Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could relations between men and women be (re-)established? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion? Violence in rather different forms appeared to be a powerful tool for such a complex reshaping of societies. The chapters are based on present primary research about specific cases and consider the different political, mental, and cultural developments in various nation-states between 1944 and 1948. Examples from Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary demonstrate a new comparative and fascinating picture of post-war Europe. This perspective overcomes the notorious East-West dividing line, without covering the manifold differences between individual European countries.
Table of ContentsPART I. RESHAPING THE NATION.Introduction; Ota Konrád, Boris Barth, Jaromír Mrňka.- The End of the War and the Beginning of the Peace: Where Violence Leaves Off and Reconstruction Begins: Continental Europe, 1944-1947; Norman Naimark.
PART II. JUSTICE.- Redefining National Identities through Justice: A Comparative Analysis of Italy and France; Barbara De Luna and Greta Fedele.- Purges, Patriotism, and Political Violence: The Danish Case, 1944-1945; Henrik Lundtofte.- 'Mentalities of War, Mentalities of Peace': Capital Punishment in the Norwegian ‘Treason Trials’, 1941-1948; Anika Seemann.
PART III. GENDER.- 'German Brats and Tarts': Gender, Sexuality, and Collective Memory in Post-War Norway; Caroline Nilsen.- Gender, Ethnicity, and Multidirectional Violence during the Last Months of German Rule in Lithuania: A Case Study of Local Force Battalions; Justina Smalkyté.
PART IV. NATION AND NATIONALISM.- Assessing National 'Consciousness': The Belarusian Home Guard, 1944-1945; Aleksandra Pomiecko.- Cleansing Greece of the Miasma of its 'Sudeten': Macedonian Slavs as an Unwanted Minority in the Aftermath of the Second World War; Tasos Kostopoulos.- Between Nation and Religion: Czech Protestants and the Transfer of the Sudeten Germans, 1945-1948; Ondřej Matějka.
PART V. CITIZENSHIP.- 'Pure Christians' vs. 'Working Citizens of the Democratic Era': How the Claimants of Jewish Property perceived Citizenship in Hungary; Borbála Klacsmann.- A Glass Half Full or Half Empty? The Postwar Treatment of the German Minority in Denmark; Peter Thaler.- PART VI. CONCLUSION.- Conclusion; Christoph Cornelißen.
