickly broke the back of the rising. And it was all over in 10 days. The soldiers committed brutal reprisals. They rounded up about 2,500 Silesian Poles and executed them by both hanging and firing squads. This essentially ended the small chance of any negotiated settlement which may have existed. The police which were all Germans assisted in the pacification effort. As a result, the Allies deployed a Plebiscite Commission consisting of Italians, Frenchmen and British soldiers to keep the peace (February 1920). The Inter-Allied force was able to keep a shakey peace at least in the cities, but outside the cities in the countryside the government control was tenuous. The situation was not helped by the fact that the Allies disagreed about who was responsible for the disorder. British representatives on the Allied Commission beleved that the French were responsible for the easy spread of the uprising into eastern Silesia. [Gajda, p. 69.] The ease with which the Germans had supressed the First Rising onscured a fatal flaw in the German position. Whikle the German Army which had supressed the Poles, the Freiokorps which was so effecrive in other areas of Germany, was not a dominate force in Silesia with its majority Polish population. The Poles were able to organize stronger para-military groups than the Germans.
Sources
Gajda, Patricia A. (1982). PostScript to Victory: British Policy and the German-Polish Borderlands 1919–1925 (University Press of America: 1982)
