Univ., Diss.--Münster (Westfalen), 1997. / Quellen- und Literaturverz. S. [402] - 432.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Universität Münster, 1997. / Bibliogr. p. 402-432. Index.

Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2007. / Thesis advisor: Mieczyslaw B. Biskupski. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in European History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-120). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The difficulties of finding original material in general practice on which to write a Thesis made the author review his Service experience and choose the aforementioned subject. Whilst serving with the 11th Light Field Ambulance the author had the dubious privilege of working in the huts of Belsen Camp from the day of liberation onwards until the last hut was burned down by the British after complete evacuation of the camp. Few people who worked there can at any time have seen a greater wealth of clinical material. The death rate whilst evacuation was proceeding between April 20th, 1945 and May 17th, 1945, numbered some thirteen thousand in Camp 1 alone. In perusing the small amount of literature existing on the subject it is surprising that no real intensive clinical investigations seem to have been carried out at the Camp. The reasons for this are not far to seek. The magnitude of the problem which existed and smallness of resources of the liberating forces in men and material made the problem largely an administrative one of extreme urgency. Everyone in the area was employed in providing the daily wants of an average community to the internees. Food, water and clothing had to be provided. Some semblance of hygiene and order had to be brought to the Camp and an attempt made to evacuate the seriously ill estimated at some twenty eight thousand in Camp I and three thousand in Camp II. Along with another officer the author was responsible for the collection and evacuation of the sick from Camp I to Casualty Clearing Stations and General Hospitals in the neighbourhood. The appalling conditions of filth and squalor in the camp and a death rate of five hundred a day at the outset made speed in evacuation the prime consideration. Under these circumstances and because of language difficulties it was impossible to carry out a detailed examination of all patients, nor was it possible to keep clinical records. Many cases were examined in detail however end several visits were paid by the author to general hospitals where conditions were considerably more suitable for examination. Naturally no special investigations could be carried out by the author and cases were examined solely by clinical means.

The dissertation focuses on the fates of some 5 000 men, women and children of mostly Jewish descent who were deported by German Nazi authorities from the occupied Slovak State into the Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt concentration camps in the period ranging from November 1944 to the end of March 1945. The main objectives of the dissertation include the establishment of the number and identity of the deportees, the circumstances of their arrest, deportation, imprisonment and liberation as well as the causes of survival, or death, of the victims of racial persecution during the German occupation of Slovakia. Based on a comparative and content analysis of the available archival sources, oral and written testimonies by survivors and, to a limited extent, of secondary literature, the writer attempts to explain the conduct of the perpetrators and victims as well as the general historical context of the deportation and imprisonment of Slovak Jews by the Nazi regime. Based on an analysis of documents related to the anti-Jewish measures taken by the Nazi security apparatus in Slovakia with the assistance of local collaborators, more general conclusions are made with regard to the development of the Nazi "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" in the German Reich and the...

Ce mémoire de maîtrise analyse les liens entre les premiers procès militaires alliés en Allemagne occupée et l’opinion publique allemande dans l’après-guerre immédiat. Notre mémoire de maîtrise, à travers la présentation de l’analyse du procès de Belsen, organisé par les forces d’occupation britanniques de septembre à novembre 1945, et du procès de Dachau, tenu par le gouvernement militaire américain entre novembre et décembre 1945, cherche à mettre en lumière l’importance que ces derniers revêtaient dans l’établissement de relations cordiales entre occupants et occupés. Ce mémoire démontre donc, par les exemples de Belsen et Dachau, que les procès se situaient à la croisée entre le besoin des Alliés d’établir des relations positives avec les Allemands et leurs programmes de dénazification et de rééducation. Nous remarquons ainsi que, des premières étapes dans l’organisation de ces tribunaux jusqu’à leur achèvement, les Alliés ont pris en considération les différentes réactions des Allemands face aux procédures judiciaires : d’abord, avec l’ancrage des accusations et des procédures judiciaires dans une législation internationale qui précédait le début de la guerre, puis avec l’autorisation d’une défense pour les accusés qui permettait aux Alliés de revendiquer une autorité morale sur leur zone d’occupation. Ce mémoire de maîtrise, en plus d’examiner les procès d’après-guerre et leurs objectifs, propose également une analyse de la couverture journalistique de ces tribunaux et des sondages d’opinion publique menés après les procédures judiciaires. Notre étude établit ainsi que la couverture journalistique des procès était, souvent, une des premières fois où les Allemands se trouvaient confrontés aux atrocités commises dans les camps de concentration nazis. Finalement, avec l’analyse des sondages d’opinion publique, nous argumentons que les procès, en tant qu’outil politique, ont eu un succès mitigé dans l’établissement de relations positives entre les forces d’occupation britanniques et américaines et les Allemands. / This masters’ thesis analyses the connections between the first allied military trials held in postwar Germany and German public opinion toward the British and American occupation forces. Focused on the Belsen trial, held in the British occupation zone from September to November 1945, and the Dachau trial, held by the American military government in the U.S. occupation zone between November and December 1945, this study seeks to highlight the importance both trials held for the British and the Americans in establishing positive relations with the Germans. Using Belsen and Dachau as case studies, it argues that, while they were essential to British and American denazification and re-education programs, they also had to be conducted in a manner that ensured the best possible relationship the German public and the occupation forces in both the American and British occupation zones. I demonstrate that, from the initial steps implemented to set up the trials through their conclusion, both powers took German concerns and reactions to the judiciary procedures into account: first by anchoring the charges and the trials themselves in international law preceding the Second World War; then by providing the right to a defense to the accused. Both factors, the Allies believed, allowed them to claim a moral authority over their occupation zone. The memoir’s examination of the trials and their purpose is complimented by an analysis of the press coverage of the trials and public opinion surveys taken after the trials. This study states that the press coverage was oftentimes one the first instances in which Germans were confronted to the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Finally, this study argues that, as a part of larger programs, the trials had a limited success as a tool to implement positive relations between the British and American occupation forces and the German population.

No description available.

The thesis Jews in Czechoslovakia after WWII deals with the situation of the Czech and Moravian Jews after the WWII. It looks into the problems of the Jews liberated in the concentration camps and their process of repatriation and the problems, which were connected with their's adaptation to the society in Czechoslovakia. It follows the work of the Czech repatriation authorities and foreign Jewish organizations, which helped the Jews to adapt into the Czechoslovakia society. The thesis puts emphasizes on the differences between the behavior of the Jewish community in Prague and the Czech bureaus, which were obvious in the period of the return of the Jews to Czechoslovakia after the WWII. It also deals with the situation of the Jews from Carpathian Ruthenia and the Jews with German nationality, whose conditions where much more difficult.