Publisher's Synopsis
This original collection, edited by four of Europe's leading scholars and practitioners, provides new insights into the aftermath of the Second World War in Europe. The research on the neglected experience of many survivors after the war vividly demonstrates that persecution, fear, pain, and injustice continued, even after the formal end of the military conflict in 1945. In their totality, the survivors represented a great variety of experiences and fates, but their lives after 1945 were shaped by a number of shared themes and problems. Living in a state of flux in the turbulent post-war world, these survivors, together with their liberators and former captors, became drawn into the morass of Cold War politics and morality. The book's essays document how survivors navigated through bureaucratic and political obstacles in search of recognition, compensation, and justice. The book also reflects on their place in post-war public memory, commemoration, and history-writing.
