How did and does the fate of refugees unfold in internment camps? The newly published peer-reviewed volume Internment Refugee Camps: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives analyzes organized, state led, and forced placement of refugees in the past and present. It explores the parallels and differences between the practices and types of internment in different countries – while considering the specific historical contexts.

 

The contribution by Matthew Stibbe and Kim Wünschmann compares the internment of civilians during the First and Second World Wars. It considers the impact of “lessons learned” from the Great War on policy making during the latter conflict by belligerent and neutral states as well as humanitarian bodies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross. It focusses on Second World War internment in Britain, which affected thousands of Jewish refugees, in Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland to draw out continuities and breaks in practice at both the national and inter-state levels.

 

Gabriele Anderl, Linda Erker, Christoph Reinprecht (eds.) Internment Refugee Camps:  Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (Bielefeld: transcript, 2023).

 

Link to the Open Access Publication

 

Picture: transcript