Population displacement and transnational trajectories: immigration, internment and empire in the case of Jewish refugees and the Cyprus camps, 1946-1949

Hadjisavvas, Eliana (2018). Population displacement and transnational trajectories: immigration, internment and empire in the case of Jewish refugees and the Cyprus camps, 1946-1949. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

At the end of the Second World War thousands of Jewish refugees, mostly Holocaust survivors, sought to flee Europe by embarking on clandestine passages to the British Mandate of Palestine. In an effort to suppress an influx of visa-less Jewish immigrants, Britain responded by establishing internment camps in its Colonial territory of Cyprus. From August 1946 to February 1949, over 52,000 people were interned and over 2,000 children were born on the island.

This thesis examines the history of the Cyprus camps which have hitherto been marginalised within the historiography of this period, often viewed as an insignificant stopover on the journey to Palestine. As this thesis demonstrates, the Cyprus camps were far more than a waiting area for visa-less refugees. Rather, Cyprus functioned as a liminal place between East and West where the dynamics of an emerging post-war refugee policy were revealed, away from the diplomatic seats of London and Washington. The thesis recasts imperial histories away from the Metropole, by incorporating the view from above with that from below, recovering the narratives of the protagonists themselves. By analysing the case of the Cyprus camps ‘locally’ from the territory itself, it is possible to explore the history of displacement and transnational politics at the borders of Europe. Thus, Cyprus offers a ‘local’ lens from which the ‘global’ political context that underpinned the evolving post-war order can be understood – repositioning the history of the camps from the periphery to the centre of analyses of this period.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):