Selected experiences from the Poland's Recovered Territories in light of biographical narrations of persons forcibly resettled as part of the 1947 “Operation Vistula”

Abstract

In the text drawn up using the ‘oral history’ method, the Author presents selected components of biographic experiences of persons forcibly resettled during the course of "Operation Vistula" in 1947. The interviewees, born in the areas of the mountains of Bieszczady and the foothills of Przemyśl, corresponding to today's south-eastern Poland, due to political decisions, were forcibly relocated to the area of present-day Pomerania. Forcibly removed from the local communities, they were moved to Biały Bór and the surrounding area. The author, frequently quoting his interviewees directly, shows selected fragments of experiences of those forcibly relocated. Among the discussed topics are memories of the trip to the unknown Recovered Territories, as well as the memory of new homes, where the Ukrainian and Lemko people were settled. In the work, the author broadly acquaints the reader with the memory of new neighbours, who, together with those resettled, began to create new local communities in the Recovered Territories.