Deportation in East Central Europe in the 20th Century: Snapshots of Invisible Incarceration

This edited collection presents a wide-ranging survey of forced deportations by totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe throughout the 20th century. The chapters focus on deportation policies and practices among regimes in Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and the former U.S.S.R, collectively highlighting the long-term effects of these policies and their significance to contemporary societies in Eastern Europe.
Deportation was a pervasive phenomenon, with socio-economic, demographic, and political implications that have structurally affected the shape and composition of contemporary European societies. Whether considering political repression, ideological clashes, social upheavals, territorial claims, ethnic cleansing, or conflicts within and between societies, deportation was a destabilizing factor across all aspects of twentieth-century East European history.
Applying cross-disciplinary perspectives, each case study makes extensive use of archival material or oral histories, presenting the stories of those undesirables who were cast out by political systems and the communities torn apart by their removal. These snapshots are not just memories of a time gone by, but visceral encounters with individuals, communities, ethnic and religious groups - a scholarly gaze into experiences that spanned across various realms, from the physical to the psychological and the profoundly spiritual. In tracing the impact of these policies down to the present day, the authors not only recount and reassess the dark tides of history but also contemplate the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.
This volume stands as a crucial resource for researchers, educators, and policymakers.