MATERIAL AND MORAL VALUES IN EXILE LATVIAN DISPLACEMENT NARRATIVES
MATERIAL AND MORAL VALUES IN EXILE LATVIAN DISPLACEMENT NARRATIVES

Summary/Abstract: The article explores the memories of exile Latvians by analysing the role of material values in the process of their displacement from Latvia in 1944/1945, as well as the manifestations of moral values revealed in the narratives of the actions, choices and decisions of refugees. The study is based on life story interviews gathered in the National Oral History Archive which convey the displacement experience in an intense way by vividly depicting the psychological and emotional circumstances and also the material issues that people faced in the particular historical situation. The sources confirmed that refugees tried to think practically and take only the most necessary things with them, but quite often it turned out that they were not prepared for how far and long their refugee journey would turn out to be. Moreover, it turned out that memories of material items taken along by the refugees were often directly related to the symbolic value that these objects acquired over time. The sources also identified common values relevant to the refugees (nature and life, solidarity, justice, responsibility, goodness, and freedom) which were revealed both in the way how exile Latvians reflected on their own and other people’s actions and in the episodes chosen to be included in their life story.

• Details
• Contents