Slavs in Post-Nazi Austria: Carinthian Slovenes and the Politics of Assimilation, 1945–1960

About the Author

Robert Knight is Senior Lecturer in International History at Loughborough University, UK. He is the editor of Ethnicity, Nationalism and the European Cold War (Bloomsbury, 2012).

Product Description

Robert Knight's book examines how the 60,000 strong Slovene community in the Austrian borderland province of Carinthia continued to suffer in the wake of Nazism's fall. It explores how and why Nazi values continued to be influential in a post-Nazi era in postwar Central Europe and provides valuable insights into the Cold War as a point of interaction of local, national and international politics.

Though Austria was re-established in 1945 as Hitler's 'first victim', many Austrians continued to share principles which had underpinned the Third Reich. Long treated as both inferior and threatening prior to the rise of Hitler and then persecuted during his time in power, the Slovenes of Carinthia were prevented from equality of schooling by local Nazis in the years that followed World War Two, behavior that was tolerated in Vienna and largely ignored by the rest of the world. Slavs in Post-Nazi Austria uses this vital case study to discuss wider issues relating to the stubborn legacy of Nazism in postwar Europe and to instill a deeper understanding of the interplay between collective and individual (liberal) rights in Central Europe.

This is a fascinating study for anyone interested in knowing more about the disturbing imprint that Nazism left in some parts of Europe in the postwar years.

Review

“The volume is extremely well researched, drawing material from more than 15 archives in Germany, Austria, and the former Yugoslavia, oral histories, numerous periodicals, and no fewer than 80 published, primary sources … [It contributes] much-needed insight into Austria’s perception and place as western Cold War ally and how that status shaped Austrian reception to the continuities and contours of Nazism that impacted the Slovene minority.” – Canadian Slavonic Papers

“Why should we care about the twentieth-century history of the little-known Austrian province of Carinthia and the treatment of its forgotten, beleaguered Slovene-speaking minority? If the question were posed in this manner, historian Robert Knight has given us an entire book of very good reasons, which should attract the interdisciplinary interest of, among others, historians, experts in education, and contemporary political watchers worried about Europe’s dangerous inability to accommodate forced migrants and refugees. One test of a strong regional history is its ability to connect with wider national, continental, and global trends. On this level, and others, Knight’s work has given us much to ponder.” - Journal of Modern History