Deportation in East Central Europe in the 20th Century

Snapshots of Invisible Incarceration

Author: Mihai Dragnea, Mihaela Martin, Michael Daniel Sagatis and Dallas Michelbacher Series: South-East European History

Deportation in East Central Europe in the 20th Century

This edited collection presents a wide-ranging survey of forced deportations by totalitarian regimes in East Central Europe throughout the 20th century. The chapters focus on deportation policies and practices among regimes in Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and the former U.S.S.R.

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This edited collection presents a wide-ranging survey of forced deportations by totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe throughout the 20th century. _e chapters focus on deportation policies and practices among regimes in Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and the former U.S.S.R, collectively highlighting the long-term effects of these policies and their significance to contemporary societies in Eastern Europe.

Deportation was a pervasive phenomenon, with socio-economic, demographic, and political implications that have structurally affected the shape and composition of contemporary European societies. Whether considering political repression, ideological clashes, social upheavals, territorial claims, ethnic cleansing, or conflicts within and between societies, deportation was a destabilizing factor across all aspects of twentieth-century East European history.

Applying cross-disciplinary perspectives, each case study makes extensive use of archival material or oral histories, presenting the stories of those "undesirables" who were cast out by political systems and the communities torn apart by their removal. These snapshots are not just memories of a time gone by, but visceral encounters with individuals, communities, ethnic and religious groups – a scholarly gaze into experiences that spanned across various realms, from the physical to the psychological and the profoundly spiritual. In tracing the impact of these policies down to the present day, the authors not only recount and reassess the dark tides of history but also contemplate the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity.

This volume stands as a crucial resource for researchers, educators, and policymakers. The result of a project initiated by the Balkan History Association, this volume stands as a crucial resource for researchers, educators, and policy makers.

About the Author

Mihaela Martin holds a doctorate in history. A widely published author, her studies focus on local and regional history, with additional interests in ethnicity and transnational perspectives.

Michael Sgatais read history and philosophy at UCL before going on to further interdisciplinary research on former Soviet state archives and cultural memory in the post-Soviet space. An award-winning filmmaker, he is also creator of the autoethnographic project "Joìzefa’s Letters - Extraction From Oblivion", which explores how the traumatic legacy of mass deportations is carried and felt by successive generations. “Joìzefa’s Letters” has been exhibited at museums in Moscow, Lviv, Vilnius, Budapest and Frankfurt.

Dallas Michelbacher is an Applied Researcher at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. He earned a B.A. in history from Auburn University in 2011 and a Ph.D. from Central Michigan University in 2016. He is the author of Jewish Forced Labor in Romania, 1940-1944 (2020) and a contributor to The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. His primary area of research interest is the experience of forced laborers and prisoners of war, with a particular emphasis on Romania.