Exilic Childhood in Very Foreign Lands: Memoirs of Polish Refugees in World War II

Abstract

The cultural representations of World War II have been dominated by narratives of suffering, victimization, displacement, and death, as much in Poland as elsewhere. But frequently forgotten are the stories of hope and survival of thousands of Poles who escaped the terror of war and found safe haven in distant, and often ‘exotic’, lands such as Persia, India, Africa, and Mexico. To date, little scholarly attention has been paid to the cultural portrayals of these experiences. Conspicuously absent in most of this research is an examination of the Polish refugee children and their personal experience of exile. Building on a selection of memoirs and shorter first-hand accounts, this article explores the authors’ experience of these ‘very foreign lands’, their encounters with local populations and, in many cases, the eventual permanent migration. The stories discussed in this article challenge the stereotypical view of childhood passivity and victimhood, and highlight the constructed nature of childhood. By showing the multitude of ways in which children were able to build peaceful, happy environments away from home, often with the help of local populations, this paper is also relevant to the current debate on the ongoing refugee crisis, emphasizing that once it was Europeans who sought refuge in ‘very foreign lands’.