When the war was over: European refugees after 1945
The purpose of the exhibition is to convey the experiences of people displaced in Europe by the Second World War, their time in Displaced Persons camps, the relief work conducted by various organisations, and the eventual return home or resettlement of the refugees in new countries.
The exhibition displays original images and material collected in archives and libraries in the UK, USA, Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere in the course of the previous research project on East European population displacement and resettlement after the Second World War.
The exhibition is aimed particularly at those interested in European history, in questions of refugee experience, welfare and policy, as well as at local East European diaspora communities whose parents and grandparents passed through the DP Camps en route to settlement in Britain.
Lectures and talks have included:
- Researcher's talk (for the general public – Siobhan Peeling and Nick Baron)
- Reforming the Body Social: the Soviet 'Filtration' of returnees from Nazi Germany, 1944–1949 (Nick Baron)
- Disorder, Disease and Deviance: Migrants in Leningrad at the End of the Second World War (Siobhan Peeling)
Touring exhibition
To date, the exhibition has been shown in Nottingham Castle (August-September 2012); the University of Nottingham (October 2012); the University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel (February 2013); Highfield House, University of Nottingham (May–June 2013); the New Art Exchange, Nottingham (June 2014); at the UK HQ of Kresy-Siberia, an international organisation dedicated to examining and promoting the history of the Polish diaspora, Manchester (October 2014); Amersham Friends Meeting House (May 2015); and Chesham Friends Meeting House (September 2015).
If you would be interested in hosting the exhibition, which is available in both wall-hanging and floor-standing formats to suit different venues, please email the project organisers at:
postwar-refugees@nottingham.ac.uk