The volume explores the role of refugees and displaced persons (DPs) in Europe after 1945. It expands conventional narratives about post-National Socialist societies, which are characterized by victim myths, narratives of Trümmerfrauen (rubble women), and the reconstruction of supposedly homogeneous societies.
Using analyses informed by new approaches in cultural studies and digital humanities, the authors enhance studies of refugees and DPs’ ways of living and their interactions with their surrounding societies. Relying on microhistorical perspectives, the case studies focus on both post-National Socialist societies and exile communities and thus contribute to a better understanding of everyday life. The book locates itself at the intersection of Migration Studies, Gender Studies, Emotion Studies, and the History of Knowledge and focuses on the following key questions: How did family members reconnect with individuals liberated from concentration camps? How did they communicate about the choice of new places to live? How did exile communities reorganize themselves after the end of the war?
This volume explores diverse experiences in the post-1945 world that have been shaping not only the European societies but have also been influencing our present legal and societal understandings and interpretations on a global scale.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Susanne Korbel and Philipp Strobl
Part I: Agency and Networks of Continuation
Chapter 1
1945: Surviving and Living in a Divided World
Michael Gehler
Chapter 2
To Save the Saviors: Reorganizing the Jewish Anarchists Humanitarian Network in Europe, 1945-1950
Maria Tarasova Chomard
Chapter 3
Postwar Journeys of Jewish and Polish Refugees from Poland (1940s-1950s)
Anna Cichopek-Gajraj
Chapter 4
Health As an Obstacle to Resettlement: Jewish Displaced Persons with Disabilities and Health Issues in Pursuit for Self-Determination after the Shoah 1948–1951
Johannes Glack
Part II: Practices of Reunifcation
Chapter 5
To Those Near and Far: Reconnecting with Family Members after the Holocaust
Rachel Blumenthal
Chapter 6
Beyond the Camp – New Beginnings and Continuities for Jewish DPs in Munich
Klaus Hagen
Chapter 7
Luke Wijnberg: The Possibilities of a Single Story
Andrea Wuerth
