Suchergebnisse

Preface -- The formative years -- In the Czechoslovak First Republic -- Munich and Occupation, 1938-9 -- The politics of exile, 1939-45 -- Coping with the catastrophe -- Help for the Jews -- Squaring the circle: diaspora politics in Post-War Czechoslovakia -- The second exile -- Epilogue: Who was Frischer? -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Index.

This article analyses absences encountered by Jews in postwar Czechoslovakia. Based on two first-hand accounts (by Leo Herrmann and Joseph Wechsberg), the author offers insights into how Jewish exiles, who visited Czechoslovakia in the first postwar months, perceived the absences caused by the Shoah and by the efforts of postwar societies to create ethnically and linguistically homogeneous countries, without any distinct minority cultures. In postwar Czechoslovakia, the survivors had to cope with the physical absence of those murdered during the war, but also with the loss of multi-culturalism, and ethnic and linguistic diversity of the population. It was expected that the Jews, who decided to stay in postwar Czechoslovakia, would undergo a complete assimilation and would become part of the Czech or Slovak nation. The Jews – a distinct group made absent by the Nazi policies – were further absented from their societies by the postwar reconstruction of their homeland. Although some of the survivors accepted the new rules of the game and attempted to adjust to the new conditions, a majority of those who returned to Czechoslovakia after 1945 soon left the country forever.

Around 50,000 Jewish survivors returned to Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. Prewar Czechoslovakia built its image on the reputation of its perceived excellent treatment of minorities, in particular the Jews. Nevertheless, Jewish survivors coming back to Czechoslovakia after the war faced hostilities from the non‐Jewish population and encountered considerable obstacles with their rehabilitation and restitution based on their Jewishness alone. Only 14,000–18,000 Jews remained in the country by 1950, with the rest finding new homes elsewhere, especially in Israel and the United States. Czechoslovakia is often depicted as a country that rejected anti‐Semitism and sympathised with the plight of the Jews before, during and after the war. Czechoslovakia was one of the first democratic countries that supported the creation of a Jewish state, both politically and practically. In contrast, this article documents the obstacles that the survivors encountered in their rehabilitation efforts in post‐war Czechoslovakia and portrays the country not only as a humanitarian facilitator of the Jewish national aspirations, but especially as a country that with its post‐war policies of national homogenization further contributed to the Jewish predicament in post‐war Europe. The Jews returning to their places of residence after the war faced hostilities in almost every European country. In some places they were welcomed with physical violence, in others they encountered difficulties with material restitution or were roundly advised to move overseas. In this article I first outline the often unsuccessful Jewish rehabilitation efforts in post‐war Czechoslovakia and highlight the main issues which could be considered as unique in comparison with other European countries, such as Poland and France (especially the treatment of the Czechoslovak‐Jewish citizens of German nationality).

"More than Parcels: Wartime Aid for Jews in Nazi-Era Camps and Ghettos edited by Jan Lánícek and Jan Lambertz explores the horrors of the Holocaust by focusing on the systematic starvation of Jewish civilians confined to Nazi ghettos and camps. The modest relief parcel, often weighing no more than a few pounds and containing food, medicine, and clothing, could extend the lives and health of prisoners. For Jews in occupied Europe, receiving packages simultaneously provided critical emotional sustenance in the face of despair and grief. Placing these parcels front and center in a history of World War II challenges several myths about Nazi rule and Allied responses. First, the traffic in relief parcels and remittances shows that the walls of Nazi detention sites and the wartime borders separating Axis Europe from the outside world were not hermetically sealed, even for Jewish prisoners. Aid shipments were often damaged or stolen, but they continued to be sent throughout the war