‘From Nazi Inferno to Soviet Hell’: Polish-Jewish children and youth and their trajectories of survival during and after the Second World War

This article relates the experiences of Polish-Jewish children, born or raised in Germany, who survived the war in the Soviet hinterland, and validates that their traumatic wartime experiences had long-lasting consequences. Over the course of the years 1938 to 1945, as well as throughout the post-war decade, this group of children survived several fundamental, political transformations, which deeply affected and irrevocably changed their lives. These caesuras thrust them through a triad of transitions: as young deportees and refugees they ceased to be children; they were moved forcibly from one country to another; and the emotional pain and trauma they experienced during forced migrations. All of these children were refugees three or more times over: expelled from Germany to Poland, deported or sent to the interior of the Soviet Union, ‘repatriated’ from the USSR to Poland, they fled to Displaced Persons camps in Germany or Austria, and finally emigrated to Western countries. These extremely personal accounts of Polish-Jewish children experiences not only open a window into the past and help us to better understand the special plight of child victims and survivors, but they also allow us to reflect more deeply, thoughtfully, and comprehensively on the present-day issues of forced migration, displacement, and refugee crises.

SECOND STAGE OF PEASANT EXILE TO THE NORTH OF WESTERN SIBERIA (1931): LITTLE-STUDIED AND DEBATABLE ISSUES

Researchers identify three stages in the organization of forced migrations of peasants and their families in the early 1930 to the North of Western Siberia. This was due to mass dekulakization in the USSR. Previous studies often contain contradictory and incomplete data. These relate to the chronology stages and number of peasants. The article is a continuation of the research topic. This is a clarification of the stages of the “kulak” exile and the number of peasants sent to the North. This is the territory of the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous districts today. In the study of the beginning of the stage (1930), we have clarity. We do not have complete data about the second stage. These are questions such as the time of sending special settlers, transportation, the number of exiles. We want to clarify which organizations they were sent to work for. We do not have precise data on the geography of settlement. We do not know the total number of special settlers by the end of 1931 in the national districts. The researchers did not provide data on demographic losses. The article examines the little-studied and debatable issues of the second stage of peasant exile based on available research and available sources. It is considered on the materials of the Ostyako-Vogul and Yamalo-Nenets districts (1931). The author finds out the chronological boundaries of the methods of transporting peasants in the summer of 1931. The article provides reasonable data on the number of sent special settlers (1930-1931). The researcher shows the placement areas. The article examines the actual presence of a special population in the national districts by the end of 1931.

Interaction and Interference of Languages in Bilingual Germans of the Vyatka Region of Russia

The article examines the interaction of the German and Russian languages in the speech of bilingual Germans who were born and live in a Russian-speaking environment in the Vyatka region of Russia. This task involves the study of their usage, interference (including phonetic, lexical and syntactic assimilation), as well as borrowings and code-switching. The dialects of the Russian Germans of the Vyatka region have a status of migrant and belong to a category of vanishing supraregional linguistic entities. The function of this variety of language is to provide a link between the native German language of the immigrants (L1) and Russian, their major surrounding language (L2). In addition, the German language of the Vyatka region reflects new linguistic contacts caused by multiple forced migrations during the Second World War. As a result of these mass relocations, some new processes in interaction of dialects arose, not observed in their mother colonies. The resulting variety of usage can be referred to as a German-Russian interlanguage. Before the World War II, all German dialects for more than two centuries have been confined in Russia to enclaves (or dialect islands). After mass deportations, they transformed both geographically and, for certain dialects, in terms of social composition. Taking this into account, the study of their interactions acquires greater importance for understanding similar processes associated with modern intercultural language contacts, in general. These changes in the language environment boosted linguistic interference at all levels; they also account for the tendency to bilingual behavior common both for speakers of standard and dialectal German. Our analysis of these processes is based on the interviews with bilingual Germans of the Vyatka region of Russia recorded during dialectological trips to this enclave. The study identifies and describes phonetic interactions (both segmental and supersegmental), morphological and syntactic interferences in the Russian and German speech of the Germans of this dialect island. All these processes in L1 and L2, as well as their distortion and mixing, are typical for the mechanisms governing their bilingual performance as well as the degree of its stability.

Swiss Brethren and Dutch Mennonites

Severe persecution and frequent migration threatened the survival of various Anabaptist groups and their leaders who lacked a salary or benefits, unlike magisterial Protestant reformers or Catholic clergy. Voluntary leaders like Menno Simons had to sacrifice a stable family life because of traveling visitations and forced migrations. Considered outlaws in most places, Anabaptists could not rely on any state support. The forms of poor relief among Swiss Brethren (including south German and Austrian Anabaptists) and Dutch Mennonites emerged out of a biblical rationale that the church of true believers practiced mutual aid out of love and obedience to Christ’s precepts and example. Anabaptist leaders relied a great deal on the networks of scattered Anabaptist communities, even though any aid to wanted Anabaptist fugitives could lead to criminal punishment. Mutual aid became a defining characteristic of the Anabaptists as a clear sign of faith and good works.

Cultural landscape as element of spatial negotiations in a small town: The example of Giżycko, Poland

We are used to situations where landscapes are decomposing, changing and disappearing – it is a common side-effect of globalization, migrations, weakening of cross-generational transmission, climate change, rapid and chaotic urbanization processes, etc. However, what happens when the physical part of a landscape remains but the people are gone? After the Second World War, there were several places in Europe where the change of population was in total due to mass exterminations and forced migrations of all nations or groups. One of these was Mazury, where the former German population was moved in 1945 and replaced by Polish immigrants from many different areas. The new community had to reintegrate the landscape and put new narrations to places and objects they found on site. Some of the pre-war characters of the region remained despite an almost complete population shift, which may lead to a conclusion that landscapes have an element of their own biography.

Migracje z ziem polskich w XIX wieku we współczesnych podręcznikach do historii dla szkoły podstawowej

19th century migrations from the Polish lands in contemporary primary school history textbooks The article presents the problem of political, economic and forced migrations of people from Polish lands in the 19th century, discussed in recently published history textbooks for elementary school students. Textbooks based on the old and the new core curriculum were compared. The analysis of textbooks was based on the model developed by Raymond Nkwenti Fru of the National University of Lesotho. This model allows us to see explicit and implicit content and take into account different types of textbook narratives. Artykuł prezentuje problem migracji politycznych, ekonomicznych oraz przymusowych przesiedleń ludności z ziem polskich w XIX wieku przedstawiony we współczesnych podręcznikach do historii dla uczniów szkoły podstawowej. Porównano podręczniki napisane w oparciu o „starą” i „nową” podstawę programową. Podręczniki przeanalizowano w oparciu o model wypracowany przez Raymonda Nkwenti Fru z Narodowego Uniwersytetu Lesotho (National University of Lesotho). Model ten pozwala dostrzec treści jawne i ukryte, uwzględnić różne typy narracji podręcznikowych.

Looking for Better: A History of Black Southern Migrations

A broad overview of migrations affecting black southerners is presented, including the Atlantic slave trade, the domestic slave trade, colonization movements to Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Exoduster movement, the Great Migration, and the Return South migration. Emigrants convey their experiences and motivations through testimonies and personal accounts. Surviving the trauma of forced migrations, black southerners organized numerous migration movements both outside and within American polities in search of better opportunities. In the late 20th century, black southerners also initiated a return migration to the American South and have since achieved notable socioeconomic and political progress.