Deportation of Germans: adaptation and life according to oral historical sources (based on materials from the Eastern Region)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the memory of the German people about the deportation of 1941, their oral memories of the resettlement and its consequences. The purpose of this article is to reveal the process of deportation and stay on the Kazakh land of one of the numerous ethnic groups - Germans who were moved from their native places. The main source was interviews with the descendants of the deportees who live in the territory of the Abai region. The information received from them is most valuable because they were directly involved in the deportation process, and the materials also make it possible to form an idea of the fate of the German people, to evaluate history not from the point of view of figures and official reports, but from the point of view ofpeople who were in a difficult life situation. There are many common plots in the narratives about the deportation and its consequences. These stories are filled with pain, representatives of the older generation try to push tragic memories out of their memory. It is concluded that, despite all the hardships, the German people, together with representatives of other ethnic groups, were able to adapt and contribute to the economic development of the region.