The Governor General in Zakopane was greeted with honors
On November 12, Governor General Hans Frank was welcomed by Wacław Krzeptowski during his visit to Zakopane. This pre-war leader of the People’s Party in Nowy Targ “on behalf of the highlanders” thanked for “freeing the highlanders from the oppression of the Polish authorities.” He also gave Frank a commemorative highlander badge. The German campaign to create a separatist movement among the highlanders in Podhale was carried out for the next five years.
The chairman of the Highland Committee, Wacław Krzeptowski (in a highlander costume) welcomes Governor Hans Frank. Otto von Wachter is visible next to him (first from the left). NAC /public domain/author unknown
Back in 1928, Professor Włodzimierz Antoniewicz argued in the book “Metalowe spinki highalskie” that a certain similarity between highlander and Gothic decorations was the result of Germanic influences in Podhale. He requested, among others: on the basis that the inhabitants of the Zakopane Valley and Spiš are to some extent descended from the Goths. His theories found supporters already in the late 1920s, but it was only after the outbreak of the war that the Nazis began to implement them at full speed. They argued that the highlanders were a separate nation of German origin and not of Polish nationality.
A group of activists from the pre-war Highlanders’ Union, in which Krzeptowski was vice-president, began cooperation with the Germans. In April 1940, Frank announced that the German authorities “will satisfy the will of the Highlanders who want to constitute a separate tribe.” In 1942, Krzeptowski headed the newly established Highland Committee, from which Goralenland (“Highlander State”) was to emerge in the future. At that time, the so-called teaching was introduced in two schools in Zakopane. highlander language (not Polish). An attempt was also made to create a “highlander legion” with SS troops – but only a handful of people volunteered, and in the end the legion was never created.
Some followed the Nazis, others fought against the idea of the Goralenvolk
In the census, the highlander “nationality” was distinguished, and it was possible to obtain special identity cards (so-called highlander kenkartas). Historians differ in their estimates because no records of issued highlander kernkarts have been preserved. Wiesław Władyka, who dealt with this topic, among others, in “Polityka”, estimates that the document was accepted by 23 percent. inhabitants in Zakopane, in Nowy Targ and Czarny Dunajec – 17 percent, in Rabka – 49.5 percent, in Krynica – 80 percent, and in Szczawnica – 96.5 percent. inhabitants. It is worth emphasizing that although some accepted the highlander ID card voluntarily, many were forced to do so. Goralenvolk also faced a strong reaction from the resistance movement from the very beginning.
The creators of “White Courage” wrote the story of two brothers into these historical realities. Elder Maciek (Julian Świeżewski) refuses to obey the Nazis and joins the partisans. The younger Andrzej (Filip Pławiak) returns to Zakopane after a long absence to – as the distributor describes – protect the highlanders from wartime destruction, and takes on the consequences of cooperation with the Nazis.
Behind the camera was a recognized documentarian (“I gave birth to such a beautiful son”) with experience in feature films (“Pręgi”, “Rewers”) and an avid mountaineer – Marcin Koszałka. – The Tatra Mountains have fascinated me since my early youth. I climbed, practiced mountaineering and got to know the highlander culture. For me, the highlanders were like a separate tribe, like Polish Tibetans or Nepalese. They had their own unique folklore and were as picturesque as any other ethnic group in Poland – says the director of “White Courage”. – For centuries, everyone has usurped the rights to them and identified with them depending on their own needs. Poles wanted to see them as Poles, as their national symbol, just like the Germans and communists who tried to use them for their own purposes – just like any other Polish government, including the modern one. The highlanders, without their consent or efforts, depending on political needs, became either a symbol of the so-called Polishness or, for example, an important trademark, also for export – he adds. Koszałka emphasizes that this is one of the toughest communities in Europe, strong, proud people who can endure a lot:
Poles saw them as ideal Catholic patriots. The Nazis saw them as a long-lost German tribe. The highlanders resisted every ideological colonization. I think that few people ask themselves at what cost – both as individuals and as a community – they were able to save their independence… Without a doubt, they paid a great price for it.
The Institute of National Remembrance is cutting itself off, highlanders do not want to dance
The director and cinematographer division of “White Courage” costing as much as PLN 16 million is the so-called people of the mountains: also the author of mountain cinematography Marcin Polar is a mountaineer and cavers, and Andrzej Marcisz, a mountaineer, second director and co-author of the concept of shooting for mountain and climbing sequences, supervised the safety of the filmmakers and the security of the crew and equipment. In addition to showing the film magic of the Tatra Mountains, the filmmakers cared about credibility. – Marcin, as a documentarian, attaches great importance to authenticity, not only in the visual layer, but also in the factual layer, so from the very beginning we consulted experts in many fields – emphasizes the co-author of the script, Łukasz M. Maciejewski. – It’s not only about the reverence with which the film shows highlander folklore, which in our version is authentic and raw – it is the absolute opposite of folklore and kitsch. We consulted the dialogues so that the actors could actually learn to speak with a highlander accent. We even consulted the emotionality of the highlanders of that time, who lived in completely different conditions than today – he adds.
The subject matter they decided to show on screen is risky. The first political disputes appeared while still at the production stage. The then Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, in an interview for right-wing media, called the production a “leftist provocation.” In March 2021, Solidarna Polska MPs demanded in the Sejm that Prime Minister Piotr Gliński present information about the Koszałka film. Then Gliński commented on Twitter: “I would like to inform you that the film about highlanders, about which the Minister talks so extensively, has not yet been created, it is at the script stage, it has been consulted with the Institute of National Remembrance and it also talks about Tatra couriers.”
White Courage Adam Golec /monolith films promotional materials
However, the Institute of National Remembrance refrains from cooperating with “White Courage”. “No employee of the Institute of National Remembrance is an official historical consultant of the film. Although, at the request of the creators of the film, an employee of the Branch of the Institute of National Remembrance in Krakow – an expert in the field of 20th-century history of Podhale, including the issue of Goralenvolk – critically assessed several preliminary versions of the script, pointing out many errors regarding historical context, but the Institute of National Remembrance has no influence on whether the filmmakers took these comments into account,” reads the statement from December last year. – We were afraid that the topic would discourage potential experts. This never happened, however, claims Maciejewski. He adds that this is not a documentary. – Our plot is fiction, strongly inspired by reality, but filtered by the requirements of dramaturgy and the director’s visual sensitivity. However, we were aware that when talking about such a sensitive topic, about something that is basically a great national taboo, we had to be precise. From the very beginning, our critics complained that “this didn’t happen”, “that didn’t happen”, in order to deprecate and diminish the authentic importance of the events during the occupation. – explains.
The producers of “White Courage” mention the difficulties they encountered when looking for support among members of the Podhale People’s Association. – We mean a very practical dimension of this reluctance: it didn’t just end with sending letters against the film to the President of Poland or the Minister of Culture, things went much further, e.g. no regional Polish folk dance group agreed to dance in our film, we were forced to invite and engage dancers from Slovakia – say Agata Szymańska and Magdalena Kamińska.
Koszałka asks questions: Would I betray my country to survive? Would I get myself killed?
The producers also emphasize Koszałka’s uncompromising attitude in striving for historical credibility. – We often interrupted the shooting just to make a specific staging more credible. Today, with the benefit of hindsight, we greatly appreciate this diligence – no one, including the highlanders themselves, can accuse us of treating their history, folklore or highlander culture without respect – they point out.
– For me, the history of Polish highlanders has a universal dimension and is a story about the manipulation of a separate ethnic group. Similarly, the Americans manipulated the Indians, using them to achieve their goals. This is how we tell it in “White Courage”, which is also a testimony of betrayal and human drama resulting from impossible choices – says the director. – I don’t know what I would do if I were faced with the decision of my film heroes… Would I feel like a better person, the chosen one, if the Nazis told me that I was of German blood? Would I see it as a chance to save my loved ones? Would I betray my country to survive? Would I get myself killed? What price would we Poles be willing to pay for peace if a brutal invader put a gun to our heads? It is as tragic as it is important that we must – and can – ask ourselves such questions today. Right now, right now, they are relevant. And that’s what our film is about – not about the past, but about the present around us – he emphasizes. “White Courage” hits theaters on March 8.
What happened to Krzeptowski?
In 1944, the idea of Goralenvolk practically did not exist anymore. Krzeptowski, who comes from one of the most famous and oldest highlander families, was hiding in the Tatra Mountains from the fall of 1944, and then moved to Slovakia. In our southern neighbor, he got involved in the Slovak uprising on the side of the Soviet partisan unit, and after its fall he returned to the Zakopane area. In January 1945, he was captured by the Kurniawa Home Army unit. He allegedly asked to be shot, but the sentence for treason was carried out by hanging.
A letter was found next to his body. He wrote: “I, the undersigned Wacław Krzeptowski, born in 1897 on June 24 in Kościeliska, donate all my immovable and movable property shown in the mortgage books in Zakopane to the Kurniawa partisan unit of the Chełm AK group of my own free will, as the only compensation for the Polish nation for the mistakes and sins committed by me towards the Polish population of Podhale during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945. Kościelisko, January 20, 1945, 10.30 p.m.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
