Collection - UWAC and Ukrainian Refugees, 1940s-1960s

• Multiple media

Approximately 1500 pages of letters (typed and handwritten)
envelopes
postcards
photographs
booklets
brochures
series
press clippings
administrative correspondence
printed ephemera
other documents

The collection was preserved by the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada and, in recent years, maintained by Lesia Perritt with the support of UWAC leadership. Digitization and initial translations were supported by the Sustainable Ukrainian Canadian Heritage (SUCH) Program coordinated by the Kule Folklore Centre.

This collection comprises over 1000 letters (in Ukrainian and other languages), postcards, and related documents collected and preserved by leaders of the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada—most recently by Lesia Perritt. It captures the voices of skytaltsi, Ukrainian displaced persons (DPs), refugees, and forced labourers (Ostarbeiters) in post–Second World War Europe, particularly from 1945 to the early 1960s. The materials document appeals for assistance, personal narratives of survival, searches for loved ones, and expressions of cultural identity and resilience.

Included are:

Correspondence between UWAC leadership and Ukrainian displaced persons.
Letters to and from notable individuals, including military leaders, artists, writers, and educators.
Letters from Ukrainian pupils in DP camp schools in Germany addressed to Canadian schoolchildren.
A 1940s letter from UWAC to Eleanor Roosevelt urging the non-repatriation of Ukrainians to the Soviet Union.
Official UWAC correspondence with Canadian and British governmental departments in support of DPs and wartime efforts.
Printed materials such as a 1942 Canadian Women’s Army Corps conference program, brochures, press clippings, and internal reports.

The collection is multilingual—primarily in Ukrainian and English—and spans a wide geographic range, including Canada, Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East.