AustreibungExpulsions4

AustreibungExpulsions - 4

The Atrocities of Ethnic Cleansing!!!

Flight and Expulsions of Germans
                from Poland
  during and after World War II

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Expulsion of Germans
after World War II
(demographic estimates)
Background
Nazi-Soviet population transfers
Potsdam Agreement
Flight and evacuation
German evacuation
East Prussia
Flight and expulsion
Czechoslovakia
Poland (incl. former German territories)
Netherlands
Romania
Exodus and emigration
Exodus from Eastern Europe
Emigration from Poland

The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of
a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and
after World War II. The German population fled or was expelled
from all regions which are currently within the territorial
boundaries of Poland, including the former eastern territories of
Germany and parts of pre-war Poland.

The first mass movement of German civilians followed the Red
Army's advance and was composed of both spontaneous flight
driven by rumours of Soviet atrocities, and organised
evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through
to the spring of 1945.[1] About 3.5 million people were involved,
mainly driven by fear of the advancing Soviet Army.[1] In 1945, the
eastern territories of Germany (most of Silesia and Pomerania,
East Brandenburg, and East-Prussia) as well as Polish areas
annexed by Nazi Germany (especially Warthegau and Reichsgau
Danzig-West Prussia) were occupied by the Soviet Red Army and
Polish military forces. Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken
by the Polish Communist military authorities[2] even before the
Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"),[3] to ensure the later
integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland[4] as envisioned
by the Polish Communists.[5][6] Between seven hundred and eight
hundred thousand Germans were affected.[1] Germans were
defined as either Reichsdeutsche, people enlisted in 1st or 2nd
Volksliste groups, and those of the 3rd group, who held German
citizenship. About 1.1 million[7] German citizens of Slavic descent
were "verified" as "autochtone" Poles,[8] 900,000 of whom natives
of Upper Silesia and Masuria.[7] Of those, most were not expelled,
yet hundreds of thousands emigrated to Germany after 1950,
including most Masurians.[9]

The Soviet Union transferred territories to the east of the Oder-
Neisse Line to Poland in July 1945.[8] All Germans were
expropriated and placed under restrictive jurisdiction.[8][10]
Subsequent to this, under the authority of Potsdam Agreement,
most remaining Germans were expelled from pre-war Poland and
the so-called "Recovered Territories" to the territories west of the
Oder-Neisse line. From the spring of 1946 the expulsions gradually
became better organised, and less lethal, affecting another three
million people.[1] Some German civilians, prior to their expulsion,
were used as forced labour in Communist administered camps.[11]
Besides large camps, some of which were re-used Nazi
concentration camps, numerous other forced labour, punitive and
internment camps, urban ghettos, and detention centres sometimes
consisting only of a small cellar were set up.[10] An estimated
million[1] of Germans considered "indispensable" for the Polish
economy were retained until the early 1950s,[10] and had virtually
left by 1960.[9] Close to 165,000 Germans were transported to the
Soviet Union for forced labour where most of them perished.[10]

The attitude of Polish civilians, many of whom had experienced
brutalities only surpassed by the treatment of the Jews during the
preceding Nazi occupation, was ambiguous.[12] Many engaged in
looting, robberies, beatings and even murders and rapes.[12] On
the other hand, there were incidents when Poles, even freed slave
labourers, protected Germans by e.g. disguising them as Poles.[12]
The attitude of the Soviet soldiers was also ambiguous. Many of
them committed numerous atrocities, most prominently rapes and
murders,[13] and did not always distinguish between Poles and
Germans, often mistreated them alike.[14] Other Soviets were
taken aback by the brutal treatment of the Germans and engaged
in their protection.[12]

Thomasz Kamusella is citing estimates of 7 million expelled during
both "wild" and "legal" expulsions from the "Recovered
Territories" until 1948, joined by an additional 700,000 from areas
of pre-war Poland.[10] Overy cites approximate totals of those
evacuated, migrated, or expelled between 1944–1950 from East
Prussia: 1.4 million to Western Germany, 609,000 to Eastern
Germany; from West Prussia: 230,000 to Western Germany,
61,000 to Eastern Germany; from the former German area East of
the Oder-Neisse: 3.2 million to Western Germany, 2 million to
Eastern Germany.[15]

Contents [hide]
1 Background
1.1 Historical background
1.2 Allied decisions: Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences
1.3 Polish attitudes
2 Flight and evacuation following the Red Army's advance
3 After the Soviet and Polish take-over
3.1 Deportation to the Soviet Union
3.2 Internment and forced labor in Poland
3.3 Pre-Potsdam "wild" expulsions (May - July 1945)
4 Expulsions following the Potsdam Conference
5 "Autochthones"
6 "Rehabilitation"
7 "Indispensable Germans"
8 Repopulation
9 Formal end of the expulsions
10 Demographic estimates
11 Legacy
11.1 Post-war
11.2 Post-communist (1989-present)
12 See also
13 Notes
14 Sources

[edit] Background
[edit] Historical background
History of German settlement in Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany,
and World War II
German settlement in the former eastern territories of Germany
and pre-war Poland dates back to the medieval Ostsiedlung. Nazi
Germany used the presence and the alleged persecution of
Volksdeutsche as propaganda tools in preparation for the invasion
of Poland in 1939. With the invasion, Poland was partitioned
between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union according to the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This was followed by population
exchanges, mostly Baltic Germans were resettled to occupied
Poland.

Nazi Germany's Generalplan Ost strategy for Central and Eastern
Europe envisioned the creation of a Greater Germany, which was
to be built by means of removing a variety of non-Germans from
Poland and other areas in Eastern Europe, mainly Slavs and Jews
believed by Nazis to be subhuman. These non-Germans were
targeted for slave labor and eventual extermination. While
Generalplan Ost's settlement ambitions did not come into full
effect due to the war's turn, some Germans mostly from Eastern
Europe were settled by the Nazis to replace Poles removed or
killed during the occupation. Nazi Germany deported millions of
Poles either to other territories, to concentration camps or as slave
workers. Many others were deported by the Soviet Union.

5Allied decisions: Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences
Main articles: Tehran Conference, Yalta Conference, Potsdam
Conference, and Oder Neisse line

Allied map used to determine the number of Germans that would
have to be expelled from the eastern German territories using
different border scenariosThough initially hesitant to support
widespread post-war population transfers, the British government
began signaling approval already in late 1940, after German
bombing attacks on British cities had radicalised British public
opinion. But, British officials were sharply divided on the extent and
speed of the transfers. In 1943, the War Office opposed the Foreign
Office’s intentions to move Polish borders as far as the Oder-
Neisse line and deport the millions of Germans who would be left
inside the new borders of Poland. Such a move, the Director of
Military Intelligence wrote, would yield an overpopulated and
revisionist Germany bordering an underpopulated and weak
Poland, and would "sow the seeds of another war".[16] The
Foreign Office countered with the argument that German salients
in the East were even more dangerous and rendered Poland
strategically vulnerable. Just as important, argued the Foreign
Office, Britain had a moral obligation to Poland, which would have
to be compensated for its losses to the Soviet Union.

Representatives of the Polish Government were not present at any
of those conference and felt betrayed by their western Allies who
have decided about future Polish borders behind their backs.

Retreating Wehrmacht, eastern Germany, March 1945Following
the Tehran Conference (November-December 1943) Joseph Stalin
and Winston Churchill made it clear that the Soviets would keep
the Polish territories east of the Curzon line and offered Poland
territorial compensation in the West.[17] The final decision to move
Poland's boundary westward, preconditioning the expulsion of
Germans, was made by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United
States at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, when the Curzon
line was irrevocably fixed as the future Polish-Soviet border.[12]
[18] The precise location of the Polish western border was left open
and, though basically the Allies had agreed on population transfers,
the extent remained questioned[19]. Concerning the post-war
western frontier of Poland, the agreement simply read: "If a
specific problem such as the frontiers of liberated Poland and the
complexion of its government allowed no easy solution, hopes were
held out for the future discussion of all outstanding problems in an
amicable manner."[20] Upon gaining control of these lands, the
Soviet and Polish-Communist authorities started to expel the
German population.[21]

Potsdam Conference: Joseph Stalin (left), Harry Truman (center),
Winston Churchill (right)In July 1945, at the Potsdam Conference,
the Allies placed most former eastern territories of Germany east
of the Oder Neisse line under Polish administration. Article XIII
concerning the transfer of Germans was adopted at the Potsdam
Conference in July 1945. It was an emergency measure, drafted
and adopted in great haste, a response to the wild expulsions of
Germans from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which had created a
chaotic situation in the American and British zones of occupation.
The Soviet Union transferred territories to the east of the Oder-
Neisse Line to Poland in July 1945. Subsequently, most of the
remaining Germans were expelled to the territories west of the line.

President Harry S. Truman complained that there were now five
occupation zones because the Soviets had turned over the area
extending along the Oder and western Neisse to Poland and was
concerned about Germany's economic control and war reparations.
[22] Churchill spoke against giving Poland control over an area in
which some eight million Germans lived. Stalin insisted that the
Germans had all fled and that the Poles were needed to fill the
vacuum.[23] On July 24, the Polish communist delegation arrived in
Berlin, insisting on the Oder and western Neisse rivers as the
frontier, and they vehemently argued their case before the foreign
ministers, Churchill, and Truman, in turn.[23] The next day
Churchill warned Stalin: "The Poles are driving the Germans out of
the Russian zone. That should not be done without considering its
effect on the food supply and reparations. We are getting into a
position where the Poles have food and coal, and we have the mass
of (the) population thrown at us."[24] To the Soviets, reparations
were more important than boundaries, and Stalin might have sold
out the Poles if they had not so vociferously protested when, in
spite of his 'illness', he consulted with them during the evening of
July 29.[25]

[edit] Polish attitudes

Władysław Gomułka, Polish Communist leader, organized
expulsions in his "Ministry for the Recovered Territories"As early
as in 1941, Władysław Sikorski of the Polish government in exile
insisted on driving "the German horde (...) back far [westward]"
[26], while in 1942 memoranda he expressed concern about Poland
acquiring Lower Silesia, populated with "fanatically anti-Polish
Germans".[27][28] Yet as the war went on, Lower Silesia also
became a Polish war aim, as well as occupation of the Baltic coast
west of Szczecin as far as Rostock and occupation of the Kiel Canal.
[28] Expulsions of Germans from East Prussia and pre-war Poland
had become a war aim as early as in February 1940, expressed by
Polish Foreign Minister August Zaleski[28].

Stanisław Mikołajczyk, Polish prime minister of the Polish
Government in Exile, supported the expulsions[citation needed]
After Sikorski's death, the next Polish Prime Minister Stanisław
Mikołajczyk in a letter to Roosevelt expressed his concerns about
the idea of compensating Poland in the west.[29] However, pressed
by Churchill, he was forced to accept the Tehran decision, which
was the direct cause of his resignation from his post.[30] The next
Polish Prime Minister, Tomasz Arciszewski made a stated that
Poland did not "want neither Breslau nor Stettin".[31]

Although the Polish government in Exile was recognised by the
Allies at that time, the Soviet Union broke off all diplomatic
relations with it in April 1943 after Polish government demanded
the investigation of the Katyn massacre. On April 20, 1944, in
Moscow, the Soviet sponsored Polish Communist cell founded the
Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) on Stalin’s
initiative. Just one week later the representatives of the PKWN
and the Soviet Union signed a treaty regulating the new Polish-
Soviet border. A year later, before the Potsdam Conference, the
western Allies followed Stalin, recognized the Soviet-sponsored
government, which accepted the shift of the borders westwards,
and withdrew their recognition for the Polish government in Exile.

When Stanisław Mikołajczyk joined the "Government of National
Unity" as a deputy prime minister in 1945, he justified the
expulsions of Germans by national terms following communist
Wladyslaw Gomulka, but also as a revolutionary act, freeing the
Poles of exploitation by a German middle and upper class.[32]

[edit] Flight and evacuation following the Red Army's advance
Main article: Evacuation of German civilians during the end of
World War II

Dead Germans in Nemmersdorf, East Prussia. Soviet atrocities,
exaggerated and spread by Nazi propaganda, fueled the
spontaneous flight of the German population.After the Red Army
had advanced into the eastern parts of post-war Poland in the
Lublin–Brest Offensive, launched on 18 July 1944, Soviet
spearheads first reached eastern German territory on 4 August
1944 at northeastern East Prussia and Memelland, causing a first
wave of refugees.[33] These refugees temporarily returned when
the German army, Wehrmacht, was able to regain territory in
Operation Doppelkopf.[34] On October 5, the Red Army launched
the Memel Offensive,[34] and eleven days later the Gumbinnen
Offensive into East Prussia.[35] In the same month, Volkssturm
units were formed out of the not yet drafted male population
deemed fit for military service.[35] While Nazi Gauleiter Erich
Koch refused to evacuate the civilian population, Wehrmacht and
the East Prussian president (Regierungspräsident) evacuated more
than 600,000 people from a 30 kilometer wide strip behind the
frontline, a measure which the Gauleitung finally approved in late
October.[34] When the Wehrmacht repelled the Soviet Gumbinnen
Offensive throughout the fall of 1944, news were spread by the
Nazi propaganda machine[36] about a Soviet massacre in
Nemmersdorf[37] and other atrocities.[38] People were now aware
of the Soviet reprisals on German civilians[12] and apprehensive
regarding the pending Soviet takeover[12] - "Die Russen
kommen!" ("Russians approaching!") became the desperate slogan
of the time.[38]

Refugees cross the frozen Frisches Haff, 1945With the Soviet
Vistula–Oder Offensive, launched on 12 January 1945, and the
parallel East Prussian Offensive launched on 13 January 1945,
Soviet gains of pre-war German and annexed Polish territory
became permanent. With the subsequent East Pomeranian, Lower
Silesian and Upper Silesian Offensives in February and March, the
Red Army seized control of virtually all territories east of the Oder
river. Wehrmacht counter-offensives like Operation Solstice and
Operation Gemse were repelled, and only shrinking pockets like
Breslau, Danzig,[39] Heiligenbeil, Hela, Kolberg, Königsberg, and
Pillau[39] remained German controlled. Soviet soldiers committed
reprisal rapes and other crimes [12][13] In most cases,
implementation of the evacuation plans was delayed until Soviet
and Allied forces had defeated the Nazi forces and advanced into
the areas to be evacuated. The responsibility for leaving millions of
Germans in these vulnerable areas until combat conditions
overwhelmed them can be attributed directly to the draconian
measures taken by the Nazis against anyone even suspected of
'defeatist' attitudes [as evacuation was considered] and the
fanaticism of many Nazi functionaries in their execution of Hitler's
'no retreat' orders.[13][40][41][42] Hitler and his staff refused to
accept Soviet military superiority.[41] Hitler called the Red Army
"gleaned punks" and "booty divisions", who were not able to win
decisive battles.[43] Himmler called the preparation of the early
1945 Soviet offensive "the biggest bluff since Dshingis Khan".[44]

Refugee trek in East Prussia, March 1945The first mass movement
of German civilians in the eastern territories was composed of both
spontaneous flight and organized evacuation, starting in the
summer of 1944 and continuing through the early spring of 1945.
[45] Conditions turned chaotic in the winter, when miles-long
queues of refugees pushed their carts through the snow trying to
stay ahead of the Red Army.[12] From the Baltic coast, thousands
were evacuated by ship in Operation Hannibal.[12] Since February
11, refugees were shipped not only to German ports, but also to
Nazi occupied Denmark, based on an order issued by Hitler on 4
February.[46] Of 1,180 ships participating in the evacuation, 135
were lost due to bombs, mines, and torpedoes, an estimated 20,000
died.[47] Between 23 January 1945 and the end of the war,
2,022,702 people were transported via the Baltic Sea,[48] between
200,000[49] and 250,000[50] of them to occupied Denmark.

When the land evacuation routes were already intercepted by the
Red Army, tens of thousands remaining Germans were evacuated
by ship in Operation Hannibal. Depicted liner MV Wilhelm Gustloff
was sunk by a Soviet submarine, 9,000 drowned.Most of the
evacuation efforts commenced in January 1945, when Soviet forces
were already at the eastern border of Germany. About six million
Germans had fled or were evacuated from the areas east of the
Oder-Neisse line before Soviet and the attached Polish Army took
control of the region.[51] Refugee treks and ships which came into
reach of the advancing Soviets suffered high casualties when
targeted by low-flying aircrafts, torpedoes, or were rolled over by
tanks.[12] The most infamous incidents during the flight and
expulsion from the territory of later Poland include the sinking of
the refugee liner MV Wilhelm Gustloff by a Soviet submarine with
a death toll of some 9,000 people;[12] the USAF bombing of
refugee-crowded[52] Swinemünde on 12 March 1945 killing an
estimated 23,000[53][54] to 25,000;[55] the desperate conditions
under which refugees crossed the frozen Frisches Haff, where
thousands broke in, froze to death, or were killed by Soviet
aircrafts;[56] and the poorly organized evacuation and ultimative
sacrifice of refugee crowded Breslau by the local Nazi authorities
headed by Karl Hanke.

The Nazi German Ministry for Inner Affairs passed a decree on 14
March 1945 allowing abortion to women raped by Soviet soldiers.
[57]

[edit] After the Soviet and Polish take-over

Volkssturm to defend the Oder, February 1945
Soviet forces enter Danzig (Gdansk), March 1945Many refugees
tried to return home when the fighting in their homelands ended.
Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 crossed back over the Oder and
Neisse rivers eastward, before Soviet and Polish communist
authorities closed the river crossings; another 800,000 entered
Silesia from Czechoslovakia.[58]

Soviet troops,[13][14] as well as Polish civilians[12] and militias[59]
exacted revenge on ethnic Germans and German nationals. While
many Germans had already fled ahead of the advancing Soviet
Army, millions of Reichs- and Volksdeutsche remained in East and
West Prussia, Silesia, Pomerania, the Sudetenland, and in pockets
throughout Central and Eastern Europe.[11] The Polish courier Jan
Karski warned US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the
possibility of Polish reprisals, describing them as "unavoidable" and
"an encouragement for all the Germans in Poland to go west, to
Germany proper, where they belong".[60]

[edit] Deportation to the Soviet Union
Main article: Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union
On February 6, 1945, Soviet NKVD ordered mobilisation of all
German men (17 to 50 years old) in the Soviet-controlled
territories. Many of them were then transported to the Soviet
Union for forced labour. In the former German territories the
Soviet authorities did not always distinguish between the Poles and
Germans and often treated them alike.[14] Some 165,000 Germans
were rounded up randomly and deported in 1945, they were not
allowed to "return" (that is, not to their former homes but to either
East or West Germany) until 1955; most of them perished[61].

[edit] Internment and forced labor in Poland
In territories that belonged to Poland before the war, Germans
were treated even more harshly than in the former German
territories[62]. Deprived of any citizen rights, many were used as
forced labor prior to their expulsion, sometimes for years, in labor
battalions or in labour camps[63][64] such as Glaz, Milecin,
Gronowo, Sikawa, Central Labour Camp Jaworzno, Central
Labour Camp Potulice, Łambinowice (run by Czesław Gęborski),
Zgoda labour camp and others. The death toll was between twenty
and fifty percent[65], and as the guards were not paid regular
salary they forcefully extracted their wage from the inmates[66].
When Geborski was tried by the Polish authorities in 1959 for his
wanton brutality, he stated his only goal was to exact revenge for
his own treatment during the war[67].

Zayas states that "in many internment camps no relief from outside
was permitted. In some camps relatives would bring packages and
deliver them to the Polish guards, who regularly plundered the
contents and delivered only the remains, if any. Frequently, these
relatives were so ill-treated that they never returned. Internees
who came to claim their packages were also mistreated by the
guards, who insisted the internees should speak Polish, even if they
were Germans born in German-speaking Silesia or Pomerania."[68]

Among the interned were also German POWs. Up to 10% of the
700,000 to 800,000 POWs of the respective battlegrounds were
handed over to the Poles by the Soviet military for the use of their
work force[69]. Their number in 1946 was 40,000 according to the
Polish administration, of whom 30,000 were used as miners in the
Upper Silesian coal industries[70]. 7,500 Germans alleged of crimes
against Poles were handed over to Poland by the Western Allies in
1946 and 1947[71]. A number of German Nazi war criminals were
imprisoned in Polish jails, at least 8,000 remained in jail in 1949,
many of them also being POWs[72]. (see also Supreme National
Tribunal)

[edit] Pre-Potsdam "wild" expulsions (May - July 1945)

Refugee's trail, eastern Germany 1945.In 1945, the former eastern
territories of Germany (Silesia, most of Pomerania, East
Brandenburg and East-Prussia) were occupied by Soviet and Soviet
controlled Polish military forces. Polish militia and military started
expulsions[73] already before the Potsdam Conference, referred to
as "wild expulsions" (German: Wilde Vertreibungen), affecting
between 700,000 and 800,000 Germans.[1] The Polish communists
ordered the expulsion of Germans: "We must expel all the
Germans because countries are built on national lines and not on
multi-national ones" was demanded by participants of a Plenum of
the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party in May 20-21,
1945.[74] On the same Plenum, the head of the Central Committee,
Wladyslaw Gomulka, ordered: "There has to be a border patrol at
the border [Oder-Neisse line] and the Germans have to be driven
out. The main objective has to be the cleansing of the terrain of
Germans, the building of a nation state".[75] To ensure the Oder
Neisse line would be accepted as the new Polish border at a future
Allied Conference (Potsdam Conference), up to 300,000 Germans
living close to the rivers' eastern bank were expelled subsequently
[76]. On May 26, 1945, the Central Committee ordered all
Germans to be expelled within one year and the area settled with
some 3.5 million ethnic Poles; 2.5 million of them were already re-
settled by summer[77].

Germans were defined as either Reichsdeutsche or Volksdeutsche
resembling the 1st or 2nd category in the Nazis' Volksliste, people
who had signed a lower category were allowed to apply for
"verification", that was to determine whether they would be
granted Polish citizenship as "autochtones"[78]. Polish military
drove 400,000 Germans across Poland's new western border in
June and July[79].

Many Germans evacuated during the war were not allowed to
return to their homes. Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 managed
to cross the Oder and Neisse rivers eastward before Polish
authorities closed the river crossings, another 800,000 entered
Silesia from Czechoslovakia, bringing up Silesia's population to
50% of the pre-war level.[80]. This led to the odd situation of treks
of Germans moving about in all directions, to the east as well as to
the west, each warning the others of what would await them at
their destination[32]

[edit] Expulsions following the Potsdam Conference

Oder-Neisse line at UsedomAfter the Potsdam Conference, Poland
was officially in charge of the territories east of the Oder Neisse
line. Despite the fact that article 8 of Potsdam agreement from
August 2, 1945 stated that "population transfer" should be
performed in ordered and humane manner, and should not
commence until after the creation of an expulsion plan approved by
the Allied Control Council, the expulsions continued without rules
and were associated with many criminal acts.[81] While the Polish
administration had set up a State Repatriation Office (Państwowy
Urząd Repatriacyjny, PUR), the bureau and its administrative
subunits proved ineffective due to quarrels between Communists
and opposition and a far too low equipment for the giant task of
expelling Germans as well as resettling Poles in an area devastated
by war[82]. Furthermore, rivalry occurred between the Soviet
occupation forces and the new installed Polish administration, a
phenomenon dubbed dwuwladza (double administration)[83]. The
Soviets kept trains and German workmen regardless of the Polish
ambitions and plans[82].

Expellees from Pomerania, West and East Prussia arrive in Berlin,
1945.The waves of expulsions after the Potsdam conference must
also be seen in the context of the contemporary, likewise
unorganized, resettling of displaced or homeless Poles. Polish
settlers, who themselves had been expelled from areas east of the
Curzon line, arrived with about nothing, putting an even higher
pressure on the remaining Germans to leave[84]. For the Germans,
the Potsdam Agreement eased conditions only in one way - because
now the Poles were more confident in keeping the former eastern
territories of Germany, the expulsions were performed with less
haste, which meant the Germans were duly informed about their
expulsions earlier and were allowed to carry some luggage[85].

Another problem the Germans and, to a lesser extent, even the
newly arrived Poles were facing was an enormous crime wave, most
notably theft and rape, committed by gangs not only consisting of
regular criminals but also Soviet soldiers, deserters or former
forced laborers (Ostarbeiter), coming back from the west[86]. In
Upper Silesia, a party official complained about some Polish
security forces and militia raping and pillaging the German
population and a general loss of sense for right and wrong[84].
Much abuse also came from large Soviet contingents stationed in
Poland after the war. A high number of crimes committed by
regular Soviet soldiers - on both German and Polish populace - had
been reported, as well as a high death toll of the few Polish officials
who dared to investigate these cases[87]. Yet, Soviet troops played
an ambiguous role, as there are also cases where Soviets freed local
Germans imprisoned by Poles, or delayed expulsions to keep
German workforce, for example on farms providing Soviet troops
(for instance in Słupsk).[88]

Refugees from East Prussia, 1945The damaged infrastructure and
quarrels between the Allied authorities in the occupation zones of
Germany and the Polish administration caused long delays in the
transport of expellees, who were first ordered to gather at one of
the various PUR transportation centers or internment camps and
then often forced to wait in ill-equipped barracks, exposed both to
criminals, aggressive guards and the cold and not supplied
sufficiently with food due to the overall shortages[82].

The "organized transfer" as agreed on at the Potsdam Conference
only began in early 1946 and subsequently evolved in a process
coordinated with British and Soviet authorities in occupied
Germany in 1946 and 1947. Yet due to the lack of heating facilities,
the cold winters of both 1945/46 and 1946/47 continued to claim
many lives.[84].

[edit] "Autochthones"
Another problem that Polish authorities were faced with was the
disposition of the so-called "Germanized Poles" or "autochthons".
Of close to three million residents of Masuria (Masurs), Pomerania
(Kashubians) and Upper Silesia (Silesians) of Slavic descent, many
did not identify with Polish nationality, were either bilingual or
spoke German or Germanized dialects only[89]. Large numbers of
these had registered with the German Deutsche Volksliste during
the war. While those who had signed Volksliste category "I" were
expelled, the Polish government aimed to retain as many as
"autochthons" as possible, as they were needed both for economic
reasons and also for propaganda purposes, as their presence on
former German soil was used to indicate an intrinsic "Polishness"
character of the area and justify its incorporation into the Polish
state as "recovered territories"[90]. "Verification" and "national
rehabilitation" processes were set up to reveal a "dormant
Polishness" and to determine which were redeemable as Polish
citizens, few were actually expelled[91]. "Autochthons" not only
disliked the subjective and often arbitrary verification process, but
they also faced discrimination even once verified. Polish settlers
coveted autochthon property, and they resented and distrusted the
verified autochthons. Many autochthons fled to occupied Germany
in despair at their treatment, although the situation in Germany
was little better. As one Silesian wrote, "In Poland, I'm a German.
In Germany, a Pole. Perhaps they should create a state for us on
the moon. There we might finally feel at home".[92]

The verification procedure varied in different territories and was
changed several times. Initially, the applicants had to prove their
past membership in a Polish minority organization of the German
Reich, and in addition needed a warrant where three Polish locals
testified their Polishness.[93] In April 1945, the Upper Silesian
voivode declared the fullfillment of only one of these requirements
to be sufficient.[93] In the areas like Lower Silesia and Pomerania,
where the Polish authorities suspected only Germans, verification
was handled much more strictly than in the former German-Polish
borderlands.[7] Of the 1,104,134 "verified autochtones" in the
census of 1950, close to 900,000 were natives of Upper Silesia and
Masuria.[7]

[edit] "Rehabilitation"
While most of the ethnic German population of pre-war Poland fled
or was expelled, some were "rehabilitated" and offered their pre-
war Polish citizenship back.[94] "Rehabilitation" was offered to
people who had been subject to forced labour before, spoke Polish
and were rated as not constituting a threat.[94] Once granted
Polish citizenship, they were encouraged to Polonize their names,
or to re-Polonize them if they had been Germanized during the war.
[94] Numbers of how many were offered to stay in Poland as Poles
and eventually did are not available,[94] but it is assumed that the
vast majority had rather opted and left for Germany by 1960.[94]
Those of mixed descent from within or without the borders of pre-
war Poland were also allowed to stay on the premise of
Polonization, yet likewise no comprehensive data exists.[94]

[edit] "Indispensable Germans"
Some Germans were exempted from expulsion and retained
because of their professional skills, if no Pole was at hand to
replace them. These Germans were treated second class regarding
salary and food supply. So-called "abandoned wives", whose
husbands found themselves in post-war Germany and were not able
to return, were compelled to "seek divorce" and were not allowed
to leave for Germany before 1950-1952[95]. The other ones
retained were not allowed to leave before 1956, these measures
also included the families of the retainees or the parts thereof
remaining with them[96]. About 250,000 had been issued East
German passports in the 1950s, ending their former statelessness.
[97] Many were concentrated in the areas of Wroclaw (former
Breslau),[97] Walbrzych (former Waldenburg),[97][98] and
Legnica (former Liegnitz),[97] all in Lower Silesia, and in Koszalin
(former Köslin)[97] in Pomerania. How many actually left is
uncertain, though it is generally assumed that the majority
emigrated.[97] The German society of Walbrzych has maintained a
continuous existence since 1957.[97]

[edit] Repopulation
People from all over Poland moved in to replace the former
German population in a process parallel to the expulsions. While
the Germans were interned and expelled, up to 5 million[99]
settlers were either attracted or forced to settle the area. The
settlers can be grouped according to their background:

settlers from Central Poland moving in on a voluntary basis
(majority)[100]
Poles that had been freed from forced labor in Nazi Germany (up
to two millions)[101][102]
Repatriants- Poles expelled from the Kresy areas east of the
Curzon line annexed by the Soviet Union, who made up for less
than 10% of the overall Polish population, were preferably settled
in the new western territories where they made up for 26% of the
population (up to two millions)[103][104]
non-Poles forcefully resettled during Operation Wisla in 1947.
Large numbers of Ukrainians were forced to move from south
eastern Poland under a 1947 Polish government operation, termed
Operation Wisla, which aimed at dispersing, and therefore
assimilating, the Ukrainian population, which had not been expelled
eastward already, throughout the newly acquired territories.
Belarusians living around the area around Białystok were also
pressured into relocating to the areas vacated by fleeing German
population for the same reasons. This scattering of members of non-
Polish ethnic groups throughout the country was an attempt by the
Polish authorities[105] to dissolve the unique ethnic identity of
groups like the Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lemkos, and broke the
proximity and communication necessary for strong communities to
form.
Tens of thousands of Jewish Holocaust-survivors, most of them
being "repatriates" from the East, settled mostly in Lower Silesia
creating Jewish cooperatives and institutions - the largest
communities were founded in Wroclaw (Breslau, Lower Silesia),
Szczecin (Stettin, Pomerania), Dzierżoniów (formerly
Reichenbach)) and Walbrzych (Waldenburg, Lower Silesia)[106].
However most of them later left Poland.
Polish and Soviet newspapers and officials encouraged Poles to
relocate to the west - "the land of opportunity"[107]. These new
territories - known in Poland as the Recovered or Regained
Territories - were described as a place where opulent villas
abandoned by fleeing Germans waited for the brave; fully furnished
houses and businesses were available for the taking.[108]. These
were the just rewards for the hardships and bitter losses of the war.
The papers urged, "Go! Tomorrow might be too late".[109]

[edit] Formal end of the expulsions
After 1 January 1948, Germans were primarily shipped to the
Soviet occupation zone (after 3 October 1949, the German
Democratic Republic), based on a Polish-Soviet agreement.[110]
Most Germans had been expelled by the end of 1947. In entire
1948, a relatively small number of 42,700 were expelled, and
another 34,100 in 1949.[110] In 1950, 59,433 Germans were
expelled following a bi-lateral agreement between the People's
Republic of Poland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR),
26,196 of whom however headed for West Germany.[110] Between
October 1948 and December 1950 all 35,000 German prisoners of
war detained in Poland were shipped to Germany.[110]

On 10 March 1951, the Polish "Bureau for Repatriation" (PUR)
was disbanded; all further resettlement from Poland to Germany
was carried out in a non-forcible and peaceful manner by the Polish
state travel agency Orbis.[110]

[edit] Demographic estimates
According Polish census in 1946, there were still 2,036,400
Germans in the "Recovered Territories", 251,900 in the pre-war
Polish territories (primarily eastern Upper Silesia, Pomerelia and
Wielkopolska) and the former Free City of Danzig, and 417,000 in
the process of "verification" as "new" Poles.[111] The census data
did not include former German citizens already "verified" as ethnic
Poles, Germans in forced labor or detention camps and otherwise
detained Germans, and Germans employed by the Soviet
administration.[111]

According to S. Banasiak, 3,109,900 Germans were expelled to the
Soviet and British occupation zones and thereby registrated by
Polish officials between 1945 and 1950.[112] Registration by Polish
officials was not exhaustive, especially in 1945.[112] An unknown
number left without formal registration or was expelled by Soviet
military authorities without notifying Polish officials responsible for
statistics.[112] Also, especially in 1945, many Germans returned to
their former homes and some were expelled more than once.[112]

Thomasz Kamusella is citing estimates of 7 million expelled during
both "wild" and "legal" expulsions from the "Recovered
Territories" until 1948, joined by an additional 700,000 from areas
of pre-war Poland.[10] Kamusella states that about 5 million had
fled from the former eastern territories of Germany, and 500,000
from pre-war Poland in 1944 and 1945, that another 3.325 millions
were expelled from the former German territories in 1946-1948,
emphasizing these numbers are not exhaustive.[113]

Overy cites approximate totals of those evacuated, migrated, or
expelled between 1944–1950 from East Prussia: 1.4 million to
Western Germany, 609,000 to Eastern Germany; from West
Prussia: 230,000 to Western Germany, 61,000 to Eastern
Germany; from the former German area East of the Oder-Neisse:
3.2 million to Western Germany, 2 million to Eastern Germany.
[114]

According to Nitschke, of around 12.4 million Germans residing
within the lands of post-war Poland in 1944, 3.6 million were
expelled, one million were certified as Poles, 300,000 remained in
Poland as a German minority, and up to 1.1 million are unaccounted
for and presumed to be dead (killed).[115]

According to Kacowicz, about 3.5 million people had fled before the
organized expulsions began, mainly driven by fear of the advancing
Soviet Army, between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand
Germans were affected by the "wild" expulsions, and another
three millions were expelled in 1946 and 1947.[1]

[edit] Legacy
[edit] Post-war
In Communist Poland, the expulsions were not to be questioned, and
ideologically defended by propaganda.[116] The anti-German
argument was an important element for the communists to gain
acceptance with Polish population, large parts of which were anti-
communist. The expulsions were perceived by many Poles as just
with respect to the former Nazi policies, injustices were balanced
off with the injustices during the contemporary "repatriation" of
Poles.[116] Except for the use in official anti-German propaganda,
the expulsions became a taboo in Polish politics, public, and
education for decades.[116] German expellee organizations who
did not accept the post-war territorial and population changes
fueled Communist propaganda dismissing them as far-right
revanchists.[117]

In the first years after the war, the bishop of Katowice Stanisław
Adamski criticized the expulsion of Germans as inhumane. In 1965,
a group of Polish bishops made a particularly important overture by
sending a letter to their German counterparts in which they asked
forgiveness for the wrongs perpetrated during the expulsion and at
the same time offered forgiveness for German war crimes.
Attempts were made by Znak, a group of Catholic members of
parliament, and the oppositional Clubs of Catholic Intelligentsia
(Kluby Inteligencji Katolickiej, KIK) to attain a somewhat less
ideologized picture of the Germans. This new perspective also
meant dealing critically with the question of how the expulsion of
Germans was to be incorporated into the self-image of Polish
society.[118]

According to Philipp Ther, pre-1989 Polish historiography has in
general either under-estimated or concealed the role of force
during the expulsions.[119] Ther says that this was caused on the
one hand by censorship, and on the other hand by the interpretation
of the registration forms the expellees had signed as acquiescence
to "voluntary emigration".[119]

[edit] Post-communist (1989-present)
Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has been a lively debate in
Poland regarding the post-war expulsion of the Germans. The
Polish role in the expulsions could not be contemplated in Poland
until the end of the Cold War.[64] After the signing of the German-
Polish treaty on borders and neighbourly relations as well as the
visible congruence of Germany's and Poland's interests in a Europe
which was reuniting in the first half of the 1990s, it was not only
Poland's political and intellectual elites who dealt with the Polish
role in the expulsions, but also larger parts of the general public. In
regions from which the Germans had been expelled, Polish citizens
began looking for traces of German cultural heritage and German
traditions (as, for instance, a German-Polish network set up in the
border regions).[120]

In the Polish-German border and neighborhood treaties of 1990 and
1991, the term "expulsion" for the first time replaced the old and
euphemistic Communist term "resettlement" or the Potsdam term
"population transfer", which were used by Polish officials before.
[117] Though "Wypędzenie", the Polish term for "expulsion", is
since widely used officially, in regular linguistic practice it is still an
emotionally loaded term, not as it were, something that is being
acknowledged, and closely attached to the question of "right" or
"wrong".[121] Polish and joint German-Polish scholary research
and public debates in Poland were now concerned with issues like
moral examination of the expulsions, responsibility for the inflicted
suffering, terminology, numbers, and whether the expellee's status
was that of a political subject or object.[117]

In 1995, Polish foreign minister Władysław Bartoszewski expressed
regret about the suffering of innocent Germans during the
expulsions in a speech held before German parliament and
federative council.[121] In 1996, Polish public opinion research
institute CBOS polled public opinion about a phrase in the letter of
reconciliation the Polish bishops wrote in 1965: "We forgive and
ask for forgiveness": 28% agreed; 45% agreed with the offering of
forgiveness, but rejected that the part that asked for forgiveness;
22% disagreed altogether.[121]

However the desire for reconciliation was tempered when shifts in
German remembrance culture became evident at the turn of the
millennium.[122] When members of organizations like Preussische
Treuhand prepared law suits aiming at compensation to the
expelled and their descendants,[123] many Poles feared that the
importance attached to Nazi war crimes in Poland and the related
Polish suffering might decrease,[124][125] and that Poland would
be liable for reclaimed property worth billions of euros.[125]

In addition, anxiety is growing in Poland about the legal and moral
claim to Poland's post-war territorial gains.[125] The legal aspects
have been investigated by various international law experts coming
to different conclusions,[125] prompting both Germany and Poland
to employ a joint expert team that gave an overall negative answer
to chances for such legal challenges.[126] Polish government made
some efforts to sue Germany for damages inflicted on Poland
during World War II in return.[123] The advancing German project
of erecting a Centre against expulsions depicting the fate of
German expellees is controversially discussed in Poland, and was
described by former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński as
"equating the victims with the persecutors".[127] The Polish
reaction was severely criticized in Germany.[118]

Nevertheless the personal relations between the former and the
modern inhabitants of these areas are often exceptional good, e.g.
active members of refugee organisations are honorary citizens of
their birthtowns[128].

[edit] See also
Expulsion of Poles by Germany
Repatriation of Poles (1944–1946)
Polish-German relations
World War II evacuation and expulsion
Territorial changes of Germany
Territorial changes of Poland
[edit] Notes
^ a b c d e f g Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, pp.100,101 ISBN 073911607 [1]
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft
und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998, p.
56, ISBN 3525357907: From June until mid July, Polish military and
militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east
of the rivers [Oder-Neisse line]
^ The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at
the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees,
European University Institute, Florense. HEC No. 2004/1. p.27
^ Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum:
From 1900 to the Present, 2005, p.197, ISBN 1576077969,
9781576077962
^ Naimark, Russian in Germany. p. 75 reference 31:" a citation
from the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers
Party, May 20-21, 1945."
^ The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at
the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees,
European University Institute, Florense. HEC No. 2004/1. p.26:
confirms motivation to create an ethnically homogeneous Poland
^ a b c d Philipp Ther, Deutsche und polnische Vertriebene:
Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/DDR und in Polen
1945-1956, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, p.306, ISBN
3525357907
^ a b c The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern
Europe at the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and
Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florense. HEC No.
2004/1. p.28
^ a b The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern
Europe at the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and
Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florense. HEC No.
2004/1. p.30
^ a b c d e f The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern
Europe at the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and
Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florense. HEC No.
2004/1. p.29
^ a b Bernard Wasserstein, European Refugee Movements After
World War Two, BBC history, [2]
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen,
Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, 2005, p.198,
ISBN 1576077969, 9781576077962
^ a b c d Earl R. Beck, Under the Bombs: The German Home
Front, 1942-1945, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p.176, ISBN
0813109779
^ a b c p. 35 - Jankowiak, Stanisław (2005). "Wysiedlenie i
emigracja ludności niemieckiej w polityce władz polskich w latach
1945-1970" (Expulsion and emigration of German population in the
policies of Polish authorities in 1945-1970). Warszawa: Instytut
Pamięci Narodowej. ISBN 83-89078-80-5.
^ Overy, ibid.
^ Detlef Brandes. "Der Weg zur Vertreibung 1938-1945. Pläne und
Entscheidungen zum Transfer", p.233
^ Klaus Rehbein, Die westdeutsche Oder/Neisse-Debatte:
Hintergründe, Prozess und Ende des Bonner Tabus, LIT Verlag
Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2005, p.11, ISBN 3825893405
^ Klaus Rehbein, Die westdeutsche Oder/Neisse-Debatte:
Hintergründe, Prozess und Ende des Bonner Tabus, LIT Verlag
Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2005, p.17, ISBN 3825893405
^ Alfred M. De Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, p.85
^ Klaus Rehbein, Die westdeutsche Oder/Neisse-Debatte:
Hintergründe, Prozess und Ende des Bonner Tabus, LIT Verlag
Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2005, p.18, ISBN 3825893405
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft
und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998, p.
56, ISBN 3525357907, 9783525357903: From June until mid July,
Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the
districts immediately east of the rivers [Oder-Neisse line]
^ Gormly, p. 49
^ a b Gormly, p. 50
^ Gormly, p.51
^ Gormly: p.55f
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in
Twentieth-Century Europe, Harvard University Press, 2002, ISBN
0674009940, p.123
^ Viktoria Vierheller, "Polen und die Deutschland Frage 1939-
1945", Köln 1970, p. 65
^ a b c Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.123
^ Stanisław Mikołajczyk, "The pattern of Soviet Domination",
London 1948, p. 301
^ Thomas Urban, "Der Verlust ...", p. 114
^ Sunday Times, December 17, 1944
^ a b Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.124
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.13, ISBN 3833441151
^ a b c Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark,
BoD – Books on Demand, 2005, p.14, ISBN 3833441151
^ a b Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark,
BoD – Books on Demand, 2005, p.21, ISBN 3833441151
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.16, ISBN 3833441151
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.15, ISBN 3833441151
^ a b Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark,
BoD – Books on Demand, 2005, p.17, ISBN 3833441151
^ a b Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark,
BoD – Books on Demand, 2005, p.28, ISBN 3833441151
^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.516, ISBN
3886802728: reference confirming this for Pomerania
^ a b Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark,
BoD – Books on Demand, 2005, p.22, ISBN 3833441151: confirming
this for East Prussia
^ Annette Neulist, Wolfgang Moll, Die Jugend Alter Menschen:
Gesprächsanregungen für die Altenpflege, Elsevier,
Urban&FischerVerlag, 2005, p.124, ISBN 3437273809: eyewitness
account of February radio broadcasts in East Prussia: "Ostpreußen
darf nicht verloren gehen. Es besteht keine Veranlassung, die
Bevölkerung zu evakuieren.".
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.17, ISBN 3833441151: Hitler:
"Zusammengelesenes Pack" und "Beutedivisionen", die zu keiner
Entscheidungsschlacht mehr fähig seien.
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.17, ISBN 3833441151: Himmler: Der
größte Bluff seit Dschingis Khan.
^ Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum:
From 1900 to the Present, 2005, pp.197,198, ISBN 1576077969
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.27, ISBN 3833441151
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.27, ISBN 3833441151, citing Günter
Böddeker: Die Flüchtlinge, p.93
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.31, ISBN 3833441151, citing Martin
Holz: Evakuierte, Flüchtlinge, Vertriebene, pp.86,87
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.59, ISBN 3833441151
^ Manfred Ertel. "A Legacy of Dead German Children", Spiegel
Online, May 16, 2005
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung, p.84
^ Torsten Mehlhase, Flüchtlinge und Vertriebene nach dem
Zweiten Weltkrieg in Sachsen-Anhalt: ihre Aufnahme und
Bestrebungen zur Eingliederung in die Gesellschaft, LIT Verlag
Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 1999, p.256, ISBN 3825842789: 70,000
refugees in Swinemünde on 12 March 1945
^ Petra Dubilski, Ostseeküste- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
DuMont Reiseverlag, 2003, p.200, ISBN 3770159268
^ Daniela Schetar-Köthe, ADAC Reiseführer Polen, ADAC Verlag
DE, 2007, p.98, ISBN 3899054911
^ Werner Buchholz, Pommern, Siedler, 1999, p.514, ISBN
3886802728
^ Erwin Ay, Rettende Ufer: Von Ostpreußen nach Dänemark, BoD
– Books on Demand, 2005, p.23, ISBN 3833441151: 12km route,
land route blocked when Soviets took Elbing, thousands died due to
cold and air raids
^ Silke Satjukow, Besatzer: »die Russen« in Deutschland 1945-
1994, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, p.338, ISBN 352536380
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung, p.85
^ Adam Zadworny, They Were Killing Germans in Revenge,
Wyborza, 2008-01-18 [3]
^ R. J. Rummel, Irving Louis Horowitz (1997). Death by
Government. Transaction Publishers. p. 302. http://books.google.
com/books?
id=N1j1QdPMockC&pg=PA302&dq=karski+roosevelt+revenge.
"I would rather be frank with you, Mr. President. Nothing on earth
will stop the Poles from taking some kind of revenge on the
Germans after the Nazi collapse. There will be some terrorism,
probably short-lived, but it will be unavoidable. And I think this will
be a sort of encouragement for all the Germans in Poland to go
west, to Germany proper, where they belong."
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.29, EUI HEC
2004/1 [4]
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.131
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130, p.131
^ a b Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.101, ISBN 073911607 [5]
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130
^ Alfred M. de Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge & Kegan
Paul, London 1977 ISBN 0710084684 pp. 124ff.
^ Manfred Gebhardt, Joachim Küttner, Dieter Bingen, Deutsche in
Polen nach 1945: Gefangene und Fremde, 1997, p.23, ISBN
3486562363, 9783486562361
^ Manfred Gebhardt, Joachim Küttner, Dieter Bingen, Deutsche in
Polen nach 1945: Gefangene und Fremde, 1997, p.24, ISBN
3486562363, 9783486562361
^ Manfred Gebhardt, Joachim Küttner, Dieter Bingen, Deutsche in
Polen nach 1945: Gefangene und Fremde, 1997, p.24, ISBN
3486562363, 9783486562361
^ Manfred Gebhardt, Joachim Küttner, Dieter Bingen, Deutsche in
Polen nach 1945: Gefangene und Fremde, 1997, p.24, ISBN
3486562363, 9783486562361
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft
und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998, p.
56, ISBN 3525357907, 9783525357903: From June until mid July,
Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the
districts immediately east of the rivers [Oder-Neisse line]
^ Naimark, The Russians ..., p. 75 reference 31
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft
und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998,
p. 56, ISBN 3525357907, 9783525357903
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft
und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998,
p. 57, ISBN 3525357907, 9783525357903
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung: "ethnische Säuberungen" im
östlichen Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts, 2006, p.85, ISBN
3825880338, 9783825880330
^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung: "ethnische Säuberungen" im
östlichen Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts, 2006, p.86, ISBN
3825880338, 9783825880330
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung, p.85, 2006, ISBN
3825880338, 9783825880330
^ Meyers Lexicon Online. Vertreibung.
^ a b c Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene, p.60
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene, p.59
^ a b c Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.128
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene, p.58
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene, p.61
^ Philipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene, p.59/60
^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen,
Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung: "ethnische Säuberungen" im
östlichen Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts, LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-
Münster, 2006, p.85, ISBN 3825880338
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC
2004/1 [6]
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC
2004/1 [7]
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.28, EUI HEC
2004/1 [8]
^ Nitschke, Vertreibung und Aussiedlung .., p. 165
^ a b Philipp Ther, Deutsche und polnische Vertriebene:
Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/DDR und in Polen
1945-1956, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, p.305, ISBN
3525357907
^ a b c d e f K. Cordell in Stefan Wolff, German Minorities in
Europe: Ethnic Identity and Cultural Belonging, Berghahn Books,
2000, pp.79,80, ISBN 157181504
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.29, EUI HEC
2004/1 [9]
^ Tomasz Kamusella in Prauser and Reeds (eds), The Expulsion of
the German communities from Eastern Europe, p.29, EUI HEC
2004/1 [10]
^ a b c d e f g Stefan Wolff, German Minorities in Europe: Ethnic
Identity and Cultural Belonging, Berghahn Books, 2000, p.79, ISBN
157181504
^ Werner Besch, Dialektologie: Ein Handbuch zur Deutschen und
allgemeinen Dialektforschung, Walter de Gruyter, 1982, p.178,
ISBN 3110059770
^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European
Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: gives 4,55
million within the first years
^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European
Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 2,8 million
of 4,55 million within the first years
^ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European
Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 1,5 million
of 4,55 million within the first years
^ Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European
Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: 1,55 million
of 4,55 million within the first years
^ Thum, p.129
^ Selwyn Ilan Troen, Benjamin Pinkus, Merkaz le-moreshet Ben-
Guryon, Organizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the
Modern Period, pp.283-284, 1992, ISBN 0714634131,
9780714634135
^ Karl Cordell, Andrzej Antoszewski, Poland and the European
Union, 2000, p.168, ISBN 0415238854, 9780415238854: created the
image in public mind that the area was Poland's promised land
^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau 1945, p.120
^ Gregor Thum, Die fremde Stadt. Breslau 1945, p.120-121
^ a b c d e Grzegorz Janusz in Manfred Kittel, Deutschsprachige
Minderheiten 1945: ein europäischer Vergleich, Oldenbourg
Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, pp.143,144, ISBN 3486580027
^ a b Manfred Kittel, Deutschsprachige Minderheiten 1945: ein
europäischer Vergleich, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, p.
142, ISBN 3486580027
^ a b c d Manfred Kittel, Deutschsprachige Minderheiten 1945: ein
europäischer Vergleich, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, p.
144, ISBN 3486580027
^ The Expulsion of 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at
the end of the Second World War, Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees,
European University Institute, Florense. HEC No. 2004/1. p.22
^ Overy, ibid.
^ Nitschke, Vertreibung und Aussiedlung .., p. 280
^ a b c Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.100, ISBN 073911607 [11]
^ a b c Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.103, ISBN 073911607
^ a b Kraft, Claudia, Debates on the Expulsion of Germans in
Poland since 1945
^ a b Philipp Ther, Deutsche und polnische Vertriebene:
Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/DDR und in Polen
1945-1956, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, p.82, ISBN 3525357907
^ Krzysztof Ruchniewicz, Jürgen Zinnecker, Zwischen
Zwangsarbeit, Holocaust und Vertreibung: Polnische, jüdische und
deutsche Kindheiten im besetzten Polen, 2007, pp.27ff ISBN
3779917335, 9783779917335 [12]
^ a b c Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.104, ISBN 073911607
^ Polish Leaders Criticize Latest German Compensation Claims,
Deutsche Welle, 6.12.2006
^ a b Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.109 ISBN 073911607
^ Poles Angered by German WWII Compensation Claims, Spiegel
Online, 12/18/2006
^ a b c d Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, p.107, ISBN 073911607
^ Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population
resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study,
Lexington Books, 2007, pp.107,108 ISBN 073911607
^ War Compensation Claims Still Plague Polish-German Ties,
Deutsche Welle, 30.10.2006
^ openpr.de e.g. the chairman of the refugees of the Lötzen district
[edit] Sources
Ther, Philipp (1998) (in German). "Deutsche und polnische
Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/DDR
und in Polen 1945-1956". Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN
3525357907.
Podlasek, Maria (1995) (in Polish). "Wypędzenie Niemców z
terenów na wschód od Odry i Nysy Łużyckiej". Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Polsko - Niemieckie. ISBN 8386653000.
Nitschke, Bernadetta (2003). Vertreibung und Aussiedlung der
deutschen Bevölkerung aus Polen 1945 bis 1949. Munich:
Oldenbourg.
Jankowiak, Stanisław (2005). "Wysiedlenie i emigracja ludności
niemieckiej w polityce władz polskich w latach 1945-1970"
(Expulsion and emigration of German population in the policies of
Polish authorities in 1945-1970). Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci
Narodowej. ISBN 83-89078-80-5.
Zybura, Marek (2004). "Niemcy w Polsce" (Germans in Poland).
Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 83-7384-171-7.
Baziur, Grzegorz (2003). "Armia Czerwona na Pomorzu Gdańskim
1945-1947" (Red Army in Gdańsk Pomerania 1945-1947).
Warszawa: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej. ISBN 83-89078-19-8.
Norman M. Naimark. The Russians in Germany: A History of the
Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press,
1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7
James L. Gormly: From Potsdam to the Cold War. Big Three
Diplomacy 1945-1947. Scholarly Resources Inc. Delaware, 1990
(ISBN 0-8420-2334-8)
Urban, Thomas (2004) (in German). Der Verlust. Die Vertreibung
der Deutschen und Polen im 20. Jahrhundert. München: C. H. Beck
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Thum, Gregor (2003). Die fremde Stadt. Breslau 1945. Berlin:
Siedler. ISBN 3-88680-795-9.
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