Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The Exodus of Poles and Balts to Britain by Thomas s> Lane (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 173 Jokisipila ably maintains, the Finnish acquiescence should be seen as part of Mannerheim'seffortto amassa reserveof militarymaterialthat could be used as a lever for bargaining in the negotiations for a separatepeace that he and other Finnish leaders fully expected to begin, the pact entirely notwithstanding . On the Finnish side, Mannerheim was the real driving force in the negotiations that led to the pact, and Jokisipila makes a good case for seeing Mannerheim'sactivitiesin the context of suchpeacemakingconsiderations. Jokisipila is not quite so persuasivewhen he conjectures that in the whole matter Ribbentrop must have been acting entirely alone, without Hitler's assentor even knowledge,let alone instructions.As he candidlyadmits,he has found no documentary proof to indicate that this was the case, yet he insists on makingthe claim regardless.Germany,Jokisipilacontends, simplyneeded Finland too much, both as a brother-in-armsin the troubled North-Eastern theatre and as a provider of lumber and key minerals, for its leaders to have gambled on a possible Finnishrefusal.This kindof argument,it seems, makes Finlandout to be much more importantand specialthan it actuallywas. A solid piece of scholarship nevertheless,Jokisipila's insightful account is sure to remain definitive on most aspects of the Ryti-Ribbentrop Pact for some time to come, and it shouldbe noted by all scholarsworkingon Finland in the Second WorldWar. Were it available in German or English, it would be a real contribution, too, to the corpus of studies that already exists on the relationshipbetween Nazi Germany and its alliesand co-belligerents. Department ofHistory MARKKU RuOTSILA University ofTampere Lane, Thomas. Victims ofStalinandHitler.TheExodus ofPolesandBaitstoBritain. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2004. Xi+ 28I pp. Notes. Bibliography.Index. ?45.00. THIs book grows out of an oral history project pursued over a number of years. As such it reflectsthe author'splace of employment. Tom Lane taught History in and served as head of department of the now sadly defunct Department of European Studiesat the Universityof Bradford.He alsowas a member of the Baltic Research Unit led by John Hiden. Appropriatelythe city of Bradfordhas been a vital centre for a number of emigre groups from Central and EasternEurope. There are stillvarious social clubs for Poles and Balticpeoples. Likewiseit is possible even today to hear Ukrainian spokenon the street during a journey to work. Part of the city is still known as 'Little Germany'. This book reflects Bradford'sEuropean diversity,indeed it seeks to give thislocal heritagescholarlyform. Clearly Tom Lane has gathered an extensive number of interviews with emigresfrom Polandand the Baltic States. His text splicesthese personaltales with a more conventional narrativeof political historyas it developed in their homelands. To this end, the book is structured pretty much according to chronology. Aftersome introductorycomments, it dealswith the worldbefore 1939, the experiences of defeat, becoming German colonies, subjugationby the Soviet Union, deportation, the construction of penal camps, being a 174 SEER, 84, I, 2006 refugee, the construction of new communities in Britain and, in some ways most interestingof all, what allthis has meant for the subjectsof study. The final chapter, 'Identities', is less than fifteen pages long but does manage to provide some provocative material.It stressesthe differentways in which people responded to flight from their homes. Some felt free when they obtained Britishpassports,but still retained a sense of being 'Polish'. Others resisted British citizenship on the grounds that it threatened to compromise something they regardedas essentialabout themselves.Even within the same family, children emerge as having widely varying attitudes towards their parents' original nationality. Some see it as something exotic which is to be embraced,othersassomethingcompletelyalien to them. Ifthereis agreement, it seems only that when emigres return to their original homeland decades afterdeparture,theyfinddisappointmentand plenty to complain about. Naturallyit is alwayspossible to find issuesto question about a text. In this case, some might wonder whether it is reallyvalid to push together Poles and Baltsin a singlevolume. Why not one volume for Poles and anotherfor Balts? Why not include Ukrainians as well? How would the interviewees feel about this kind of classification?And are these people really likely to be the most objective source of views about, say, the Latvian Legion and the Holocaust? Forsome tastes, this text might not dwell on...