Belonging to the nation
Subtitle: inclusion and exclusion in the Polish-German borderlands, 1939-1951
By: John J. Kulczycki
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 402
ISBN-13: 9780674659780
Subjects: Boundaries; World War, 1939-1945; Polish people; Territorial questions; Nationalism; Germans; History
Description: "In 1939 Nazi Germany incorporated western Poland into the Reich and recognized Germans with Polish citizenship as Volksdeutsche. Following Germany's defeat in 1945, communist-dominated Poland incorporated eastern Germany, recognized German citizens of Polish origin as members of the Polish nation, and established a procedure for Volksdeutsche to rejoin the nation. My study focuses on the processes by which both states sought to nationalize these inhabitants of the transnational Polish-German borderlands that in the imaginations of German and Polish nationalists rightfully belonged to their nation. The process of inclusion and exclusion that accompanies the formation of an imagined national community is often marginalized in discussions of the emergence of nations. My goal is to illustrate the complexity of the process, the obstacles it confronts in practice, and the resulting injustices."--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The disputed Polish-German borderlands; title: The German occupation of Poland; title: The creation of a new Poland; title: The recovered lands and their inhabitants; title: The prologue to polonizing identities; title: The initial Polish government nationality measures; title: After the Potsdam Conference; title: The central government and nationality verification; title: The rehabilitation of Volksdeutsche in 1946; title: A year of crucial changes; title: Nationality policies following the end of mass expulsion; title: The status of autochthons at the end of 1949; title: The last phase of nationality verification and rehabilitation.