The Interpretive Pattern of “the Belief in the Functioning of the State” in Memoirs of Vilamovians about the Volksliste

Abstract

The Vilamovians are an ethnic group living on the borderland of Silesia and Lesser Poland. They are descendants of settlers who came to this place in the 13th century, as evidenced by the continuously functioning Germanic language called Wymysorys. In 1941 they signed the Volksliste, which became one of the causes of their postwar persecutions. In memoir-based stories of the Vilamovians there are recurrent elements of narration – interpretive models, topoi and linguistic fossils – which are shared by all group members as a result of the process of fabulization and folklorization. I refer to this group as the “Vilamovian-centric community of memory”. One of the most important models occurring in the narration of this community is the interpretive model of “the belief in the functioning of the state”. Its main function is to justify the actions of the Vilamovians as a group to an outside listener who, according to the perceptions of community members, has a false image of what the Volksliste was.