Orphans of postwar Europe. Experience of child survivors of violence and development of care expertise and welfare institutions in Poland and Switzerland since 1944

Maria Buko’s postdoctoral project in the context of the Chair of Eastern European History’s strategic programme ‘Violence in East and West: Towards an Integrated History of the 20th Century Europe’ traces the history of parentally deprived children in postwar Europe, accounting for the history of care expertise and welfare institutions which developed around them. Drawing on the history of transnational exchanges of the late 1940s, the study develops an original comparative perspective bringing together the history of Poland and Switzerland, an emerging socialist state and a capitalist welfare state. As a result, the project intends to develop an original and integrated perspective on the history of orphaned children in the postwar period — those who went through war violence, as well as those who experienced physical, mental and symbolic violence in the medico-pedagogical context of the childcare institutions.

The study seeks to broaden the historical perspective on the postwar violence against children in Europe in the context of the transnational exchange of expertise, by identifying the following levels: 1. Individual experiences and emotions of children who survived war violence and violence in care institutions, 2. Reformulated theories in psychology, psychiatry, pedagogy, social work, and education towards youngsters, 3. Emerging new institutions and legal regulations on both national and transnational levels.

Aspects of violence that are explored within the project are: war violence, domestic violence, institutional violence in welfare and educational institutions, symbolic violence.