Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of territorial changes between Czechoslovakia and Hungary and their effects on the local populations of the borderlands in the World War II era The movement of borders and people was a remarkably common experience for mid-twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europeans. Such was the case along the border between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, where territory changed hands in1938 and again in 1945. During the intervening period and beyond, residents of the borderland were caught in a nearly continuous onslaught of ethnic cleansing - expulsion of Czech and Slovak "colonists," Jewish deportations during the Holocaust, and postwar population exchanges - that was meant to reshape the territory first in the desired image of the Hungarian state and later on in that of Czechoslovakia. Borders on the Move examines the impact of border changes and migrations on this region between 1938 and 1948. It investigates the everyday consequences of geopolitical events that are well-known from the perspective of international and national histories, but does so explicitly in the context of the borderland. Making skillful use of state and local archival sources in Hungary and Slovakia, author Leslie Waters illuminates the catastrophic effects of state action - including sweeping wealth redistribution and the expulsion of those perceived as enemies of the state - on individuals. This engagingly written and far-reaching work will be invaluable to scholars of the Holocaust and of East Central Europe as well as to those who study forced migration, population exchange, and inter-ethnic relations.
Trade ReviewLeslie Waters' Borders on the Move is a model academic monograph. [...] a well written and researched account of borderland life and lives during World War II in Hungary and Slovakia. It will be of interest to historians and other scholars of borderlands, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, national identities and Central and Eastern Europe. -- EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES
Leslie Waters's Borders on the Move is an important work for both international historiography and Hungarian and Slovak historiographies. * HUNGARIAN CULTURAL STUDIES *
Table of ContentsGlossary Introduction Shifting Borders and Shifting Populations Territorial Reintegration War and Radicalization The Holocaust in the Borderland Return to Czechoslovakia Conclusion Bibliography
