A Small Signpost to the Future’: Refugee Periodicals and Knowledge in Transit in Early Post-War Switzerland

Author(s) : Ramon Wiederkehr

Source : https://doi.org/10.1163/23519924-11020002

Abstract:

This article examines the emergence and use of periodicals among displaced people in Switzerland as sources of refugee knowledge in the aftermath of the Second World War. Based on a close examination of two such publications that appeared between 1943 and 1950, as well as supplementary archival materials, the article shows how critical knowledge about return and emigration was disseminated through these mediums. It argues that Swiss refugee periodicals helped forge a community in transit, aiding in the mental and practical preparation of refugees’ postwar existence, while also entrenching national governments’ and international organisations’ refugee policies. Focusing on the medium of knowledge production at an actor-centred, microhistorical level, the article contributes both to our understanding of the formation of postwar refugeedom ‘from below’ as well as the alpine republic’s particular place within the global refugee regime.