On the Road from Homeland to Homeland. Forced Displacements and Migrations in East Europe in the Context of the Second World War and Today

This public discussion will bring together historians and sociologists from Poland and Ukraine to summarize ideas expressed during the workshop "Movements Across Borders: Post-War Migration and Experiences of Borderland People" and bridge the gap between the tragic events of the mid 20th century and the present days.

Important subjects to be discussed will be about the appropriateness of historical, legal, and political categories used to conceptualize postwar migrations, as well as about the current social and political debate on how to evaluate and memorialize the events. Discussants will try to answer the following questions: How to include specific projects of displacements enforced by the European states in the 20th century into a broader history of social engineering? Which are and which could be contemporary ways of memorializing the postwar deportations? How could present-day migration experiences (especially from Ukraine to Poland, but mostly due to the recent annexation of part of Ukrainian territory, and undermining of the international system of borders and internal displacements) bring forward new issues both for research and for social debate, and for understanding of different memories and similar experiences related to changes of borders and forced migrations of the mid 20th century?

Discussants: Dr. Tomasz Stryjek (Warsaw), Dr. Olga Gnydiuk (Kyiv-Berlin), prof. Robert Traba (Olsztyn-Warsaw), Dr. Roman Kabachiy (Kyiv), Dr. Hab. Joanna Konieczna-Salamatin (Warsaw). Moderator: Dr. Volodymyr Sklokin (UCU, Lviv)

Working languages: Polish, Ukrainian, with simultaneous translation.

Credits

Сover Image: Jerzy Lewczyński (1924-2014) – Nasze powiększenie – Nysa 1945, z kolekcji Muzeum Historii Fotografii w Krakowie / from the collection of the Museum of Photography In Kraków

Image Gallery by Iryna Sereda