Repatriation – no! The political protest of the West German DP in the second half of the 1940s

Abstract

Purpose. Based on a broad source base, we aim to identify and analyze the forms and effectiveness of the political protest of displaced persons and refugees from Ukraine in West Germany in the second half of the 1940s in response to forced repatriation to the USSR. Methodology. General scientific methods such as analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction were used during the research. Among the special-historical methods are the methods of bibliographic and archival heuristics, comparative-historical, problem-chronological and biographical. In this study, we use the term «political protest», which is understood as follows: political protest – individual or group action of displaced persons and refugees from Ukraine, which consisted of disagreement with the forced repatriation campaign to the USSR, which unfolded in the second half of the 1940s in West Germany. Scientific novelty. The forms and consequences of the political protest of displaced persons and refugees from Ukraine in West Germany in the second half of the 1940s were first identified and analyzed. Main results. The protest of displaced persons and refugees against forced repatriation became a socio-political phenomenon of the DP era. Protest actions taken by the DP forced the governments of the United States and Great Britain to reconsider their attitude to repatriation to the USSR, they stopped promoting Soviet repatriation commissions in West Germany, and in the fall of 1945 they stopped forced repatriation.