In War's Wake: Europe's Displaced Persons in the Postwar Order

by Gerard Daniel Cohen

Overview

After WWII, Europe was awash in refugees. Never in modern times had so many been so destitute and displaced. No longer subjects of a single nation-state, this motley group of enemies and victims consisted of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, ex-Soviet POWs, ex-forced laborers in the Third Reich, legions of people who fled the advancing Red Army, and many thousands uprooted by the sheer violence of the war. This book argues that postwar international relief operations went beyond their stated goal of civilian "rehabilitation" and contributed to the rise of a new internationalism, setting the terms on which future displaced persons would be treated by nations and NGOs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199912216
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/28/2011
Series:	Oxford Studies in International History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	17 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Gerard Daniel Cohen is Associate Professor of History, Rice University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Last Million
Ch 1. The Battle of the Refugees: DPs and the Making of the Cold War West
Ch 2. "Who is a Refugee?": From 'Victors' Justice' to Anticommunism
Ch 3. Care and Maintenance: The New Face of International Humanitarianism
Ch 4. Displaced Persons in the "Human Rights Revolution"
Ch 5. Surplus Manpower, Surplus Population
Ch 6. Extraterritorial Jews: Refugee Humanitarianism and the Advent of Jewish Statehood
Epilogue: The Golden Age of European Refugees, 1945-1960
Notes
Sources and Further Reading
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The prime purpose of this excellent book is not to provide a more inclusive and integrative social history but to do something far more ambitious: namely, to write an international history that places the DP issue in the context of the emerging Cold War, and as a factor in international justice and political retribution, the emergence of the human rights movement, the rise of United Nations humanitarianism, the governance of international migration, and the advent of Jewish statehood....[It] makes clear is how important that period was in shaping contemporary views of refugees and their plight."—Bob Moore, American Historical Review

"An insightful study of the European refugee problem created by WW II and then nurtured by the Cold War...Recommended." —CHOICE

"In War's Wake brilliantly demonstrates...that refugee flows possess a logic of their own and are by their very nature complementary."—Holly Case, The Nation

"As Gerard Daniel Cohen persuasively argues, Allied recognition of the DPs' objections to returning, and the prevailing sense of a profound difference between the 'democratic' Allies and the Soviet bloc, were important factors in the development of the Cold War."—Sheila Fitzpatrick, London Review of Books

"Written in spare prose, and on the basis of extraordinary research, In War's Wake shows how fruitful it is to blend international and social history, by bringing back into view the forgotten crucible of mass statelessness in which crucial legacies were made for contemporary humanitarianism and human rights alike."—Samuel Moyn, Columbia University, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

"In War's Wake tells the story of the unprecedented humanitarian effort on behalf of millions of Europeans displaced by the Second World War. The postwar refugee crisis, Cohen demonstrates, gave rise to new conceptions of human rights, asylum and refugee policies, population policies, Cold War conflicts, and the emergence of the State of Israel. This provocative, well-written study is a landmark contribution to the history of human rights and to the political history of twentieth-century Europe."—Tara Zahra, author of The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe's Families after World War II

"Based on thorough research in the archives of numerous institutions, Cohen's study of the millions of individuals left without a country after the Second World War shows how the European refugee problem was addressed by the leaders of the emerging free world, members of international organizations, legal scholars, and human rights activists. As Cohen demonstrates, the DP crisis facilitated a shift from minority rights to individual human rights and brought the issue of statelessness to the center of international politics. Enmeshed with the Cold War, this episode crucially secured the rights of individuals to a nationality and to a safe place of refuge, but also shaped new patterns of humanitarianism and international migration in the postwar era. In War's Wake is a masterpiece..."—Patrick Weil, Université de Paris 1

"On the basis of meticulous research, Daniel Cohen makes important connections between the policies that emerged to manage Europe's displaced persons in 'war's wake' and the development of international humanitarian aid and population control programs, the onset of the Cold War, and the origins of the state of Israel. In the process, he shows that the very category of 'DP' shifted in response to the practical and political dimensions of resettlement."—Mary D. Lewis, author of The Boundaries of the Republic: Migrant Rights and the Limits of Universalism in France, 1918-1940

"[A] detailed and challenging study of post-war displaced persons and the development of the human-rights era."—Susan Cohen, International History Review

"This well-crafted book demonstrates the far-reaching and lasting impact of the displaced persons on international affairs, humanitarianism, and human rights. It also provides a unique perspective on the attitudes and interests that led to the creation of a Jewish state. Although this is an international history with an interest in organizations, it does not lose sight of the individuals whose plight drew the attention of policymakers....Cohen is to be commended for his ability to balance a discussion of concepts and institutions with the dignity of the individual."—Margarete Myers Feinstein, H-Judaic

"The strength of Cohen's book lies in his nuanced analysis and the connections he draws among various political agents, their arguments, and the policies that eventually evolved. His careful research places the European refugee problem at the center of events, and shows how the DP experience exerted considerable influence on the development of international humanitarian aid, population management, and the origins of the modern state of Israel."—Lynn Rapaport, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"In a now quite crowded field Cohen is a distinctive and signicant voice."—Peter Gatrell, European Review of History

"A model of the genre of international history: a thoroughly researched, transnationally focused, clearly presented study that amalgamates political, social and intellectual approaches into a convincing and far-ranging analysis that is relevant to many key aspects of the post-1945 period, in Europe and beyond....An excellent book that will undoubtedly become a standard work in the field."—Pertti Ahonen, German History

"In War's Wake is a cogent argument for the centrality of the 'refugee' in the legal, political, and moral construction of the postwar international order and its humanitarian mission....[It] engages and illuminates an impressive range of historiographies: on postwar reconstruction and the start of the Cold War, on migration and immigration, on international aid organizations and evolving modes of humanitarianism, on postwar American influence abroad, on the foundation of the state of Israel, and on legal conceptions of human rights. It deserves a wide readership."—Heidi Fehrenbach, Central European History

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