Społeczne i polityczne uwarunkowania powojennych migracji dobrowolnych. Przypadek Polaków ze wschodniej Słowacji w powiecie żarskim
Social and political determinants of voluntary post-war migrations. The case of Poles from eastern Slovakia in the district of Żary

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims at characterising the situation related to the re-emigration of Poles from Czechoslovakia to the Western and Northern Territories: historical background, personal motivations of the re-emigrants, travel conditions and re-arranging life in the Polish-German border area. However, it is not possible to fully highlight this issue without considering additional contexts, such as the conditions of residence before the war and in particular: the period between 1945 and 1948, from the end of the war to the moment of departure. The authors distinguish several key factors that can be considered as determinants of the integration of re-emigrants from the areas of eastern Slovakia. The decisive issue was the time of arrival and the fact that most farms that were habitable were occupied by settlers who had arrived earlier. What seems particularly interesting, this issue did not affect the decision on the direction of transport of re-emigrants. Even though the National Repatriation Office had knowledge about the fact that there were not enough farms and land in the district (powiat), the re-emigrants were directed to the West. What is more, the Przewóz commune in 1948 was only colonized in 40%, but this probably indicates that these were rather unattractive areas than forgotten ones. Relevant materials for the present study were collected during a query in the Archives of New Files in Warsaw, the most valuable ones coming from the files of the State Repatriation Office in Łódź together with reports of provincial branches in Rzeszów and Wrocław. Thanks also to the resources from the files of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was possible to obtain the information necessary to outline the broader pre-war context, mainly on the basis of notes of the Polish consular institutions in Košice and Uzhhorod. The archival material was supplemented and confronted with the recollections of the reemigrants, collected by the authors of the text using the spoken history method.

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