Few heroes in Central Europe’s post-war chaos
Review: Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War
Some 65 years ago on the outskirts of Bavaria’s Kaufbeuren, a thousand settlers working from a disused munitions factory launched the production of glass and jewellery artefacts, making the new town of Neu Gablonz a centre of the industry. The settlers, ethnic Germans, came from then-Czechoslovakia’s Bohemian town of Jablonec nad Nisou, a town they referred to as Gablonz and that had also been noted for its glass and jewellery making.
Their settlement and the creation of Neu Gablonz was one of the very few success stories associated with the mass expulsion and resettlement of ethnic Germans from all over Central and Eastern Europe as the Second World War came to an end and in the ensuing years.
For the full review, please visit The Budapest Times
(Photo of Neu Gablonz: German Federal Archive)
