Anna Holian

Displacement and the post-war reconstruction of education: Displaced persons at the UNRRA University of Munich, 1945-1948

In the first years after the Second World War, Munich was home to a unique institution, the UNRRA University. Created by and for Europes displaced persons, the university was defined as a new kind of educational institution, dedicated to the cause of reviving humanism and promoting internationalism. By virtue of their experiences of occupation, persecution and dislocation, the university argued, displaced persons were uniquely qualified to spearhead the post-war reconstruction of education and culture. This article traces the social and intellectual history of the UNRRA University. It examines the universitys ideas on nationalism and internationalism, the reconstruction of higher education and the role of the intellectual in the post-war world. It argues that while much of the literature on displaced persons has focused on national communities, wartime and post-war displacement also gave rise to new transnational solidarities and imaginaries among the displaced.

Anticommunism in the Streets: Refugee Politics in Cold War Germany

This article examines anticommunism among Eastern European ‘displaced persons’ in early postwar Germany. It addresses a number of questions about anticommunism, displaced communities, and the development of the Cold War. It illuminates the central role that anticommunism played in the self-definition of displaced Eastern Europeans, providing a communal alibi for the predicament of displacement as well as a program for overcoming this predicament. It also contributes to the task of reconstructing the genealogy of anticommunism itself. In particular, it highlights the role that rightist political movements displaced from Eastern Europe played in shaping postwar politics.