The introduction to this monograph offers a comprehensive summary of the relations between Czechs and Germans in the border areas of the Czech lands (then the Sudetenland), after the establishment of Czechoslovakia and throughout the period between the two world wars, in the context of the political development of central Europe. It offers a historical recapitulation of the evolution of the concept of population exchange between Greece and Turkey, Nazi manipulations of the population in the occupied states (Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic States) during the Second World War, as well as the displacement and expulsions carried out by the Stalinist regime. A particularly tragic part of most violent interference in the structure of the population of the countries of central and eastern Europe was the treatment of the Jewish population.

The monograph is aimed at the first stage of the expulsion the German-speaking population of the former Sudetenland. It consists of two case studies, the first focused on northern Bohemia (Ore Mountains, Děčín, Žatecko, Liberecko), and the second on north Moravia (Ostrava, Jeseníky). Specific for both regions were the dramatic excesses regarding the German-speaking population. The author mentions this fact and notes that the displacement in other parts of the border was milder. Česká Kamenice is an example of the typical development of a small town at the turning point of the war toward its end. The arrival of a number of newly-settled men often clashed with old settlers who had long-term relations with the German population.

Various groups living in the borderlands by 1947 did little to support settlement leaders’ vision of the borderlands as Czechified region that stood in defense of the nation (102). Conflicts between a variety of arriving settlers problematically integrated into the milieu of the borderlands (a very heterogeneous mass of old Czech settlers, Czech re-emigrants, Volhynian Czechs, remaining Germans, Roma, and Slovaks) caused a situation of continuing instability. The plan of remaking the borderlands failed in a number of respects (103).

The first phase of the expulsion of the Germans, the so-called “wild expulsion,” was accompanied the arrival of gold-diggers. In the first days of peace, they invaded the border to gain property. They were quick to leave, but they could damage the ethos of the restored Czechoslovak Republic. They also damaged the real settlers’ start of life in the borderlands, who were determined to keep the border as a functional territory of the republic. Most officials of the newly-established National Committees, Settlement Committees, and the National Renewal Fund have made it clear that looting was inadmissible and politically disgraceful. Although Dekret 108 had its own provisions for punishment for mishandling former German property, the effort to stop gold-digging practices was seemingly ineffective (120).

Surprisingly, many situations contradicted today's imaginary of ethnic cleansing. The Germans uncovered the crimes of the gold-diggers and helped the Czechoslovak state prosecute them (151). Rather than hatred and violence, Czechs and Germans negotiated and bartered. The confiscation of property and its subsequent assignment, however, attracted settlers to the borderlands.

The political objectives of displacement have contradicted the need to maintain the functioning of the border economy. Practice made compromises. So, “there was endless pressure to keep Germans in the borderlands” (189). For the functioning and management of industry in the new conditions, national administrators were established in the Czech lands. Confiscated German enterprises were run by national administrators, who numbered 9,000 in August 1945. Many did not know that they were paving the way for nationalization and gradual socialization of the Czechoslovak economy.

The study examines in detail the economic consequences of political decisions caused by the displacement of German border residents. It describes the confusing and inconspicuous situation where surviving antisemitism complicated the restitution of Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis after the occupation of the Sudetenland. It also demonstrates how the drastic shift in population brought about all the issues of the territory. That the postwar expulsions of Germans was significantly influenced by British plans is not even mentioned, however.

Careful editing of well-researched Czech sources resulted in scarce errors (such as, Ferdinand, not František Peroutka [117], Communist Párty of Czechoslovakia, [x]). The author, using new archival research, provides comprehensive insight into an ambivalent stage of the post-war transformation of the Czechoslovak border region.