The State, Antisemitism, and Collaboration in the Holocaust: The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union. By Diana Dumitru. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xvii, 268 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Figures. Maps. $99.99, hard bound.Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown, and Mass Violence, 1914–1945. By Raz Segal. Stanford Studies on Central and Eastern Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2016. xiv, 211 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Maps. $6
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Paul Hanebrink
2017
Slavic Review: Interdisciplinary Quarterly of Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies
Book Reviews of data has been collected over the past decade. However, he also draws on accounts of earlier waves of migration to situate the last decade of mobility in its historical context and to argue against the common misconception that the floodgates opened precisely on May 1, 2004. This discussion is concentrated mainly in Chapter 2, which will be useful particularly to those readers less familiar with the role, and mythology, of earlier Polish migratory movements. Garapich highlights
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... e continuities in migratory practice and the tense relationships between groups of settled British Poles, and the more recent arrivals. In these encounters class divides feature as importantly as shared ethnicity. The interplay of those categories in the transnational social field inhabited by Garapich's protagonists is the main theoretical thrust of the book. This focus is fleshed out in the somewhat leaden theoretical discussion in Chapter 1, but it really begins to bear fruit as the monograph progresses into Chapters 5, 6, and 7. This latter part of the book is especially rich in priceless anthropological insights. For example, the section on the cultural meaning of moaning (173) explains why Polish migrants bond through ritualized complaining, even though they are generally optimistic in their pursuit of opportunities in the UK. The observations on class markers, dress, and looks (230) , dissect specific modes of class stigmatization and ways in which Garapich's informants work to disassociate themselves from the negative image of the Slavic lumpen-proletariat. Chapter 6 tackles also the ambiguous ways in which many Polish migrants make sense of the racial hierarchies in a multicultural global city like London. In the end, their views range "from strongly cosmopolitan, enthusiastic, and carefully nuanced to covertly or explicitly racist" (255). Garapich seeks to show, however, that the practices of living in a multicultural environment, often involving daily interactions between members of different ethnic groups, are more indicative of Polish migrants' adaptation to diversity than verbal declarations. At the same time, London provides the context where Poles begin to see themselves as white and thus sharing an essential affinity with the English middle classes rather than with other (non-white) migrants (260ff). This is a fascinating observation, one that could serve as the point of departure for a future inquiry into the transnational lives of Poles post-Brexit. Early in the book Garapich remarks that "Poles have been largely ignored sociologically despite being in the UK for a substantial amount of time" (88), although he does not really explain why. But if it is indeed the case that Poles played a key part in the drama of Brexit, this question demands an urgent answer. Further literature examining their place in contemporary Britain must follow, but in the meantime scholars of migration and transnationalism should turn to Garapich's rich and engaging ethnography.
doi:10.1017/slr.2017.205
fatcat:vnhieqbmtnbdnim3wzssmrhaeq
