Introduction; 1. Eastern Europe, 1939–44: occupation, expulsion, killing; 2. Poland, 1939–49: territory and Communism; 3. War and peace; 4. Expulsion; 5. Repopulation; 6. Verification; 7. Expellees, settlers, natives; 8. Holocaust survivors and foreigners; 9. Assimilation; 10. Culture, religion, society; Conclusion: Eastern Europe, 1944–9: Communism, nationalism, expulsion; Bibliography.
This book examines the ways Poland dealt with the territories and peoples it gained from Germany after the Second World War.
Hugo Service is Departmental Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Oxford.
'A magisterial overview of forced population movements across all
of Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War and in its
aftermath. Service's monograph thus serves as a highly useful
introduction to the phenomenon for non-specialist historians and
social scientists with limited familiarity with the phenomenon,
even as the detailed case studies are essential reading for
researchers in this burgeoning field of study.' James Bjork,
Slavonic and East European Review
'In this admirable new book, 'Germans' did not become 'Poles' but
were banished, silenced, or murdered by them … Germans to Poles
deepens recent study of the long-neglected destruction of German
life in eastern Europe … Service supplies valuable and
student-friendly chapters.' William W. Hagen, Slavic Review
'… specialists in the field of postwar Eastern European history
will value the richness of the book's narration of the disorder and
disruption that defined everyday life in early postwar Poland …'
Michael Meng, The American Historical Review
'Service offers an extensively researched synthesis which brings to
light significant archival materials on the population movements
that remade a broad swathe of Central Europe. From the vantage
point of two small and contrasting centres, Service helps his
scholarly readership understand mechanisms that made ethnic
cleansing a part of everyday life.' Andrew Demshuk, European
History Quarterly
'[Hugo Service] knowledgably places Poland's state-driven policy of
resettlement and expulsion … within the long-term national
conflicts between Germany and Poland from the time [of] the
Kaiser's Empire though to the post-WWII years … With [his]
important stud[y] … Service ha[s] rightly drawn attention to the
fact that only by accepting this chronology is the
contextualisation … and, ultimately, a pluralisation of memory
possible.' Björn Hofmeister, translated from Zeitschrift für
Geschichtswissenschaft
'Services's work excels at painting a vivid portrait of …
communities in flux. … [He] provides excellent on-the-ground
details of these myriad local tensions … Germans to Poles serves as
a useful comparative study that relates the violent remaking of
east central Europe along ethno-national lines to the diverse
local-level consequences of this grand project.' Brendan Karch,
German History
'Hugo Service's monograph is a significant step forward to a better
understanding of the complicated migration and nationalization
processes that were under way in Poland's northern and western
territories between 1939 and 1949 … The book is clearly written and
structured and will therefore reach out not only to academics from
the field but also to a more general public … One of the most
excellent features of the book is its rich archival base.' Jan
Musekamp, Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary (www.pol-int.org)
'This work is valuable as an overview and summary … and thanks to
extensive use of documents from Polish archives this work throws
extensive light on the process of 'verification' in Upper Silesia.'
Matthias E. Cichon, translated from Zeitschrift für
Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung
'Service's thoughtful tome builds upon prior works by Michael
Fleming and Gregor Thum that addressed questions of defining and
creating Polish identities … Recommended. Upper-division
undergraduates and above.' R. K. Byczkiewicz, Choice
'Hugo Service's monograph is a significant step forward to a better
understanding of the complicated migration and nationalization
processes that were under way in Poland's northern and western
territories between 1939 and 1949. … One of the most excellent
features of the book is its rich archival base.' Jan Musekamp,
Pol-Int
'With his study Germans to Poles, Hugo Service provides a deep
insight into and understanding of these complex processes and
offers a step toward studying this area of postwar European history
… Based on a rich variety of sources, Service's study is clearly
written and well structured.' Agnes Laba, H-Poland
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