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Citizenship and Property of German speaking Jews in Postwar Czechoslovakia

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2014

Abstract

This article examines the position of German-speaking Jews from Czech lands returning from emigration or concentration camps after the end of the war and the process of the nationalization of citizenship and property rights in post-war Czechoslovakia. As Jews, these former citizens of Czechoslovakia were undoubtedly victims of the National Socialist terror.

As people of German (or at least non-Czech) nationality, however, they fit into particular categories affected by presidential decrees. This article shows how state authorities, and local officials especially, tried to use the post-war situation to eradicate all aspects of what was called "Germanness." The story of German-speaking Jews in post-war Czechoslovakia is an element in the process of the disintegration of the state of law in post-war Central-Eastern Europe.