Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:29:02.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2017

VOLHA CHARNYSH  and
EVGENY FINKEL
VOLHA CHARNYSH*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
EVGENY FINKEL*
Affiliation:
George Washington University
*
Volha Charnysh is Fellow, The Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Princeton University. Address: Robertson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1013. ([email protected]).
Evgeny Finkel is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, Department of PoliticalScience and The Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. Address: 2115 G Street NW, Suite 419, Washington, DC 20052. ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Transfer and redistribution of wealth accompany most violent conflicts throughout the world, yet the local-level political and economic effects of this phenomenon remain unexplored. We address this omission by examining the long-term impact on the surrounding communities of the Nazi death camp Treblinka in Poland, where nearly a million Jews were murdered. The assets of murdered Jews sometimes ended up in the hands of the local population. We are able to identify the enduring impact of these property transfers on local economic and political outcomes because the exact location of Treblinka was exogenous to the characteristics of surrounding communities. We find that communities located closer to the camp experienced a real estate boom but do not exhibit higher levels of economic and social development. These communities also showed higher support for an anti-Semitic party, the League of Polish Families. Our findings speak to an important but overlooked challenge to post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 111 , Issue 4 , November 2017 , pp. 801 - 818
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The authors thank Dominique Arel, Mark Beissinger, Carles Boix, Hannah Chapman, James Conran, Christoph Engert, Ryan Enos, Leslie Finger, Jeffry Frieden, Scott Gehlbach, Noam Gidron, Dani Gilbert, Henry Hale, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Iacob Koch-Weser, Yon Lupu, Marek Makola, Dani Miodownik, Sarah Parkinson, Grigore Pop-Eleches, Joan Ricart-Huguet, Martyna Rusiniak, Annelle Sheline, Anton Strezhnev, Jelena Subotic, Elina Treyger, as well as participants of workshops at Harvard, Hebrew University, GWU, Notre Dame, Princeton, Georgia State, Uppsala, and conference panels at ASEEES and APSA. We also thank Sabine Carey, members of the APSR editorial team, and five anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Hassan, Tarek A., and Robinson, James A.. 2011. “Social Structure and Development: A Legacy of the Holocaust in Russia.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126 (2): 895–946.Google Scholar
Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude, and Yuksel, Mutlu. 2015. “The Long-Term Direct and External Effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 7 (3): 58–85.Google Scholar
Aly, Götz. 2006. Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and The Nazi Welfare State. New York: Metropolitan Books.Google Scholar
Appel, Hilary. 2005. “Anti-Communist Justice and Founding the Post-Communist Order: Lustration and Restitution in Central Europe.” East European Politics and Societies 19 (3): 379–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arad, Yitzhak. 1987. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Bartov, Omer. 2008. “Eastern Europe as the Site of Genocide.” Journal of Modern History 80 (3): 557–93.Google Scholar
Bikont, Anna. 2015. The Crime and the Silence. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Blattman, Christopher. 2009. “From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda.” American Political Science Review 103 (2): 231–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Ferrie, Joseph. 2016. “Shocking Behavior: Random Wealth in Antebellum Georgia and Human Capital across Generations.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 113 (3): 1455–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleakley, Hoyt, and Ferrie, Joseph P.. 2013. Up from Poverty? The 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery and the Long-Run Distribution of Wealth. National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brakman, Steven, Garretsen, Harry, and Schramm, Marc. 2004. “The Strategic Bombing of German Cities during World War II and its Impact on City Growth.” Journal of Economic Geography 4 (2): 201–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branscombe, Nyla R., Schmitt, Michael T., and Schiffhauer, Kristin. 2007. “Racial Attitudes in Response to Thoughts of White Privilege.” European Journal of Social Psychology 37 (2): 203–15.Google Scholar
Braun, Robert. 2016. “Religious Minorities and Resistance to Genocide.” American Political Science Review 110 (1): 127–47.Google Scholar
Carpenter, Charli. 2012. “‘You Talk of Terrible Things So Matter-of-Factly in This Language of Science’: Constructing Human Rights in the Academy.” Perspectives on Politics 10 (2): 363–83.Google Scholar
Castano, Emanuele, and Giner-Sorolla, Roger. 2006. “Not Quite Human: Infrahumanization in Response to Collective Responsibility for Intergroup Killing.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90 (5): 804–818.Google Scholar
Charnysh, Volha. 2015. “Historical Legacies of Interethnic Competition Anti-Semitism and the EU Referendum in Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (13): 1711–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chrostowski, Witold. 2004. Extermination Camp Treblinka. London: Vallentine Mitchell.Google Scholar
Cichopek-Gajraj, Anna. 2014. Beyond Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 2004. “Greed and Grievance in Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers 56 (4): 563–95.Google Scholar
Das, Hans. 2004. “Restoring Property Rights in the Aftermath of War.” The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 53 (2): 429–43.Google Scholar
Dean, Martin. 2008. Robbing the Jews: The Confiscation of Jewish Property in the Holocaust, 1933–1945. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
De Lange, Sarah L., and Guerra, Simona. 2009. “The League of Polish Families between East and West, Past and Present.” Communist and Post-Communist Studies 42 (4): 527–49.Google Scholar
Dumitru, Diana, and Johnson, Carter. 2011. “Constructing Interethnic Conflict and Cooperation: Why Some People Harmed Jews and Others Helped Them during the Holocaust in Romania.” World Politics 63 (1): 1–42.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 2004. Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Jackie. 2008. Above the Death Pits, beneath the Flag. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Festinger, Leon. 1957. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson & Co. Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny. 2015. “The Phoenix Effect of State Repression: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust.” American Political Science Review 109 (2): 339–53.Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny. 2017. Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival during the Holocaust. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fritzsche, Peter. 2016. An Iron Wind: Europe under Hitler. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Glazar, Richard. 1995. Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Głuchowski, Piotr, and Kowalski, Marcin. 2008. “Gorączka Złota w Treblince.” Gazeta Wyborcza. (Jan. 8).Google Scholar
Grabowski, Jan. 2013. Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Grosfeld, Irena, Rodnyansky, Alexander, and Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina. 2011. “Persistent Anti-Market Culture: A Legacy of the Pale of Settlement and of the Holocaust.” Centre for Economic Policy Research.Google Scholar
Gross, Jan Tomasz. 2007. Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Gross, Jan Tomasz, and Grudzinska-Gross, Irena. 2012. Golden Harvest: Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grossman, Guy, Manekin, Devorah, and Miodownik, Dan. 2015. “The Political Legacies of Combat: Attitudes toward War and Peace among Israeli Ex-Combatants.” International Organization 69 (4): 981–1009.Google Scholar
Harff, Barbara. 2003. “No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955.” American Political Science Review 97 (1): 57–73.Google Scholar
Houtte, van Hans, Delmartino, Bart, Yi, Iasson, and Das, Hans. 2008. Post-War Restoration of Property Rights under International Law. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Imhoff, Roland, and Banse, Rainer. 2009. “Ongoing Victim Suffering Increases Prejudice: The Case of Secondary Anti-Semitism.” Psychological Science 20 (12): 1443–47.Google Scholar
Iyer, Aarti, Leach, Colin W., and Crosby, Faye J.. 2003. “White Guilt and Racial Compensation: The Benefits and Limits of Self-Focus.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29 (1): 117–29.Google Scholar
Kącki, Marcin. 2011. “Wszyscy Kopali, tom i Ja.” Gazeta Wyborcza. (July 11).Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
King, Charles. 2012. “Can There Be a Political Science of the Holocaust?” Perspectives on Politics 10 (2): 323–41.Google Scholar
Kochanowski, Jerzy. 2015. Tylnymi Drzwiami: ’Czarny Rynek’ w Polsce 1944–1989. Warsaw: Neriton.Google Scholar
Kogon, Eugen. 1947. Der SS-Staat. Das System Der Deutschen Konzentrationslager. Berlin: Tempelhof.Google Scholar
Kopówka, Edward, and Rytel-Andrianik, Paweł. 2011. Dam Im Imie na Wieki: Polacy z Okolic Treblinki Ratujący Żydów. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Sióstr Loretanek.Google Scholar
Kopstein, Jeffrey, and Wittenberg, Jason. 2011. “Deadly Communities: Local Political Milieus and the Persecution of Jews in Occupied Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 44 (3): 259–83.Google Scholar
Kornai, Janos. 1992. The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Koubi, Vally. 2005. “War and Economic Performance.” Journal of Peace Research 42 (1): 67–82.Google Scholar
Kuwalek, Robert. 2014. “Concentration Camps and Death Camps as Memorial Sites to Jewish Victims or Mutual Polish-Jewish Martyrdom Sites.” In Jewish Presence in Absence: The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Poland, 1944–2010, eds. Tych, Feliks and Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.Google Scholar
Levin, Itamar. 2001. Locked Doors: The Seizure of Jewish Property in Arab Countries. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Levin, Itamar. 2004. Walls Around: The Plunder of Warsaw Jewry during World War II and Its Aftermath. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Lewis, Frank. 1996. “Agricultural Property and the 1948 Palestinian Refugees: Assessing the Loss.” Explorations in Economic History 33 (2): 169–94.Google Scholar
Lipiński, Zbigniew. 2001. “Wojna Polsko-Nowojorska?” Myśl Polska 13 (1498): 1.Google Scholar
Miguel, Edward, and Roland, Gerard. 2011. “The Long-Run Impact of Bombing Vietnam.” Journal of Development Economics 96 (1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Morris, Loveday. 2015. “The Islamic State Rampage in Iraq Has Torn Villages Apart, Sowing Distrust.” The Washington Post (Nov. 15).Google Scholar
Nalepa, Monika. 2010. Skeletons in the Closet: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pankowski, Rafal. 2010. The Populist Radical Right in Poland: The Patriots. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Phuong, Catherine. 2000. “At the Heart of the Return Process: Solving Property Issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Forced Migration Review 7: 5–7.Google Scholar
Polonsky, Antony. 1997. “Beyond Condemnation, Apologetics and Apologies.” Studies in Contemporary Jewry 8: 190–224.Google Scholar
Rajchman, Chil. 2011. The Last Jew of Treblinka: A Survivor’s Memory, 1942–1943. New York: Pegasus.Google Scholar
Rickman, Gregg. 2007. Conquest and Redemption: A History of Jewish Assets from the Holocaust. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Rogall, Thorsten, and Yanagizawa-Drott, David. 2013. “The Legacy of Political Mass Killings: Evidence from the Rwandan Genocide.” Mimeo.Google Scholar
Rotella, Katie N., and Richeson, Jennifer A.. 2013. “Motivated to ‘Forget:’ The Effects of In-Group Wrongdoing on Memory and Collective Guilt.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 4 (6): 730–37.Google Scholar
Rusiniak, Martyna. 2006. “Treblinka – Eldorado Podlasia?” Kwartalnik Historii Żydów 2: 200–211.Google Scholar
Schechtman, Joseph. 1951. “Evacuee Property in India and Pakistan.” Pacific Affairs 24 (4): 406–13.Google Scholar
Sereny, Gitta. 1974. Into That Darkness: From Mercy Killing to Mass Murder. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Staub, Ervin. 1997. “The Psychology of Rescue: Perpetrators, Bystanders and Heroic Helpers.” In Resisters, Rescuers and Refugees: Historical and Ethical Issues, ed. Michalczyk, John. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward.Google Scholar
Stola, Dariusz. 2007. “The Polish Debate on the Holocaust and the Restitution of Property.” In Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict over Jewish Property in Europe, eds. Goschler, Philipp Ther, Constantin, and Dean, Martin. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Talbot, Ian. 2006. Divided Cities: Partition and Its Aftermath in Lahore and Amritsar 1947–1957. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Teitel, Ruti. 2000. Transitional Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Törnquist-Plewa, Barbara. 2006. “Tale of Szydlowiec. Memory and Oblivion in a Former Shtetl in Poland.” In The Holocaust on Post-War Battlefields: Genocide as Historical Culture, eds. Karlsson, K.G. and Zander, U.. Malmo-Lund: Sekel-Forlag.Google Scholar
Tymowski, Andrzej, W. 2002. “Apologies for Jedwabne and Modernity.” East European Politics and Societies 16 (1): 291–306.Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2015. UNHCR Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2014. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.Google Scholar
Verpooten, Marijke, and Berlage, Lode. 2007. “Economic Mobility in Rural Rwanda: A Study of the Effects of War and Genocide at the Household Level.” Journal of African Economies 16 (3): 349–92.Google Scholar
Voigtländer, Nico, and Voth, Hans-Joachim. 2012. “Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 127 (3): 1339–92.Google Scholar
Webb, Chris, and Chocholaty, Michal. 2014. The Treblinka Death Camp. Stuttgart: Ibidem.Google Scholar
Wiernik, Jankiel. 1944. A Year in Treblinka. New York: American Representation of the General Jewish Workers’ Union of Poland.Google Scholar
Wolentarska-Ochman, Ewa. 2003. “Jedwabne and the Power Struggle in Poland (Remembering the Polish-Jewish Past a Decade after the Collapse of Communism).” Perspectives on European Politics and Society 4 (2): 171–89.Google Scholar
Woycicka, Zofia. 2013. Arrested Mourning: Memory of the Nazi Camps in Poland, 1944–1950. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Charnysh et al. Dataset

Dataset

http://dx.org/10.7910/DVN/8SR1GY
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Charnysh supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Charnysh supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 4.5 MB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.