Upper Silesia in the Fifties

Abstract

Silesia’s third largest city is Beuthen (Bytom), which celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1954, and had 101,000 inhabitants in 1939. About 40,000 Germans still live there, 76,000 Poles have settled making a total of 116,000. The reason for the increase lies in the expansion of coal mining and of industries for war production. The newly opened and fully mechanized coal mine ‘Julian’ was designed and installed by German engineers. The same is true of iron and steelworks as well as blast furnaces. Newcomers from Central Poland (about 2,000 in 1954) are being taught by German experts. Industrial production as a whole therefore has almost reached pre-war figures. However, labor turnover and permanent absenteeism among miners have been increasing seriously in recent years. In 1958 for example, 4,833 workers or 24.8% left the ‘Beuthen-Mine,’ only 23.2% newcomers arrived. At the ‘Wanda-Lech-Mine’, 3,029 left or 87.4% and 81.6% arrived.²