Monument to Displaced Gdynians - Gdynia, Poland
N 54° 31.260 E 018° 31.944
34U E 340292 N 6044292
Family leaving their dog behind during forced displacement by the Germans in WW2.
Waymark Code: WMZJ7D
Location: Pomorskie, Poland
Date Posted: 11/18/2018
Views: 9
I passed by this sculpture on my way to the trainstation. Imemdiately my attention was caught by the heartbreaking sculpture of the dog whos family had to leave the city leaving most of their belongings behind. As a dog owner I went straight to the dog and wanted to pet it - feeling a bit shy, but soon I realised I wasn't the first person doing this: The dog sculpture was shiny on the head due to all the peope touching it.
"This particularly emotive monument was created to remember those Gdynians deported from the city following the Nazi takeover in 1939.
Estimates range from 120,000 to 170,000 people and included an estimated 30,000 who were interred or sent as forced labour elsewhere in the Reich. The others were sent south to the General Government area of Nazi-controlled Poland and typically were the women and children whose husbands and fathers were forced to work for the Nazis. Those that remained were subjected to Germanization programmes and many were later conscripted to fight in the German army. The homes and property left behind were taken over by Germans resettled in the city as the Germans fortified it as a Naval base and renamed the city Gotenhafen.
When the war ended many of those deportees who had survived the war returned on foot to try to find their loved ones and reclaim their homes.
The statue depicts a mother, her son and daughter with nothing more than a suitcase walking in the direction of the railway station as the daughter reaches out to her dog which she has been forced to leave behind. It was designed by Pawel Sasin and Adam Dziejowski was unveiled in October 2014."
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