Interrogation Nation: Refugees and Spies in Cold War Germany

ISBN-13: 9781538101513 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 308 str.

Keith R. Allen

Opis

This groundbreaking book explores the treatment of the millions of refugees and tens of thousands of spies that flooded Germany after World War II. Drawing on newly declassified espionage files, Keith R. Allen reveals long-hidden interrogation systems that were developed by Germany s western occupiers to protect internal security and gather intelligence about the Soviet Union. He shows how vetting in the name of public order brought foreign intelligence officials into practically every venue in postwar West Germany, from train stations to corporate boardrooms to private dwellings. At the heart of efforts to extract insights were extensive, personalized efforts by law enforcement and security officials to manipulate desires and emotions involving dearest family members, closest friends, and trusted colleagues. Linking personal narratives of those interrogated to the international context of postwar politics, the author reveals a compelling world inhabited by spies and refugees across Cold War Europe. Allen shows how similar scenarios involving agents and migrants appear to be playing themselves out again in the refugee crisis that broke over Europe in 2015. His important study illuminates the places, personalities, and practices of refugee interrogation in one of Europe s most successful postwar states. As calls for intense scrutiny of refugees have grown dramatically, the author illustrates how decisions to shortchange the rights of migrants in periods of heightened ideological and military tension may contribute to long-term threats to personal liberties and the rule of law."