Resettlement of vulnerable groups: disabled DPs and victims of Forced labour
A Global Perspective on Displacement and Disability: Migration processes of Shoah survivors with health-related Challenges 1945-1963
Bringing together the fields of disability history, holocaust studies and displaced persons studies, this project scrutinizes migration processes of Shoah survivors with health-related challenges in a global perspective. Excluded from resettlement the early years after 1945, they became part of the so called “hard core” DPs and faced additional years or even decades in camps. This project follows the question of how Jewish DPs were hindered at first in their migration efforts due to violence-induced health issues, and how later migration schemes and rehabilitation programs for this specific group were established and organized in Europe and Asia with the help of the IRO and Jewish welfare organizations like the JDC, ORT and HIAS. Drawing on archival sources from over fifteen archives in Europe, Israel and the US, a mixed-methods approach is applied to work with these materials. Combining a qualitative microhistory analysis of personal documents and administrative correspondence with digital humanities-based GIS-mapping of migration routes and quantitative analysis of camp lists, this project aims to capture the diverse experiences of disability after the Shoah. By analyzing the development and negotiation of rehabilitation work and migration schemes, Johannes Glack tries to deepen the understanding of how disability was constructed after the Shoah and how this influenced individual life stories of Jewish DPs.
Johannes Glack, BA MA