Preliminary Programme

The paper focuses on policing strategies in transnational urban spaces within the area of the “British Army of the Rhine” from the end of the occupation of Germany until the end of the Cold War. On the average, around 60,000 British soldiers and twice as much civilians (UK-based civilian employees and family members) were stationed in the north-western part of Germany. The members of the armed forces, who were usually posted to other places every two or three years, lived within the German garrison towns in residential areas with a “British” infrastructure provided by the military. Importantly, these areas were not fenced off and partly integrated into the local infrastructure, which allowed different forms of interaction with the town population. As many garrison towns were quite small, the British military community made up a considerable percentage of the population.
This leads to the question, how the cohabitation of the British transient military and the local civilian sedentary population was organised, which conceptions of “public order and safety” existed and in which way both police forces cooperated with each other. The Royal Military Police was responsible for both soldiers and the civilian component of the forces, and the German civil police for everybody else. Many problems arose from the question who could take legal action in cases involving both British soldiers and German civilians.
On the public level, dealing with drunken, especially rioting young British soldiers, was one of the major issues which concerned “public order and safety”. These incidents, often perceived as an expression of asymmetrical power relations, were frequently discussed by the German public and both German and British authorities as well as the media. The paper discusses, in which way transnational networks of German mayors, British Services liaison officers and both police forces dealt with the problem, negotiated concepts of “public order”, and tried to pacify the public and to prevent similar cases.
Another important aspect concerned road safety, especially during exercises. During the Cold War the British forces – as part of NATO forces – conceptualised the region of the 1st British Corps as a potential theatre of war, as they would have been responsible for the defence of this area in case of war against the Warsaw Pact forces. Consequently, many exercises took place there each year – small manoeuvres of individual units as well as huge NATO exercises. During the exercises, villages and small towns became virtual battlefields, while the German civilian population carried on everyday life. The simultaneity of war and peace activities was difficult to manage. Especially many traffic accidents occurred, often with tanks, some of them fatal. German police and Royal Military Police closely cooperated with each other in order to ensure “public order” on the street, which also involved dealing with the growing peace movement which fundamentally questioned the military scenario and the predominance of the military.
The paper will equally discuss German and British perceptions and is based on archival sources, media reports, private material, and interviews with German and British police officers. (Show less)

This paper will explore the impact and effect of the Second World War on the management and administration of the English prison population; on the lives of prison staff; and on everyday life for those held in custody. In examining the experiences of ordinary prisoners and prison staff during the Second World War and not those detained due to the war (for example, POWs or detainees), this paper explores how the extent to which the conditions and situation of war allowed the space or the opportunity for the Prison Commission to re-evaluate their attitudes towards prisoners and the security settings in which they were housed. In the pre-war period, some small changes had been made which allowed for ‘open’ security conditions, notably in the borstal estate but the war pressed decisions on the Commission that they would not have previously considered. Until that time, they were deeply entrenched in a view of imprisonment and prisoners that was still overwhelmingly Victorian in its attitude.
The period of the Second World War has been almost entirely neglected in both criminological and historical accounts of the prison. Yet it was a period in which unprecedented pressure and change was felt in the prison system. At the outbreak of War over 5,600 prisoners were immediately discharged if they had less than three months to serve or if Borstal inmates with less than 6 months. Some London prisons were evacuated and prisoners who had not had early release were moved to provincial prisons. Prisons were also re-rolled to house POWs, staff were called up and then returned to the Service, leisure, labour, daily regimes and family contact for inmates and staff were all affected by emergency orders, the threat of air raids and the realities of the war. This research will examine the impact of air raids on prison experience and prison environment as well as the positive ways in which prisoners were able to contribute to the war effort through morale boosting activities or labour. This paper will begin to contribute a more coherent and complete narrative of penal policy and the lived experience of prisons during the Second World War and the more long-lasting effects of this period on changes in the post-war prison estate. (Show less)

Peace advocates had been active in Britain since the beginning of the nineteenth century, but they were not perceived as a threat that warranted police attention. This changed with the First World War and in particular with the introduction of compulsory military service in 1916, when pacifism and conscientious objection increasingly came to be seen as threats to national security. Although wartime Britain was governed by Liberal-led governments, under the emergency laws and regulations, the police were able to wield their authority considerably more than before in the effort to compel individuals and groups to obey highly restrictive practices – some of which were widely regarded as un-English before the war. Moreover, the discretionary powers of the police were enhanced, not least by public opinion, which correspondingly became more supportive and tolerant of police activity during the war.
This paper seeks to explore the ways in which the British police used their extended powers to curb anti-war campaigns, considered by the bulk of the public as un-patriotic and even treacherous. Did this arm of the state exercise the full powers of the law vested in them during the war? More specifically, what was the nature of the police's actual interactions with pacifists and conscientious objectors and how did the latter view the police’s reaction and treatment? The answers to these questions are fundamental to our understanding of the impact that this war had on traditional police norms and practices, as reflected in the police's handling of dissent. (Show less)

After the end of World War II the so - called Recovered territories (former German territories) were a dangerous area. The lack of stable justice structures made the rate of crimes committed in this territory was very high. It was a resulted also of presences of Red Army soldiers and large group of demobilized soldiers returning from the front. Part of this area were Lubusz region.
Citizens of Lubusz land very often were victims of crimes against life and health and against property. Many women (Polish and German) were still victims of sexual crimes. Traveling around Lubuskie region was also very dangerous during this period. Trains passengers were often robbed by demoralized soldiers, sometimes already at the station before the journey began.
Only in the period from October to December 1945, the Prosecutor's Office of the Regional Court in Zielona Góra recorded 243 crimes, including 57 committed by soldiers to the detriment of the civilian population. This data is of course not full. Many crimes committed by soldiers were not recorded (dark figure of crime). Some of these incidents were saved in the relation of witnesses and in social memory. For example, in Gorzów (one of the main cities of the Lubuskie region) there is Franciszek Walczak Street. This man was a young member of the militia and was murdered by Red Army soldiers.
The author's aim is to analyze, systematize information and present new findings regarding about crimes committed by soldiers in Lubusz region in the first months after the war. The article will be based on sources, among others: documents of the Polish prosecutor's office, jurisprudence of Polish District Courts and published relation of witnesses. (Show less)