Paper short abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to examine different perceptions of the escape of Latvian World War Two refugees and to analyze the reasons both of the canonical perspective and different versions of the escape stories. Analysis is based on the sources from the National Oral history archive.

Paper long abstract:

During World War II, when Soviet troops approached Latvian territory, approximately 250 thousand people left country. At the end of the war, approximately 150 000-200 000 of these refugees had reached Allied zones of occupation in Germany, where they lived in DP camps for several years before moving to USA, Australia and other countries. In the context of refugee narratives, the years spent in DP camps were essential because that was the time when exile ideology was formed. The impact which this ideology and also other factors such as repeated retelling and comparing of the same stories left on the escape narratives can be also observed in the life-story interviews of the exile Latvians which are gathered in the National Oral History archive of Latvia. Despite their uniqueness, large part of these stories corresponds to the canonical reception of the home leaving and escape. However, some life-story authors express different perspectives on these events. For example, the youngest generation refugees (children and youngsters) took going abroad more like an adventure, not something undesirable and deterrent like most of the other refugees. These people also do not interpret the events of the fleeing so tragically in their life stories as the other ex-refugees.

Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine these different perceptions of the home leaving and escape and to analyze the reasons both of the canonical perspective and different versions of the escape stories. Analysis is based on the sources of the National Oral history archive.