Beyond Expulsion

This article examines how the complexities of the Sudeten German expulsion and resettlement of the former Sudetenland spawned the notion that certain groups of people were unreliable or suspicious and, therefore, unwanted inhabitants. The intolerance and suspicion that setters, local and central officials, and others voiced toward different groups and actions directly related to the expulsion of Germans. The rapid influx of new settlers in search of German property and social mobility had a destabilizing effect on the region as well. The category of unwanted elements changed over time and reflected not necessarily the arrival of particular people but the problems unleashed by expulsion and settlement. The emergence of this category demonstrates how ethnic cleansing affected not only the targeted ethnic group but also how that process transformed people and places. This article offers new insights into the increasing body of literature on this topic in Central and Eastern European history by expanding the focus beyond Czechs and Germans. By examining a range of different sources, it also demonstrates that local actors as much as central ones created and sustained repressive attitudes in the borderlands.