Forgotten Voices: The Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe After World War II

by Merten,Ulrich

• ISBN13: 9781412843027
• ISBN10: 1412843022
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-03-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The news agency Reuters reported in 2009 that a mass grave containing 1,800 bodies was found in Malbork, Poland. Polish authorities suspected that they were German civilians that were probably killed by advancing Soviet forces or in their subsequent flight. A Polish archeologist supervising the exhumation, said "We are dealing with a mass grave of civilians, probably of German origin. The presence of children…. suggests they were civilians." More than sixty years ago the German Nai regime committed great crimes against innocent civilian victims: Jews, Poles, Russians, Serbs, and other people of Central and Eastern Europe. At war's end, however, innocent German civilians in turn became victims of crimes against humanity. Forgotten Voices lets these victims of ethnic cleansing tell their story in their own words, so that they and what they endured are not forgotten. This volume is an important supplement to the voices of victims of totalitarianism, and has been written in order to keep the historical record clear. The root cause of this tragedy was ultimately the Nai German regime as such. As a leading German historian, Hans-Ulrich Wehler has noted "Germany should avoid creating a cult of victimiation, and thus forgetting Auschwit and the mass killing of Russians." Ulrich Merten here argues that applying collective punishment to an entire people, no matter what the circumstances, is a crime against humanity. He concludes that this should also be recognied as a European catastrophe, and not only a German one, because of its magnitude and the broad violation of human rights that occurred on European soil.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Foreword	p. xix
Background	p. 1
The Reasons for Ethnic Cleansing	p. 2
The Expulsions	p. 7
The Flight from the Red Army	p. 11
The Flight and Expulsion of the German Population from East of the Oder-Neisse Line (Poland)	p. 23
The Soviet Attack on East Germany and the Flight of the Civilian Population	p. 23
The Soviet Attack on East Prussia	p. 25
Stutthof Concentration Camp	p. 26
The Flight of the Population from East Prussia	p. 40
The Flight of the Population from West Prussia and Pomerania	p. 47
The Flight of the Population from the Warthegau (Province of Poznan) and East Brandenburg	p. 50
The Flight of the Population from Silesia	p. 51
The Return of the German Population to Their Homes East of the Oder-Neisse Line	p. 56
Deportation of German Civilians as Forced Labor to the Soviet Union	p. 58
The Expulsion of the German Population from East of the Oder-Neisse Line	p. 64
The Treatment of German Civilians in the Former Reich Territories	p. 64
The Treatment of Volksdeutsche in Poland and in the Soviet Enclave of East Prussia	p. 69
The Expulsions	p. 75
A Summary of the Different Stages of the Expulsions	p. 80
The Polish Government's Justification for the Expulsion of the German Population	p. 83
The Destruction of the Polish Nation	p. 84
The Historical Justification for the Expulsion	p. 86
The Expulsion of the Ethnic German Population from the Former Czechoslovakia	p. 93
The History of German Settlements in Czechoslovakia	p. 95
Evacuation and Flight of the Sudeten Germans from the War	p. 101
Slovakia	p. 101
Bohemia and Moravia	p. 102
The Prague Uprising	p. 114
The Condition of the German Population in Bohemia and Moravia at War's End	p. 124
The Internment of the Sudeten Germans in Labor Camps	p. 131
The History of the Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto	p. 137
The Czech Government's Justification for the Expulsion of the Germans	p. 142
The Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans Prior to the Potsdam Conference	p. 146
The Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans after the Potsdam Conference	p. 162
The Expulsion of the Ethnic German Population from Hungary	p. 173
Introduction	p. 174
The History of the German Settlements in Hungary	p. 174
Hungary's German Minority in World War II, Including Service in the Waffen-SS	p. 179
The Flight and Evacuation from the Soviet Army	p. 185
The Hungarian Government's Justification for the Expulsion of the German Community	p. 189
The Soviet Occupation of Hungary and Forced Labor in the Soviet Union	p. 191
The Expulsion of the Ethnic Germans	p. 195
The Flight, Incarceration, and Expulsion of Ethnic Germans from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia	p. 207
Summary	p. 207
The History of the German Settlements in Yugoslavia	p. 209
The German Minority in World War II	p. 212
The Ethnic German Participation in the Waffen-SS Division "Prinz Eugen"	p. 214
The Evacuation and Flight of Ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia	p. 219
Deportation to the Soviet Union	p. 219
The Fate of the Ethnic German Minority in Tito's Partisan Government	p. 224
The Treatment of Children	p. 231
The Flight and Eviction of the Yugoslav German Minority	p. 234
The Closing of the Camps, Forced Labor, and Emigration to the German Federal Republic	p. 238
The Fate of the Ethnic German Minority in Romania	p. 241
The Historical Ethnic German Settlements in Romania	p. 241
The Transylvanian Saxons	p. 241
The Swabians of the Banat	p. 243
The Inter-War Years	p. 244
The German Minority in Romania in World War II	p. 248
The Collapse of the Romanian Government and Soviet Occupation	p. 249
The Evacuation of Ethnic German Civilians	p. 255
The Fate of the German Minority after the War	p. 261
The Deportation of Romanian Germans to the Soviet Union	p. 261
The Confiscation of German Farms	p. 271
The Forced Resettlement of Banat Germans	p. 274
Developments after 1949	p. 279
Conclusion: Integration and Reconciliation	p. 283
Integration of Refugees and Expellees into German Society	p. 283
Economic and Social Integration in West Germany	p. 284
Political Integration	p. 286
Integration in the Soviet Zone of Occupation	p. 287
Reconciliation with East European Nations	p. 288
Reconciliation with Poland	p. 289
Reconciliation with Czechoslovakia	p. 292
Reconciliation with Hungary	p. 296
Relations with Romania and the Former Yugoslavia	p. 298
Romania	p. 299
Yugoslavia	p. 300
Concluding Remarks	p. 301
Appendix	p. 303
Bibliography	p. 317
Index	p. 325
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