Born Then
1870–1913

Life during the Polish emigration "za chlebem"

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Poverty in the countryside of partitioned Poland pushed about three and a half million people abroad before 1914. Most went to the United States, and many others to the mines and farms of Germany. Poles called it emigration "for bread".

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.

Around the same time