Beyond Camps And Forced Labour

This book presents a selection of the newest research on themes amplified by the sixth annual Beyond Camps and Forced Labour conference on the post-Holocaust period, including ‘displaced persons’, reception and resettlement, exiles and refugees, trials and justice, reparation and restitution, and memory and testimony. The chapters highlight new, transnational approaches and findings based on underused and newly opened archives, including compensation files of the British government; on historical actors often on the periphery within English-language historiography, including Romanian and Hungarian survivors; and new approaches such as the spatial history of Drancy, as well as geographies that have undergone less scrutiny, for example, Tehran, Chile, Mexico and Cyprus. This volume represents the vibrant and varied state of research on the aftermath of the Holocaust.

A collection of articles about research on survivors of Nazi persecution.

A collection of articles about research on survivors of Nazi persecution.

Throughout the Stalin era and after, the Gulag system of forced labor blighted the Soviet Union. Millions were incarcerated in its camps, some to be eventually released, many to die imprisoned and faceless. For decades, histories of the camp system have relied on the experiences of those who suffered within them for their main source of information. Though these accounts have been supplemented with officially sanctioned Soviet publications, the details of the forced labor system have for decades remained hidden by state secrecy. But with the collapse of the Soviet empire, the archives of the Gulag are now opening. Drawing on the archival records kept by Gulag authorities themselves, "The Gulag at War" traces the development of this system in the Soviet Union from 1920 through 1960. The volume describes the state's perceptions of the camps and their tasks and addresses long-held questions concerning the motives behind the system. Specific attention is given to the World War II years; the information found in the archives shows the importance of forced labor to Soviet, and therefore Allied, victory. "The Gulag at War" offers a close investigation of different aspects of camp life during this time, supplying data concerning the numbers and backgrounds of the prisoners, the economic tasks and achievements, the camp conditions, and the effectiveness of camp security which have previously been unavailable.