This is not kind Stalin for you. Cannibalistic deportation in a European way

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Our story will be about the deportation at the end of World War II of Germans from Eastern Europe. Although this was the most massive deportation of the 20th century, it is not customary to talk about it in Europe for some unknown reason.

Disappeared Germans

The map of Europe has been cut and redrawn many times. When drawing new lines of borders, politicians thought least of all about the people who lived on these lands. After the First World War, significant territories were seized from defeated Germany by the victorious countries, of course, along with the population. 2 million Germans ended up in Poland, 3 million in Czechoslovakia. In total, more than 7 million of its former citizens turned out to be outside Germany.

Many European politicians (British Prime Minister Lloyd George, US President Wilson) warned that such a redivision of the world carries the threat of a new war. They were more than correct.

The oppression of the Germans (real and imaginary) in Czechoslovakia and Poland was an excellent pretext for unleashing the Second World War. By 1940, the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and the Polish part of West Prussia with the center in Danzig (Gdansk), populated mainly by Germans, became part of Germany.

After the war, the territories occupied by Germany with a compact German population were returned to their former owners. By the decision of the Potsdam Conference, Poland was additionally transferred to German lands, where another 2.3 million Germans lived.

But less than a hundred years later, these 4 million Polish Germans disappeared without a trace. According to the 2002 census, out of 38.5 million Polish citizens, 152 thousand called themselves Germans. Before 1937, 3.3 million Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, in 2011 there were 52 thousand of them in the Czech Republic. Where did these millions of Germans go?

The people as a problem

The Germans who lived in Czechoslovakia and Poland were by no means innocent sheep. The girls greeted the Wehrmacht soldiers with flowers, the men threw out their hands in a Nazi salute and shouted "Heil!" During the occupation, Volksdeutsche were the mainstay of the German administration, held high posts in local government bodies, took part in punitive actions, lived in houses and apartments confiscated from Jews. Not surprisingly, the local population hated them.

The governments of liberated Poland and Czechoslovakia rightly saw the German population as a threat to the future stability of their states. The solution to the problem in their understanding was the expulsion of "alien elements" from the country. However, for mass deportation (a phenomenon condemned at the Nuremberg trials), the approval of the great powers was required. And this was received.

In the final Protocol of the Berlin Conference of the Three Great Powers (Potsdam Agreement), Clause XII provided for the future deportation of the German population from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary to Germany. The document was signed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Stalin, US President Truman and British Prime Minister Attlee. The go-ahead was given.

Czechoslovakia

The Germans were the second largest people in Czechoslovakia, there were more of them than Slovaks, every fourth inhabitant of Czechoslovakia was German. Most of them lived in the Sudetenland and in the regions bordering with Austria, where they accounted for more than 90% of the population.

The Czechs began to take revenge on the Germans immediately after the victory. The Germans had to:

1. to report regularly to the police, they did not have the right to arbitrarily change their place of residence;
2. wear a bandage with the letter "N" (German);
3. visit shops only at the time set for them;
4. their vehicles were confiscated: cars, motorcycles, bicycles;
5. they were prohibited from using public transport;
6. it is forbidden to have radios and telephones.

This is an incomplete list, from the unlisted I would like to mention two more points: the Germans were forbidden to speak German in public places and walk on the sidewalks! Read these points again, it is hard to believe that these "rules" were introduced in a European country.

Orders and restrictions in relation to the Germans were introduced by the local authorities, and one could consider them as excesses on the ground, attributed to the stupidity of certain zealous officials, but they were only an echo of the mood that reigned at the very top.

During 1945, the Czechoslovak government, headed by Edvard Beneš, adopted six decrees against Czech Germans, depriving them of agricultural land, citizenship and all property. Together with the Germans, the Hungarians, also classified as "enemies of the Czech and Slovak peoples", fell under the skating rink of repression. Let us remind you once again that the repressions were carried out on a national basis, against all Germans. German? Hence, guilty.

It was not without a simple infringement of the rights of the Germans. A wave of pogroms and extrajudicial killings swept across the country, here are only the most famous:

Brune's death march

On May 29, the Brno Zemsky National Committee (Brunn - German) adopted a decree on the eviction of Germans living in the city: women, children and men under the age of 16 and over 60 years old. This is not a typo, able-bodied men had to stay to eliminate the consequences of hostilities (i.e., as a free labor force). The evicted had the right to take with them only what they could carry in their hands. The deportees (about 20 thousand) were driven towards the Austrian border.

A camp was organized near the village of Pohorzhelice, where a "customs inspection" was carried out, i.e. the deportees were finally robbed. People died on the way, died in the camp. Today the Germans talk about 8,000 dead. The Czech side, without denying the very fact of the "Brunn death march", calls the number of 1690 victims.

Prerovsky execution

On the night of June 18-19, in the city of Prerov, a Czechoslovak counterintelligence unit stopped a train with German refugees. 265 people (71 men, 120 women and 74 children) were shot, their property was plundered. Lieutenant Pazur, who commanded the action, was subsequently arrested and convicted.

Ustycka massacre

On July 31, in the town of Usti nad Laboy, an explosion occurred at one of the military depots. 27 people were killed. A rumor spread throughout the city that the action was the work of the Werewolf (the German underground). The hunt for the Germans began in the city, since it was easy to find them due to the obligatory band with the letter "N". The captured were beaten, killed, thrown from the bridge in Laba, finishing off in the water with shots. Officially, 43 casualties were reported, today the Czechs talk about 80-100, the Germans insist on 220.

Allied representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the escalation of violence against the German population and in August the government began organizing deportations. On August 16, a decision was reached to evict the remaining Germans from the territory of Czechoslovakia. A special department for "resettlement" was organized in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the country was divided into districts, in each of which a person responsible for deportation was identified.

Throughout the country, marching columns were formed from the Germans. The fees were given from several hours to several minutes. Hundreds, thousands of people, accompanied by an armed escort, walked along the roads, rolling a cart with their belongings in front of them.

By December 1947, 2,170,000 people had been expelled from the country. Finally, in Czechoslovakia, the "German question" was closed in 1950. According to various sources (there are no exact figures), from 2.5 to 3 million people were deported. The country got rid of the German minority.

Poland

By the end of the war, over 4 million Germans lived in Poland. Most of them lived in the territories transferred to Poland in 1945, which were previously parts of the German regions of Saxony, Pomerania, Brandenburg, Silesia, West and East Prussia. Like Czech Germans, Polish ones turned into absolutely powerless stateless persons, absolutely defenseless against any arbitrariness.

The "Memorandum on the Legal Status of Germans on the Territory of Poland" drawn up by the Polish Ministry of Public Administration provided for the obligatory wearing of distinctive armbands by the Germans, restriction of freedom of movement, and the introduction of special identity cards.

On May 2, 1945, the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Poland, Boleslav Bierut, signed a decree according to which all property abandoned by the Germans would automatically pass into the hands of the Polish state. Polish settlers were drawn to the newly acquired lands. They regarded all German property as "abandoned" and occupied German houses and farms, evicting the owners into stables, pigsties, haylings and attics. Dissenters were quickly reminded that they were defeated and had no rights.

The policy of squeezing out the German population bore fruit, columns of refugees were drawn to the west. The German population was gradually replaced by the Polish one. (On July 5, 1945, the USSR transferred the city of Stettin to Poland, where 84 thousand Germans and 3.5 thousand Poles lived. By the end of 1946, 100 thousand Poles and 17 thousand Germans lived in the city.)

On September 13, 1946, a decree was signed on "the separation of persons of German nationality from the Polish people." If earlier the Germans were squeezed out of Poland, creating unbearable living conditions for them, now "clearing the territory of unwanted elements" has become a state program.

However, the large-scale deportation of the German population from Poland was constantly postponed. The fact is that in the summer of 1945, "labor camps" began to be created for the adult German population. The internees were used for forced labor and Poland for a long time did not want to give up gratuitous labor. According to the recollections of former prisoners, the conditions of detention in these camps were terrible, the mortality rate was very high. Only in 1949 did Poland decide to get rid of its Germans, and by the beginning of the 50s the issue was resolved.

Hungary and Yugoslavia

Hungary was Germany's ally in World War II. It was very profitable to be a German in Hungary, and everyone who had the foundation for this changed their surname to German and indicated German in their native language in the questionnaires. All these people fell under the decree adopted in December 1945 "on the deportation of traitors to the people." Their property was completely confiscated. According to various estimates, from 500 to 600 thousand people were deported.

Expelled ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia and Romania. In total, according to the German public organization "Union of the Exiled", which unites all the deported and their descendants (15 million members), after the end of the war from their homes were driven out, expelled from 12 to 14 million Germans. But even for those who made it to Vaterland, the nightmare did not end with crossing the border.

In Germany

The Germans deported from the countries of Eastern Europe were distributed throughout the lands of the country. In few regions, the share of returnees was less than 20% of the total local population. In some, it reached 45%. Today, getting to Germany and obtaining refugee status there is a cherished dream for many. The refugee receives an allowance and a roof over his head.

At the end of the 40s of the XX century, it was not like that. The country was devastated and destroyed. The cities lay in ruins. There was no work in the country, no place to live, no medicine and nothing to eat. Who were these refugees? Healthy men died on the fronts, and those who were lucky to survive were in prisoner of war camps. Women, old people, children, disabled people came. All of them were left to their own devices and each survived as best he could. Many, seeing no prospects for themselves, committed suicide. Those who were able to survive will remember this horror forever.

"Special" deportation

According to the chairman of the Union of the Exiled, Erika Steinbach, the deportation of the German population from the countries of Eastern Europe cost the German people 2 million lives. This was the largest and most terrible deportation of the 20th century. However, in Germany itself, the authorities prefer not to think about it. The list of deported peoples includes the Crimean Tatars, the peoples of the Caucasus and the Baltic states, the Volga Germans.

However, more than 10 million Germans deported after World War II are silent about the tragedy. The repeated attempts of the Union of the Expelled to create a museum and a monument to victims of deportation constantly encounter opposition from the authorities.

As for Poland and the Czech Republic, these countries still do not consider their actions illegal and are not going to apologize or repent. European deportation is not considered a crime.

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: "Secrets and Riddles" No. 9/2016