"May God protect you and give you strength to survive". Epistolary materials from the Archive of the Center for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlement of the Pedagogical University of Krakow as a source for researching the fortunes of the Polish 'Sybiraks'

Abstract

The Archive of the Centre for Documentation of Deportations, Expulsions and Resettlement of the Pedagogical University of Kraków collects the records concerning the broadly defined forced migrations of the Polish citizens. Most of these records do not have an institutional character but are rather linked to particular individuals or families affected by the deportations, expulsions and resettlements. The largest part of the records concerns the so-called Polish 'Sybiraks', or deportees to Siberia, including the epistolary materials, which, based on their external form, can be divided into three groups: letters, postcards and secret messages smuggled in or out of prisons. In the first place, these sources are the evidence and confirmation that particular individuals were deported to the Soviet Union. Furthermore, they allow us to trace the way the Sybiraks moved, and to reveal their fortunes at different times and places: from the interwar period and life at the 'Kresy' (Eastern Borderlands) of the Second Polish Republic, through the exile in the Soviet Union, their rescue and life at the Polish settlements in Africa, India and New Zealand, to the arrival and life in the United Kingdom or Poland. In addition, these records provide us with some information on the realities of their everyday life, conditions of existence and social relations in the different settings. Lastly, the sources might contribute to the analysis of the attitudes and behaviour of the Polish deportees in emergency situations.