Synopses & Reviews
This comprehensive history of postwar Czech retribution examines the prosecution of more than one-hundred thousand suspected war criminals and collaborators by Czech courts and tribunals after the Second World War. Based on archival sources that remained inaccessible during the cold war, the book provides a new perspective on Czechoslovakia's transition from Nazi occupation to Stalinist rule. Frommer asserts that the Czechs made a genuine, if flawed, attempt to confront past war crimes, including their own.
Review
"Forgiveness or vengeance? There are few questions more urgent today than how a nation ought to deal with those who co-operate with foreign occupiers. Basing his unique contribution on a mountain of documentary evidence, Benjamin Frommer shows the great extent and ultimate failure of the Czech purges that followed upon six years of Nazi occupation. Through the presentation of the cases of both major war criminals and petty denunciators, the author airs fundamental moral, legal, and political issues - all with remarkable stylistic elegance and wit." IstvD'an Deak, Seth Low Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University"Based on meticulous archival research and careful analysis, Benjamin Frommer tells the extremely important - and largely ignored - story of postwar Czech retributive justice. National Cleansing has wide-ranging implications for our understanding of postwar Europe's attempts to come to terms with collaboration while fostering social and political unity." Norman M. Naimark, Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of History, Stanford University"Benjamin Frommer offers new insights into the process of imposition of Communist rule in East Central Europe after World War II. His book, immaculately researched and brilliantly argued, is also a major contribution to the literature on political justice. An outstanding achievement." Jan Gross, Department of History, Princeton University
Review
"[A] well-written book...Benjamin Frommer has excavated a huge amount of detailed data. [F]or scholars of European reconstruction in the 1940s or Czech history, and for others who are concerned with questions of justice for perpetrators of crimes against humanity, it is a sobering and thoughtful account." Patricia , Ph.D., F.R.S.C., Sr. Fellow, Centre for International Relations, Professor and Dean of Arts Emerita, University of British Columbia, Canadian Journal of Sociology Online"In his detailed and highly readable work, Frommer provides a chronological account of post-WWII Czechoslovakiaas legal retribution against its Nazi collaborators." CHOICE"Based on meticulous archival research and careful analysis, Benjamin Frommer tells the extremely important - and largely ignored - story of postwar Czech retributive justice. National Cleansing has wide-ranging implications for our understanding of postwar Europe's attempts to come to terms with collaboration while fostering social and political unity."
-Norman M. Naimark, Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of History, Stanford University"Benjamin Frommer offers new insights into the process of imposition of Communist rule in East Central Europe after World War II. His book, immaculately researched and brilliantly argued, is also a major contribution to the literature on political justice. An outstanding achievement."
-Jan Gross, Department of History, Princeton University"...a sobering and thoughful account."
-Canadian Journal of Sociology Online"In his detailed and highly readable work, Frommer provides a chronological account of post-WWII Czechoslovakiaas legal retribution against its Nazi collaborators."
-CHOICE"Benjamin Frommer has presented an excellent, well-documented history of postwar Czech retribution based on valuable archival materials."
-Slavic Review
Synopsis
National Cleansing examines the prosecution of more than one-hundred thousand suspected war criminals and collaborators by Czech courts and tribunals after the Second World War. As the first comprehensive history of postwar Czech retribution, this book provides a new perspective on Czechoslovakia's transition from Nazi occupation to Stalinist rule in the turbulent decade from the Munich Pact of September 1938 to the Communist coup d'état of February 1948. Based on archival sources that remained inaccessible during the Cold War, National Cleansing demonstrates retribution's central role in the postwar power struggle and the contemporary expulsion of the Sudeten Germans.
Synopsis
National Cleansing examines the prosecution of more than one-hundred thousand suspected war criminals and collaborators by Czech courts and tribunals after the Second World War. In contrast to general histories of postwar Czechoslovakia, which portray retribution as little more than Communist-inspired political justice, this book illustrates that the prosecution of collaborators and war criminals represented a genuine, if flawed, attempt to confront the crimes of the past, including those committed by the Czechs themselves.
Synopsis
National Cleansing examines the prosecution of over one hundred thousand suspected war criminals and collaborators by Czech courts and tribunals after the Second World War. As the first comprehensive history of postwar Czech retribution, this book provides a new perspective on Czechoslovakia"s transition from Nazi occupation to Stalinist rule in the decade from the Munich Pact of September 1938 to the Communist coup d"tat of February 1948. Based on archival sources that remained inaccessible during the Cold War, National Cleansing demonstrates the central role of retribution in the postwar power struggle.
Synopsis
National Cleansing examines the prosecution of suspected war criminals in Czechoslovakia after World War II.
About the Author
Benjamin Frommer is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Wild retribution; 2. The great decree; 3. People's courts and popular justice; 4. 'The disease of denunciation'; 5. Offenses against national honor; 6. Retribution and the transfer; 7. The National Court; 8. The road to February and beyond; Conclusion.