The Economy of Ethnic Cleansing
The Transformation of the German-Czech Borderlands after World War II

Examines the economic motivations and complications that drove ethnic cleansing in the post-World War II Sudetenland.

David Wester Gerlach (Author)

9781316647196, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 March 2019

309 pages, 7 b/w illus. 3 maps
23 x 15.3 x 2 cm, 0.46 kg

'Gerlach's thoughtful, well-researched study of the plight of ethnic Germans in the postwar Czech borderlands is a welcome addition to the literature about an often misunderstood or forgotten episode in the complex history of postwar Central and Eastern Europe.' David M. Crowe, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

In the wake of World War II the Sudetenland became the scene of ethnic cleansing, witnessing not only the expulsion of nearly three million German speakers, but also the influx of nearly two million resettlers. Yet mob violence and nationalist hatred were not the driving forces of ethnic cleansing; instead, greed, the search for power and property, and the general dislocation of post-war Central and Eastern Europe facilitated these expulsions and the transformation of the German-Czech borderlands. These overlapping migrations produced conflict among Czechs, hardship for Germans, and facilitated the Communist Party's rise to power. Drawing on a wide range of materials from local and central archives, as well as expellee accounts, David Gerlach demonstrates how the lure of property and social mobility, as well as economic necessities, shaped the course and consequences of ethnic cleansing.

Introduction
1. In the wake of war: expulsions, violence and borderland life
2. National divisions: resettlement, local power and settler conflicts
3. Persian rugs and well-appointed farms: the politics of expropriation
4. German workers: Czech settlers and labor politics
5. Consolidating borderland industries: from confiscation to nationalization
6. borderlands transformed: diverse communities and the construction of socialism
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]