Sudetenland destinies

The “Sudetenland Destinies” project focuses on the history and the destinies of the mostly German-speaking population of the borderlands between Czechoslovakia and Germany and Austria (Sudetenland or “Sudety” in Czech). The inhabitants of the borderlands included Germans, Czechs, Jews and a number of people from mixed families and marriages. They were born in the region in the period between the wars and most of them were expelled at the end of WWII. A few of them were allowed to stay or sooner or later returned to the place where they were born and they now constitute the living memory of the region. Others came after the war to become the new settlers of the region. These people represent the majority of our sample of witnesses. They were mostly Czechoslovaks, but also Romanians, Yugoslavs or inhabitants of Volhynia. Others came even later to find a job here and settle down. The witnesses were mostly found through our extensive network of personal contacts. As we’ve been involved in oral-history projects for over ten years, our network of contacts has grown over the years. Frequently, one interview led to another and our network of witnesses multiplied. The recording usually took place over the course of two sessions, most often at witnesses’ homes. The recordings were made on a digital recorder, mostly by one interviewer. The recordings were saved in wav. format with a back-up on CD/DVD.

All narators were informed about the proceeding with their recording and agreed with its publication on the internet.