Departing from Krickerhau, Arriving to Handlová: Migration in Childhood Memories of German Expellees and Slovak Settlers

• In Event: Forced to Move: Remembering Children's Displacement and Migration in WWII and its Aftermath in East-Central Europe

Abstract

Handlová (German Krickerhau) is one of the centers of Hauerland, a region in central Slovakia that was until the end of WWII dominated by the German-speaking population. As a result of the war, Slovak Germans were forced to leave their homes. They were replaced by Slovak settlers who had previously lived in neighboring regions or other European countries. After the war, Slovaks from Hungary, France, Belgium, Romania and Carpathian Ruthenia came to Handlová to replace local Germans. Based on analysis of oral history interviews the proposed paper focuses on the childhood experiences of the original German population of Krickerhau as well as the new inhabitants of post-WWII Handlová. The childhood of both - German expellees and Slovak settlers - was ruptured by (forced) migration. However, while Germans were leaving most of their belongings behind and departing for Germany destroyed by the war, Slovaks returned to their “home country” with most of their movable property. The proposed paper, therefore, asks about how the experienced migration is being remembered nowadays by both groups. What are similarities and differences of their narratives?

Author

• Michal Korhel, Inst of Slavic Studies PAS (Poland)