The Economy of Ethnic Cleansing : The Transformation of the German-Czech Borderlands after World War II

This study explores the local dynamics of ethnic cleansing in the German-Czech borderlands after World War II. It demonstrates that resettlers' search for social mobility, the government's contradictory policies and the need for German workers profoundly influenced the nature of ethnic cleansing in the context of the early Cold War.

In the wake of World War II the Sudetenland became the scene of ethnic cleansing, witnessing not only the expulsion of nearly three million German speakers, but also the influx of nearly two million resettlers. Yet mob violence and nationalist hatred were not the driving forces of ethnic cleansing; instead, greed, the search for power and property, and the general dislocation of post-war Central and Eastern Europe facilitated these expulsions and the transformation of the German-Czech borderlands. These overlapping migrations produced conflict among Czechs, hardship for Germans, and facilitated the Communist Party's rise to power. Drawing on a wide range of materials from local and central archives, as well as expellee accounts, David Gerlach demonstrates how the lure of property and social mobility, as well as economic necessities, shaped the course and consequences of ethnic cleansing.