Alleged annexation to Poland

Alleged annexation to Poland creates confusion in Zittau

Zittau, 26 July (AFP) - Pranksters have created confusion in Zittau by announcing the imminent annexation of the Saxon border town to Poland. According to an announcement by the police headquarters in Görlitz on Monday, a couple aged about 25 on Sunday distributed faked leaflets with the letterhead of the Ministry of Interior of Dresden. These announced to the citizens that this town of 27,800 inhabitants would be part of the neighboring country starting in 2002. Following the "renewed request of the organizations of deported Germans in the German parliament", the German eastern border had been re-measured and established to run 5.24 kilometers West of the town, the leaflet explained.


Monday, 26.07.1999 - Top-News: politics

Zittau (dpa)

Faked official announcements of an alleged annexation of the town of Zittau to Poland yesterday have created unrest. The fakers distributed the papers as preliminary information from the Ministry of Interior of Saxony, the police reports. According to them, the town, which is near the border, is to be excluded of Germany in 2002. After the annexation to Poland the inhabitants would have to apply for the new citizenship and learn Polish, the distributed material announced. A 25-year-old couple is suspected to be the originators.


Mainpost

Monday, 26 July 1999, 3:44 pm

Fake letter creates a fuss in Zittau

Görlitz/Zittau (AP) A fake letter of the Saxon Ministry of Interior has created great agitation in the town of Zittau. Unknown individuals announced in a letter to the inhabitants that they would be annexed to Poland in 2002. The Police in Görlitz revealed on Monday that the letter had been distributed in the mailboxes of houses in the South of the town on Sunday. Eyewitnesses reported having observed a couple of about 25 years distributing the letters.

Zittau lies at the meeting point of the borders between Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. The letter states that the city will be part of Polish state territory starting 1 January 2002 due to a renewed measuring of the border. The deadline for applying for Polish citizenship is indicated as 1 March 2001. However, knowledge of the Polish language is required. The Ministry of Interior would provide language classes at no cost. The letter bears a faked official stamp of the Ministry and is signed by a certain Secretary of State Peter Schaubert, who does not exist, however.

The mayor of Zittau, Jürgen Kloß, speaks of a malicious fake and says all the information in the letter is freely invented. The police started an investigation on the suspicion of forgery.