The Expulsion of Academic Teaching Staff from German Universities, 1933–45

In spring 1933, a political purge began in German universities, affecting around one fifth of their academic staff. This study examines the various stages of this process, uses new data to create a collective portrait of those dismissed and asks why they received so little support from their unscathed colleagues. An analysis of the reasons for their dismissal shows that approximately 80% were driven out on antisemitic grounds, even though less than a third belonged to the Jewish community. Their lives after their dismissal varied greatly. Whereas some managed to pursue highly successful careers while in emigration, others were murdered by the Nazis or committed suicide. At the same time the purge policy improved the career chances of younger academics and it is no coincidence that it was from their ranks that the largest number of supporters of the Nazi regime were recruited. Not until the second half of the war did leading German politicians and academic leaders recognise a further effect of this policy, namely that the emigration of numerous influential scholars had provided the Allies with a ‘considerable gain in potential’, including in highly significant military research.

Purge brings rewards and risks for Moreno

Subject Political purge. Significance Ecuador’s Supreme Court on November 7 ordered former President Rafael Correa (2007-17) to stand trial for his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a political opponent in 2012. The order comes amid increasing efforts by President Lenin Moreno to purge Correa supporters from the government, legislature and bureaucracy and consolidate power. Correa, who now lives in Belgium, is out of reach of Moreno and the Supreme Court, but his popularity and influence in Ecuador endures and will cause ongoing problems for Moreno. Impacts The risk of political violence will increase as Correa and his supporters are locked out of formal political institutions. Correa will find it easier to claim political persecution if attacks against him and his supporters escalate. The arbitrary use of measures to purge Correa supporters from the state risks undermining trust in democratic institutions.

Autopsy of a Massacre On a Political Purge in the Early Days of the Indochina War (Nam Bo 1947)

This paper examines the history of an unknown “mass murder” perpetrated in 1947 in Southern Vietnam by the Viet Minh forces. It was organized in the outskirts of Saigon, mainly against Cao Dai and Hoa Hao religious forces that were portrayed as “reactionary” during their political revolutionary trials. Before presenting and analyzing the data of nearly 900 victims, the paper briefly presents the social, political and military conquest and context of French Cochinchina, as well as explains the political and military ambitions of the Viet Minh forces after the advent of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi on September 2, 1945. The focal point of this article is the review of the data related to the massacre and its uses, i.e.what they can reveal about the course of the massacre, its actors and victims. Finally, the paper's last section assesses the official historiography of the massacre, which has been recognized by the current regime in a 'soft' mea culpa. In conclusion, this article discusses the issue of violence in Southern Vietnam and its consequences for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in a more long term perspective.

German Officialdom Revisited: Political Views and Attitudes of the West German Civil Service

DEEP crises in the life of a nation sometimes lay bare with lightning clarity those basic social ties, loyalties, and commitments which render possible some maintenance of order and control when everything seems about to break down or disappear. In 1945, year of the deepest crisis that the German people have undergone in modern times, groups and organizations like the Junkers or the Nazi Party simply vanished; others, like the military, disappeared at least temporarily or, like the industrialists, were gravely weakened. It was the bureaucracy which became the bedrock, the irreducible minimum of social cohesion upon which, first locally, then in larger units, society was rebuilt. Subsequently, confirmed in its traditional position of control by the occupation powers (certain measures of attempted political purge and technical reorganization notwithstanding), its actual power was enhanced by the innumerable tasks of postwar reconstruction, from the building-up of entire new administrations (in the new Länder as well as on the bi-zonal and then federal levels of government) to the handling of what has been aptly called the “universe of claims” arising out of Nazi, war, and postwar conditions.