[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Envisaged opencast brown coal mine ruins villages in Central Poland

[skrenz at gmx.de]

Dear list members,

today I suffered a major setback when I had to learn, that the homeland of my ancestors - the village of Szarlatow(o) (=Charlottenberg), situated between Kolo and Sompolno in Central Poland - probably soon will be (or already has been ?) extinguished from landscape.

The region around Szarlatow (near Drzewce) contains lignite (brown coal) deposits and therefore "is currently being developed for exploitation, which will start in 2005".  ( http://www.eusustel.be/public/documents_publ/WP/WP3/coal_industry_2005_euracoal.pdf   => page 44 )

http://www.ppwb.org.pl/wb/52/10.php   (in polish)
www.carbon-power.de/Literature/Coal%20Market/lignite_europ_e.pdf   ( => page 18)

For me personally these are very sad news. Szarlatow was founded in 1855 and my Krenz ancestors settled there at that very time. They lived in Szarlatow for about 90 years - until their displacement around 1945. I haven't been to that place yet, but I was really looking forward to visit it one day in order to see with my own eyes, where my ancestors once lived and to step on that "holy soil" with my own feet. But now, sadly, I have to hurry up - even if it's not already too late !

Does anybody know about the Status Quo of this horrible project ?
Does Szarlatow still exist ?
What happens/-ed to the people of present-day Szarlatow (and neighbor villages) ?

Does anybody know anyone, who lives in that area and could give some hints to the questions above ?

Thank you for your help.

Stephan Krenz


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