The longitudinal
section through 140 years of local history in Porz
has shown considerable violations of the fundamental
rights of minorities. The African prisoners of war,
occupational soldiers, foreign labourers and forced
foreign labourers, and particularly the Jewish
inhabitants between 1933 and 1945, were affected.
Between 1870 and the end of the 1920s the
integration of Jewish citizens was without any
problems. We haven’t detected any violations of
their fundamental rights. We have found countless
proof that Jewish citizens, especially during the
empire, were highly regarded by society and have
taken many public offices and functions. It was
favourable for this development that the Jewish
population in Porz was distributed throughout the
city area and thus a concentration of a minority in
a certain living area / part of town was avoided, in
contrast to the concentration of migrants in the
Finkenberg district today
Because of this the Jewish citizens were perceived
differently from other minorities in Porz. Forced
labourers and foreign labourers lived either in
camps next to the factory grounds or in the
outskirts of the city (Grengel, Elsdorf, Libur).
The African soldiers and the prisoners of World War
I and World War II were forced to live in camps in
the Wahner Heide woods, which prevented any contact
to the local population of Porz. Only the African
soldiers were allowed to leave their camp on the
weekends. Apart from this, because of the separation
from the local population, there were hardly any
contacts to the local people and the minorities in
the camps.
Although the Belgian occupational troops lived in
different areas of the city, they had less
opportunity to contacts with the locals due to their
nearly perfect Belgian infrastructure and a
self-sufficient supply with food. Thus we couldn’t
detect any violations of their fundamental rights
caused by the local government. However, the
children of the soldiers who were transferred to
Porz with their families were forced to leave their
Belgian hometowns for a couple of years and had to
live rather secluded in Porz, away from their usual
environment, and then had to return to areas in
Belgium where they didn’t have any social contacts
either. Many pupils who attended a Belgium school in
Rösrath said they had suffered considerably from
this, although, these circumstances are, admittedly,
part of the life of many families in the army.
The local population’s attitude towards the various
minorities has always differed according to the
minority group.
Between 1933 and 1945 the fundamental rights of the
local population as a whole were violated by the
Nazis, too. This, however, would have been a field
for an independent research project. We have found
sources that clearly prove that the locals were
victims of the Nazi intimidation and terror as well,
especially when the Nazis seized power and at the
end of the war. In the interviews with our witnesses
of the Third Reich and their children we learned
that the Nazis intimidated local citizens openly (for
example damaged the printers at the printer’s
Gantenberg) to prevent them and others from showing
solidarity with the persecuted minorities. In spite
of this many local citizens showed their courage
when a
highly regarded Jewish citizen of Porz was buried in 1942 and they attended the funeral against
the authorities’ prohibition and explicit warnings.
Most of the minorities
only lived in Porz temporarily during the period of
time we investigated. They were either forced to
live in Porz or have come to Porz due to the demands
of their jobs. All of these groups have in common
that they didn’t want to settle down permanently in
Porz, which is the major difference to the Jewish
citizens and the migrants of the Finkenberg district
today.
The integration
of the migrants in the Finkenberg district who
have been living in Porz in the second
generation depends basically on the
modernization and redevelopment plans of the
1980s. As the houses have fallen into disrepair,
many people abandoned the district and often
only of the lowest social classes moved there.
At the same time the infrastructure declined and
empty spaces were dilapidated, so that today
vandalism, violence, gangs and a lack of police
presence dominate the area. This problem can now
only partly be solved by measures of the
authorities, as preventive measures would have
been necessary to reinstall a feeling of
security and belonging in the population.1)
As the buildings have private owners, the local
authorities cannot decide on a redevelopment of
the area. The first measures aim at developing a
district more attractive to other social classes
through modernization and even demolition, in
order to achieve a mix of different social
classes in this area, and to make it more
attractive for business. Social organization and
charity are a decisive factor in this
development as they work on an integration of
the constantly arriving new migrants from
Eastern Europe.
From the point of view of the positive
experience with the Jewish and Belgian
minorities in Porz it would be advisable to
house new migrants arriving from Turkey and
Eastern Europe in other districts of Porz and
not only in Finkenberg to avoid a segregation of
the population.
Regardless of individual decisions the district
management has established new integrative and
decentralized structures to redevelop this
problematic area and thus to facilitate the
integration of the migrants there. It’s a beacon
of hope that the local population in Porz has
proven to be non-aggressive towards migrants and
not as likely to fall for extreme right-wind
propaganda as the population of other areas of
Cologne, mainly because they have always lived
together with minorities due the different
armies having been stationed in Porz. People who
are used to deal and live with new and foreign
people are more flexible, relaxed and open for
new views.
Sources:
1) Agency for Fundamental
Rights (FRA): Setting a good example
Get the details here [pdf]
2)
Sozialraumanalyse – Soziale, ethnische und
demografische
Segregation in den nordrhein-westfälischen Städten, Gutachten
für die Enquetekommission „Zukunft der Städte in NRW“ des
Landtags Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dortmund und Bochum, Januar
2003, S. 180ff.
