The Politics, Memory, and Commemoration of the Postwar Camps for Germans in Poland (1945-1949): Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)

This book offers the first systematic comparative analysis of memory politics concerning post-war camps in Poland for the German population (and those classified as German).It examines how this difficult past has been framed, instrumentalised, and negotiated in Poland and Germany across changing political systems and historical contexts. Drawing on archival sources, interviews, institutional analysis, and discourse studies, the book traces how the memory of the camps functioned within communist Poland, how it was addressed and reinterpreted in West and East Germany, and how it influenced Polish-German relations.It argues that in neither country did this memory occupy a central place in official post-war memory politics.In communist Poland, the issue was largely silenced or selectively instrumentalised, while in West Germany it remained primarily confined to expellee organisations until around 1989.After the systemic transformation, the topic did not enter the national mainstream of mem