Educational re-enactment ‘Pogranicze '39’ [The border region in 1939]
On 8 September 2013, the Museum of the Second World War organized an educational re-enactment, ‘Pogranicze '39’ [The border region in 1939], at the Museum of Folk Architecture in the Ethnographic Park in Olsztynek.
Participants watched reconstructed battles of the very first days of the Second World War near their actual locations. The fighting by the Modlin Army on 1-4 September 1939 and the living situation of civilians on the Polish-German border served as the historical setting. The ‘Pogranicze ‘39’ educational re-enactment aimed to teach history by interpreting the situation in the very early days of the war.
About 200 re-enactors took part. The heritage park in Olsztynek, an area that belonged to Germany before the war, was an ideal setting for telling the story of the heroic Polish soldiers and for recreating the battles. The lives of civilians forced to leave their homes in the early days of September were an important theme.
The Museum of the Second World War came up with a unique formula for preparing the grounds and staging the mock battles in such a way as to allow the viewers to move around independently. People were able to walk virtually into the middle of the military operations. For one day, the 60-hectare park was transformed into a Polish hamlet being taken by the Third Reich’s armies.
Apart from observing the fighting, the audience was able to watch demonstrations of civil defence training for women and medical aid. The entire programme was prepared to allow families with children to take part.
Fans of period military equipment also enjoyed inspecting replicas of the German army’s Panzer II tank, an SdKfz222 ‘Gretchen’ armoured vehicle, a Kfz13 armoured car, Mercedes and Peugeot lorries and motorcycles. Three wz.34 Polish armoured cars supported the Polish fighters.
The historical reconstruction groups Samodzielna Grupa Odtworzeniowa ‘Pomorze’, Harcerska Grupa Rekonstrukcji Historycznej, Stowarzyszenie Rekonstrukcji Historycznej AA7, Grupa Rekonstrukcji Historycznej ‘Barbarossa’, Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Militariów WEST, Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Pojazdów Militarnych ‘Częstochowa’ and SRH 44 Pułku Strzelców Legii Amerykańskiej took part in the event.
