The History of the Shtetl after 1945 is the first book-length social history of the aftermath of the Holocaust in the Eastern European countryside and of the mass-scale repopulation, domestication and adaptation of vacated Jewish spaces. After the Holocaust, the shtetl began to be perceived in terms of “an East European Atlantis.” Against the background of this grand narrative of obliteration and discontinuity, this book argues that the shtetl still has a history after 1945—a largely overlooked one, but one that deserves to be told. The social function of the shtetls as predominantly, or in large part, Jewish settlements, living according to the rhythm of Jewish holidays, irreversibly ended with the Holocaust. And yet, the social reality of these towns: their material heritage, their economic condition, and social relations within them have continued to be defined by their history as shtetls. The shtetl also remains relevant to Jews—as a lieu de memoire, a pilgrimage site and, albeit to a small number of individuals, a home. Looking at six selected shtetls located in today’s Poland, Belarus and Ukraine, this book provides a comparative angle that allows to see wider transnational commonalities.
