 
Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber
Expresses His Views on the Sudeten Expulsions
The Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber on Sunday criticized the decrees legitimizing the expulsion of several
million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II.
"The Benes decrees are incompatible with the law, the spirit and the culture of
Europe," he told a rally of the Sudeten German Association in the Bavarian city
of Augsburg.
Stoiber said human rights, freedom, justice and the right to a homeland were basic
rights in the European Union. The future of Europe could be built on this, he said,
not on a set of laws leading to expulsions.
Laws proclaimed by the late President Edvard Benes led to the confiscation of
German property and the deportation of Sudeten Germans, who were collectively accused of having been Nazi
collaborators.
Many died in the brutal expulsions and hundreds of thousands later settled in Germany and Austria, where they and
their descendants still live, preserving their dialect and folk customs.
Stoiber defended the Sudeten German Association from criticism by Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who said the real
goal of the organization was to wreck Czech-German relations.
"The opposite is true," said the Bavarian premier, who also called for the creation of a national center against
expulsions in Berlin.
Opposition are heating up regarding the establishment of the national expellee center; especially since the decrees
permitting the expulsions were in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
Many reports on the expulsions, both pro and con, were copyrighted to prevent the misuse of those that did not
favor the expulsions. Some of these stories are presented herewith: DW staff / dpa (nda)
One Deceit of History
Sudeten Germans' Demise and the Illegal Potsdam Conference
By
Rudolf Pueschel
RFP Publications
Copyrighted 2002 by Rudolf Pueschel
Published by RFP
"Ready For Print Publications"
Post Office Box 4517
Mountain View, CA 94040-4517
United States of America
FOREWARD
There have been appeals to humanity in the past on
the subject of the Sudeten German genocide,
notably by scholars like Victor Gollancz,
Alfred de Zayas, Sidonia Dedina, Jan Mlynarik,
Ingomar Post and Karl Hausner (who was, himself,
an expellee from the Sudetenland), and in the
references cited. I gratefully acknowledge these
authors whose works I studied in preparation of
this treatise.
Unfortunately, no intellectual effort did avert one
of the most blatant ethnic cleansings in history;
in a mere two decades all of the Sudeten Germans
will have passed on and their descendants will have
assimilated with other populations of different
customs, culture and even language. Thus, the
Sudeten Germans' demise, instigated during and
executed after World War II by Czech and Slovak
politicians and since tolerated, sanctione or even
legitimized by their colleagues around the globe,
including those in power in Germany today,
will be complete.
While the world's politicians have done their job,
however questionable in an ethical-moral sense
their motives have been, the task to put this
remarkable event into a historical perspective is
still left to the world's historians. For never before
in history could language, culture and population
of a significant minority in a multinational state
been so completely, radically and brutally eradicated,
only subsequently to be ignored or misrepresented by politicians and historians for over half a century. A correction
is in order, and the time for it is now, such that history may retain its claim to truthfully account for the past in order to
better the future.
Rudolf Pueschel
Mountain View, CA
September 2002
"If the conscience of men ever again becomes sensitive, these expulsions will be rememberedto the undying shame of
all who committed or connived at them . . . The Germans were expelled not just with an absence of over-nice
consideration, but with the very maximum of brutality."
Victor Gollancz in Our Threatened Values,
Zurich 1947, pp. 156 ff.
====================================
"It was not only the expulsions that in themselves was bad. But the perpetrators - the so-called 'Partisans' did such
horrible deeds to the German Sudeten victims of the expulsions;
by committing moral, degenerate and horrific acts of torture, rape, murder, and desecration of the victims, that all the
brutalities of the middle ages and ancient ages (put together) would have made the perpetrators at those past times,
gentle people, in comparison.
Modern day revisionists have even made a mockery of what happened, and even today, refuse to tell the truth!"
Johannes Rammund De Balliel-Lawrora
German-American World Historical Society, Inc.
(An American of Prussian-German Heritage)
Introduction by Rudolf Pueschel
The complete eradication of German culture, language and population (more than 3 million) in what was
Czechoslovakia (total population approximately 12 million) is one of the most flagrant examples of ethnic cleansing in
history. Despite the extent of this tragedy, to this day man's conscience has not regained sensitivity to this
post-World War II genocide that took place in central Europe over 57 years ago. One reason for this is the Czech's
government and public failure to live up to their heraldic motto "The Truth Shall Prevail". Thus various official
interpretations of the German ethnic cleansing in Dzechoslovakia in 1945/46, historically one of the most complete
extinctions of language, culture and existence of a minority in a multinational state, read: The transfer of Germans
from Czechoslovakia was a decision by the Big Three - Great Britain, the United States of American and the Soviet
Union - at the Allied Conference in Potsdam. In August 1945; the Czechs and Slovaks had no choice but to agree to
this decision, albeit most reluctantly, and to carry out the Allies' demand in a humane and orderly manner. Officially,
the 1995 publication "Judicial aspects of the deportation of the Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia; the
government's subsequent decision, therefore, was not one of principle, but rather one of the modes by which the Great
Powers' decision could best be realized. These are misrepresentations on at least two grounds: first, then-Czech
president Benes' policy, beginning in 1938 and continuing to his death in 1948, was to expel the German minority from
Czechoslovakia; second, those expulsions were executed with utmost brutality.
Introduction by Johannes Rammund De Balliel-Lawrora
Following the Forward and Introduction by Rudolf Pueschel, the German-American World Historical Society, Inc. has
reverted to the following stories that lead up to the revolting insanity that followed the end of World War II.
Unfortunately, the pain that followed the end of the war, other stories had to be reviewed, for history to be complete;
and must also include all factors, both pro and con, leading to the atrocities that became the expulsions from the
eastern territories, including the Soviet Union, Africa, and other areas controlled by the so-called Allies - The Big
Three.
When the war was over, and West German became the Federal Republic of Germany, the new German government
under Konrad Adenauer, the West Germans were sympathetic to the poor victims of the expulsions from the East.
Before the Berlin Wall was devised by the Democratic Republic of Germany, the Berlin subway system was still
operating with the West Germans operating the western part of Berlin; and the East Germans running the eastern
spur of the underground system. There was at that time a film (produced by the West Germans for distribution in the
United States by the German Embassy and the various Consulates). This film was called "Berliner Ballad" which
poked fun at the East Germans and their Communist masters. This film was a two hour satire which showed the west
Germans and east Germans ignoring each other. I don't remember the entire film because it was long, long ago, but
in the early 1950s, I showed this film and others to audiences in Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey, with a
German-American organization in existence at the time - The Federation of American Citizens of German Descent,
where I was the General Secretary of Chapter 13. I later, briefly, became National Secretary of the organization,
which later on was taken over by the German-American National Congress (Deutsch Amerikanischer National
Kongress - DANK, which has their national office in Chicago. I had been residing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1946,
and for a couple of years I resided in Denver, Colorado, returning to New Jersey in 1953, for which I soon became
involved with the Newark Sport Club and the Federation of American Citizens of German Descent. I remember some
people commenting that how could a person with a non-German last name be so involved and dedicated to
German-American causes. They did not realize at that time that I was a second-generation German whose family
emigrated from Posen, Kingdom of Prussia. I maintained my German heritage by sending clothing to the poor people
in Germany, and established over a period of forty years, three German language Saturday Schools. I also kept up a
correspondence with cousins in Berlin and other parts of Germany under the Balliel name.
Then I became interested in the expulsions from Eastern Europe including Prussia, Poland, Russia, and the
Sudetenland, among other places. With the establishment of the website under the auspices of the German-American
World Historical Society, I can now pursue printing the truth regarding the expulsions; and the termination of
Germanic history in the educational systems throughout the world, including Germany and Austria. Not being
Politically associated with the beauracracy of all the countries under the influence of the so-called "Big Three" I was
not in anyway hampered by their political spheres, so long as I researched and told the truth regarding the expulsions
and the tragic events which came about after World War II and World War I.
Tortured In Siberia
By Hildegard Bolle
Published by Rudi Maskus
Copyrighted by Hausner Foundation, Oak Brook, IL, USA
Permission to publish on this Website granted by Hermine Hausner
I was a 16-year old girl from Elbing, when a desperate attempt to flee was a failure for many of us. The Russian
Army quickly and unexpectedly overran our city. No one from our neighborhood escaped the battles that lasted for
three weeks. My mother and I were lucky to find cover in a splinter-trench, without food and with only melted snow to
drink. Then we heard: "Watches, watchers"! and "Woman, come out!" There were drunken screaming and wild
shootings, and a few days later, a blow with the butt of a rifle, followed by: "Hurry, in ten minutes to the commandant
with documents."
We were famished and weakened for a long time, due to the air and street battles, but we were still herded about
without consideration. There were women and girls between the ages of 14 and 60; one of them was heavy with child.
We were chased for days, through the hinterland of Elbing. People were shot to death by the wayside, mercilessly
struck with the butts of the soldiers' guns. We often had to stop for interrogation. There were many, many rapes.
Later we were put in a truck and taken to a women's prison in Bartenstein. Eighteen women were jammed into a
one-room cell. There was only on e overflowing bucket for bowel relief. Some of the women fainted from extreme
exhaustion and fell in. There were more interrogrations and we had to stand in line, counting. Everything was
repeated over and over again.
Then, we were transported by truck to Insterburg. wjere Russian-width railroad tracks were laid out. We were locked
in a GPU Prison. I saw many German people simply die from exhaustion or from loss of blood, as a result of the
wounds mthey had received. On March 1, 1945, we were loaded onto an extremely long freight train. Our car held
49 men and women, and we had no blankets or straw. During the next three weeks, seven of them died. The freight
car door opened, and a Russian asked: "Any dead ones?" They were dragged to the doorway, their clothes were
ripped off, and their bodies were dumped along the tracks. We had to relieve ourselves through a groove in the floor.
In Charkow, we were de-loused for the first time. A baby was born prematurely to a co-prisoner. She had to return to
the Ice-cold wagon, still bleeding, and died without another sound. Three weeks later, we were unloaded in a blinding
snowstorm. There were wide expanses around us, industrial cranes and slag heaps on the horizon. We were in
Kopeisk, Siberia, as we found out later. We slept on two-story plank-beds at night. The clothes we wore on our body
during the day were also worn to sleep in. After daily hard labor in the pits or after woodcutting, we were often wet to
the bone. Our food was a brownish green brew, sometimes with a leaf of cabbage floating on top, and it tasted like
petroleum.
There were barbed wires, electric fences and watchtowers around the labor camp. We were counted twice daily in all
kinds of weather. We had to use a stand-up latrine. We were infested with bedbugs, fleas and scabies and many
women suffered miscarriages and abortions after they were raped. A vehicle overflowing with naked corpses left
daily through the camp gate. My first job was the gruesome attempt to load men's corpses, which was always
accompanied by these harsh words: "Hurry, hurry". They had been killed either by a shot in the neck, or after
punishment in the detention room. I became very sick several times. I was lucky enough to be vaccinated against
typhoid fever. A dirty syringe had been used, and it caused a serious infection. i was allowed to stay a short time in
the camp hospital.
The new transports arrived and filled all of the empty bunks, after all the dead bodies were taken away. I was
shipped, with several other very sick people, to another camp, and from there, to Germany within four weeks. We
saw a devastated land and totally strange areas. What now? Where to? The seven of us, finally narrowed us dow to
the two of us, and we wandered around hopelessly. Extreme exhaustion slowed me down more and more. A
co-prisoner, 30-year-old Emmi lovingly took care of me/ Since our deportation from East Germany, I no longer
owned panties and had to wear rags. We walked from Hoyerswerda, across the Lusitia River, through the Spreewald
to Berlin. At that time, we were told that we no longer had a homeland. We were gone with the wind.
We moved on to Schwerin, on the roofs and buffers of the trains to Chemnitz, where we found shelter in a drafty
useless attic. I labored as a helper in construction, but I was not suitable. Then I became a message carrier, until I
remembered that I had a distant relative in Weimar. After parting from Emmi, and after arrival in Weimar, I found
my aunt and her two children, helpless and fighting for their own survival. I searched again and found charitable
shelter as a maid in a household. Later, I got a job as a telephone operator in a government office.
The day before Christmas, I received a postcard from my mother. I filled out applications for us to get shelter and
ration cards there. In mid-January, I was able to put my arms around my totally feeble and helpless mother, who had
also returned, very sick, from Siberia. She had been living in earthen bunkers, and had contracted typhoid fever,
along with hallucinations. We succeeded in getting to West Germany. There we met my emaciated father who had
returned from his prisoner-of-war camp in Minsk. Subsequently, I achieved a teaching degree and served in the
Bavarian school system. I worked twenty-plus years until I became blind. My marriage and my child gave my life a
new meaning.
(Now: Saturnstrasse 7, 90522 Oberasbach)
========================================================
Hildegard Fiedler
Brutal Rapes
Published by Rudi Maskus
Copyrighted by Hausner Foundation
Oak Brook, Illinois - USA
Permission to publish on this Website
granted by Hermine Hausner
Forests and Lakes surrounded my home village of Mertenheim, County Loetzen in East Prussia. My mother, my brother (18
months) and I (18), had fled from the Russians on January 23, 1945. It was bitter cold, and we waited many hours for a train.
It never came. We walked back home and fed our pigs and chickens. When we suddenly heard a freight train stopping at the
depot, we grabbed a few meager belongings, ran across the fields and boarded the train.
Many refugees and a few soldiers were on the train. We departed, but had to stop very often on the open fields. We proceeded
extremely slow. It took us eight days, until we came close to Heilsberg, about 50 kilometers from our village. We were
strandard again on an open field and we were told: "Save yourselves if you can, the Russians are here!"
The children began to to cry, and all of us were panic-stricken. In a village, about one kilometer away, we found shelter in a
house. We slept in one room on the floor with 20 other refugees. A short time later, it seemed to us that the whole village
was burning. I looked briefly through the window, and was hit by grenade splinters on my head and chest. I fell down
unconscious. One of the women made a makeshift bandage.
Toward evening, the first Russians entered the house. They did not harm us, but the next day, they were cruel and horrible.
The women had to endure brutal rapes, often accompanied by ceaseless clubbing with the butts of their guns, until they were
unconscious. Their clothes were slit open from top to bottom. No amount of crying or begging helped! It went on day and
night.
In early March of 1945, it was still very cold, and I was dragged away by the Russian soldiers. We were told that we would be
deported to Russia. Our group consisted of 15 girls, one older woman and a boy. We were loaded onto a truck. But the truck
stopped a few hours later, and we got orders to drive the animals closer to the border. We received hardly any food;
sometimes we could cook a few potatoes. My teeth loosened, my gums badly swollen, and I had very painful toothaches. It
was a miracle that it got better without medication.
In October of 1945, I was allowed to go home. At first, I rode on a truck, but about 12 kilometers before my village, I had to
get off and walk. Before we were separated, my mother had told me once, that when the war ended, she and my little brother
would return to Mertenheim. Was she able to return? Uncertainty scared me. But I was lucky! My mother and my brother
were there!
Meanwhile, the Poles had taken over the administration. The few remaining Germans had to work for the Poles in our own
fields and with our own livestock. I return, we got a few potatoes and some flour to bake bread. Starting in 1945, we got a few
zlotys, only enough to buy a pound of salt and sugar.
We had hardly any clothing to wear. We were grateful when we found any article of clothing or shoes in a street ditch.
Sometimes we found one shoe for the right food, another time a rubber boot for the left one. We were very sad that the
Russians shot our grandfather, and uncle and aunt and some friends. They were unable to flee. In May of 1950, I was
permitted to leave for Luetzen, County of Weissenfels. Behind me were terrible times I will never forget!
(Now: Markstrasse 14, 06686 Luetzen)
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