Forgotten Voices

The Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe After World War II

Ulrich Merten

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781412843027
• eBook ISBN: 9781351519540
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

The news agency Reuters reported in 2009 that a mass grave containing 1,800 bodies was found in Malbork, Poland. Polish authorities suspected that they were German civilians that were killed by advancing Soviet forces. A Polish archeologist supervising the exhumation, said, "We are dealing with a mass grave of civilians, probably of German origin. The presence of children . . . suggests they were civilians."During World War II, the German Nazi regime committed great crimes against innocent civilian victims: Jews, Poles, Russians, Serbs, and other people of Central and Eastern Europe. At war's end, however, innocent German civilians in turn became victims of crimes against humanity. Forgotten Voices lets these victims of ethnic cleansing tell their story in their own words, so that they and what they endured are not forgotten. This volume is an important supplement to the voices of victims of totalitarianism and has been written in order to keep the historical record clear.The root cause of this tragedy was ultimately the Nazi German regime. As a leading German historian, Hans-Ulrich Wehler has noted, "Germany should avoid creating a cult of victimization, and thus forgetting Auschwitz and the mass killing of Russians." Ulrich Merten argues that applying collective punishment to an entire people is a crime against humanity. He concludes that this should also be recognized as a European catastrophe, not only a German one, because of its magnitude and the broad violation of human rights that occurred on European soil.Supplementary maps and pictures are available online at http://www.forgottenvoices.net

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Index

A

1. Adenauer, Konrad (German Chancellor), 286, 288
2. Alba Julia
   1. See Declaration of Karlsburg
3. Allied Control Commission, 79, 191–192
4. Allied Control Council, 76, 162–163
5. Allied Zones of Occupation of Germany, xii, 10–11, 20, 162, 170
6. Allies, xiii
   1. Chetniks and Tito, 214
   2. Curzon Line, 4
   3. and acceptance of refugees, 10–11
   4. effects of bombing, 30
   5. expulsion of inhabitants of Sudetenland, 112, 146
   6. Polish frontier, 83
   7. postwar political objective, 286
   8. Potsdam Conference, 64, 162
7. Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Yugoslavia
   1. See AVNOJ
8. Antonescu, Ion (General, 1882–1946), 247–249, 253–254
9. Äôs Courts
   1. See Czech Extraordinary People’s
   2. Courts
10. Arrow Cross Party, 185
11. Association of German Friendship Circles in Poland, 80
12. Auschwitz-Birkenau, xiv, xx, 9, 65, 85–86, 138–139, 302, 307
13. Aussig (Usti nad Labem), Czechoslovakia, 107, 125–128
14. Austria, xii, 2–4
    1. assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 138
    2. cession of Burgenland to, 175
    3. expulsion of Germans from Hungary to, 199–200, 208
    4. German escapes to, 208
    5. German evacuation to, 102
    6. German expulsion to, 147, 152, 160– 170
    7. Habsburg, 87
    8. 1910 census, 95
15. Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, 210
16. Austro-Hungarian Empire, 2, 95–98,
17. Autochthonous peoples, 76, 80, 285
    1. See also Kashubians in West Prussia and Pomerania
    2. Masurians in East Prussia
18. AVNOJ (Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Yu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• I Background
• II The Flight and Expulsion of the German Population from East of the Oder-Neisse Line (Poland)
• The Soviet Attack on East Germany and the Flight of the Civilian Population
• The Return of the German Population to Their Homes East of the Oder-Neisse Line
• Deportation of German Civilians as Forced Labor to the Soviet Union
• The Expulsion of the German Population from East of the Oder-Neisse Line
• The Polish Government’s Justification for the Expulsion of the German Population
• III The Expulsion of the Ethnic German Population from the Former Czechoslovakia
• IV The Expulsion of the Ethnic German Population from Hungary
• V The Flight, Incarceration, and Expulsion of Ethnic Germans from the Former Republic of Yugoslavia
• VI The Fate of the Ethnic German Minority in Romania
• VII Conclusion: Integration and Reconciliation
• Integration of Refugees and Expellees into German Society
• Reconciliation with East European Nations
• Relations with Romania and the Former Yugoslavia
• Concluding Remarks
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index