'We Vigorously Protest!': Upper Silesian Border Petitions to the League of Nations

• In Event: Creating Their States: Local Involvement in Border Changes after WWI

Abstract

When no consensus could be reached after the 1921 plebiscite, Upper Silesia’s fate – as a part of Germany, Poland, or divided between the two – was given to the nascent League of Nations, prompting letters, petitions and telegrams from multiple sections of Upper Silesian society. This paper will examine the motivations and arguments in these correspondence, especially the economic and ethnic/national appeals, which echo the themes stressed in the propaganda leading up to the plebiscite. While most studies of Upper Silesia and its plebiscite have focused on the regional story, this paper explores and highlights the interplay between the local and the international, thus providing a more complete picture of the Upper Silesian plebiscite period.

Author

• Allison Rodriguez, Trinity College