'Ich bin jetzt hier und das ist gut so.' Lebenswelten von Flüchtlingen und Vertriebenen in derLausitz. Lětopis by Ines KellerReview by: Gerald StoneThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 86, No. 1 (Jan., 2008), pp. 178-179Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25479181 .

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i78 SEER, 86, I, 2008

denies responsibility for the Katyn massacre, more or less directly questions Roosevelt's good faith over Himmler's attempts to arrange a surrender

and settles matters in Eastern Europe without regard for either Roosevelt or Churchill.

Butler, in her otherwise helpful commentary, sometimes betrays a hagio graphical desire to impute to Roosevelt an influence he did not have, as when she speculates that Stalin's re-opening of Orthodox churches in 1943 was

prompted by Roosevelt (p. 159). Elsewhere, Butler's grasp of military events seems less than absolutely certain as, for example, when she appears to believe

that the final offensive in Tunisia was the work of Montgomery's 8th Army assisted by Patton (p. 117).

But these are trivial points. In one important respect, however, she might have usefully extended the scope of the background information she supplies. US-Soviet relations in this period cannot be properly understood without some reference to the New Deal and the revolution in thinking about the socio-economic functions of the state that it introduced. This generated considerable sympathy for the Soviet Union among American intellectuals and Roosevelt's advisers included a very large number of unpaid and very well-placed Soviet sympathizers who, managed by Soviet agents, secretly passed information to the USSR government. When Stalin arrived at the Yalta conference he was fully informed about the American negotiating position on the basis of briefing provided to the GRU by Alger Hiss.

This correspondence is an account of Roosevelt's supper with the devil. There is no doubt that it involved him in hideous moral compromise; Poland went to the slaughter bench of history. But Roosevelt's fundamental calculation was sound. He did not fail. At the expense of the enormous

sacrifices he enabled Stalin to demand of Soviet soldiers, Roosevelt's steadfast ness of purpose saved Western Europe and the lives of millions of Allied soldiers.

London A. H. Walker

Keller, Ines. (Ich bin jetzt hier und das ist gut so.' Lebenswelten von Fl?chtlingen und Vertriebenen in der Lausitz- Utopis. Zeitschrift f?r sorbische Sprache, Geschichte und Kultur. Sonderheft. Gesamtband 52. Domowina Verlag, Bautzen, 2005. 193 pp. Notes. Bibliography. 12.00 (paperback).

In August 1945 by the terms of the Potsdam Agreement the Oder-Neisse line became Poland's provisional western frontier; but already, in the final stages of the war, millions of Germans from the territories east of the line had fled westwards. Millions more were later expelled and forced to seek refuge west of the line. The frontier of Czechoslovakia was also redrawn, involving the expulsion of Germans from the Sudetenland. By 1950 there were about

12.5 million refugees in the four occupation zones. Part of Lusatia was now

in Poland, but virtually the entire Sorbian speech-area lay west of the new

frontier.

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REVIEWS 179 In the early days of peace the Sorbs gradually discovered they could now

without fear use their language in public. In Upper Lusatia Sorbian was even

fostered. In schools Sorbian came into use almost immediately, and before

long in the churches too, both Catholic and Protestant, it was heard once

again. Sorbian priests and teachers, who had been deported by the Nazis to other parts of Germany, came home. In Lower Lusatia progress was much

slower, but here too the Sorbs were at least free again to speak their language in public. Simultaneously, however, in both Upper and Lower Lusatia, they discovered that their restored linguistic freedom was inhibited by the huge influx of German refugees. The new arrivals were in some cases surprised to

find themselves in a part of Germany where the vernacular was not German.

Some thought they were in Poland.

Many refugees made their way further westward, but others, believing the new frontier to be temporary, settled for the time being in Lusatia, where they believed they would be well placed to return home at the first opportunity. Interacting with the natives, they found that most of them could speak German quite well, if necessary, but preferred to speak Sorbian among themselves. There was a suspicion that they did so deliberately to exclude outsiders. Generally speaking, however, the Sorbs were ready to adapt to the new circumstances, and the linguistic situation began to change. In villages that hitherto had been Sorbian-speaking the vernacular changed to

German.

The second half of Ines Keller's book consists of biographical interviews with former refugees who settled in the Sorbian area. In the first half, skilfully using the interviews as her main source, she compiles a general picture of the flight or expulsion of the refugees, their arrival in Lusatia, their attitudes to their new environment, and the subsequent processes of assimila

tion and integration. Linguistically it was usually the natives that were assimilated to the settlers, but readiness and ability to adapt were correlated to age and there were some exceptions to the predominant pattern, espe

cially among the very young. This is graphically demonstrated by the fact that three of Dr Keller's interviews were conducted in Sorbian. These are subjects

who arrived as children in Sorbian villages and were linguistically assimilated to their new environment. No statistical conclusions can be drawn from these

three cases out of a total of eleven interviews. The actual rate of Sorabization

must have been much lower than they would indicate; but it is important to know that such things did happen and to learn something of how they happened. These interviews are valuable historical documents.

Those refugees who at the time of their arrival belonged to the older and middle generations

are no longer with us and they are therefore not

represented here, except occasionally in the reminiscences of their children and grandchildren. But it was mainly the impact of their presence in Sorbian

villages in the post-war years that brought about lasting ethnic and linguistic change. Ines Keller has made a valuable contribution to the history of Lusatia in the twentieth century.

Hertford College, Oxford Gerald Stone

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