After World War II, some 12 million Germans, 3 million Poles and Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of Hungarians were expelled from their homes and forced to migrate to their supposed countries of origin. Using freshly available materials from Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czechoslovak, German, British, and American archives, the contributors to this book provide a sweeping, detailed account of the turmoil caused by the huge wave of forced migration during the nascent Cold War. The book also documents the deep and lasting political, social, and economic consequences of this traumatic time, raising difficult questions about the effect of forced migration on postwar reconstruction, the rise of Communism, and the growing tensions between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. Those interested in European Cold-War history will find this book indispensable for understanding the profound but hitherto little known upheavals caused by the massive ethnic cleansing that took place from 1944 to 1948.

Europe has a long history of state-led population displacement on ethnic grounds. The nationalist argument of ethnic homogeneity has been a crucial factor in the mapping of the continent. At no time has this been more the case than during and after the Second World War. Both under the aggressive expansionism of the Third Reich and after Germany's defeat, millions were brutally forced out of their homelands. Presenting a history from the top as well as the bottom, People on the Move reconstructs the complex map of forced population displacements that took place across Europe during and immediately after the Second World War.

This book analyzes the history of the black market in Poland before the 1940s and the development of black-market phenomena in post-war Poland. The author evaluates the interrelation between black-market phenomena and historical and geographical conditions. At first, the black market stabilized the system by making it more flexible and creating a margin of freedom, albeit in the short term. In the long run, the informal economic activities of the people ran counter to and undermined the official ideology of the state. The author concludes that in post-war Poland, owing to a singular coincidence of historical, political, economic and social factors, the second economy had its own unique character and an endemic presence that loomed large in the Soviet Bloc.

Die Armia Krajowa war im Zweiten Weltkrieg die zentrale Tragerin des bewaffneten Widerstandes im polnischen Untergrundstaat. Sie wurde von der polnischen Exilregierung in London gelenkt und 1944 von der Roten Armee gewaltsam aufgelost. Der Sammelband bietet eine umfassende Darstellung der polnischen Heimatarmee seit 1939 und des schwierigen Umganges mit ihrer Geschichte. Vor dem Hintergrund der komplizierten ethnischen und territorialen Gemengelage in der Region werden neben dem internationalen Forschungsstand auch aktuelle Diskussionen in Polen, Deutschland und den Nachfolgestaaten der UdSSR transparent. Aus der Presse: "Das Militargeschichtliche Forschungsamt hat mit diesem Buch einen Beitrag zur Aufhellung polnischer Zeitgeschichte und der deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen geleistet, der auf absehbare Zeit Bestand haben durfte und hoffentlich dazu beitragt, der Prasentation einer ebenso faszinierenden wie blutigen und tragischen Geschichte einen grosseren Leserkreis zu verschaffen." Christoph Klessmann, in: FAZ vom 10.06.2003"

Europe has a long history of state-led population displacement on ethnic grounds. The nationalist argument of ethnic homogeneity has been a crucial factor in the mapping of the continent. At no time has this been more the case than during and after the Second World War. Both under the aggressive expansionism of the Third Reich and after Germany's defeat, millions were brutally forced out of their homelands. Presenting a history from the top as well as the bottom, People on the Move reconstructs the complex map of forced population displacements that took place across Europe during and immediately after the Second World War.