After World War II, some 12 million Germans, 3 million Poles and Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of Hungarians were expelled from their homes and forced to migrate to their supposed countries of origin. Using freshly available materials from Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czechoslovak, German, British, and American archives, the contributors to this book provide a sweeping, detailed account of the turmoil caused by the huge wave of forced migration during the nascent Cold War. The book also documents the deep and lasting political, social, and economic consequences of this traumatic time, raising difficult questions about the effect of forced migration on postwar reconstruction, the rise of Communism, and the growing tensions between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. Those interested in European Cold-War history will find this book indispensable for understanding the profound—but hitherto little known—upheavals caused by the massive ethnic cleansing that took place from 1944 to 1948.
Philipp Ther is professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute. Ana Siljak is managing editor of the Journal of Cold War Studies.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Series Foreword Chapter 2 Introduction Chapter 3 A Century of Forced Migration: The Origins and Consequences of Ethnic Cleansing Part 4 Part I: Creating a Polish Nation-State Chapter 5 Forced Migration and the Transformation of Polish Society in the Postwar Period Chapter 6 "Cleansing" Poland of Germans: The Province of Pomerania, 1945-1949 Chapter 7 Who Is a Pole, and Who Is a German? The Province of Olsztyn in 1945 Chapter 8 De-Germanization and "Re-Polonization" in Upper Silesia, 1945-1950 Chapter 9 Gathering Poles into Poland: Forced Migration from Poland's Former Eastern Territories Chapter 10 Expulsion, Resettlement, Civil Strife: The Fate of Poland´s Ukrainians, 1944-1947 Chapter 11 Overcoming Ukrainian Resistance: The Deportation of Ukrainians within Poland in 1947 Part 12 Part II: Retribution and Expulsion in Czechoslovakia Chapter 13 The Mechanics of Ethnic Cleansing: The Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, 1945-1947 Chapter 14 To Prosecute or to Expel? Czechoslovak Retribution and the "Transfer" of Sudeten Germans Chapter 15 The Social and Economic Consequences of Resettling Czechs into Northwestern Bohemia, 1945-1947 Part 16 Part III: German Refugees and the New German States Chapter 17 Compelling the Assimilation of Expellees in the Soviet Zone of Occupation and the GDR Chapter 18 Social Conflict and Social Transformation in the Integration of Expellees into Rural Brandenburg, 1945-1952 Chapter 19 The German Refugees and Expellees from the East and the Creation of a Western German Identity after World War II Chapter 20 Conclusion
