Image by Timon91
For the last months, I’ve been working on a new project, and today is the official launch. It’s called In the Dark Night, and is basically an online journal following my upcoming journey to Poland and Russia, where I’m following the same route my grandmother took 67 years ago. Here’s the official blurb:
‘What happens when a young woman is abducted by soldiers at 23, transported to a foreign labour camp, and after six years is not returned home, but forced to go to yet another foreign country? The mission of German writer and blogger Marcel Krueger is to try and find the answers to these questions. The woman in question is his grandmother, who was taken from her home in East Prussia by the Red Army in 1945 and returned to West Germany after years of forced labour. 67 years later, in the summer of 2012, Marcel’s aim is to retrace her steps from her hometown near Olzstyn in Poland to the Urals and back.
The aim of this journey is not only to research and document the past, but also to explore contemporary Poland and Russia. This is Marcel’s first ever sojourn in these countries, and as a web-savvy writer he is setting out to document his encounter with whatever customs and culture come his way.
Like Marcel’s successful predecessor project www.sonic-iceland.com, which documents a musical journey to Iceland, the website for ‘In the Dark Night’ will shine a spotlight on contemporary (Eastern) Europe via not only his own words and images, but those of German, Polish and Russian photographers, writers, blogger and artists. Exploring the influence the events of 67 years ago have had on young people today, ‘In the Dark Night’ will be a travel journal with plenty of space for photography, sounds and words; it will also be written in German and English to reach as wide an audience as possible.’
If you like this, please get in touch: the official website is www.inthedarknight.com, but also follow me on Twitter and (god beware) like this project on Facebook. Danke!
3 responses so far ↓
1 Martin // Jun 27, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Marcel! Have fun and take care. What an extraordinary adventure! Best wishes and a first piece of music for your soundtrack: http://youtu.be/q4-GIkuWT9g Keep the community posted. All the best, Martin
2 notmsparker // Jul 6, 2012 at 2:20 pm
I find your project fascinating. I will be following your progress regularly and hope the journey´s positive side of re-discovery will not be overshadowed by what must have been a very dark experience for your nan.
If I may ask, where exactly near Olsztyn does your nan come from? I myself am Polish and my father was born in Spychowo, near Szczytno in Mazury (Masuren) after my grandparents walked the stretch of 130 km from the area of Lomza in 1945.
Anyway, all the best and have fun!
3 Marcel // Jul 6, 2012 at 3:15 pm
Thanks a lot! My grandmother actually comes from Łęgajny, a small village near Olsztyn.
And how interesting about your grandparents – I’ve heard about the migration to East Prussia from the Easter parts of Poland in 1945, another very interesting part of European history.
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