We’re documenting the history of the Siberian deportees—fieldwork in Tarnowskie Góry, Sosnowiec, and Katowice!

As part of the project titled “The Diaspora of Polish Siberian Deportees Around the World—A Compilation of Primary Sources / Notes and Home Archives of Siberian Deportees in Poland—An Archival Collection,” carried out under the National Program for the Development of the Humanities of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, we have completed another phase of fieldwork—this time in Tarnowskie Góry, Sosnowiec, and Katowice.

We began the project with a meeting with members of the Katowice Branch of the Association of Siberian Deportees. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to President Małgorzata Kalańska and Barbara Michniak for their warm welcome and assistance in reaching additional witnesses to history.

During the three-day fieldwork, we recorded seven interviews with Siberian deportees—most of whom were exiled in 1940, but also with those deported after World War II. We had the pleasure of meeting with members of the Katowice Branch of the Siberian Deportees’ Association, as well as representatives of current and former local chapters from Tarnowskie Góry, Sosnowiec, and Racibórz. Each conversation was incredibly valuable and moving. Thanks to such meetings, we can preserve personal accounts of the deportations, life in exile, and the postwar fates of the Siberian deportees, saving them from oblivion.

In addition to memoirs, source materials from private archives have also been added to the Center’s Archives. They serve as a valuable supplement to the collected accounts and an important element in preserving the memory of the Siberian deportees’ fates.
We sincerely thank you for your hospitality and fruitful cooperation!