T. David Curp takes a huge step towards the recognition that war is never a clear cut ideal; that World War 2 started in 1939 and ended in 1945, full stop. Being one of the first books in English on this subject, in his impressively researched book, ‘A Clean Sweep? The Politics Of Ethnic Cleansing in Western Poland, 1945-1960,’ he shows that there was more to it than meets the eye and that vengeance or retaliation, as the powerful tool that it is, does little more than lower the oppressed to the barbaric level of the oppressor.

It is only in recent years that the concept of ethnic cleansing as a historical ideal of most European nations has been recognised, yet the vengeful cleansing of those of German nationality or heritage still receives little or no attention in the majority or English speaking nations.

T. David Curp rose to the challenge in avoiding the accepted by many allegations that ‘they deserved it’ in using the western Polish provinces of Poznan and Zielona Gora as his analysis of the long term effect of ethnic cleansing upon post-1945 Poland.

Despite his intention to consider events from 1945 onwards he provides a useful historical introduction stretching back as far as the 1870’s which he considers was the beginning of Germanys struggle for the Polish-German borderlands where within a few pages he mentions French anti-German propaganda and raises questions about how significant collectivisation is to Polish ethnic cleansing and unintended though consequential forced migration.

He aligns with other literature which considers that Polish nobility historically invited the Germans to the country to help settle and develop its economic and urban life; the same happened in Slovakia yet both countries were to subject their ethnic guests to forced and more often than not violent migration as a result of the World War 2; a concept that has become known as ethnic cleansing.

Poland was ethnically cleansed not only by efforts of the state but by the Polish people as well where he speaks of the catholic church’s involvement under the control of Poland’s new master – Communism. The Poles of Poznan played an integral part in the national revolution which instigated and further encouraged the expulsion of the ethnic-Germans, some of whom had lived in Poland for many years and had fought alongside the Allies against Nazi tyranny.

T. David Curp doesn’t stop in the years directly subsequent to the war but continues in to the 1960’s in his scholarly account of the national uprising at Poznan, the site of the first major uprising in Poland, which reshaped Communist policy from a militantly Communist domination into a nationalistic socialist regime Despite his references to the horrors of vengeance and to the wrongs of collective guilt he portrays Polish thought as accepting that the political and cultural turmoil was a necessary part of post war culture. He implies that had Poland not been under communist rule that maybe things might have been different but in the spirit of fact based research he concentrates on the Stalinisation of Poland using newly released sources which includes the newly released Secret Police archives.

The ethnic cleansing left a powerful political and social legacy which T. David Curp analyses in the latter chapters of his book. It is an important part of European if not world history that has received very little unbiased attention yet needs to be studied if we are to learn from the past to ensure our future.

For all its scholarly qualities it is a hard book to read. If you want a quick read or a rapid influx of information this is not the book for you but if you want scholarly knowledge that has originated from one of America’s finer universities this is definitely the book for you. I feel a certain sense of pride in being able to review such a factual, unbiased piece of scholarly research.

Douglas Brough currently lives in the South East of England, near enough to the continent for him to be able to study the real truth behind the events of the last century. A member of the G.W.A, one of the worlds largest human rights organizations, his main passion is of the human rights abuses and historical inaccuracies portrayed as fact. Studying with the Open University (yes I thoroughly recommend them) for a degree of History and Religion he still finds time for his children as well as reviewing the latest off the shelf history books whilst working on his own first book.

© 2007 Laura Hird All rights reserved.