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Politics, History, and Social Change
The Unwanted: European Refugees From 1St World War
There have always been homeless people, but only in the 20th century have refugees become an important part of international politics, seriously affecting relations between states. Since the 1880s the number of displaced persons has climbed astronomically, with people scattered over vaster distances and for longer periods of time than ever before. Tracing the emergence of this new variety of collective alienation, this text covers everything from the late 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century, encompassing the Armenian refugees, the Jews, the Spanish Civil War emigres, the Cold War refugees in flight from Soviet states and more. It shows not only the astounding dimensions of the subject but also depicts the shocking apathy and antipathy of the international community toward the homeless. It also examines the impact of refugee movements on great power diplomacy and considers the evolution of agencies designed to assist refugees, noting outstanding successes and failures.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
432 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 1985
2 people are currently reading
80 people want to read
About the author
Michael R. Marrus
45 books5 followersMichael Robert Marrus, CM FRSC is a Canadian historian of France, the Holocaust and Jewish history. He was born in Toronto and received his BA at the University of Toronto in 1963 and his MA and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and 1968. He is a Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto.
Marrus is an expert on the history of French Jewry and anti-semitism. He co-wrote with Robert Paxton a book on Vichy France that shows that the anti-semitism of Vichy was not imposed by the Germans, that at times Vichy was more brutal towards the French Jews than the Germans and the French state played a leading and indispensable role in organizing the deportation of Jews to death camps. Furthermore, Marrus and Paxton argued that Vichy was more brutal than other European states occupied by the Germans.
Marrus's book the Holocaust in History is a well-regarded historiographical survey. Marrus wants the Holocaust to be seen as tragedy for humanity, not just Jews. In his book, Marrus was able to offer a synthesis such as the Functionalist vs Intentionalist views of the origins of the Holocaust.
In 2001, after failing to gain access to the Vatican archives from the period after 1923, the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission disbanded amid controversy. Unsatisfied with the findings, Marrus said the commission "ran up against a brick wall.... It would have been really helpful to have had support from the Holy See on this issue."
Professor Michael Marrus was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2008.
Marrus married Randi Greenstein in 1971 and has three children.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...
Marrus is an expert on the history of French Jewry and anti-semitism. He co-wrote with Robert Paxton a book on Vichy France that shows that the anti-semitism of Vichy was not imposed by the Germans, that at times Vichy was more brutal towards the French Jews than the Germans and the French state played a leading and indispensable role in organizing the deportation of Jews to death camps. Furthermore, Marrus and Paxton argued that Vichy was more brutal than other European states occupied by the Germans.
Marrus's book the Holocaust in History is a well-regarded historiographical survey. Marrus wants the Holocaust to be seen as tragedy for humanity, not just Jews. In his book, Marrus was able to offer a synthesis such as the Functionalist vs Intentionalist views of the origins of the Holocaust.
In 2001, after failing to gain access to the Vatican archives from the period after 1923, the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission disbanded amid controversy. Unsatisfied with the findings, Marrus said the commission "ran up against a brick wall.... It would have been really helpful to have had support from the Holy See on this issue."
Professor Michael Marrus was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2008.
Marrus married Randi Greenstein in 1971 and has three children.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 25, 2016
The last 20 years, but especially the last few years, refugees have come to the front of international news due to the fact that never in history so many of them have roamed the planet in so many countries at the same time. In light of this insistent emphasis of the scale and new nature of the current wave of refugees and calls for Europe to provide more help, I felt it necessary to take a step back and look at the way Europe dealt with refugees in the past. So I picked up this book written in 1985. Some might find this an outdated book, but precisely the fact that it was written before the end of the cold war, makes it interesting due to the completely different point of view. Even if I could not suppress a cynic grin when at the end the author remarks that Europe could provide a lot of experience based on its mistakes and that they had learned from them.
The book can be divided in several thematic and period groups that overlap. A pre 19th century introduction discussing religious refugees and the early political refugees, the 19th century up to WWI that saw an increasing number of refugees culminating in mass movement, the first world war up to the rise of fascism. The period of fascism and nazism, the aftermath of the second world war and some remarks on post war Europe and refugees. The author used an incredible amount of sources and secondary literature and provides a massive amount of data or at least good estimates of the numbers involved, something that is to be praised. Overall it is a good book on the subject, especially for someone who knows little or nothing.
The book however does have a considerable amount of problems in my opinion. The sad fact is, that I liked half of the book and found the other half a chore to read. The parts that I did not like were the ones on the holocaust. I know I am treading on a delicate subject here but nonetheless, I feel like I should be honest here. What bothered me in particular was the amount of details, you get bombarded with numbers to such a degree that your head starts to spin, you are introduced to new sub-subthemes every page and names are introduced and forgotten in an instance. It also felt like that the chapters on the rise of fascism and nazism have little connection to the earlier parts of the book, a connection that decreases with every page you read on, only in the chapter of post war europe do you read about pre war refugees fighting for the nazis. But most importantly, it goes into such depth of the workings of Nazi Germany that I had to remind myself I was reading a book on refugees and not one on the holocaust. Now off course the flight of Jews and political opponents of nazism is an important part of the history of refugees however little is said on the flight of gypsies, political opponents or gays to me a shame since far less is talked about these victims than Jews. It almost feels like this book is two books in one; one on refugees and one on the holocaust and I wanted to read about the history of refugeeship.
What I liked in the rest of the book and that lacked in the parts on the holocaust was the way Marrus wrote a well balanced account and analysis of refugees in many forms in the other periods. He talked about why refugees came from certain countries, how states reacted, how the host country population's reacted (including private relief organisations), how life was for refugees depending on their background and popular perception of their background in the host countries and international context. He tries to do this in the holocaust part, however, the balance that worked in the rest of the book is lost. It boils down to what states did, what the nazis did, how many people moved when and where and some vague speculation on popular perception. He mention's but does not explore fascinating subjects such as the role of the red cross during the second world war, local initiatives to house fled Jews and in there is fact far to less attention to the plight of refugees itself and more on the position of Jews in Europe between 1933 and 1947 from a state level. However it is interesting to read that the popular myth that if only the jewish population had known they might have fled earlier, is exactly that, a myth. The majority of countries tried their best to prevent Jewish migration to their countries.
So in general why three stars? Well as said the rest of the book is very interesting and well written and what he did do he did well, the poblem lies with what he did not do. I found it fascinating to read how much different refugees were treated in the 19th and early 20th century compared to the current context, the lack of passports and absolute freedom of travel(for non colonial people) as international norm in particular. Equally fascinating the hero status of political refugees such as Bakunin and rebel Polish army officers (who would be called and treated as international terrorists today). Not as good but still fascinating was the part of how the allies dealt with the millions of people uprooted after the second world war and not limited to Jews, but including wartime allies of the nazis. A complaint there and one that is valid for the entire book, is that more personal accounts of refugees would have been a great addition to the book. This is all very topdown and state focused and I did feel like I missed something vital to really comprehend what it meant to be a refugee in the several periods and circumstances. The period after the second world war and its aftermath is also minimal to say the least and curiously the most notorious of political refugees in post war Europe: Khomeni is ignored. It might be that the author did let his ideological views interfere with his research which is a shame. But the foundation of the UN refugee institutions and comparison with the highly individual bounded league of nations institution the Nansen organisation was a welcome addition. So a good book but with severe limitations and issues one has to keep in mind when reading this book.
( extra)
to highlight the degree of ideological influence in the research and the book is the omission of anarchist cossack refugees from the Russian civil war and in particular Nestor Makhno. This does become more relevant because he emphasized that all parties in the Russian civil war persecuted jews and no-one protected them (as a foretaste of what was to come and explain the active participation of locals in nazi killings) but the anarchist cossacks who where a mighty force in Ukraine did protect jews and killed antisemitics and their military leader makhno did flee to France and his family was deported by the nazis and later the soviets. So in light of the inclusion of notorious cossack leader general Krasnov who also fought the communists, fled to the west, fought with the nazis and was also deported by the soviets, it feels like a grave mistake not include the anarchists cossacks and their role in European history even if only to highlight what a wide array of people became refugees and were housed in European states.
The book can be divided in several thematic and period groups that overlap. A pre 19th century introduction discussing religious refugees and the early political refugees, the 19th century up to WWI that saw an increasing number of refugees culminating in mass movement, the first world war up to the rise of fascism. The period of fascism and nazism, the aftermath of the second world war and some remarks on post war Europe and refugees. The author used an incredible amount of sources and secondary literature and provides a massive amount of data or at least good estimates of the numbers involved, something that is to be praised. Overall it is a good book on the subject, especially for someone who knows little or nothing.
The book however does have a considerable amount of problems in my opinion. The sad fact is, that I liked half of the book and found the other half a chore to read. The parts that I did not like were the ones on the holocaust. I know I am treading on a delicate subject here but nonetheless, I feel like I should be honest here. What bothered me in particular was the amount of details, you get bombarded with numbers to such a degree that your head starts to spin, you are introduced to new sub-subthemes every page and names are introduced and forgotten in an instance. It also felt like that the chapters on the rise of fascism and nazism have little connection to the earlier parts of the book, a connection that decreases with every page you read on, only in the chapter of post war europe do you read about pre war refugees fighting for the nazis. But most importantly, it goes into such depth of the workings of Nazi Germany that I had to remind myself I was reading a book on refugees and not one on the holocaust. Now off course the flight of Jews and political opponents of nazism is an important part of the history of refugees however little is said on the flight of gypsies, political opponents or gays to me a shame since far less is talked about these victims than Jews. It almost feels like this book is two books in one; one on refugees and one on the holocaust and I wanted to read about the history of refugeeship.
What I liked in the rest of the book and that lacked in the parts on the holocaust was the way Marrus wrote a well balanced account and analysis of refugees in many forms in the other periods. He talked about why refugees came from certain countries, how states reacted, how the host country population's reacted (including private relief organisations), how life was for refugees depending on their background and popular perception of their background in the host countries and international context. He tries to do this in the holocaust part, however, the balance that worked in the rest of the book is lost. It boils down to what states did, what the nazis did, how many people moved when and where and some vague speculation on popular perception. He mention's but does not explore fascinating subjects such as the role of the red cross during the second world war, local initiatives to house fled Jews and in there is fact far to less attention to the plight of refugees itself and more on the position of Jews in Europe between 1933 and 1947 from a state level. However it is interesting to read that the popular myth that if only the jewish population had known they might have fled earlier, is exactly that, a myth. The majority of countries tried their best to prevent Jewish migration to their countries.
So in general why three stars? Well as said the rest of the book is very interesting and well written and what he did do he did well, the poblem lies with what he did not do. I found it fascinating to read how much different refugees were treated in the 19th and early 20th century compared to the current context, the lack of passports and absolute freedom of travel(for non colonial people) as international norm in particular. Equally fascinating the hero status of political refugees such as Bakunin and rebel Polish army officers (who would be called and treated as international terrorists today). Not as good but still fascinating was the part of how the allies dealt with the millions of people uprooted after the second world war and not limited to Jews, but including wartime allies of the nazis. A complaint there and one that is valid for the entire book, is that more personal accounts of refugees would have been a great addition to the book. This is all very topdown and state focused and I did feel like I missed something vital to really comprehend what it meant to be a refugee in the several periods and circumstances. The period after the second world war and its aftermath is also minimal to say the least and curiously the most notorious of political refugees in post war Europe: Khomeni is ignored. It might be that the author did let his ideological views interfere with his research which is a shame. But the foundation of the UN refugee institutions and comparison with the highly individual bounded league of nations institution the Nansen organisation was a welcome addition. So a good book but with severe limitations and issues one has to keep in mind when reading this book.
( extra)
to highlight the degree of ideological influence in the research and the book is the omission of anarchist cossack refugees from the Russian civil war and in particular Nestor Makhno. This does become more relevant because he emphasized that all parties in the Russian civil war persecuted jews and no-one protected them (as a foretaste of what was to come and explain the active participation of locals in nazi killings) but the anarchist cossacks who where a mighty force in Ukraine did protect jews and killed antisemitics and their military leader makhno did flee to France and his family was deported by the nazis and later the soviets. So in light of the inclusion of notorious cossack leader general Krasnov who also fought the communists, fled to the west, fought with the nazis and was also deported by the soviets, it feels like a grave mistake not include the anarchists cossacks and their role in European history even if only to highlight what a wide array of people became refugees and were housed in European states.
February 4, 2018
A thorough examination of refugees in Europe from 1880-the end of WWII. Great maps!!
February 16, 2012
If you think you know the history of World War I and World War II, this book will help you see it through an entirely new lens. The incredible populations flows during this time are the basis for our current refugee regime, for better or for worse.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews