The Politics of Retribution in Europe
World War II and Its Aftermath

Conventional depictions of occupation and collaboration in World War II, of wartime resistance and post-war renewal, provided a backdrop against which the chronicle of post-war Europe has been told. This book sheds light on the amnesia that overtook European governments and peoples regarding their responsibility for war crimes against humanity.

Contributors are Brad Abrams, Martin Conway, Sarah Farmer, Luc Huyse, Lszl Karsai, Mark Mazower, and Peter Romijn, as well as the editors. Taken separately, their essays are significant contributions to the contemporary history of several European countries. Taken together, they represent an original and pathbreaking account of a formative moment in the shaping of Europe at the dawn of a new millennium.

Tony Judt Preface vii
PART I: PRELIMINARIES 1
Istvan Deik Introduction 3
Jan T. Gross Themes for a Social History of War Experience and Collaboration 15
PART II: THE EXPERIENCE OF WAR 37
Istvan Deik A Fatal Compromise? The Debate over Collaboration and Resistance in Hungary 39
Jan T. Gross A Tangled Web: Confronting Stereotypes Concerning Relations between Poles, Germans, Jews, and Communists 74
PART III: TRIALS AND POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY 131
Martin Conway Justice in Postwar Belgium: Popular Passions and Political Realities 133
Luc Huyse The Criminal justice System As a Political Actor in Regime Transitions: The Case of Belgium, 1944-50 157
Peter Romijn "Restoration of Confidence": The Purge of Local Government in the Netherlands As a Problem of Postwar Reconstruction 173
Sarah Farmer Postwar Justice in France: Bordeaux 1953 194
Mark Mazower The Cold War and the Appropriation of Memory: Greece after Liberation 212
Laszlo Karsai The People's Courts and Revolutionary justice in Hungary, 1945-46 233
Bradley Abrams The Politics of Retribution: The Trial of Jozef Tiso in the Czechoslovak Environment 252
PART IV: EPILOGUE 291
Tony Judt The Past Is Another Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe 293
List of Contributors 325
Index 327