Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944–48

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Reshaping the Nation: An Introduction to the Collective Identities and Post-war Violence in Europe, 1944–1948

   • Ota Konrád, Boris Barth, Jaromír Mrňka

   Pages 1-16

3. Violence in the European Interregnum, 1944–1947

   • Norman M. Naimark

   Pages 17-33

4. Gender, Ethnicity, and Multidirectional Violence in the Last Months of the German Rule in Lithuania: A Case Study of Local Force Battalions

   • Justina Smalkyté

   Pages 35-63

5. Belarusian Nationalists and Nation-Building Efforts in the Twilight of World War II

   • Aleksandra Pomiecko

   Pages 65-90

6. Cleansing Greece of the Miasma of Its “Sudeten”: The Macedonian Slavs as an Unwanted Minority in the Aftermath of World War II

   • Tasos Kostopoulos

   Pages 91-127

7. Purges, Patriotism, and Political Violence: The Danish Case 1944–1945

   • Henrik Lundtofte

   Pages 129-164

8. “The ‘Proton Pseudos’ of Our Life After May 1945”: Czech Protestants and the Expulsion of Sudeten Germans

   • Ondřej Matějka

   Pages 165-194

9. Redefining National Identities Through Justice: A Comparative Analysis Between Italy and France

   • Barbara De Luna, Greta Fedele

   Pages 195-223

10. “Mentalities of War, Mentalities of Peace”: Capital Punishment in the Norwegian “Treason Trials”, 1941–1948

    • Anika Seemann

    Pages 225-252

11. A Glass Half Full or Half Empty? The Post-war Treatment of the German Minority in Denmark

    • Peter Thaler

    Pages 253-274

12. “Pure Christians” Versus “Working Citizens of the Democratic Era”: How the Claimants of Jewish Property Perceived Citizenship in Hungary

    • Borbála Klacsmann

    Pages 275-299

13. Concluding Observations

    • Christoph Cornelißen

    Pages 301-322

14. Back Matter

    Pages 323-334

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This book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could relations between men and women be (re-)established? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion? Violence in rather different forms appeared to be a powerful tool for such a complex reshaping of societies. The chapters are based on present primary research about specific cases and consider the different political, mental, and cultural developments in various nation-states between 1944 and 1948. Examples from Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary demonstrate a new comparative and fascinating picture of post-war Europe. This perspective overcomes the notorious East-West dividing line, without covering the manifold differences between individual European countries.

• Second World War
• World War II
• nationalism
• citizenship
• ethnic cleansing

• Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

  Ota Konrád, Boris Barth

• Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague, Czech Republic

  Jaromír Mrňka

Ota Konrád is Associate Professor of Modern History at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He has worked on topics dealing with the history of East-Central Europe in the twentieth century. Recently, he co-edited In the Shadow of the Great War: Physical Violence in East-Central Europe, 1917-1923 (2021). 

Boris Barth is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. His publications include Europa nach dem Großen Krieg. Die Krise der Demokratie in der Zwischenkriegszeit 1918-1938 (2016) and Civilizing Missions in the Twentieth Century (edited with Rolf Hobson, 2020).

Jaromír Mrňka is Researcher at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and Junior Research Fellow at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He has studied the social mechanisms of denunciation, collective violence, and conflict-related acts of sexual violence in the Czech Lands during the Second World War and its aftermath.

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