Tomáš Staněk is rightfully regarded as one of the foremost experts of the Sudeten German expulsions after 1945. The book under review here is a translation of his Czech study, Tábory v českých zemích, 1945–1948 (Opava, 1996). It offers a detailed account of how internment camps became established in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia following World War II and the Germans' experience living in them. The book covers everything from the politics and government control of the camps to the hygienic conditions in them and the treatment of children. As such, it offers a wealth of information that Staněk conveys in a clear and systematic way.

Staněk places the book in the framework of retribution politics that included not only actions against the German minority, but also against Czech collaborators. He outlines how the legal provisions against collaborators overlapped with the regulations concerning Germans. Yet, the camp system that emerged incarcerated Germans almost exclusively. As Staněk indicates, the camps served several purposes: to punish, to make space for settlers in border regions, to provide a cheap and ready source of labor, and to serve as collection centers prior to expulsion from the country. In this sense, the camps were closely linked to the experience of Sudeten Germans and to the retribution they faced more generally after the war.

The bulk of the narrative explains the development of the camp system in 1945 and 1946. One of the most valuable insights here is how the camps, initially over 300 of them, emerged spontaneously at the end of the war. Staněk argues that the central government had little authority over the camps during the immediate postwar months when local authorities implemented their own rules and actions. The government in Prague, primarily through the Ministry of Interior, began to “systematize” the regulations and oversight of the camps in the fall of 1945. This was partly a result of problems that resulted from local control. In addition to the violence meted out against German inmates, health concerns, as well as widespread corruption, also forced the central authorities to step in and take charge.

Staněk paints a bleak picture of camp life during 1945. By August, more than 60,000 Germans were living in camps, and the numbers continued to rise. They were forced to work in a variety of jobs. Some of the worst camps were those attached to the mines where the working conditions were horrific and life in the barracks was punctuated with beatings and humiliation. In one section of the book entitled “Violence and Excesses,” Staněk presents several cases of rape, brutalities, and executions that occurred in many camps. As his account demonstrates, the camps became sites of the worst violence against Germans in 1945. Even where violence was not a part of everyday life in the camps, food and medicine were rarely available as needed and overcrowding was common. In 1946, the conditions of camp life improved thanks in part to better oversight and because expulsions, which had been halted during the winter, resumed. Staněk's analysis continues into 1949 after the Communists took power and gradually dismantled the remaining camps and attempted to integrate Germans into the new Socialist society.

The German title of the book, likely not the author's decision, implies a greater emphasis on the forced labor conditions that Sudeten Germans faced after the war than is included here. Staněk limits the scope of forced labor conditions and policies to its connection with the camp system. As he notes, several of the camps were tied directly to factories and mines, and many local farmers who needed cheap labor to help manage their farms used Germans. However, legal provisions forced nearly all Germans to work, and those not living in the camps had a much different work experience than did those in the camps.

This book provides a valuable contribution to the literature on postwar Czechoslovakia. In particular, it highlights the darker side of retribution politics as they were lived by the people deemed enemies and who were unfortunate enough to land in one of the camps. As a well-researched and well-crafted book, it also contributes to the study of internment camps that were a component of the World War II era. Thus, this book offers insight into several different themes that would be of interest to scholars working on camp systems in particular and on postwar Europe more generally.