Removing German signs in Szczytnicki Park in Wrocław

Names of places and streets, monuments, signs, labels on taps for cold and hot water – the resettled lands were marked by traces of former German inhabitants. Communist authorities tended to polonize the space and mark that it has new governance. Introduction of Polish names and removing German reminders was, however, not only a propaganda measure but suited the social need to domesticate the culturally foreign environment by settlers who happened to now live there. Along with this, the memory of war was fresh – for many Poles, everything German was associated with their crimes during the occupation.