Resettlers and Survivors

Located on the border of present-day Romania and Ukraine, the historical region of Bukovina was the site of widespread displacement and violence as it passed from Romanian to Soviet hands and back again during World War II. This study focuses on two groups of “Bukovinians”—ethnic Germans and German-speaking Jews—as they navigated dramatically changed political and social circumstances in and after 1945. Through comparisons of the narratives and self-conceptions of these groups, Resettlers and Survivors gives a nuanced account of how they dealt with the difficult legacies of World War II, while exploring Bukovina’s significance for them as both a geographical location and a “place of memory.”

Located on the border of present-day Romania and Ukraine, the historical region of Bukovina was the site of widespread displacement and violence as it passed from Romanian to Soviet hands and back again during World War II. This study focuses on two groups of “Bukovinians”—ethnic Germans and German-speaking Jews—as they navigated dramatically changed political and social circumstances in and after 1945. Through comparisons of the narratives and self-conceptions of these groups, Resettlers and Survivors gives a nuanced account of how they dealt with the difficult legacies of World War II, while exploring Bukovina’s significance for them as both a geographical location and a “place of memory.”

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part I: Backgrounds

Chapter 1. Being Bukovinian before 1945: German and Jewish Bukovinians in the Habsburg Empire, Romania and the Second World War

Part II: Establishments

Chapter 2. ‘Settling in the Motherland’: ‘Resettlers’ from Bukovina in West Germany after the Second World War
Chapter 3. ‘A Remarkable Branch of the Jewish People’: Survivors from Bukovina between Romania and Israel after the Second World War

Part III: Entanglements

Chapter 4. ‘Lost Home’ and ‘Area of Expulsion’: Compensating for Loss at the Height of the Cold War
Chapter 5. ‘Sunken Cultural Landscape’: Reimagining Bukovina through the Lens of Literature

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index