Groß Iser was a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

on Hala Izerska existing from the 17th century until 1945. Today the remains of the village can be found in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

just by the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

border (marked here by the Jizera river). The closest towns are

Świeradów-Zdrój Świeradów-Zdrój (; ) is a spa town in Lubań County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland near the border with the Czech Republic. The town is located in the Kwisa valley of the Jizera Mountains, a part of the Sudetes range. It ...

on the Polish side and

Harrachov Harrachov (; ) is a town in Jablonec nad Nisou District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic, close to the border with Poland. It has about 1,400 inhabitants. It is known as one of the most popular Czech ski resorts. Administrative divisio ...

on the Czech side.

History

The beginnings

In 1630, a Czech Evangelical refugee became the first person to settle at Hala Izerska. A hut for forest workers was built and, thus, the village came into existence.The official Website of Chatka Górzystów
Development was slow due to the harsh climate and the swampy territory.Skowroński, Janusz (2002

n:Przegląd Lubański, January 2002. Church chronicles from neighbouring Świeradów from 1742 indicated that in Groß Iser there were 20 parishioners. On 9 September 1742, the first Mass was said in the village (by a pastor from Świeradów).

The period of highest development

In the 19th century the village became popular among the visitors of the health resort in Świeradów, which caused fast development of the settlement. Tourists would visit the village in spring and summer on foot, in winter on cross-country skis.

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...

from the surrounding

moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

was used in Świeradów for

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...

treatment. In the period of its greatest development 400 people lived in the village. There were 3 bars, mills, so called "church" (in fact a praying building or a chapel), 2 tourist huts (mainly for the health resort visitors), a café, 2 schools, a fire station, and 43 houses.

Destruction of Groß Iser

On May 10, 1945, the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

arrived and begun with destruction of the village. Between June and October 1945 innocent villagers were violently displaced, some were killed (as for example Paul Hirt, owner of Gross Iser Baude). Then Polish soldiers continued with the destruction and by 1960 there were no other buildings left apart from the building of new school. In the mid-1980s the remains of the village were discovered by a group of Polish students. The only building remaining (a partially-destroyed school from Groß Iser) was turned into a students’ hut. It is now called ''Chatka Górzystów'' (the mountain peoples' hut) and it offers sleeping places as well as hot meals.

Settlers' lives

The settlers lived a poor life here. They earned their livings by fishing (

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

mainly), keeping

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, as well as producing

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

and

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

. Men also worked in the woods, cutting the trees. Some were

poachers Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunti ...

. Today, the three people living there are the caretakers of the students' hut, along with their daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gross Iser Sudetes Ethnic cleansing of Germans