by Lauren Banko In 1943, after months of unanswered petitions and requests for relief made by an Ethiopian nun named Abraha in Jerusalem to the Palestine’s Mandate, a final emotionally-charged plea for repatriation addressed to the mandate’s British high commissioner proclaimed Abraha to be “so suffering . . . half dead with such a miserable…
‘A Sufferer and Retired Assistant’: the Story of R.T. Shamdas, a Sindhi Refugee
In April 1969, a refugee by the name of R.T. Shamdas submitted a petition to the President of India, V.V. Giri, and to the Indian Premier, Indira Gandhi. He described himself as: a permanent displaced Government servant from Sind (West Pakistan) whose financial circumstances on arrival in the Partitioned India were very poor on account…
Just published: “Communities under Fire” by Alex Dowdall
We are delighted to announce that the book Communities under Fire. Urban Life at the Western Front, 1914-1918 by our team member, Alex Dowdall, has just been published by Oxford University Press. The book is available in hardback and as an e-book. This book Provides the first comprehensive study of civilian experiences at the Western…
‘Library of Horrors’ – Searching for Refugee Voices in the Arolsen Archives
It took me one flight and three train rides to get there. I didn’t mind, the rural German landscape was soothing and I was well aware my destination was ‘far away from everything and near to nothing.’[1] Bad Arolsen is a small sleepy town with a majestic castle. Why would it be the location of…
‘We die, while our brave and generous defenders define, in their sumptuous palaces, the exact meaning of the word refugee’: Ivan Nagivin’s Letters to the League of Nations
Ivan Nagivine (alternately Nagivin or Nazhivin) was a Russian author and refugee displaced to France and Belgium after the Russian Revolution. A prolific writer, his numerous works included a 1,500 page novel on the life of Grigori Rasputin, and an account of Russia’s First World War, Revolution, and Civil War from the perspective of a…
Katarzyna Nowak wins BASEES 2020 Postgraduate Prize
We are delighted to annouce that Katarzyna Nowak, Research Associate on the Reckoning with Refugeedom project, has won the prestigious BASEES 2020 Postgraduate Prize, for an article entitled ‘A Gloomy Carnival of Freedom. Sex, Gender and Emotions Among Polish Displaced Persons in the Aftermath of World War II’. The judging panel praised the article, writing…
‘The Unsettling of Europe’ gains international attention
“Migrants have stood at the heart of modern Europe’s experience, whether trying to escape danger, to find a better life or as a result of deliberate policy, whether moving from the countryside to the city, or between countries, or from outside the continent altogether.” We are delighted that Peter Gatrell’s newest book, The Unsettling of…
Madame Mouravieff’s Plea to the Commissioner of Police, Bombay, November 1920
‘I am so tired; I have been suffering too much during my life and I am overwhelmed with grief’. Thus wrote a female refugee of Russian origin in November 1920, part of a two-page letter to the Commissioner of Police in Bombay, signed ‘Madame Mouravieff’. One of the challenges of this project is of encountering…
Polish Refugee Women from the British Colonial Africa and Their Fierce Protest Against Resettlement Procedures
In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt acting as a chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights received a petition that included the following words: We dare to request that you present on the international forum the question, which concerns all Displaced Persons, of a radical revision of the requirements and exorbitant restrictions applied to…
“Fragments”by Mei Yuk Wong
Responding to the archival material gathered for our project, artist Mei Yuk Wong created an exhibition engaging with the voices of refugees from the past. She used letters, newspaper cuttings, notes and pictures to create an installation which lets us glimpse into traces left by refugees and collected by historians to reconstruct their stories. Printed…
