migrácia

Handlová (German Krickerhau) was one of the main centres of Hauerland, a region in central Slovakia inhabited predominantly by a German-speaking population until the end of the Second World War. As a consequence of wartime events and post-war population transfers, German, and later Czechoslovak, authorities forced Slovak Germans to leave their homes. After 1945, Slovak settlers from neighbouring regions as well as from Hungary, France, Belgium, Romania, and Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia arrived in Handlová to take the place of the ousted German population.

Epidemics of infectious diseases have always been associated with the humankind since times immemorial. They would always become widespread first in areas struck by wars. They caused death, economic disasters and conditions of famine, disorganisation of healthcare and sanitary structures and/or mass migrations of population. During WWI all these phenomena manifested themselves with enormous force.

The Second World War had a damaging impact upon many Polish families. As a result of the decision carried out by the Allies, the Poles settled in the territory of the Second Polish Republic (Rzeczpospolita II) were forced to leave their homes. The tragic circumstances related to their expulsion, the difficult journey to other lands and conditions under which they were rebuilding their existence in a new, unknown land, were described in diaries and memoirs. In this paper the writer subjects these texts to a detailed analysis.