Child migrants and deportees from Poland and Ukraine after the Second World War: experience and memory

Abstract

This article aims to compare the biographical experiences and individual memories of child deportees and migrants from Eastern Europe. The analysis is based on a field study of over 100 biographical interviews in two local communities situated in the borderland regions which were particularly exposed to post-war displacement, resettlement and population exchange: Ukrainian Galicia and Western Poland. The author claims that although the history of these two distant communities was totally different, contemporary memory of being a refugee/deportee/forced migrant, losing one's home/ homeland and watching the deportation of the previous inhabitants of one's new place of residence bear many similarities. While analysing autobiographical narratives, I attempt to find common threads and topics generated by their experiences as children, as well as explain the differences by exploring the social context of individual memory, with a special accent on post-war socialisation and the Polish and Ukrainian memory culture. The author also strives to show how and why the children's memories differ from those of their parents.

Forced migration in childhood and subsequent fertility: The Karelian displaced population in Finland

“…Children sent to Australia in the 1930s and early 1940s, to avoid war and persecution, report having been influenced by this migration experience throughout their lives (Palmer, ). Biographical experiences of child deportees and migrants from Ukrainian Galicia and Western Poland after WW II additionally suggest that the memory of being a forced migrant and losing one's home and homeland may be consistently present, and that the subjective experiences differ from those of the parents (Wylegała, ).…”

A Systematic Review of Autobiographical Memory and Mental Health Research on Refugees and Asylum Seekers

“…We found that different methods were used in the selected studies. Narrative interviews were the most frequently used method; twelve out of 22 studies utilizing this method (58,59,62,63,65,72,73,75,76,79,80,85). In these studies, participants were asked to recall the days before migration, and describe the genocide or conflict they witnessed during their migration journey and/or after resettling in the host country.…”

“…In these studies, participants were asked to recall the days before migration, and describe the genocide or conflict they witnessed during their migration journey and/or after resettling in the host country. Two of these studies used the archived data in which narrative interviews of refugee participants were preserved (76,80). Nets-Zehngut (80) compared archival narratives collected from 131 Palestinian refugee people with the recorded history of the Palestinian refugee people's lives.…”

“…In six studies (64,72,73,76,79,85), both adolescent and adult refugee participants mentioned an alteration of past identities and accountabilities. They perceived their refugee status as worthless compared to their pre-migration life (85).…”

Borderland Child Heterotopias. A Case Study on the Belgian-German Borderlands

“…In order to understand how individual children reacted to such policies, researchers have used the oral history method. The testimonies of adults recalling their childhood years in borderlands after World War II, for example, have revealed that children were more flexible than adults in adopting, and adapting to, the premises of a postwar reality (Wylegała 2015).…”