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This article deals with two little-known disputes over the national identity of a population in the interwar border area of Eastern Upper Silesia. This area was transferred from Germany to Poland after World War I as a result of a plebiscite. Its local population, the Silesians, did not consider themselves entirely German or Polish, but still underwent a process of Polonization. The plebiscite took place in Upper Silesia in 1921, prompting international controversy and internal debate within the Polish state about how to define the nationality of the Silesians in the context of their internationally protected rights as a "minority." As this article shows, the Silesians were utilized by Central and Western European politicians as objects of international diplomacy and by the Polish authorities to advance their internal policies. The story of "Maurer's children" and Silesian children born out of wedlock illustrates the reaction of the Silesian population to the interwar politics of nationalization. These cases attracted international attention from 1926 to 1928 and brought questions of national minorities, bilingual children, and self-definition of nationality vis-à-vis the state's requirements to the level of international debate.

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This article aims to narrate and examine a unique story of 'Polonisation' of a certain population group in the interwar Central-European border area. It deals with the question of belonging and affi liation of a group of members of a Jewish organisation in East Upper Silesia. The area, which was transferred to Poland from Germany after WWI, experienced an intensive process of nationalisation, or Polonisation. The article focuses mostly on the former German city Kattowitz, or Katowice, which after the border shift became the capital of Poland's new province, the Silesian Voivodeship. A period of thirteen years has been taken into account: from 1921, the year of the plebiscite in Upper Silesia, until 1934, when Poland and Germany signed the non-aggression pact. Both the plebiscite and the signing of the non-aggression pact were crucial for the Upper Silesian minorities. At the time of the plebiscite, these minorities had to opt for a national affi liation, while none of them considered themselves completely German or Polish. Therefore, after the plebiscite and with the borders rearranged, these groups should have been fi t for getting Polonised. The article focuses at the Jewish test case, in a wide and comparative context of international political and diplomatic background. It therefore places micro-history cases within the macro-history of Central Europe between the two World Wars.