New research on legal history
The current issue of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte opens with an article by Dr. Kim Wünschmann entitled ‘Enemy alien between international law and arbitrariness. Status and treatment of British civilians in Nazi Germany’.
At the start of the Second World War, the treatment of civilian ‘enemy aliens’ had not yet been codified in multilateral treaties, unlike that of prisoners of war. Using the example of British civilian internees in Germany, the study examines the extent to which bilateral agreements and customary law nevertheless afforded this group a special status that distinguished them from other prisoners in the Nazi camp system. In doing so, it situates the complex phenomenon of civilian internment in a legal history that is defined by the conventions of the international laws of war on the one hand and the ideology-driven measures of the Nazi regime on the other. The study also explores the experiences of the internees themselves, among them many Jews.
Dr. Kim Wünschmann provides deeper insight into her research in conversation with Dr. Thomas Schlemmer in the series ‘Ins Heft gezoomt’. With this format, the editorial team of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte presents one topic per issue in the form of a video recording, and also offers a brief glimpse of additional content that readers can expect.