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Economic Gains vs. Moral Costs: Proximity to Nazi Death Camp Treblinka
Insights from the Field
property rights
exogenous shock
Poland
redistribution
European Politics
APSR
3 R files
5 datasets
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Dataverse
The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence was authored by Volha Charnysh and Evgeny Finkel. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2017.

The transfer and redistribution of wealth during violent conflicts is common, yet its local-level effects remain largely unexplored.

We examine the long-term impact on communities surrounding the Nazi death camp Treblinka in Poland, where nearly a million Jews were murdered. In this specific case, victims' assets sometimes flowed into the hands of locals.

Our analysis leverages the exogenous location of Treblinka to identify its enduring effects:

  • Closer Proximity: Communities nearer to the site experienced a significant real estate boom.
  • No Development Correlation: This economic surge did not translate into broader social or economic advancement for these communities.
  • Increased Anti-Semitism: These areas also displayed stronger backing for an anti-Semitic party, the League of Polish Families.

These findings highlight an overlooked challenge in post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation: how tangible economic benefits from past atrocities may coexist with persistent societal resentment.

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