Hugo Service

Biography

Hugo Service is Lecturer in Modern European History. His research concerns the social and political history of Poland and Germany in the twentieth century. He studied at the University of Cambridge and spent several years living in Germany and Poland while researching his doctoral thesis. He held research and teaching positions at Cambridge and Oxford before joining York in September 2014. His book Germans to Poles examines the traumatic aftermath of Nazi occupation and the Second World War in western Poland.

Research Interest

Hugo Service’s book Germans to Poles: Communism, Nationalism and Ethnic Cleansing after the Second World War was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. It examines the massive population movements, acts of expulsion and cultural ruptures which accompanied the end of the Second World War in Central Europe. It demonstrates that the turmoil and violence in this part of the continent did not come to an end in 1945 – but rather continued for several years after the war. It focuses on the experience of the territories which Poland gained from Germany at this time – exploring the consequences for ordinary Central Europeans of the Polish Communist attempt to ‘cleanse’ these territories in line with a nationalist vision. It shows that the expulsion of over three million Germans was triggered and propelled by the arrival of millions of Polish settlers.