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Homecomings: Returning POWs and the Legacies of Defeat in Postwar Germany
This book focuses on one of the most visible and important consequences of total defeat in postwar the return to East and West Germany of the two million German soldiers and POWs who spent an extended period in Soviet captivity. These former prisoners made up a unique segment of German society. They were both soldiers in the war of racial annihilation on the Eastern front and then suffered extensive hardship and deprivation themselves as prisoners of war. The book examines the lingering consequences of the soldiers' return and explores returnees' own responses to a radically changed and divided homeland.
Historian Frank Biess traces the origins of the postwar period to the last years of the war, when ordinary Germans began to face the prospect of impending defeat. He then demonstrates parallel East and West German efforts to overcome the German loss by transforming returning POWs into ideal post-totalitarian or antifascist citizens. By exploring returnees' troubled adjustment to the more private spheres of the workplace and the family, the book stresses the limitations of these East and West German attempts to move beyond the war.
Based on a wide array of primary and secondary sources, Homecomings combines the political history of reconstruction with the social history of returnees and the cultural history of war memories and gender identities. It unearths important structural and functional similarities between German postwar societies, which remained infused with the aftereffects of unprecedented violence, loss, and mass death long after the war was over.
Historian Frank Biess traces the origins of the postwar period to the last years of the war, when ordinary Germans began to face the prospect of impending defeat. He then demonstrates parallel East and West German efforts to overcome the German loss by transforming returning POWs into ideal post-totalitarian or antifascist citizens. By exploring returnees' troubled adjustment to the more private spheres of the workplace and the family, the book stresses the limitations of these East and West German attempts to move beyond the war.
Based on a wide array of primary and secondary sources, Homecomings combines the political history of reconstruction with the social history of returnees and the cultural history of war memories and gender identities. It unearths important structural and functional similarities between German postwar societies, which remained infused with the aftereffects of unprecedented violence, loss, and mass death long after the war was over.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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November 22, 2024The result of the Second World War for Germany was national tragedy in search of socially acceptable explanation. Millions of soldiers knew both the tragedy of war as well the additional suffering endured as POWs. With commendable scholarship, Homecomings details the return of those internees in the years following the war’s end and the consequent impact in both East and West Germany.
While the Western allies agreed to return their POWs by the end of 1948, the Soviet Union delayed since a large number of Germans were used as reconstruction project labor. The bulk of those POWs were returned from Soviet lands by 1950 – between 1945 and 1950 the Soviets released around two million German POWs. Approximately 26,000 remained in custody until their release in two waves, in 1953–1954 and 1955–1956. That lengthy detention and ultimate return had important consequences for the political sphere, both inside and outside the two German states.
Despite their unconditional surrender, the German people, and especially the returnees, developed a range of narratives to justify and accept their past. The one concept that seemed to elude all, however, was the ownership of raw guilt. You might think that thoughts for Deutschland über alles evaporated at war’s end. Not so, apparently. Fascist thought reportedly persisted among a substantial number of returnees. Also, to many, and in West Germany particularly, prisoners from the Soviet camps were survivors just as much deserving of sympathy as concentration camp inmates. A confused fog arose surrounding the distinction between perpetrator and victim, one that may still exist to this day among Germans. Further wrinkles were the damaged masculinity experienced through the combination of defeat and the subsequent POW experience, and the largely unappreciated mental health burdens of the returnees. The church and the developing Cold War also had important influence on the development of redemptive narratives. Notably, the justice applied to suspected German war criminals appeared tempered and inconsistent, across all jurisdictions. Homecomings caused this reader to acknowledge that the culture of defeat can be dauntingly complex.
While the Western allies agreed to return their POWs by the end of 1948, the Soviet Union delayed since a large number of Germans were used as reconstruction project labor. The bulk of those POWs were returned from Soviet lands by 1950 – between 1945 and 1950 the Soviets released around two million German POWs. Approximately 26,000 remained in custody until their release in two waves, in 1953–1954 and 1955–1956. That lengthy detention and ultimate return had important consequences for the political sphere, both inside and outside the two German states.
Despite their unconditional surrender, the German people, and especially the returnees, developed a range of narratives to justify and accept their past. The one concept that seemed to elude all, however, was the ownership of raw guilt. You might think that thoughts for Deutschland über alles evaporated at war’s end. Not so, apparently. Fascist thought reportedly persisted among a substantial number of returnees. Also, to many, and in West Germany particularly, prisoners from the Soviet camps were survivors just as much deserving of sympathy as concentration camp inmates. A confused fog arose surrounding the distinction between perpetrator and victim, one that may still exist to this day among Germans. Further wrinkles were the damaged masculinity experienced through the combination of defeat and the subsequent POW experience, and the largely unappreciated mental health burdens of the returnees. The church and the developing Cold War also had important influence on the development of redemptive narratives. Notably, the justice applied to suspected German war criminals appeared tempered and inconsistent, across all jurisdictions. Homecomings caused this reader to acknowledge that the culture of defeat can be dauntingly complex.
January 2, 2021
This book was exactly what I was looking for. Born in Canada to German immigrants, it's been a challenge to grapple with my father's earlier life. This book has helped me understand the overall world that my father, as a Soviet POW, was returning to in 1950. It's helped me to understand how his first marriage ended and why he would have been motivated to come here to Canada. There's an extensive bibliography which I'm sure I'll be returning to as I continue to explore my father's life. Great photos included, too. Highly recommended.
February 2, 2018
Overall quite a good book. I've always been interested in German history and particular WW2. Having lived there in the 1980s for several years, I remember meeting ex POWs and families of POWs who were still suffering the impact of years of captivity under the Soviets.
This book provides a (very) detailed study of the impact of returning POWs on both the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. Particularly how the POWs were received back into society, how each country dealt with redefining what the POWs represented in their history, etc.
A bit of a laborious read, and a bit didactic at times, but overall enjoyable.
This book provides a (very) detailed study of the impact of returning POWs on both the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. Particularly how the POWs were received back into society, how each country dealt with redefining what the POWs represented in their history, etc.
A bit of a laborious read, and a bit didactic at times, but overall enjoyable.
April 4, 2008
Written by one of my favorite professors I had in college. For a man whose first language isn't English, it is remarkably lucid and entertaining, as well as simply intellectually fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews