Repatriation and Resettlement of Ethnic
Poles
and the PUR Collection:
An Introduction
A massive collection of documents and papers exists regarding the
resettlement of the Polish population following World War II. This collection is
from the office of the
Państwowy Urząd
Repatriacyjny, commonly abbreviated as PUR.
In English, it’s called the State Office of Repatriation.
This incredible wealth of information is valuable to anyone
researching Polish roots of the Kresy
or former Eastern Territories of Poland, which were lost to the USSR at the end
of WWII. This group of ethnic Poles who were moved from their homes in the
pre-WWII Polish eastern lands are known as Repatriates. (In Polish, the term is
Repatriant, the plural is Repatrianci.) In the end, more than 1.2
million people were repatriated to Poland from the Kresy. (Kersten, 82)
In addition, the PUR Collection is important to anyone
researching the migration of ancestors within Poland at the end of WWII. This
group of Poles who lived within Poland but moved to the newly acquired western
territories to seek a new life and possible economic growth, are known as
Resettlers. (In Polish
Przesiedleniec, the plural is Przesiedleńcy.).
There are numerous documents concerning the migration of
ethnic Poles from outside pre-WWII Polish borders, such as from France, Belgium,
Yugoslavia, Rumania and other European nations. The information is valuable for
other ethnic groups as well. One can find important documents concerning ethnic
Germans forced out of the region, as well as Germans remaining in the new Polish
territory. Finally, there is an incredible wealth of information pertaining to
ethnic Ukrainians and Rusyns found within Polish borders after the war. In
particular, one can find records concerning the
Akcja Wisła, the
brutal government sponsored ethnic cleansing of Ukrainians and Rusyns from their
homeland in and around the Carpathian Mountains to be divided and relocated
throughout western and northern Poland. Although the information I provide can
aid all the ethnic groups listed above, in this article I will focus on the
migration of the ethnic Poles.
The PUR Collection consists of a wide range of archival sources. Of
special interest to the genealogist are lists of Poles repatriated and resettled
after the war, population statistics, memos and letters concerning individuals,
data concerning farmers and their land, livestock and equipment. There are
numerous reports on the various ethnic groups affected by the redrawing of the
national borders of Poland, the USSR and Germany.
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Repatriation, Resettlement and the PUR Collection
