Description
Book SynopsisAwarded the Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk
The study of Czechoslovak women refugees in Britain is noticeably missing from current research and Anglo-Czechoslovak historiography. This book explores the diverse experiences, dilemmas and contributions to Britain of these women within a socio-political context, commencing with the 1938 Munich Agreement that precipitated exile.
An essential difference between this and many other studies of exile is the focus on nationality (Czechoslovak) and gender (women), rather than either element alone. Moreover, archival research is complemented by oral interviews with former refugees, presenting a more detailed and nuanced approach to their experiences, including wartime roles in the armed services, Czechoslovak Red Cross, women’s organizations and patriotic cultural societies.
Trade Review«Exile is 'not only about leaving one’s home, but about leaving, and perhaps losing, everything that one held dear'. This is how many women migrated from Czechoslovakia to Britain 1938–1950. In this path-breaking book, Buresova combines archival research with extensive interviews to create a vivid picture of the lives of women refugees.» (Professor Naomi Segal, Birkbeck, University of London)
«A well-written and excellently researched book on a highly original subject. Nothing has previously appeared on female Czech exiles in Britain in World War II, and this book amply fills that gap. It will interest both scholars and the general public.» (Professor Emeritus Charmian Brinson, Imperial College London)
«This is a first-rate contribution to the hugely topical subject of migrant history, investigating the sorely neglected theme of women forced into exile in wartime Britain from the former Czechoslovakia. Buresova depicts with great empathy, mastery and picturesque detail a tapestry of culturally and ethnically diverse, but intertwined lives. Moreover, she shows how Britain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia at Munich in 1938, which had done so much to precipitate the war, continued to have its distinctive repercussions – emotional as well as political – among hosts and refugees alike.» (Robert Evans, Regius Professor of History Emeritus, University of Oxford)
Table of ContentsCONTENTS: Arrival and Adjustment in Britain – Friendly Alien/Enemy Alien? Internment and MI5 Scrutiny – A Women’s War in a Foreign Land: Helping the War Effort – Mothers Without Their Children, Children Without Their Mothers – Identity, Culture and Social Cohesion: «Home Away from Home» – Repatriation, Retribution and (Re)migration to Britain
