About the Collection
The history of Armenian displaced persons, a community formed as a result of World War II, represents an important part of the contemporary Armenian experience and diaspora studies. World War II marked an episode of immense human displacement, which included the Armenian communities of the Soviet Union. Many Armenians, who lived in present-day Ukraine and Russia, along with the local civilian population, were moved to Germany and Austria as forced laborers. Meanwhile, many Soviet soldiers, including scores of Soviet Armenians, were captured as prisoners of war and estranged with no homes to return to as the war ended.
The Institute of Armenian Studies records oral histories through a series of interviews as well as gathers documents capturing the complex history of Armenian displaced persons, many of whom at the end of the war found refuge in the United States. Many of them congregated in Montebello, California, establishing a burgeoning Armenian community. The collection includes over 100 hours of recorded footage from 40 interviews and over one thousand photographs. Through this expanding collection, Institute provides researchers, interested in World War II, post-Genocide Armenian history, and Diaspora studies, valuable primary sources.
After the completion of digitization and documentation, the collection will be accessible through the USC Digital Library.
USC Digital Library
Completed oral history interviews and digitized materials are available on the USC Digital Libraries.
“When they told us we had arrived, we ran out to the upper deck and we looked up and there was the Statue of Liberty…Everybody cried…I was so happy.”
Excerpts from Interviews
Dive deep into the personal stories of Soviet-Armenian refugees and their odious journey from German camps to the United States of America. Here’s sample of some of the interviews in this collection.
