National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia(Series Number 19 Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare)

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 turbulent decade from the Munich Pact of September 1938 to the Communist coup d'etat 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 and the contemporary expulsion of the Sudeten Germans. 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.

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.

About the Author :
Benjamin Frommer is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern 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 "...in addition to its interest for specialists in Czech history, this book deserves the attention of anyone wanting to gain an in-depth understanding of European collaboration and retribution in the twentieth century." HABSBURG, David Gerlach, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh "This unusually complex and dynamic view of a historical process will set standards in the study of modern Bohemia for some time to come." - John Connelly, University of California, Berkeley "While Frommer is concerned primarily with the nature and course of the postwar political battles in Czechoslovakia, he does not neglect the wider context of European retribution against Nazi collaborators. Some of the most interesting points of the narrative are the comparisons of Czech developments to others in the immediate postwar period. All the countries carrying out retribution became involved in constructing new courts and legal practices to retroactively punish the crime of collaboration. Though the Czech case differed in some important ways, this work reminds us that it should be seen as a component part of Europe's emergence from the war. Thus, in addition to its interest for specialists in Czech history, this book deserves the attention of anyone wanting to gain an in-depth understanding of European collaboration and retribution in the twentieth century." - David Gerlach, Department of History, University of Pittsburgh, H-NET "This is a brilliant study, exhaustively researched, and presented in a remarkably balanced way. It is, beyond doubt, the seminal work on this subject." -Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, Austrian History Yearbook