Incorporation of Warmia and Masuria into Poland. Assumptions and Practices of Its Legitimation

The article reveals the assumptions under which Polish claims to Warmia and Masuria Regions werelegitimated in the 20th c. and the impact made on the starting points of the policies applied after WWII tothe integration of Warmia and Masuria into Poland by the ideological political situation and the ratio ofpowers formed in the years of the war. The author pays great attention to the disclosure of the policy of“de-Germanization” and its practices by demonstrating the ways of instrumentalization of anti-Germanattitudes by the postwar Polish authorities, thus promoting the symbolical integration of former Germanterritories (the Recovered Lands) into the minds of Polish settlers in them.KEY WORDS: East Prussia, Warmia and Masuria, cultural heritage of East Prussia, de-Germanizationpolicy, symbolical appropriation. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ahuk.v24i0.29