Vlog in text:
Good morning, vlogger Zupa bows down low in front of You
{Zupa} is a source of constant entertainment, joy and today education
Yes education! I'll tell you why I don't eat Prince Polo wafers
and replaced them with other bars
I'm a gourmand, I like chocolate wafers, but I put Prince Polo away
Why? You' are just about to find out
I am not calling for a boycott of this factory here, but personally knowing the history of this factory
Full of suffering, blood and injustice, I say NO!
To better understand the history of the factory, let's go to 1918, when Poland regained its independence
The city where history is developing is Cieszyn, which is located in the south of Upper Silesia
It is a small, beautifully situated, charming town
Cieszyn, which from 1742 was within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is inhabited by
Poles, Czechs, Germans and Jews. Each of these nations tries to find themselves in a new reality
People live in harmony with each other and are optimistic about the future
And that's when the owner of the tenement house at 42 Głęboka Street in Cieszyn, Hermina Schramek, starts selling roasted by her coffee
How was Tip Top Brothers Schramek factory established?
Hermina certainly contributed to the establishment of this factory
With this house in such a strategic point of the town and a store in it, she could sell her products
And there were the beginnings of the factory that today produces Prince Polo, you might say
So Hermina Schramek, the owner of this tenement house, had two sons, Wilhelm and Bruno
And it is them who opened the Tip Top Brothers Schramek factory
Let's be honest, they had no idea about baking chocolate products
They employed 10 women and 2 bakers to produce their products
and it is with the help of these people that they managed to make high-quality cakes, wafers and biscuits
They were selling like hot cakes, well...maybe like hot waffles..
They bought a plot of land at Liburna 15 in Cieszyn and built a larger factory
It is here that the legendary Prince Polo wafer is produced to this day
But what was the real reason for the tremendous commercial success of Tip Top Bracia Schramek?
This factory thirived because the Schrameks had a flair for business
They were the first in independent Poland to set up a network of distributors throughout Poland
It was good quality, good price, good marketing and it was a success
How much chocolate was produced in the factory before the war?
This factory produced approximately 45,000 kilos of wafers per day
It was one of the largest factories in Poland, please remember
Can you describe life of the Schrameks before The War?
The Schrameks did not speak Polish, the Schrameks had to learn Polish
Therefore, they hired a nanny who spoke Polish, so that Hans and Wilhelm could learn Polish
At school they had problems because they made fun of them because they didn't know certain owls
Hans remembers being ridiculed when he tried to learn Polish at school
When he was in first grade, the teacher told a story about a pigeon in Polish
Hans was just starting to learn the language, so he didn't understand the word
When he asked about its meaning, the teacher thought he had no respect for her and was trying to be funny.
She instructed him in front of the entire class
There was a Jewish temple in Cieszyn, which was later burned down by the Germans
and never rebuilt
What do Schrameks think about anti-Semitism in Poland?
According to the Schramks, there was no anti-Semitism in Cieszyn
It was only before the war that students from eastern Poland made some such demonstrations about Jews
in 1932 one of the brothers, Brunon, died in an operation to remove stones from the gallbladder
He orphaned his son Hans, who stayed in Cieszyn with his mother Camilla, who was a pianist from Brno.
Before his death, he managed to break his wife's heart, leaving her for... Attention, for a spinster, limp accountant
The second brother, Wilhelm, sensing the coming danger packed his belongings and left for Lviv
What has happen after The War broke out?
It didn't take long for the Gestapo to knock on the Schramek's door
Hitler declared war on Poland on September 1, 1939, at 5 a.m.
at 9 am Cieszyn was renamed Teschen and incorporated into the German Reich
After the Gestapo's visit, Hitler's SS special service threw Kamila and Hans onto the street
Hans was then 19 years old. The Germans took over all their property and brought the mother and son to the temporary ghetto in Sosnowiec
Thousands of people lived in several blocks in the ghetto
Almost everything was missing. Hans and Kamila were new, so they were always the last ones in line for food rations or any privileges
Fortunately, they had some money aside and a few gold coins
After a few months, transports to Auschwitz began
Hans and Kamila were assigned to the 3rd transport
They took them at night, they were only told to take everything they had and hurry up
German SS troops loaded them on trucks that took them to the railway station, where the cattle wagons were waiting for them
They weretransferred to the wagons by force and were carefully guarded
They traveled by train to a previously unknown to them place, it was called Auschwitz
The journey from Sosnowiec to Auschwitz would normally take about 3 hours
However, it took them all day and the conditions were terrible.There was no air, food or water. People died in the wagons
Then they were told: Now you will go to the shower room and you will be deloused!
Hans and Kamila were separated already during the selection on the railway ramp
Fortunately, Oświęcim in 1939 was not an extermination camp yet, but a forced labor camp
At the same time in Cieszyn at the special order of the President General, Field Marshal Herman Goring
On November 1, 1939, the East Trust Bureau takes over the factory
In 1943 the right to pre-emption was given to the new Nazi Juliusz Pietschman
It was a German whom the Schramks hired before the war because he had experience in another factory in the Czech Republic with a similar profile
and they hired him for their production, he was sort of a manager
He was often invited to the Schramek family meetings, he was a friend of the family
The Germans made Pietchman as factory director and continued to produce only for the Reich
During the war, the Germans sold the factory to Pietchman, for some peanuts, but sold it
An announcement about the takeover of the factory by Pietschmann was published in a local German newspaper
At the same time, the legitimate owner of the Tip Top factory, the Schramek brothers, are forced to work hard in Auschwitz
Hans Schramek, the son of the founder of the factory, thanks to the people who knew him, as the author Lynn Schramek tells ...
My father-in-law, Brad's father, and grandmother were both transported to Auschwitz
Fortunately, in Auschwitz, someone there knew them from the factory
And they didn't have the authority to release them but they did have the authority to transfer them to a camp they could survive
As Lynn Schramek, author of the book "They stole our chocolate factory", tells
[Hans] is transported to the forced labor camp in Ebensee, Austria
A few months after Hans left, the Nazis [in Auschwitz] were building gas chambers
and from a concentration camp, Oświęcim becomes an extermination camp
After the war, it turns out that Walter Von P was behind the transfer to the new camp, with whom Hans used to sit in the same bench in primary school.
In Ebensee he works in metal factories and gets better food than in Auschwitz
Despite this, he develops a typhoid fever called typhus
He goes to the hospital where he is treated by a doctor from Bielsko Biała
He knows the Schramek family and helps the boy to get better by striking a deal with the capo from Hans's block
Thanks to which Hans stayed in the block for 2 weeks while other prisoners went to work
He was liberated by the Allies in Ebensee
And after the war he goes to Vienna where he looks for his mother Camilla
and he does manage to meet his mother and they plan the future together
They return to Cieszyn, they want to regain the factory and their property
Depressing news awaits them in Cieszyn
After the Nazi regime, another one, this time Stalin's one takes root
The Bolsheviks introduce Stalin's hard-handed socialism and nationalize Polish industry
Factories in selected sectors fall victim to the act on the takeover of the basic branches of the national economy to the state (January 3, 1946)
The iron curtain is falling
At that time, the Schrameks, as US citizens, had no chance of negotiating the regain of the factory
Hans dies, leaving Brad as the only son
In 1989, Brad managed to bring a lawsuit against the Polish state
which he lost
Poland believes that the Act of 1946 is still valid
and did not pay Schrameks not even a penny
Why has the Polish State not officially apologized to these people so far?
Since 1989, Polish governments have changed in democratic elections
However, none of them wants to deal with the issue of the repatriation of Jewish property
or the act nationalizing the factory
Perhaps we, contemporary Poles, should get acquainted with this still living history?
For now, opinions are divided, as are the opinions of the audience who took part in the premiere of the book "They stole our chocolate factory"
How can the Polish government give back a factory that currently belongs to the company Kraft?
The factory that is already bought by the Kraft concern cannot be returned
The Schrameks received nothing, no payment for this factory. They were not covered by any compensation program
but the factory is already sold
But you cannot sell a property that does not belong to you!
If we are talking about possible compensations etc ...
The Polish State first sold the factory to Olza company, then Olza sold it to Kraft, and then to Kraft Mondalez
and now, we do not know who is supposed to pay it back
I think we should remember such stories
Because we do not even realize how much our Polish culture is saturated with Jewish culture
We lived in symbiosis, fifty-fifty, I'd say for several hundred years
In the east of Poland, there were cities that were dominated by the Jewish population
It's hard to just cut off this piece of history and forget it
Our culture, music and food are steeped in Jewry
Whether we like it or not
maybe I will play something for you?
If I were a rich man ....
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