Survivors of Nazi Persecution: Beyond Camps and Forced Labour

This volume contains thirteen selected papers from the seventh international ’Beyond Camps and Forced Labour conference’, held in London in January 2023. The geographical and methodological scope of the chapters, ranging from postwar trials to survivors’ memoirs and former classmates’ letters, from Greece to the Soviet Union, France to Croatia, indicates both the range encompassed by Holocaust Studies’ focus on the immediate postwar period and the expansion and flourishing of the discipline. The book examines the experiences of forced labourers, postwar struggles to obtain restitution for stolen property, the political and cultural activities of displaced persons, trials of perpetrators, and the emergence of survivors’ collective memory. With chapters on non-Jewish forced labourers, Roma and the care of Black youngsters by a noted Jewish refugee, the book speaks to the international dimensions of the Holocaust and its effects, and shows how postwar responses to the Nazi crimes shaped the world after 1945. The vast range of groups affected by the Nazis’ crimes found its echo in the postwar responses of many different constituencies, and this volume highlights, on the basis of cutting-edge historical research, why the turn to the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust is so important a part of Holocaust Studies.

Suzanne Bardgett was Head of Research and Academic Partnerships at Imperial War Museums until 2023. She currently writes for IWM’s Publishing section.

Christine Schmidt is Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Wiener Holocaust Library, UK.

Dan Stone is Professor of Modern History at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.