Displaced Persons' Experiences of Trauma and Responses to Contemporary Crisis in Europe: An Oral History of Engagement with Refugees

Abstract

The contemporary refugee crisis is an ongoing global concern. For the many East European displaced persons who were resettled in Queensland following the Second World War, these events are particularly poignant. Their prior experiences of violence, incarceration and encampment are being echoed in current developments, and contribute to their approach towards these events today. While scholars have considered generalised public attitudes towards refugees, little comparative research exists to assess the impact of this situation on displaced persons in Australia. Even less knowledge exists to inform practitioners’, scholars’, and policy makers’ understanding of how former refugees are engaging with this current crisis, and thus how resettled refugees can be supported as they reconcile their own experiences of violence and loss with public debate surrounding the validity of refugees’ claims for asylum. This article shows that the displacement and trauma of post-war Polish, Ukrainian, and Latvian displaced persons retain an ongoing influence on their perceptions of crisis and displacement in the present. It reveals a unique response to mass refugee movements that speaks to their own experiences as displaced persons. This reflects the way in which these displaced families’ remembered experiences have become crucial to their engagement with contemporary events and refugees.