Papers by Anca Cretu
Current Affairs in Perspective, 2022
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Central European History, 2022
This article explores the development of modern refugee camps in Austria-Hungary during the First... more This article explores the development of modern refugee camps in Austria-Hungary during the First World War by looking at the organization and implementation of child assistance in the camps. The article argues that a state-driven mobilization of relief and rehabilitation was organized to alleviate the plight of refugee children. It points particularly to children's health care and the organization of education as instances that marked a shift in the scope of refugee camps in wartime Austria-Hungary. At first, camps represented a temporary measure to immobilize and control displaced populations. As the war progressed, they became a permanent feature of refugee policy and a microcosm of agendas of state consolidation. Ultimately, the case of child assistance shows that the organization of refugee camps in wartime Austria-Hungary was a fluid and gradual process that meshed technologies of population containment with humanitarian and welfare practices.
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Out of Line, Out of Place: A Global and Local History of World War I Internments (eds. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov), 2022
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European Review of History: Revue européenne d'histoire, 2020
ABSTRACT This article examines the interactions between American humanitarian agendas and initiat... more ABSTRACT This article examines the interactions between American humanitarian agendas and initiatives and domestic efforts for child relief in Romania in the aftermath of the Great War. While focusing on the presence of the European Children’s Fund (ECF) in post-war Romania, the article traces the domestic organization of relief, the Romanian elites’ turn to American humanitarian assistance, and their active responses to this external aid on behalf of war-suffering children. The article argues that Romanian leadership of child welfare initiatives nationalized American humanitarian aid by integrating ECF’s institutional efforts into domestically established philanthropic associations. This nationalization was sustained in three key ways: (1) American humanitarians’ own engagement of local channels in aid diffusion; (2) the growing network of national associations of child welfare in post-war Romania; (3) the competing political agendas of both donors and recipients. The case of Romanian responses to American aid for children, and its eventual domestic institutionalization, challenges the seemingly unequal relationship between Western donors and East-Central European recipients during a period of post-war reconstruction and sociopolitical transformation. It sheds light on the transnational dimension of the humanitarian process, driven by the dual agency of foreign humanitarians and domestic interlocutors in the country of aid reception.
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Current Affairs, Pierre Du Bois Foundation , 2020
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Spreading Protestant Modernity: Global Perspectives on the Social Work of the YMCA and YWCA, 1889-1970 , 2021
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1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, 2020
The rapid spread of epidemics ravaged military personnel and civilians in and outside Europe’s wa... more The rapid spread of epidemics ravaged military personnel and civilians in and outside Europe’s warzones during the Great War. Further, the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 became a global crisis as the disease spread. Then, state institutions, as well as national and international civil society, mobilized and crystallized efforts for the relief and rehabilitation of the sick. This article is a comparative and transnational overview of both the demographic devastation caused by disease, and the ways wartime conditions determined health crises among combatants and civilians. It explores how incidence of disease shaped wartime societies, as well as national and international governance during and after the war.
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Journal of Romanian Studies, 2019
This article examines the diffusion of humanitarian assistance via the American Relief Administra... more This article examines the diffusion of humanitarian assistance via the American Relief Administration (ARA) in Romania immediately after World War I. This exploration is articulated around two “arenas” of the assistance process. First, it follows the initial behind‐the scenes negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference and subsequent diplomatic tensions around the conditions of aid. Second, it addresses the practices and meaning of ARA’s assistance beyond Paris, on the Romanian ground. This analysis shows that post‐war destruction, social vulnerability and fear of anarchy and Bolshevism enabled the Romanian leadership to seek and access ARA’s humanitarian aid. Romanian state officials of the time contested ARA’s conditional humanitarianism, seeing it as a challenge to economic and political autonomy. Ultimately, the quest for sovereignty defined by the Greater Romania project informed the state leaders’ reception of American humanitarian agendas and efforts after World War I.
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Pierre Du Bois Foundation, 2015
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Current Affairs in Perspective, Pierre du Bois Foundation, 2018
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NEW ITEMS by Anca Cretu
Cornell University Press, 2022
With expert scholars and great sensitivity, Out of Line, Out of Place illuminates and analyzes ho... more With expert scholars and great sensitivity, Out of Line, Out of Place illuminates and analyzes how the proliferation of internment camps emerged as a biopolitical tool of governance. Although the internment camp developed as a technology of containment, control, and punishment in the latter part of the nineteenth century mainly in colonial settings, it became universal and global during the Great War.
Mass internment has long been recognized as a defining experience of World War II, but it was a fundamental experience of World War I as well.
More than eight million soldiers became prisoners of war, more than a million civilians became internees, and several millions more were displaced from their homes, with many placed in securitized refugee camps. For the first time, Out of Line, Out of Place brings these different camps together in conversation. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize that although there were differences among camps and varied logic of internment in individual countries, there were also striking similarities in how camps operated during the Great War.
LINKS
Cornell University Press: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765902/out-of-line-out-of-place/#bookTabs=1
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Line-Place-History-Internments/dp/1501765906/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
CONTENTS
Introduction: Military, Civilian, and Political Internments: Examining Great War Internments Together, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
Part I: Internments in Europe
1. (Dis)entangling the Local, the National, and the International: Civilian Internment in Germany and in German-Occupied France and Belgium in Global Context, by Matthew Stibbe
2. The Captives of the Kaiser: Schutzhaft and Political Prisoners in Germany, by André Keil
3. Securitized Protection: Health Work in Wartime Austria-Hungary and the Making of Refugee Camps, by Doina Anca Cretu
4. Alexandra Palace: A Concentration Camp in the Heart of London, by Assaf Mond
5. Prisoner-of-War Civilian Experience: The Role of Profession among POWs, by Lena Radauer
6. The Face and Race of the Enemy: German POW Photographs as a Weapon of War, by Nancy Fitch
Part II: Internments Beyond Europe
7. "Enemies of Our Country": Internment in Canada's Rocky Mountains National Park, 1915–1917, by Bohdan S. Kordan
8. Globalizing Captivity: "Little Germany in China", by Naoko Shimazu
9. German Propaganda and the African and Asian Theaters of the War, by Mahon Murphy
Part III: Interwar Repurcussions and Beyond
10. Internment after the War's End: "Humanitarian Camps" in the POW Repatriation Process, 1918–1923, by Hazuki Tate
11. POWs, Civilians, and the Postwar Development of International Humanitarian Law, by Neville Wylie and Sarina Landefeld
Conclusion: World War I and Its Internments: Final Remarks, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
REVIEWS
"This volume changes the picture on the significance of this internment history in several respects. First, internment should be considered one of the core dimensions of the First World War experience, alongside such experiences as trench warfare on the Western Front, and as such calls for examination both on a global and the local level. Clearing up prevailing misconceptions about the rigidity of distinctions between military prisoners of war (POW) and civilian internees, the authors emphasise the fluidity in the use of these terms by camp administrators and internees alike. The authors also provide a helpful overview of the sheer range of social categories of civilians interned by different regimes … This is a landmark study in the field, and a book which will be indispensable for the teaching of the First World War.”
— Dina Gusejnova, First World War Studies (2023)
"Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize the blurring of boundaries between the classic types of internment and the global system of camps first introduced during the First World War, as well as their exemplary effect in the decades after 1918. … This attractively illustrated volume does justice to its aim to draw a nuanced picture of well-known processes and, on the other hand, to shed light on topics and regions that have received little attention to date.”
— Martin Moll, Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift 82, no 2 (2023): 493–6
"This collective work presents the results of an international research project on the issue of prisoners of war (POWs), interned enemy civilians (IECs), and 'suspicious' citizens imprisoned during the First World War. … In their introduction, Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov point out that between 1914 and 1920, captivity and internment assumed massive proportions: over eight million POWs, one to two million IECs, and tens of thousands of suspect nationals were living in camps, alongside millions of displaced persons. … We commend the excellent coordination and synthesis work carried out, acknowledging that it could not be exhaustive on such a broad subject.”
— Jean-Noël Grandhomme, Francia Recensio (July, 2023)
"This book has great merit. It compares various case studies in Europe and beyond and, thus, offers a broad picture of internment operations. Such a wide-ranging approach presents the multiple categories of individuals interned, including combatants, enemy aliens, and political prisoners; widespread camp locations; and connections among state practices. The reflections that chapters propose on the global character r of this wartime phenomena also helps foster an understanding of the First World War beyond the battlefield and beyond the period of 1914–18. … These essays will encourage other researchers to pursue work in this direction as many questions remain opened. … For all these reasons, this book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of internment and war captivity.”
— Jean-Michel Turcotte, H-War (July, 2023)
ENDORSEMENTS
"Out of Line, Out of Place is a major contribution to the history of captivity and its immense consequences throughout the 20th century. The editors overcome the complex challenge of encompassing the thousands of camps and millions of people who experienced internment by implementing a global focus with diverse perspectives."
— Sarah Kovner, Columbia University, author of Prisoners of the Empire
"Out of Line, Out of Place is an important addition to the social and cultural history of war. The editors show that the First World War was only the beginning of the creation of l'univers concentrationnaire with impressive, well-knit essays addressing internment camps and a vast range of internee experiences."
— Jay Winter, Yale University, author of War beyond Words
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Additional Scholarly Contributions by Anca Cretu
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Anca Cretu
NEW ITEMS by Anca Cretu
Mass internment has long been recognized as a defining experience of World War II, but it was a fundamental experience of World War I as well.
More than eight million soldiers became prisoners of war, more than a million civilians became internees, and several millions more were displaced from their homes, with many placed in securitized refugee camps. For the first time, Out of Line, Out of Place brings these different camps together in conversation. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize that although there were differences among camps and varied logic of internment in individual countries, there were also striking similarities in how camps operated during the Great War.
LINKS
Cornell University Press: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765902/out-of-line-out-of-place/#bookTabs=1
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Line-Place-History-Internments/dp/1501765906/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
CONTENTS
Introduction: Military, Civilian, and Political Internments: Examining Great War Internments Together, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
Part I: Internments in Europe
1. (Dis)entangling the Local, the National, and the International: Civilian Internment in Germany and in German-Occupied France and Belgium in Global Context, by Matthew Stibbe
2. The Captives of the Kaiser: Schutzhaft and Political Prisoners in Germany, by André Keil
3. Securitized Protection: Health Work in Wartime Austria-Hungary and the Making of Refugee Camps, by Doina Anca Cretu
4. Alexandra Palace: A Concentration Camp in the Heart of London, by Assaf Mond
5. Prisoner-of-War Civilian Experience: The Role of Profession among POWs, by Lena Radauer
6. The Face and Race of the Enemy: German POW Photographs as a Weapon of War, by Nancy Fitch
Part II: Internments Beyond Europe
7. "Enemies of Our Country": Internment in Canada's Rocky Mountains National Park, 1915–1917, by Bohdan S. Kordan
8. Globalizing Captivity: "Little Germany in China", by Naoko Shimazu
9. German Propaganda and the African and Asian Theaters of the War, by Mahon Murphy
Part III: Interwar Repurcussions and Beyond
10. Internment after the War's End: "Humanitarian Camps" in the POW Repatriation Process, 1918–1923, by Hazuki Tate
11. POWs, Civilians, and the Postwar Development of International Humanitarian Law, by Neville Wylie and Sarina Landefeld
Conclusion: World War I and Its Internments: Final Remarks, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
REVIEWS
"This volume changes the picture on the significance of this internment history in several respects. First, internment should be considered one of the core dimensions of the First World War experience, alongside such experiences as trench warfare on the Western Front, and as such calls for examination both on a global and the local level. Clearing up prevailing misconceptions about the rigidity of distinctions between military prisoners of war (POW) and civilian internees, the authors emphasise the fluidity in the use of these terms by camp administrators and internees alike. The authors also provide a helpful overview of the sheer range of social categories of civilians interned by different regimes … This is a landmark study in the field, and a book which will be indispensable for the teaching of the First World War.”
— Dina Gusejnova, First World War Studies (2023)
"Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize the blurring of boundaries between the classic types of internment and the global system of camps first introduced during the First World War, as well as their exemplary effect in the decades after 1918. … This attractively illustrated volume does justice to its aim to draw a nuanced picture of well-known processes and, on the other hand, to shed light on topics and regions that have received little attention to date.”
— Martin Moll, Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift 82, no 2 (2023): 493–6
"This collective work presents the results of an international research project on the issue of prisoners of war (POWs), interned enemy civilians (IECs), and 'suspicious' citizens imprisoned during the First World War. … In their introduction, Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov point out that between 1914 and 1920, captivity and internment assumed massive proportions: over eight million POWs, one to two million IECs, and tens of thousands of suspect nationals were living in camps, alongside millions of displaced persons. … We commend the excellent coordination and synthesis work carried out, acknowledging that it could not be exhaustive on such a broad subject.”
— Jean-Noël Grandhomme, Francia Recensio (July, 2023)
"This book has great merit. It compares various case studies in Europe and beyond and, thus, offers a broad picture of internment operations. Such a wide-ranging approach presents the multiple categories of individuals interned, including combatants, enemy aliens, and political prisoners; widespread camp locations; and connections among state practices. The reflections that chapters propose on the global character r of this wartime phenomena also helps foster an understanding of the First World War beyond the battlefield and beyond the period of 1914–18. … These essays will encourage other researchers to pursue work in this direction as many questions remain opened. … For all these reasons, this book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of internment and war captivity.”
— Jean-Michel Turcotte, H-War (July, 2023)
ENDORSEMENTS
"Out of Line, Out of Place is a major contribution to the history of captivity and its immense consequences throughout the 20th century. The editors overcome the complex challenge of encompassing the thousands of camps and millions of people who experienced internment by implementing a global focus with diverse perspectives."
— Sarah Kovner, Columbia University, author of Prisoners of the Empire
"Out of Line, Out of Place is an important addition to the social and cultural history of war. The editors show that the First World War was only the beginning of the creation of l'univers concentrationnaire with impressive, well-knit essays addressing internment camps and a vast range of internee experiences."
— Jay Winter, Yale University, author of War beyond Words
Additional Scholarly Contributions by Anca Cretu
Mass internment has long been recognized as a defining experience of World War II, but it was a fundamental experience of World War I as well.
More than eight million soldiers became prisoners of war, more than a million civilians became internees, and several millions more were displaced from their homes, with many placed in securitized refugee camps. For the first time, Out of Line, Out of Place brings these different camps together in conversation. Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize that although there were differences among camps and varied logic of internment in individual countries, there were also striking similarities in how camps operated during the Great War.
LINKS
Cornell University Press: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501765902/out-of-line-out-of-place/#bookTabs=1
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Out-Line-Place-History-Internments/dp/1501765906/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
CONTENTS
Introduction: Military, Civilian, and Political Internments: Examining Great War Internments Together, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
Part I: Internments in Europe
1. (Dis)entangling the Local, the National, and the International: Civilian Internment in Germany and in German-Occupied France and Belgium in Global Context, by Matthew Stibbe
2. The Captives of the Kaiser: Schutzhaft and Political Prisoners in Germany, by André Keil
3. Securitized Protection: Health Work in Wartime Austria-Hungary and the Making of Refugee Camps, by Doina Anca Cretu
4. Alexandra Palace: A Concentration Camp in the Heart of London, by Assaf Mond
5. Prisoner-of-War Civilian Experience: The Role of Profession among POWs, by Lena Radauer
6. The Face and Race of the Enemy: German POW Photographs as a Weapon of War, by Nancy Fitch
Part II: Internments Beyond Europe
7. "Enemies of Our Country": Internment in Canada's Rocky Mountains National Park, 1915–1917, by Bohdan S. Kordan
8. Globalizing Captivity: "Little Germany in China", by Naoko Shimazu
9. German Propaganda and the African and Asian Theaters of the War, by Mahon Murphy
Part III: Interwar Repurcussions and Beyond
10. Internment after the War's End: "Humanitarian Camps" in the POW Repatriation Process, 1918–1923, by Hazuki Tate
11. POWs, Civilians, and the Postwar Development of International Humanitarian Law, by Neville Wylie and Sarina Landefeld
Conclusion: World War I and Its Internments: Final Remarks, by Iris Rachamimov and Rotem Kowner
REVIEWS
"This volume changes the picture on the significance of this internment history in several respects. First, internment should be considered one of the core dimensions of the First World War experience, alongside such experiences as trench warfare on the Western Front, and as such calls for examination both on a global and the local level. Clearing up prevailing misconceptions about the rigidity of distinctions between military prisoners of war (POW) and civilian internees, the authors emphasise the fluidity in the use of these terms by camp administrators and internees alike. The authors also provide a helpful overview of the sheer range of social categories of civilians interned by different regimes … This is a landmark study in the field, and a book which will be indispensable for the teaching of the First World War.”
— Dina Gusejnova, First World War Studies (2023)
"Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov emphasize the blurring of boundaries between the classic types of internment and the global system of camps first introduced during the First World War, as well as their exemplary effect in the decades after 1918. … This attractively illustrated volume does justice to its aim to draw a nuanced picture of well-known processes and, on the other hand, to shed light on topics and regions that have received little attention to date.”
— Martin Moll, Militaergeschichtliche Zeitschrift 82, no 2 (2023): 493–6
"This collective work presents the results of an international research project on the issue of prisoners of war (POWs), interned enemy civilians (IECs), and 'suspicious' citizens imprisoned during the First World War. … In their introduction, Rotem Kowner and Iris Rachamimov point out that between 1914 and 1920, captivity and internment assumed massive proportions: over eight million POWs, one to two million IECs, and tens of thousands of suspect nationals were living in camps, alongside millions of displaced persons. … We commend the excellent coordination and synthesis work carried out, acknowledging that it could not be exhaustive on such a broad subject.”
— Jean-Noël Grandhomme, Francia Recensio (July, 2023)
"This book has great merit. It compares various case studies in Europe and beyond and, thus, offers a broad picture of internment operations. Such a wide-ranging approach presents the multiple categories of individuals interned, including combatants, enemy aliens, and political prisoners; widespread camp locations; and connections among state practices. The reflections that chapters propose on the global character r of this wartime phenomena also helps foster an understanding of the First World War beyond the battlefield and beyond the period of 1914–18. … These essays will encourage other researchers to pursue work in this direction as many questions remain opened. … For all these reasons, this book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of internment and war captivity.”
— Jean-Michel Turcotte, H-War (July, 2023)
ENDORSEMENTS
"Out of Line, Out of Place is a major contribution to the history of captivity and its immense consequences throughout the 20th century. The editors overcome the complex challenge of encompassing the thousands of camps and millions of people who experienced internment by implementing a global focus with diverse perspectives."
— Sarah Kovner, Columbia University, author of Prisoners of the Empire
"Out of Line, Out of Place is an important addition to the social and cultural history of war. The editors show that the First World War was only the beginning of the creation of l'univers concentrationnaire with impressive, well-knit essays addressing internment camps and a vast range of internee experiences."
— Jay Winter, Yale University, author of War beyond Words