Refugees in Their Own Country: Women, Children and Elderly People Caught up in the Transylvanian Theaters of War during the Great War
Refugees in Their Own Country: Women, Children and Elderly People Caught up in the Transylvanian Theaters of War during the Great War

Summary/Abstract: The First World War engendered an emblematic image of the twentieth century: the figure of the war refugee. For more than four years, Europe was a theatre of war in which entire populations were displaced from their regions of origin, while others awaited similar decisions. Having entered the war in 1914, Transylvania was one of the areas where refugees sought shelter. Throughout the war, in different areas and in various stages, the Transylvanian population had to cope with several waves of refugees who tried to find a safe haven in the interior of the province. This research aims to reconstruct and analyze this experience of the civilian refugees from the border areas of Transylvania, who looked for safety inside their own province. In other words, we intend to focus on the behavior of the refugees and on that of the population from the receiving areas, the attitudes and reactions of the host communities, the image of the refugees and its reception at the local community level, the initiatives taken by the state authorities and by charitable organizations, the difficult integration in the new communities, the host communities’ reactions of solidarity or rejection, the refugees’ return and reintegration in their places of origin, as well as the rebuilding of areas and houses that had been partially or fully destroyed.

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