AustreibungExpulsion1

Expulsions - 1 / Anarchy at its Worst!!

Austreibung Expulsion - 1
(The Atrocities of Ethnic Cleansing!!!)

WHEN WORLD WAR II WAS OVER.

                    By Karl Hausner

"Students don't know a lot about this topic", said Chris Gregory, Director of Ryle North
Residential Colleges. "They are taught that the war ended in 1 945 and the Americans went
home. They don't often think of the people who were still there". This was Dr. Gregory's
introduction to my presentation on October 1 2, 1 998 at Truman University in Kirksville,
Missouri.

The situation is much worse. Almost daily, politicians, the media and even prominent
Christian leaders refer to Nazi crimes and the Holocaust, without mentioning even such
crimes against humanity, committed by the Bolsheviks before, during and after World War
11 and the millions who were tortured and killed in China, Korea and Indochina. There is
also total silence about the Morgenthau Plan, the Allied War against civilians and the
starvation camps throughout Europe and Asia during and even after World War II.

It is, for this reason, that I would like to contribute to the understanding and harmony
between nations by presenting to those interested in the whole truth, the experience of my
people in the former Sudetenland after World War 11.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AFTER WORLD WAR I I:

I was born and raised on a family farm in Schwansdorf (Svatonovitze), a village with a
prewar population of about 550, near the city of Troppau (Opava), formerly
Sudetenschlesien and now the Czech Republic.

The war was extremely hard on our people with a high number of casualties. The worst came
when we were "liberated" by the Soviet troops and Czech partisans.On May 8, 1 945, after
weeks of military and refugee movements, the German troops quickly disappeared. At about
1 0:00 A.M., the village was bombarded by the Soviets with grenades and later combat
soldiers appeared. There was no fighting. The Soviet troops searched every house, primarily
for soldiers and valuables such as watches and jewelry. The combat troops then moved on.

The Soviet support troops arrived, removed all of the horses from the barns, harnessed
them, hitched them to the best wagons available, took some feed and departed. Every
mature male who was located, had to go along. Of the five men who were forced to join, only
one returned. These were: Ernst Krebs, Fritz Krebs, Johann Kuntscher, Emil Kaimer and
Franz Rohm. The latter returned after two years in a Soviet labor camp.

Other Soviet soldiers started to look for young women they could sexually abuse. Since most
of the population had fled or were hiding in stone quarries or woods, only those who
remained in the village felt they had to take care of their cattle. Mrs. Jahn, a 50 year old
woman, was approached for rape. She ran out of the house and the Soviet soldiers shot her
to death.

Franz Frei, during World War 1, was in the Austrian Army and got captured by the
Russians. He spent years with and against the Red Army. In 1 923, he returned from Russia
via China, thus, he had the ability to speak Russian. He was in his house, when Soviet
soldiers entered it. They saw a family picture on the wall with his four daughters. They
demanded that he produce these girls. Since he knew some Russian, he explained that they
are not here. After a beating, Mr. Frei had to kneel down and then he was executed.

Emma Bischof, our neighbor, about 35 years of age, was about to be raped. She took her two
children and ran out of her farm as two soldiers ran after her. She jumped with her two
children into a water reservoir. The soldiers pulled her and the children out, but her little
boy already had drowned. She was raped, while her seven year old daughter watched. At
about 3:00 P.M., a bunch of Soviet soldiers entered the farm house of the Emil Kaimer
family. Emil Kaimer was already gone, when they took his horses. Mrs. Kalmer, age 38, her
three children, ages ten, six and two and her 70 year old mother-in-law were in the kitchen.
She had to lay on the floor where she was raped by dozens of Soviet soldiers, one after
another. When blood exited from her vagina, one Soviet soldier instead of raping her, took
his bayonet and stuck it into her vagina, pulled it out and disappeared. Mrs. Kaimer was still
alive for another hour or so, when a Soviet officer shot her in the head. All this was in the
presence of her small children and old mother-in-law.

Julius Dohmes, age 60, hanged himself in the hay barn, when they took his only horse. He
was a small farmer and obviously could not handle the loss and circumstances. Hans
Sommer, about 55, had a small farm and Gasthaus (Inn), known as Schles, which was on the
road between our village and Bautsch (Budisov). He was found shot to death near his estate.
No one knows the circumstances. Most likely he fled and failed to stop and was shot.

During the next few days rape and robbery were committed by the Soviet troops whenever
and wherever possible. All of the cows and the other cattle, except one for each family, were
removed from the various farms and driven to the Rosmanith farm (No. 27) where they
were milked, awaiting their transportation to Russia. All of the young women, who were
located, were forced to do the chores for a period of about four weeks, during which time
they were raped numerous times, even daily.

At the end of May, the Soviet troops had discovered that some refugees were hiding in a
stone quarry, about a mile away from the village surrounded by large wooded areas. Our
teacher, Karl Wolny's family, had a hunting lodge nearby where they were hiding. On May
26, 1 945, Karl Wolny, who was 74 years of age, his wife, his sister-in-law Mrs. Muehr, his
son Oskar with his wife Anna and her sister were brutally slain. The two young women were
raped, even though, Anna Wolny was pregnant and close to giving birth. They were thrown
into a mass grave without a funeral, because our villagers were scared to attend. In
September of 1 998, 53 years later, a stone was placed on that mass grave in memory of
them.

Within about four weeks, in early June of 1 945, most of the Soviet troops disappeared from
the villages and the Czech partisans had taken over. The situation worsened.

I personally was in hiding with a Polish speaking family who had been on our farm prior to
the end of the war. Since they spoke Polish, they could communicate with the Russians to
some extent and during more critical moments, I was hidden under sacks of feed for the
horses, with clothing and the small children on top of it. We made our way to their
hometown, Weihendorf (Wojnowice) near Ratibor, which had been claimed by the Polish
Militia. Finally, at the end of June, I ventured the return to my hometown about forty miles
away, naturally on foot, avoiding towns, highways and people in general. Upon my return
home, all of us between the ages of fifteen and sixty-five, were to report for work,
harvesting and thrashing, whatever was left in the fields. In early September, I was just
about sixteen, when two from our village, myself and Ernst Frei (nineteen), who had
returned from the military, were sent to the industrial and coal mining region between
Ostrau (Ostrava) and Oderberg. The labor camp was built during World War 11, where
Soviet prisoners of war were housed and had to work in the coal mines. This was a typical
labor camp with barracks, primitive sanitary facilities and a kitchen. The camp was
surrounded with barbwire fences and watchtowers for the guards.

Upon arrival in the camp, our civilian clothing was taken away and we got a prison uniform
which included wooden shoes and a helmet for use in the mine. We received shears and had
to cut each others hair as short as possible in order to reduce the habitat for lice and make
us more readily detected in case we fled. This was certainly not something new, but a
common practice in all labor, concentration or prison camps.

We were housed in these barracks, sixty to eighty men in one room. In the morning we got
a pot of "coffee" (roasted grain and boiled). After the shift we got about a quart of soup
without fat or meat and one small loaf of bread for five days. Most of us could eat the bread
during one meal, some did and this quickly led to serious health problems.

When we arrived at the camp, between the drive and the walkways there was grass. Within
weeks, all of the grass was pulled out and consumed, including the roots, which further led
to digestive problems, severe diarrhea and often death.

In the mine, we worked eight hours daily. Initially, we could handle the work, but within
weeks, many lost strength or got injured, while others simply dehydrated due to the
diarrhea and died. We were not permitted to have any reading or writing material. Thus, our
parents did not know where we were. The camp I was in was within the town of Dombrau
(Dombrowa) near Karw'in, not far away from Oderberg.

Within weeks, I developed not just diarrhea and other health problems, but also an eye
infection. Since there was no medical care and the coal dust aggravated the condition, I got
to the point where I could not work in the mine under ground. Shortly after the New Year of
1 946, about forty men from this camp were collected, put in a railroad car and sent away.
The train ride ended in Troppau (Opava), our county seat, about twenty miles away from my
hometown. From the Troppau railroad station, we walked, naturally under guard, to Graetz
(Hradez) where we were put into the castle of the huge Feudal Estate of Fuerst von
Lichnowsky. We were to cut timber for the mine. The forest we were assigned to work in
was one of the last battlegrounds between the German and Soviet Army, in late April of 1
945. Most of the trees were scratched or even filled with shrapnel and in the bunkers there
were still the remains of German soldiers. We cleared these woods and closed the bunkers.

The equipment we used was of American manufacture, an IH tractor (Farmal M) and even a
few American made power saws. In this camp things had improved for us. It was much
smaller, less guarded and some Czech people would slip us some food, even though, it was
prohibited. In March of 1 946, four of us from the group were asked whether we knew how
to handle horses and thus, we were transferred to the farm, where we were working with the
horses, hauling wood, or later making hay.

A young Czech, who worked at the dam of the small electric power plant, found a hand
grenade, played with it and it exploded. It tore off his hand and injured him severely. We
heard the blast and ran to the area and found him laying in the water. We pulled him out
and carried him to the farm, from where he was taken to the hospital.

Since we saved his life, the farm manager and the other Czech people working on the farm,
gave us special privileges, such as more food and more freedom.

I was there until June 1 946, when my family was scheduled for expulsion.

In June of 1 946, 1 received word from our guards that we would be released, sent home to
our family and then transferred to the expulsion camp in Wigstadtl (Vitkov), a town about
five miles from our Village of Schwansdorf. My parents, my twelve year old sister and 1,
along with ninety other inhabitants of our village, were to pack up and get ready to be
transported to the camp. We were permitted to take with us 60 kgs. (1 30 lbs.) of used
clothing, shoes, bedding or utensils, no money, no 'ewelry and nothing valuable. All of this
stuff was inspected by the guards of the expulsion camp in Wigstadtl. There we stayed for
about five days until a complete train of about thirty box cars was assembled. Our
"possessions" were loaded in railroad box cars, along with thirty people to one car. The camp
was heavily guarded as was the train during the whole trip. We were not told where we were
going, but within the first day of transit and waiting, we realized that we were going
westwards. We hoped and prayed that this direction will be maintained, because many people
prior to this event, were sent into forced labor camps to the Soviet Union.

After about four days of very slow travel and waiting, we arrived at the border crossing of
Czechoslovakia and Bavaria at Furth im Walde. During the trip we were permitted, at
specified locations, to leave the box car and empty the pail of human waste or use the open
latrines. Occasionally, we got food and water. After the train crossed the border, the guards
quickly left and we realized that we were in Bavaria, the American Zone of Occupation.
There, the Red Cross and some other voluntary organizations gave us food. Then, we were
ordered 'into barracks, where we were individually deloused by DDT powder. All of this was
under the United States Military Command. We still did not know where we were to be sent
next. After another day of travel, the whole train was separated into different groups and
three box cars, which included us, ended in Landshut, Bavaria. There, the railroad station
was totally destroyed by bombs and only a small barrack housed the railroad office. All of
our possessions were unloaded and put on trucks for further transportation to an unknown
destination.

After about a one hour truck ride, we arrived in a remote village of about a dozen farmers.
In Huettenkofen, the truck was unloaded beneath a shade tree and that was our final
destination. Within an hour, the appointed Mayor, Mr. Stelzenberger, walked with each
family to another farm and told the farmer that he had to clear one room for those of us
which were expelled. The
farmer gave us an ox cart, with which we transported our "valuables" to the farm and our
new
"home". Our new home, a 1 2' x 1 2' room for four persons.

Data of Expulsion from Wigstadl: Troppauer Heimat-Chronik January 1 996 Issue
May 23, 1 946 - First transport, 1 204 persons to Goeppingen (Schwaben).
June 10, 1 946 - Second transport, 1 204 persons to Munich (Bavaria).
This was our transport, where three box cars were removed from the train at Landshut.
June 26, 1946 - Third transport, 1 1 08 persons to Dachau (Bavaria).
July 4, 1946 - Fourth transport, 1 1 55 persons to Augsburg (Bavaria).
July 18, 1 946 - Fifth transport, 1 204 persons to Regensburg (Bavaria).
August 14, 1946 - Sixth transport, 1 203 persons to Wuerzburg (Bavaria),
another major part from our Village of Schwansdorf.
August 23, 1 946 - Seventh transport, 934 persons to Wuerzburg (Bavaria).
October 21, 1 946 - Eighth transport, 298 persons to Kitzingen (Bavaria).
With this transport, almost every German from our district, about
ten villages, and the town of Wigstadi, were expelled.

While the end of World War 11 brought great relief for millions, for many other millions,
hell broke loose. The crimes and the brutalities against millions of East Europeans have
been kept'in secret and even today, very few know about it, or even want to know about it.

Justice in the world cannot be promoted, if justice is not provided to all. A crime is a crime,
whether committed by the Nazis, the Communists or the Allies.

OTHER ATROCITIES:

By comparison, my experience after World War 11 in the hands of the Soviet Army, and
particularly the Czech Partisans, was fairly pleasant - even though, it eventually resulted in
the loss of my eyesight.

What happened in Landskron on May 1 7, 1 945, the hometown of my wife Hermine
(Schwab), Ober-Johnsdorf and Krels Landskron, is reported in her documentary "May 1 7, 1
945, The Day I Will Never Forget" and the even more dramatic description of the events in
the book entitled "Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans" published in 1 953
by University Press, Dr. C. Wolf & Sohn, Munich, Germany, pages 31 through 36,
"Landskron: Massacre on May 1 7th, 1 945", reported by Julius Friedel, report of February
22, 1 951. During this massacre, her father, her uncle and a great number of local Germans
and a few German soldiers were tortured to death.

In that documentary, there are many other atrocities published such as the Death March in
early May of 1 945 from Bruenn (Brno) to the Austrian border, whereby, over 800 persons
were tortured to death and thrown in a mass grave, which is now an agricultural field. As of
1 998, the Czech Government refused to either exhume these bodies or at least permit us to
set up a memorial and stop farming the field.

The torture and beastly killing of over 1 50 Germans and a few Czech "Collaborators" in
the Hanke Lager in Ostrau (Ostrava), was initially investigated in 1 947 by the Czech
Government, but the report was never released until after the collapse of the Communist
Regime in 1 990.

Dr. Stanek, a journalist and historian, published the complete file in the Czech language in
an Ostrava paper (see reference).

Mr. Franz Jenschke, who was born and raised near Grulich (Kraliki), who after the war
finally made it to West Germany and lived for decades in Bremen and now resides in Berlin,
reported:

A few days later, a "trial", similar to the one in Landskron, was held in Grulich, a town
about twenty miles from there. After the beating, torturing and killing, the previous Mayor,
Mr. Grund of the town, was singled out. He was hung by his feet until he was unconscious,
then he was dropped to the ground and cold water was poured over his head, until he
regained consciousness. This torture was repeated a number of times and then he had to
crawl on his knees and hands to the cemetery. During this "trip", Mr. Grund was beaten,
kicked in his testes and forced to salute "Heil Hitler", while the survivors had to follow and
watch. At the outside wall of the cemetery he had to dig a shallow grave, crawl into it, raise
his right hand and say "Heil Hitler", while some of the survivors had to shovel dirt on him,
until he was silent, his hand still extending out of the dirt. (His grave is still there.)

Franz Jenschke, a devoted Christian, decided in 1 988, when he visited his hometown
Grulich, to restore the almost totally destroyed monastery, especially the chapels and the
Pilgerhaus. Since that time, up to 1 998, he collected over DM 2 million and almost finished
the restoration of the Muttergottesberg (Hill of the Blessed Mother of God) shrine and
monastery.

The brutal assassination of the Karpaten Deutsche (refugees from the Carpathian region)
and the blood bath in Prague (Praha) are well documented in various books (see reference).

HISTORIC BACKGROUND:

The first settlements of the lowland in Bohemia and Moravia, which is now the Czech
Republic, were initially settled by the Germanic tribes known as the Bojers. The names of
the regions Boehmen (Bohemia) and Bayern (Bavaria) are derived from Bojers.

During the Fifth and Sixth Centuries, Slavic tribes originating from the Ukraine, pushed
into this
lowland and settled. The Bojers moved westward to what is now known as Bayern (Bavaria),
but also remained in the hills and mountainous region of the Bohemian Forest
(Boehmerwald), which is a part of the mountainous complex, including the Bavarian Forest
(Bayrischer Wald). These two sections were divided by a political border only. Bayern and
Boehmen were independent kingdoms until 1 91 8. All of the original settlers of the
Boehmerwald were expelled in 1 945/46, because they were German people.

The mountainous region to the north of Bohemia and Moravia, which became known as the
Sudetenland, was a total wilderness except for small valleys up until the Twelfth Century. At
that time, the King of Bohemia and the Bishops throughout the region encouraged the
German people from Franken, Thueringen and Schlesien (Silezia) to colonize the totally
unpopulated region.

While the Czech people were primarily flat land farmers, obviously based on their Ukrainian
heritage, the German people were not afraid of mountains. They also developed mining and
various other industries, since the land alone could not provide for their families.

In the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 300 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
our ancestors, mostly Franken peasants, moved eastward. They cleared the rugged terrain
and built farms and villages, similarly as did the settlers in North America in the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries. Initially, the region belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of
German Nations. Later, for hundreds of years, our homeland was part of the
Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, which was irresponsibly destroyed by the Allied powers after
World War I (Treaty of St. Germain).

In 1 91 8, the Czech Nationalists, Mazaryk and Benes, created the misconception of
Czechoslovakia in Pittsburgh with the blessing of Britain, France and the United States.
They promised to become the second Switzerland with an absolute autonomy for the many
different nationalities. Instead of autonomy, Czech machine guns brought to the
Sudetenland the newly founded "democracy". Since the Czechs were actually a minority of
48% in the Republic, the other minorities represented the majority. As history has shown,
even the Slovaks broke away twice from their Slavic brothers, the Czechs.

When Hitler took power in Germany in 1 933, the Czechoslovakian economy was also
depressed. The Sudeten-German people had hoped to receive autonomy. Instead, things
turned from bad to worse, World War 11 started and finally ended in 1 945.

In 1 948, the Benes Government, which had ordered the expulsion immediately after the
war (Churchill, Roosevelt, Truman and Stalin agreed to it in Yalta and Potsdam), was
overthrown by the Communists.

We expelled Sudeten-Germans had laid new roots in Germany and many like me, were now
in foreign countries. The Czech people were tortured by their own leaders. The property was
confiscated, the clergy was thrown into concentration camps and our homeland became a
land of destruction. The majority of the buildings collapsed, the land eroded and the nation
fell into poverty and atheism.

After forty years of a Communist paradise, the Marxist Regimes in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union collapsed, due to a misconceived, atheistic philosophy, bureaucracy and
corruption.

Although the Czech Republic has now a democratically elected government, no attempt has
been made to rectify the crimes committed after World War 11 and return the property and
the land to us Sudeten-Germans. The Benes Decrees of 1 945/46, which permitted the
killing, without a trial of Sudeten-Germans and "Collaborators", the torture of virtually
millions, the confiscation of all private property and the "law" to expel all Sudeten-Germans
and even some Hungarians, remains in effect until now, the end of 1998. Even though, the
Czech Government

has filed application to join the European Union and NATO, these unthinkable laws have not
been removed or demanded by the Allies as a condition to 'oin the European Union and
NATO, except for Resolution No. 562 of October 1 3, 1 998 by the U.S. House of
Representatives.

At this time, over 1 20,000 churches, chapels and monasteries are in desperate need of
repair, forget restoration. Thousands of such structures have been purposely destroyed or
simply fell in decay beyond repair. Practically all of the farm buildings, small factory
structures and hundreds of thousands of homes in the former Sudetenland are gone or
beyond repair.

Prior to the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany in 1 938, over 60% of the tax
income for the whole Czechoslovak Republic, with a total population of fifteen million, came
from the 3.5 million Sudeten-Germans. Money alone cannot and will not bring prosperity to
these depressed regions. They will need people with high standards and work ethics.

The expelled Sudeten-Germans, who came to West Germany, now (1 998), own 1.5 homes
per family, while the Czech Nation has a home ownership of 0.5 homes per family.

The State of Bavaria honored the Sudeten-Germans by designating them as the fourth tribe
in the state besides the Bavarians, Frankens and Schwabens.

Let us hope that the Czech people will find a just solution.

THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE:

As pointed out before, the world knows all about the crimes committed by the Nazi Regime.
Many Nazi leaders were justly punished. The German people are reminded daily about these
atrocities by the media worldwide.

Where were the western journalists when our women were raped and our people were
tortured to death? While the Nazis committed their crimes behind heavily guarded
concentration camp fences, the Soviet troops and the Czech partisans committed even
greater brutalities publicly in every village. Today, over fifty years later, not one of these
criminals was brought to trial, due to the Benes Decrees.

When Tito, who also slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people in Yugoslavia, came to
visit the United States, he was celebrated as a hero, and so it was when the Soviet leaders
came.

The Western World and the United States will have to submit to the truth and discontinue
the double standards. The Soviet Union was allied with the Western Powers and thus, the
Western Powers of Britain, France and the United States must share the responsibility, as to
what happened in Eastern Europe after World War II.

Publishing this documentary is not to cultivate hate, but to contribute minutely to the
understanding between nations, because the truth is the foundation of all relations. Let us
pray that God may bring wisdom to our leaders, so that they will return to the principles of
the Constitution of the United States of America and the almost two millenniums of Biblical
teaching.

FOREIGN WARS, THE EXPULSION OF MILLIONS AND THEIR EFFECT ON AMERICA:

Pastor Weis of Bethel United Methodist Church in Blackhawk, Wisconsin, during the
dedication of our Expellee Memorial Chapel on September 1 7, 1 995, at Karl Hausner Farms
in Sauk City, Wisconsin, said it in a few words: "Let us look at the brighter side of the
expellee miseries. After every such war, thousands and sometimes millions of such
expellees or refugees crossed the Atlantic and brought with them the Christian heritage,
which included strong family ties and high standards of work ethics. It gave this country
periodically new impulses and energy".
The pilgrims, who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, well over 300 years ago, were
expellees. The first group of German immigrants, the Menonites from Krefeld, settled in
Germantown, Pennsylvania over 300 years ago. They also were refugees/expellees.

After the bloody thirty-year religious war of 1 61 8 - 1 648, eccentric Protestant groups had
to flee Europe and not just Catholic dominated regions, but from the Lutheran controlled
part of Europe as well. These were the Amish, Menonites, Quackers, Huttenreits,
Moravians, just to mention some. Often, they are incorrectly called the Pennsylvania Dutch,
while in fact these were German people.

After the French Revolution, and even more so, after the failed Austrian/German
Revolution of 1 848/49, many refugees entered the United States. Over 1 0,000 came from
various German states. Since they were true libertarians, and the United States at that time
was still considering native and black Americans as subhumans and slavery was still
accepted, even subsidized, these intellectuals pushed for the abolishment of slavery which
led to the U.S. Civil War.

After World War 1, when the Austrian and German Empires were destroyed and the
continued embargo brought extreme hardship to Central Europe, many immigrants came to
the U.S. between 1920 and 1 930.

After Hitler took power in Germany in 1 933, not only the Austrian and German Jews
immigrated by the hundreds of thousands, but also many German politicians who were not
in agreement with his policies.

After World War 11, as a result of Soviet advances and the occupation of all of Eastern
Europe and the subsequent expulsions of well over 1 8 million German people from the
Sudetenland and practically all of Eastern Europe, the United States enacted the "Refugee
Relief Act". Between 1 948 and 1 960, well over one million immigrants, mostly refugees or
expellees, came to this country. Of the over 800,000 German people, 80% were expellees.
This massive influx of well trained and often highly educated people, such as Werner von
Braun and his rocket research group, gave the American industry, economy and social
structure new impulses, which Pastor Weis so honestly credited.

In this discussion, I do not want to review the Congressional, Industrial and Military
Complex and their impact on the history and economy of the United States and, for that
matter, the whole world, but just focus on the miseries, which were created by these foreign
wars.

References:

1 ) Hvezda Pod Rosutici, Morowsky Beroun, 1 997.
2) Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten-Germans, University Press, Dr. C. Wolf &
Sohn, Munich, 1953.
3) Es gibt nicht nur ein Lidice, Sudetendeutscher Rat e.V., Muenchen, 1 988.
4) "Sterblichkeit ist Schein", Dr. Fritz Pendl, Sudetendeutsches Archiv, Muenchen, 1 985.
5) Dokumente zur Vertreibung der Sudetendeutschen, Sudetendeutscher Rat e.V.,
Muenchen, 1 992.
6) Ein Mythos zerbricht: Bene§, Sudetendeutsche Stiftung, Muenchen, 1 99 1.
7) Dokumente zur Austreibung der Sudetendeutschen, Europa-Buchhandlung, Muenchen, 1
951.
8) The Sudeten Question, Brief Exposition and Documentation, Sudeten German Council,
Munich, 1 984.
9) Landskroner Not und Tod, Franz J. C. Gauglitz, Selbstveriag Heimatkreisbetreuer Franz
Gauglitz, 97353 Wiesentheid, 1 997.
1 0) Sudetendeutscher Atlas, Association for the Protection of the Sudeten German
Interests, Munich, 1 954.
11) Heimat Zwischen Oder und Mohra, Hausner Foundation, P.O. Box 322, Hinsdale, IL
60523.
1 2) Hoelle im Zentrum von Ostrava - Hanke Lager, by PhDr. - Dr. Tom6§ Stanbk.
1 3) Miroeschau/Miro§ov oestlich von Pilsen - ein tschechisches Todeslager nach dem Krieg,
Herausgegeben vom Heimatkreis Mies-Pilsen e.V. in Dinkelsbuehl.
1 4) "1945 In Memory" by Karl Hausner "Landsberg Brief" - Ausgabe, March 1997
1 5) "May 17, 1945, The Day I Will Never Forget" by Hermine Hausner, D.A.N.K., August
1998.
1 6) "Crimes and Mercies" by James Bacque, Institute for Historical Review.
1 7) "Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-44" by
Thomas E. Mahl, Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, 1998.
1 8) Resolution No. 557, October 9, 1 998, and Resolution No. 562, October 1 3, 1 998, U.S.
House of Representatives.

Presented as a lecture during the seminar of the Society for German-American Studies and
affiliated institutions, St.Olaf College, New Ulm, MN, April 22-25, 1 999.

Author's Address:
Karl Hausner
28 Concord Drive
Oak Brook, IL 60523-1 767

The Officers of the German-American World Historical Society, Inc.
wish to thank Mrs. Hermine Hausner for permitting us to print the story
written by her late husband, and for the continual re-publishing of other
stories attributed to him.

With Sincere Gratitude, we remain...

Johannes Rammund De Balliel-Lawrora
Executive Director and Webmaster

============================================

THE DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET
                 MAY 17, 1945
                       By Hermine Hausner

I was at that time, eleven years old, my sister Gerlinde was seven years old and my
mother Hermine Schwab was seven months pregnant. The Soviet troops were about
one week in our village OberJohnsdorf, near Landsksron. Since my grandparents,
Julius and Hermine Kreuziger, had not just a farm and a guesthouse, but also ma
butcher shop, my grandfather had to butcher cattle for the troops. All of the young
women were in hiding including my mother, because the Soviet troops were still raping
women. Thus, we children were in our grandparent's house. My grandmother was
severely handicapped, even crippled by arthritis and thus, the soldiers did not bother
her.

My father, Robert Schwab, was not drafted during the war due to a problem with his
legs. He worked in Landskron in the City Hall. My uncle, Reinhard Schwab, had
finished his engineering education and worked in a factory also in Landskron. Our
families did not feel in any way guilty of having harmed our Czech neighbors. That is
why they did not flee before the Soviets and Czech partisans arrived.

On May 17, the situation had somewhat normalized and thus, my father and uncled
went to Landskron to work. Later in the morning a few truckloads of Czech partisans
went to the nearby villages and collected all of the men between sixteen and sixty and
even older and drove them on foot to Landskron. During the journey they were
beaten and rifle shots were fired over their heads to prepare them for the tribunal.
My grandfather, Julius Kreuziger, who was at that time sixty-five, was also among
those who had to go to court.

By early afternoon, hundreds of men were at the city square and the tribunal started.
My father and uncle were among these. They also had to appear before the tribunal
during which time they were beaten with rifles, and they had to salute "Heil Hitler".
Others had to kneel down in front of these judges and Czechg partisans would kick
them in their genitals and knock them to the ground. My father was so severelly
beaten with rifles that his eyes were knocked out of his head. Half dead he was then
hung on a lantern in the city square. My uncle Rheinhard was equally beaten and
then, half dead, was thrown in the village fountain, whereby, he drowned.

During the late afternoon, the tribunal resumed. Over forty men laid dead on the
square or were hanging from the lanterns. The German men, who were not killed,
were ordered into custody overnight and the tribunal continued the next day. On May
19, these dead bodies were thrown on wagons and hauled to the cemetery. Among
those who came to view the tribunal were many Czech persons, who either wanted to
see "justice" or felt sorry for these men. My uncle, Emil Pelzl, also was among those
at the City Square. Since my grandfather and uncle Emil were known by many Czech
farmers due to their cattle trading, they were, without knowing of each other, taken by
the Czech farmers, removed from the square, sent home and told to hide during the
next few days until all this terror ended. At the cemetery, the other German men had
to dig a mass grave. The dead bodies were thrown into it with a very ugly disrespect
by the Czech partisans, urinating on them.

Before my grandfather came home, we had heard of the terrible crimes and
massacres which were committed at Landskron. My grandfather, in total frustration,
decided to destroy the whole family, as he told ud years later. During that night, my
grandfather wanted, while we were sleeping, first to shoot us children, then the rest of
the family and after that himself. My grandmother, obviously suspicious of this, did
not rest and kept us children awake. Thus, one hour after another went by. As
morning broke, my grandfather gave up his plan. Terrible days and nights followed
this massacre at Landskron.

On August 2, my sister Marlies was born and thus, my mother and grandparents and
Aunt Anni Kreuziger among others, were expelled from our home, put in freight cars
and shipped to Germany. We arrived in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, at the expellee camp
and a new life started.

In the summer of 1964, my husband, Karl, and I traveled for the first time to
Czechoslovakia on the occasion of a medical conference in Prague (note: Remember
that Prague was originally an important German city in the Sudentenland). We
already were American citizens and hoped to be safe. During this trip, we also visited
Landskron and the cemetery. Near the wall of the cemetery, where the mass grave
was, we saw a pile of dirt and weeds of all kinds covering it. In this mass grave,
where my father and uncle, along with the other men who been wantonly murdered,
were buried, nothing was ever placed on the grave, like a plaque or monument. When
we revisited that gravesite in the spring of 1992, we could not find the mass grave.
The dirt was leveled and grass was seeded. Thus, nobody knew that this was once a
mass grave.

At this time, not one of these criminals were brought to trial and the Czech
Government even now, under a so-called democracy, has never found it necessary to
investigate and punish those responsible. Many of these Czech criminals are still
alive and still protected by the Benes Decrees (GAWHS NOTE: This fact makes the
entire present Czech government an Accessory after the fact, and thus a partner with
the Partisans, the Benes decrees, and the ensuing murders of innocent people)!

On September 17, 1995, we dedicated a chapel at our farm in Sauk City, Wisconsin in
memory of all the expellees. In this chapel a plaque was installed in memory of my
slain father and uncle and all of the others, who suffered at the hands of these brutal
(unconscionable and pathological) criminals. The Memorial is under the motto: "O
GOD, FORGIVE THEM AS THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WERE
DOING".

So far my personal experience. In the following is a direct quotation from the book
entitled "Documents on the Expulsions of the Sudeten Germans", published in 1953
by University Press, Dr. C. Wolf & Sohn, Munich, Germany, pages 31 through 36,
"Landskron Massacre on May 17th, 1945", reported by Julius Friedel, report of
February 22, 1951.

On May 9, 1945 the last combat on the hills above the valley at Landskron began.
The invading Russians did not pay much attention to the frightened German
population during the first days. They looked for alcohol, they plundered and they
organized regular hunts for women at night. One could hear all night long the cries of
the victims of this pursuit.

At first the few Czech residents did not know themselves what to do, they were also
worried about their possessions. The German Male inhabitants of the town, who had
to work at clearing the streets, were suddenly sent home, without reason, in the
morning hours of May 17th.

About 11 o'clock of the very same day hundred of armed Czechs, so-called partisans,
arrived in trucks. They gathered in the market-place for a demonstration; a Russian
officer made a fervent speech, which was greeted with roars of approval. As if by
previous agreement, then Czechs then dispersed in all directions. It was not long
before we knew what was going on.

The German men and with them many women anc children were driven in larger or
smaller groups to the market-place, the houses were thoroughly searched to insure
that all of the men were present, old and young, also invalids and those seriously ill.
The individual groups of Germans were escorted by yelling Czechs, heavily armed,
who shot blindly in all directons and knocked down anyone who came in their way.
Meanwhile, other troops.of Czechs drove to the surrounding villages and brought the
men back to the town. More than a thousand German men were rounded-up in the
market-place in the early hours of the afternoon. They were ordered to fall in and
they stood there with their hands above their head, waiting for what would happen
next.

There followed the most horrifying scenes which human beings ever devised (from
whence did these partisans acquire the names of human beings, as you will see
below).The men were forced to lie down on the pavement, fo stand up quickly and
then get in line again. The Czechs passed down the lines, kicked the men preferably
on the shins or in the genitals. They hit them with whatever lay convenients to their
hands, they spit on them and loosed off wildlly with their rifles.

Many men were too badly wounded to get up again and lay in great pain. But this was
still not enough. There was a large water tank for air raids in front of the town hall.
Into this, the victims of this terrible madness, were finally thrown one after the other.
As they came to the surface, they were struck at with sticks and poles and kept under
water. The Czechs even shot into the mass and the water slowly reddened.

Whenever anyone tried to scramble out of the tank, they stamped on his fingers;
some of the men were fished out of the water, but they were already dead (GAWHS -
upset with this because they could not hurt the victims anymore - they went into
overkill). Others, who were prostrate on the ground, were squirted with the fire-hose,
which had been fetched in the meantime, or were tortured in indescribable ways.
While all of these atrocities were taking place, the so-called People's (Kangaroo)
Court established itself on the si'dewalk in front of the Districk Council Building.
Behind the tables, which had been set up, the Czechs seated themselves; among
them were the following persons:

Hrabacek, owner of a saw-mill at Weipertsdorf,
Wilhelm Pfitzner, clerk to the workmen's sick fund, Landskron,
Franz Matschat, weaver in the firm of Thoma, Magdalenen Str., Landskron,
Bernhard Wanitscheck, Shoemaker, Karl Str., Landsdron,
Stefan Matschat, weaver in the firm of Thoma, Landskron,
Friedrich Bednai, carpenter for the tobacco-factory, Landskron,
Polak, officer of the gendarmerie,
and a woman, probably, Mrs. Lossner from Landskron.

(GAWHS - The above probably acted as the judge and jury.)

Around the table stood a number of Czechs, who functioned as prosecutors and who
selected the individual Germans out of the rows. One behind the other, with their
hands above their heads, the Germans had to appear before the tribunal. The first
man in each row had to carry a Hitler picture, covered with excrement, which the man
beside him had to lick off. The last 20 or 30 paces up to the tribunad had to be made
in a creeping position. Arriving there, each one of them received his sentence, which
was written on his back with a piece of chalk. About 50 to 60 meters (167 to 300 ft)
distant from the tribunal, on the opposite side, was a gate; up to this the victims had
literally to run the gauntlet. Many of them collapsed on their way, even before the
sentence could be carried out. The brutality which took place there cannot possibly
be written down.

     Heinous Attacks
                          By Josef Fischer

At the end of the war, I was ten years old and had already seen so much terror. I
have never been able to overcome this!

My parents were both born in the Grafschaft Glatz, as well as all eight of us children,
four girls and four boys. My father was a medical orderly on the Eastern Front, my
brother Karl volunteered for the Navy. My sister Magdalena got married and moved
to Austria in 1943, and that left my mother to care for six of us children alone.

Very soon, great sorrow struck our home. My father fell in 1944, and at the
beginning of 1945, my brother Karl died, after being seriously wounded, in a military
hospital in Glatz,
where he was buried in a mass grave. The battles of the war came ever closer.
Endless
columns of the German refugees moved from eastern parts of the country, through our
city.   There were report of Russian massacres that had happened there. In a deadly
panic about her six children, my mother put us, along with many others on a train and
took us to the so-called protectorate.

My mother and her children, Leutfrieda (18), Dorothea (17), Maria (8), Gottfried (15),
Berthold (11) and I (10), could only take a few necessities along. We drove right into
the
arms of the Russians! Our train was stopped in Trautenau, and it was a mracle that
my mother could protect us from the packs of armed Russians. She had hidden us in
the
railroad station waiting room. Afterward, we joined a refugee group and marched 150
kilometers to Glatz; only the sick people and small children could ride on the wagons.

The road across the Sudeten and Glatzer Mountains was very difficult, especially so,
since we preferred roads through the forests. We were always afraid of being
discovered by the Russians. Yet, we still had to face them. There was nothing left for
them to plunder. Our group was voluntarily escorted by Frenchmen, who were former
prisoners-of-war in Germany. They protected our women from the threatening
Russians.

During this ordeal, my mother contracted typhoid fever, due to the lack of hygiene.
There was no longer any room on the wagon, which was already overcrowded with
sick people. We reached, more dead than alive, the village of Birgwitz, a short
distance from Glatz. Horrified, he reported that the Russians occupied our house.
Still, we traveled home the following day.

We took up quarters in a neighbor's house. When the Russians left ours, we wnt to
our vacated home. Inside the house, everything was a shambles. The coal shed was
full of horse manure. Although we were able to restore some order, violently
marauding Russians just ruined it again. The atrocities, we had heard about in the
past, were now felt in our own bodies.

My sisters, Leutfrieda and Dorothea, were in hiding every night. Our doors were
constantly wrecked by Russian machine guns. A door was never an obstacle for
these brutes. They would often threaten my mother with their loaded weapons. We
suffered with deadly fear, when they shot at us while we tried to escape through the
windowws in the roof. Desperate cries for help would not keep those beasts away! It
went on night after night, since they had total freedom to carry out these horrible
crimes.

In addition, we soon had to suffer from the intruding Poles. They disowned the
German farmers and estate owners. They were free to plunder and expel the German
population,
and allolwed them only miserable supplies of food.. Including my mother, we were all
close to starvation. We sheltered expelled neighbors and lived in a small room with
15 people.

My sisters Leutfrieda and Dorothea were forced on a horse-drawn sled and raped by
the Russians along the way. Dorothea was able to flee, and reported the heinous
crime to my shocked mother. Very early the next morning the neighbors and my
mother found the body of my murdered sister in the snow. She had suffered
horrendous injuries. Her blood-drenched, shredded clothes proved her desperate
fight against the savage beasts. The horrible violation of her daughter drove my
mother almost into despondency. With compassion from the whole neighborhood, our
Leutfrieda was interred in the Catholic cemetery. My brother Gottfried built her a
coffin, and painted it white.

For the rest of us, sorrows increased. On an ice-cold morning in February of 1946,
the Polish Militia suddenly and brutally threw us out of our house, without any of our
possessions. In a column, with our neighbors, they chased us into an unheated and
filty building. We had to endure four days without food. Many of the refugees did not
survive these barbaric conditions.

The survivors were marched in columns, like criminals, to the railroad station. Fifty
people were crammed into each windowless cattle car. An alarming feeling of being
shipped to Siberia gripped all of us, but when the train arrived from Breslau, it
departed toward to Gorlitz. All of us fell crying into the arms of my mother. We
knew, then, that we would not be murdered; we were destined to survive!

Many of the refugees, weakened by hunger and icy weather, died like flies in the
cattle cars. The corpses were buried along the various steps on the way.   After much
hardship, we reached, via Friedland, Marienborn and Wunstorf, the village of
Rodewald. It was hard to find shelter for a family with so many children. A wealthy
and childless farmer was forced to give us two rooms in his servants' quarters. Our
drinking water came from a well in the courtyard, our latrine was in the backyard.
But we felt free. We did not have to fear either the Russians or the Poles. Yet, I still
feel uprooted!

            (Now Erich-Martens-Strasse 33a, 32257 Buende)

______________________________________________________________

                      In The Torture Cellar...

                                   By Marianne Walter

I was born in 1922, in Breslau, but I grew up in the Grafschaft Glatz, in Eisersdorf,
where my father was the principal of the local elementary school. I grew up with six
siblings, with only very happy memories of my childhood. From my Catholic and
anti-Nazi parents, I was well prepared for my adulthood which was to bring
tremendous hardship.

After I finished my education in Glatz, I was drafter for the obligatory Labor Service
in Oberschlesien, which was followed by an assignment to the signal service. Finally I
worked for the Red Cross, which tool me to France and Holland. From there, I
ventured home on Easter Sunday of 1945 to Grafschaft Glatz. After an erratic trip, I
reached my home village.

In 1936, we had moved to our own house, which was surrounded by a large garden.
The political opinions of my fater were always well known, which made him believe
that he could face the Russians confidently. He took care that my mother and us
children evacuated to the mountains.
Just a few hours before the Russians came to our village, we arrived there. When my
father visited us on May 10th, he told us what had happened. The invading Russians
had used our house as their command post. My father had to stand all night with his
face toward the wall, while the Russians turned everything upside down in the house.
When the hordes left, there were no longer any curtains on the windows and every
container had been broken. Any person with former NS-Party affiliations had
disappeared during the night.

A few days later, my mother and all of us children returned to Eisersdorf. The leader
of a group of five Russians, who regularly took the looted goods to Vienna, told my
father, in confidence, what he had witnessed in Breslau, how the Germans were
brutally thrown out of their houses, withoug any of their possessions. This
German-speaking Russian, a teacher by profession, pleaded with my father to leave
the village immediately and take his family to West Germany. We lacked every
possible means, and so we had to stayh until the Russians left.

Meanwhile, the village was flooded with the Poles. We had to turn over the first floor
to them, and we were assigned to one bedroom upstairs. We had to give up all of our
keys, and we were not allowed to leave the house without permission. In the following
months, we lived wretchedly, freezing and starving. We had no money, very little
food, no newspaper, no telephone and no mail. The Russians also had taken all of our
supplies with them.

In January of 1946, a terrible tragedy happened. The Poles set our house on fire, and
we were not allowed to salvage anything. The Polish Militia arrested my father.
Some time later he returned deranged, marked with the obvious signs of torture.
They had accused him of arson, so he was brtally beaten and kicked. Then, in
February of 1946, when I was away from the house, my father, mother and younger
sister were taken to Ullersdorf. There, both women were forced to dig, with their
bare hands, in the cellar floors of our ruined home for suspected valuables, weapons
and money. Intermittently, they were beaten unconscious and locked in a torture
cellar. Before that, they had to name all of the addresses of my father's relatives,
which resulted in the capture of my 21-year old sister from Ullersdorf and her
incarceration in this torture cellar. She had to spread her body across a chair, with
her pants pulled down. She was so brutally beaten that she could not sit for many
days.

We could hear how a newcomer was horribly mistreated. He screamed terribly from
excruciating pain. My mother and sister prayed that the misery of this sad creature
would end.

On the way to an interrogation, my mother saw a scarf, which belonged to my father,
among the shambles of broken chairs. She fainted and was brought back to
consciousness with beer poured in her face. My father was dragged upstairs a second
time and beaten unconscious. When he returned to the cellar, my mother heard his
pitiful moaning from her own wooden partition, until a few hours later it stopped
forever! We do not know what happened to his body. When my mother and sister
were allowed to leave the gruesome location the next day, my mother begged me to
ask the Russians, in Glatz, to defend us against the Poles. But my pleas were
answered thus: "We do not interfere, the land now belongs to the Poles!"

In mid-February of 1946, we were expelled. My mother, still suffering from shock,
could not even dress herself. My younger siblings also needed my assistance. We
dragged our bundles through ice and snow to Glatz. The next day, the refugees who
had suffered so much, made their way to the railroad station in Glatz. About a week
later, our cattle cars reached Nordenham Elmsland after a strenuous trip.

                      (Now: Lessingstrasse 3, 69214 Eppelheim)

_____________________________________________________

"The True Story
of the Expulsions!!!"

Part Two