Going Home, Staying or Emigrating: Former WWII-Forced Labourers in Ukraine

Abstract

Former WWII-forced labourers have dealt with their experiences in various ways. Migrations before, during and after the war have made a lasting impact. So there are individual and collective ways of dealing with these experiences. In an internationally comparative approach, commonalities and differences of these ways will be analysed within the contexts of the respective societal structures, political systems and of the evolving cultures of commemoration since 1945 in three different countries: (1) Ukraine as it was the origin of one of the biggest single national groups of forced labourers; (2) Germany as it was the country that initiated and orchestrated the Europe-wide system of forced labour, but also coerced some of its own citizens to work; and (3) England as it was the most important immigration country for former forced labourers within Europe, while there were also British Prisoners of War who had to perform forced labour; the relation between individual and collective memories with regard to the specific experiences of the former forced labourers is also taken into consideration. Finally, the understanding of the term “forced labour” that has been developed within historiography is contrasted with the subjective evaluations of the people concerned.