Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)

Expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the policy of ethnic cleansing of the Germans from the eastern part of Germany lost after World War II, agreed to at the Potsdam Conference and undertaken by the Soviet Union and its satellite powers in Eastern Europe.

The subjects of this policy included inhabitants of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, German citizens living in Poland and Sudetenland Germans in Czechoslovakia. The Communists also expelled ethnic Germans from other eastern European countries. The resettlement included alsoethnic Germans from countries under Soviet conquest, many of whom had become German citizens during WW2.

The Potsdam Agreement called for equal distribution of the transfered Germans between American, English, French and Soviet occupation zones in Germany. In the result, twice as many expelled Germans found refuge in the occupation zones that later formed West Germany as in East Germany, and large numbers went to other countries of the world.

The property in that territory that at that time belonged to Germany, German organizations and Germans citizens was to be used as a partial compensation for property of Poles, their organizations and the Polish state, that had been lost in Eastern Poland, or for the damages caused by Germany during the war. Nevertheless, most of people from both sides of conflict that lost their property during the war, have never been compensated.

The discussion of the reasons

Some allege that the purpose of this policy was to punish Germany for its actions during World War II and to create ethnically homogenous nations.

Others believed this is the only way to prevent ethnic violence. As Churchill expounded in the House of Commons in 1944, "Expulsion is the method which, in so far as we have been able to see, will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble...A clean sweep will be made. I am not alarmed by these transferences, which are more possible in modern conditions..."

As German nationalists always used the existence of large German minorities in other countries as base for territorial claims and Adolf Hitler used it as pretext for waging aggressive wars, removing Germans from territories of other countries would remove potential causes of future problems. Also, there was little empathy for German victims after the World War II experience, especially since German government was itself ethnically cleansing some areas (e.g. Reichsgau Wartheland) during war.

Others perceived it as "act of historical justice", because e.g. Sudeten Germans strongly contributed to destruction of pre-war Czechoslovakia and ethnic Czechs were expelled from Sudeten after unification with Nazi Germany.

Another explanation is even simpler. Even before former German territories were captured by Red Army, around around 2 million Poles from the east half of Poland (behind Curzon line) were expelled to Poland if they were lucky or work camps in Siberia otherwise. 800 000 people from Warsaw were deported by Germans to the special camps. After the end of the war, these people need houses and since Germany had a bad record for paying war contributions, the only feasible solution was to use buildings belonging to the citizens of Germany to accomodate people in need.

The results

Over 15 million Germans and ethnic Germans were to relocate and an estimated 1.8 to 3 million died during the trek. However, those numbers may include the evacuation during the WWII. These numbers are not well established as little research has been done on this subject. Other persons fled voluntarily, rather than being expelled by any government, and were prevented for decades from returning home.

The actual population tranfer included 2-3.5 milions from Poland, 2 milions from Czechoslovakia and around 1 milion from Soviet Union, 200 000 from Hungary and 200 000 from Romania.

Historical development

Germany

After World War II many expellees (German: Heimatvertriebene) from the land east of the Oder-Neisse received refuge in both West-Germany and East-Germany. Some of the expellees are active in politics and belong to the political right-wing, many others do not belong to any organizations, but continue to maintain what they call a lawful right to their homeland. The vast majority pledged to work peacefully towards that goal, while rebuilding post-war Germany and Europe. In a document signed 50 years ago the Heimatvertriebene organisations have also recognized the plight of the different groups of people living in today's Poland who were by force resettled there. The Heimatvertriebene are just one of the groups of millions of other people from many different countries, who all found refuge in today's Germany. In today's Germany there is little political support for reopening the border issue.

Poland

Relations between Poland and Germany are good, and there are no fears within Poland that Germany would annex the land east of the Oder-Neisse line. There are, however, some worries among Poles that descendants of the expelled Germans would buy the land. It is believed this may result in large price increases since the current Polish land price is low compared to Western Europe. This led to Polish restrictions on the sale of property to foreigners, including Germans, (a special permission is needed), comparable to similar restrictions on the Baltic Åland Islands. These restrictions will be lifted in 12 years after accesion of Poland to the European Union, i.e on May 1, 2016.

The Heimatvertriebene in general are aware and recognize the fact that Poles since 1945 live in the eastern German homelands. The official proposed policy is not to repeat the Potsdam Agreement expulsions with new persecutions and population transfers. Most Heimatvertriebene welcome the Slavic peoples now living on German lands as welcome friends and neighbours in the European Union.

Czechoslovakia

In Czech-German relations, topic had been effectively closed by Czech-German declaration of 1997. One principle of declaration is that parties will not burden their relations with political and legal issues which stem from the past.

However, some expelled Sudeten Germans or their descendants are demanding return of their former property, confiscated after war. Several such cases run at Czech courts. As confiscated estates usualy have new inhabitants (for more than 50 years), attempts to return to pre-war state may cause fear, and topic is occasionaly live in Czech politics.

Like in Poland, worries and restrictions concerning land buying exists in Czech Republic.

Developement

At the time the policy was undertaken and until the 1990s, there was little argument over the morality of the policy. Many of the propaganda themes of the Nazi regime against Czechoslovakia and Poland claimed the ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) were persecuted. Although expellees (in German Heimatvertriebene) and their descendants were active in West German politics, the prevailing political climate within West Germany was that of atonement for Nazi actions, and even within West Germany there was little sympathy for the claims of the expellees.

In 1946 Winston Churchill held a memorable speech in Fenton, Missouri in the presence of US President Truman. The paragraph, which has become very famous, Churchill made the USA aware of the Iron Curtain coming down ...from Stettin to Triest... In this speech Churchill also emphazised the wrongful Russian Soviet controlled Polish incursions into Germany (that is the land east of the Oder-Neisse line and the plight of millions of refugeees/expellees. However, taking into account his personal responsibility for for the decisions made in Potsdam, the sentence was motivated by current political agenda.

US Congressman B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives on May 16, 1957, called it genocide.

In November and December, 1993, an exhibit on Ethnic Cleansing 1944-1948 was held at Stuart Center of De Paul University, in Chicago, where it was called an unknown holocaust.

In the 1990s the Iron Curtain came down and soon occupying powers withdraw from Germany. The issue of the treatment of Germans after World War II for the first time began to be reexamined. The primary motivations for this was the collapse of the Soviet Union, which allowed previously untouchable issues such as crimes committed by Russians during World War II to be raised.

The 1991 Polish-German border agreement finalized the Oder-Neisse line as the Polish-German border and give respective several rights such as the right to use national surnames, their native language, schools, and churches, rights which they often were denied previously on the basis that the individual had choosen already country they wanted to live (Poles in Poland, Germans in Germany).

Reports have surfaced of Soviet massacres of German civilians (see the book A Terrible Revenge). Also some of former German concentration camps were used as temporal camps for Germans.

Both Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev during their Soviet military service had objected to the brutal murder of German civilians of East Prussia. For that both were put in Siberian Gulag for 10 years. There Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn memorized and later documented his experiences in the military as well as in the Gulag. Lev Kopelev wrote the book about these brutal events in East Prussia called To Be Preserved Forever (Khranit' Venchno).

Since 1990 the historical events are examined by Polish Instytut Pamieci Narodowej Institue of National Rememberance. His role is to investigate and to hunt the crimes of the past, without the difference of nationality of victims and perpetrators. In Poland, crimes motivated by the nationality of victims are nevere expired, therefore the criminals are chased for ever. In few cases, the crimes against Germans were examined. One suspected perpetrator, Salomon Morel fled the country.

The issue of the expulsion is still quite hot and not easy to judge. As the example, the case of Erika Steinbach, the current head of Federation of Expellees. Despite being treated by German law as expulsed person, she herself was born in Poland, because her father military pilot was garrisoned there only.