Stirring Resistance from Moscow: The German Communists of Czechoslovakia and Wireless Propaganda in the Sudetenland, 1941-1945

This is a study of the radio propaganda campaign targeted atthe Sudetenland from the USSR from November 1941 to May 1945.Under the supervision of the Czechoslovak communist party andthe Comintern, the broadcasts were composed and conducted bySudeten German communists stationed first in Ufa and then inMoscow. At first, on the basis of limited information, theystrove simply to divide Sudeten Germans at home from the Nazirégime. But from May 1942 they stepped up their appealfor active resistance alongside that of their Czech ‘brothers’in the Protectorate. Through 1943 the appeal remained positive,assuring all German anti-fascists that they would be secureand treated equally in a future Czechoslovak state. By 1944,however, the message subtly altered in tune with Moscow's decisionto expel most Sudeten Germans. The broadcasts failed to spellthis out, but tried to warn their listeners of what might happenif they did not resist. In reality, though many in the Sudetenlandwere disillusioned with Nazism, the level of active resistanceseems to have been small and the broadcasts probably had a minimaleffect. Nevertheless, they alarmed the Nazi authorities andsome of the propaganda arguments certainly matched the growinganxieties of many Sudeten Germans. By 1944 the Sudeten communistbroadcasters themselves were divided over what tone to adopt.Some still felt a certain Sudeten allegiance and vainly resisteda policy line based on presumed Sudeten ‘collective guilt’.The majority bowed before the official, more critical line,accepting that most Sudeten Germans would be expelled afterthe war. The article seeks for the first time to probe the mindsetof Sudeten German communists, and to set this alongside thatof their target audience in the wartime Sudetenland.     

Coordinating Hunger: The Evacuation of Children During the Dutch Food Crisis, 1945

The evacuation of Dutch children during the so-called ‘Hunger Winter’ of 1944/1945 is one of the canonized stories of the German occupation of the Netherlands. In the most common version of the story, a Dutch interdenominational organization managed to evacuate 40,000 to 50,000 starving children from the urbanized and famished west to the agrarian north-east region of the country, whilst being constantly obstructed by German and Dutch National Socialist authorities. This article challenges this well-known representation of the child evacuations, arguing that it was largely a narrative constructed in the post-war period. Contrary to popular beliefs, this article demonstrates that the evacuations were in fact supported by the German occupier. Most important for the success of the evacuations, however, was the co-operation of tens of thousands of ordinary Dutch citizens, regardless of their religious or political views. These two observations not only challenge Dutch historiography, but also international literature on the presumed causes and effects of the Dutch food crisis.     

Developments in Polish Scholarship on German History, 1945-2000: Introduction to the Special Issue

This introduction points out major developments in Polish scholarshipon German history between the end of the war and the presentday. The fraught relationship between Polish and German scholarswas not merely a result of the destruction of the war yearsbut older nationalist traditions of history-writing, which needto be taken into account as well as the status of partitionedPoland between 1795 and 1918.     

Recent Debates on the Fate of the German Population in Upper Silesia 1945-1950

This article presents an analysis of the Polish-German scholarlyand public debate of the last decades dedicated to the fateof the German population in Upper Silesia after the ending ofthe Second World War. In the introduction, three determiningfactors of the current discussion are mentioned: first, thepublic debate on this topic, which evolved especially afterthe turning point of the democratization in Poland in 1989,and which created a certain social climate for these scholarlydebates; secondly, the history of the Polish-German conflictin Upper Silesia, which conditioned the post-war situation inthe region; and thirdly, the main historiographical paradigmsto the subject before 1989 in both countries, whose fixationand whose deficits weighed heavily upon the research directionchosen in this period. From among these three aspects—the camps built for theGerman population, their resettlement, and the politics of nationalitytowards former German citizens, who were then recognized asowners of Polish nationality and who could remain in their homes—thearticle concentrates on the first one. The last few years sawthe most fundamental revision concerning the camps for the Germanpopulation, and our knowledge is here relatively complete. Itis worth underlining that most advances here have been achievedby Polish historians from various disciplinary directions.     

Images of Europe around the Crisis

In this article I examine the extent to which the European crisis has debunked certain images of Europe and spread other new ones. I will try to summarize the stages of this symbolic tour through (1) furtive and mechanical Europe; (2) the remoteness of non-salient Europe; (3) the Europe that hopes and the Europe that fears; (4) headstrong Europe, which claims that crises are necessarily opportunities; and then (5), the Europe with which I identify the most: contingent Europe, which could be or not be, or be in another fashion, whose interest lies in that it is an uncertain product of our conditioned freedom and which, for that very reason, we can consider (6) a politicized Europe.     

1971年印巴危机期间美国的难民政策与美印在难民问题上的角力

1971年印巴危机是冷战时代一次具有重大国际影响的地区危机。危机期间,因受东巴内战与印巴冲突的双重影响,大量东巴居民逃往印度,沦为难民。东巴难民持续涌入印度不仅是东巴危机转变为印巴危机的主要诱因,同时也是导致南亚持续紧张、敌对氛围难以消解的重要根源。为妥善解决难民问题,美国积极谋划,投入大量人力、物力、财力,意图妥善解决难民问题,化解危机。但是美国采取的积极措施并未减缓危机冲突的不断升级。在处理难民问题的过程中,美巴政策协调趋于一致,而印度与美巴在难民问题上的政策倾向却渐行渐远。归根究底,是否应该在难民问题上附加最终促成东巴独立的政治条件是美巴与印度的根本分歧所在。而这一根本分歧的悬而未决最终成为引爆第三次印巴战争的导火索。     

The Nature of Decision-making in the Post-war New Towns Policy: The Case of Basildon, c. 1945-70

The nature of post-war economic and urban planning has beencontroversial. This article examines the problem through a ‘grass-roots’study of the establishment and the early social history of Basildon,a representative example of post-war new towns. What views didthe various sections of the central state, local governmentand residents hold towards the new towns policy? The articleconsiders the relation between the new town Development Corporationand governmental departments, local government and tenants.This case study indicates that the plural and complex natureof decision-making based on informal and voluntary negotiationsmade the new towns policy inconsistent, and suggests that residents'voices were excluded from the process of decision-making. ^* suge{at}ier.hit-u.ac.jp