Unerwünschte Rückkehrer. Staatsbürgerschaft und Eigentum deutscher Juden in der Nachkriegstschechoslowakei

Abstract

The issue of displacement of the German speaking population of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War has been a subject of a broader Czech, German and international debate for several decades. This article examines the position of German-speaking Jews from Czech lands returning from emigration or concentration camps after the end of the war and the process of the nationalization of citizenship and property rights in post-war Czechoslovakia. As Jews, these former citizens of Czechoslovakia were undoubtedly victims of the National Socialist terror. As people of German (or at least non-Czech) nationality, however, they fit into particular categories affected by presidential decrees. This article shows how state authorities, and local officials especially, tried to use the post-war situation to eradicate all aspects of what was called “Germanness.” The story of German-speaking Jews in post-war Czechoslovakia is an element in the process of the disintegration of the state of law in post-war central-eastern Europe.