Project Details: aims and methods
The first stage of this study will involve members of my own family and interviews with other expellees, especially from Kitchener, Ontario, one of the largest German communities in Canada. In general, the subject group will be ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War from Eastern and South Eastern Europe.
The immediate outcome of this study will be a book chapter for the proposed volume "Memory, War and Conflict in 20th Century Europe" edited by Conny Mithander, John Sundholm (both from the University of Karlstad) and myself. As the title suggests, the major aim is to chart the manner in which wartime experiences are remembered and represented from the perspectives of both individuals and larger groups or societies, with a particular emphasis on the collective memory and representation of crisis and conflict. I also plan to write an entire book on this topic.
Scholarly Significance of Project
Until relatively recently, the topic of German expellees has been largely avoided, both in academia and the popular press. The lack of public discussion is particularly evident in Germany where the experiences of the Second World War were mired in complex webs of guilt, resentment and brooding silence. In terms of documenting the memories and oral histories of German-Canadians on this subject, the volume of research and discussion is equally thin. This project thus fills a gap in existing scholarship and discussion. The project is also significant in terms of addressing the complex issues around wartime experiences, especially those associated with the side responsible for atrocities and crimes against humanity, as in the case of Nazi Germany. Among the questions that I hope to investigate are: how do Germans who lived through WWII come to terms with personal experiences of loss in relation to how history books and mainstream media usually rpresent the Second World War? What stories are told to the children of the expellees? At what point or in what stage of life does it become "permissible" to mention the war, especially in terms of what the German people (particularly the Volksdeutsche) had to endure? The responses to such questions are important not only in terms of what they tell us about a particular period in history but also in terms of the more general issues of memory, justice and reconciliation within the context of war, conflict and genocide.
Methodology
This project will be based mainly on oral histories in the form of video taped interviews with German Canadians who immigrated to Canada in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As this is part of my own family history, I have started to interview members of my immediate family, notably my mother (Ursula Kitzmann) who lived in small town outside of Danzig and who (along with her family) was forced to flee as the Russian army advanced. In order to make contact with other expellees, I plan to contact German-Canadian organizations in Kitchener as well as run a small announcement in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. The interview method will be based on the "open interview" approach by allowing the interviewees to narrate their stories with as little interference from me as possible. Among the few direct questions I will make use of are: Please tell me about your experiences as an expellee or refugee towards the end of the war. What do you remember life being like in Germany, before, during and after the war? Upon arriving in Canada, how did you feel about being German? How would you say your own experiences during the war relate or compare to how war-time Germany is portrayed in movies, television and popular fiction? Did you or do you talk about your war-time experiences with your children?
The first stage of this study will involve members of my own family and interviews with other expellees, especially from Kitchener, Ontario, one of the largest German communities in Canada. In general, the subject group will be ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) who immigrated to Canada after the Second World War from Eastern and South Eastern Europe.
The immediate outcome of this study will be a book chapter for the proposed volume "Memory, War and Conflict in 20th Century Europe" edited by Conny Mithander, John Sundholm (both from the University of Karlstad) and myself. As the title suggests, the major aim is to chart the manner in which wartime experiences are remembered and represented from the perspectives of both individuals and larger groups or societies, with a particular emphasis on the collective memory and representation of crisis and conflict. I also plan to write an entire book on this topic.
Scholarly Significance of Project
Until relatively recently, the topic of German expellees has been largely avoided, both in academia and the popular press. The lack of public discussion is particularly evident in Germany where the experiences of the Second World War were mired in complex webs of guilt, resentment and brooding silence. In terms of documenting the memories and oral histories of German-Canadians on this subject, the volume of research and discussion is equally thin. This project thus fills a gap in existing scholarship and discussion. The project is also significant in terms of addressing the complex issues around wartime experiences, especially those associated with the side responsible for atrocities and crimes against humanity, as in the case of Nazi Germany. Among the questions that I hope to investigate are: how do Germans who lived through WWII come to terms with personal experiences of loss in relation to how history books and mainstream media usually rpresent the Second World War? What stories are told to the children of the expellees? At what point or in what stage of life does it become "permissible" to mention the war, especially in terms of what the German people (particularly the Volksdeutsche) had to endure? The responses to such questions are important not only in terms of what they tell us about a particular period in history but also in terms of the more general issues of memory, justice and reconciliation within the context of war, conflict and genocide.
Methodology
This project will be based mainly on oral histories in the form of video taped interviews with German Canadians who immigrated to Canada in the late 1940s and early 1950s. As this is part of my own family history, I have started to interview members of my immediate family, notably my mother (Ursula Kitzmann) who lived in small town outside of Danzig and who (along with her family) was forced to flee as the Russian army advanced. In order to make contact with other expellees, I plan to contact German-Canadian organizations in Kitchener as well as run a small announcement in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. The interview method will be based on the "open interview" approach by allowing the interviewees to narrate their stories with as little interference from me as possible. Among the few direct questions I will make use of are: Please tell me about your experiences as an expellee or refugee towards the end of the war. What do you remember life being like in Germany, before, during and after the war? Upon arriving in Canada, how did you feel about being German? How would you say your own experiences during the war relate or compare to how war-time Germany is portrayed in movies, television and popular fiction? Did you or do you talk about your war-time experiences with your children?