Flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland during and after World War II
Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after World War II |
(demographic estimates) |
Background |
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|
Wartime flight and evacuation |
Post-war flight and expulsion |
Later emigration |
Other themes |
The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of
The German population east of Oder-Neisse was estimated at over 11 million in early 1945.
Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Soviet-backed communist military authorities in Poland[10] even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"),[11] to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous Poland[12] as envisioned by the Polish communists.[13][14] Between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected.[4] Contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the so-called Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the lands initially faced a severe population shortage.[15]
By early 1946, 932,000 people had been "verified" as having Polish nationality. In the February 1946 census, 2,288,000 persons were listed as Germans and 417,400 became subject to verification aiming at the establishment of nationality.
The attitude of Polish civilians, many of whom
Background
Historical background
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 Germany and the Soviet Union according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This was followed by population exchanges, and included Baltic Germans who were settled to occupied Poland.
The Nazis'
German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland participated in wartime German activities, starting with the invasion of Poland.
During World War II, expulsions were initiated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The Germans
Allied decisions: Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences
Representatives of the Polish Government were not present at any of those conferences and felt betrayed by their western Allies who decided about future Polish borders behind their backs.[citation needed]
Following 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.[33] 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.[21][34] 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.[35] 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."[36] Upon gaining control of these lands, the Soviet and Polish-Communist authorities started to expel the German population.[37]
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.[38] 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.[39] 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.[39] 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."[40] To the Soviets, reparations were more important than boundaries, and Stalin might have given up on 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.[41]
Polish attitudes
With German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland, there was an expressed fear of disloyalty of Germans in
In 1941, Władysław Sikorski of the Polish government-in-exile insisted on driving "the German horde (...) back far [westward]",[42] while in 1942 memoranda he expressed concern about Poland acquiring Lower Silesia, populated with "fanatically anti-Polish Germans".[43][44] 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.[44] 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.[44]
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.[45] However, pressed by Churchill, he was forced to accept the Tehran decision, which was the direct cause of his resignation from his post.[46] The next Polish Prime Minister, Tomasz Arciszewski claimed that Poland did not "want neither Breslau nor Stettin".[47]
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. Poles were classified as sub-humans (Untermenschen) by the Nazis, with their ultimate fate being slavery and extermination, while Germans occupied position of privileged "Uebermenschen" that were to rule over Poles and other nations; 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 Władysław Gomułka, but also as a revolutionary act, freeing the Poles of exploitation by a German middle and upper class.[48]
In general the Polish historiography views the expulsion of Germans as justified and correct, even when describing it as a "lesser evil".[49]
Flight and evacuation following the Red Army's advance
The majority of German citizens and ethnic Germans who left the area of post-war Poland fled or were evacuated before the arrival of Polish authorities.
With the Soviet
The 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.
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
The Nazi German Ministry for Inner Affairs passed a decree on 14 March 1945 allowing abortion to women raped by Soviet soldiers.[65]
Behind the frontline
Many 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.[66]
The Polish courier
Deportation to the Soviet Union
On February 6, 1945, Soviet
Internment and forced labor in Poland
Ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland, who collaborated with the German occupiers, were considered "traitors of the nation" and sentenced to forced labor.
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."[80]
Among the interned were also German
Pre-Potsdam "wild" expulsions (May – July 1945)
In 1945, the territories east of the Oder-Neisse line (
Germans were defined as either
Before June 1, 1945, some 400,000 Germans 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.[88] 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[48]
Expulsions following the Potsdam Conference
After the Potsdam Conference, Poland was officially in charge of the territories east of the Oder–Neisse line. Despite the fact that article 12 of the 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.[89]
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 lack of equipment for the giant task of expelling Germans and resettling Poles in an area devastated by war.[90] Furthermore, rivalry occurred between the Soviet occupation forces and the newly installed Polish administration, a phenomenon dubbed dwuwladza (double administration).[91] The Soviets kept trains and German workmen regardless of the Polish ambitions and plans.[90]
There was a simultaneous unorganized resettling of displaced and homeless Poles. Polish settlers,
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 (Ost-Arbeiter), coming back from the west.
The 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.[90] The "organized transfer" as agreed at the Potsdam Conference began in early 1946. Conditions for expellees improved, yet due to the lack of heating facilities, the cold winters of both 1945/46 and 1946/47 continued to claim many lives.[92] On September 13, 1946 President Bierut signed a decree on "the exclusion of persons of German nationality from the Polish National Community"[citation needed] The major evictions were completed in 1946, although another 500,000 Germans arrived in the Soviet Zone from Poland in 1947. An unknown number remained;[97] a small German minority continues to reside in Upper Silesia and Masuria.
Execution of deportation
The regions were typically evacuated of its population village by village. On short notice, Germans were ordered to assemble in the local market square to march on to a relocation camp (obozy tranzytowe), allowed to take with them as much as they could carry. Deportation of Germans was by trains to the west that in reverse direction brought Polish displaced persons such as former forced laborers. Trains were sealed to prevent flight of the deported and often took days or even weeks, during which many of the old and young people died. The condition of the deported as they arrived in the British occupation zone impelled the British to raise a formal protest on April 11, 1946.[98]
"Autochthons"
Close to three million residents of Upper Silesia (
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.[100] In April 1945, the Upper Silesian voivode declared the fulfillment of only one of these requirements to be sufficient.[100] In Masuria, a Polish last name or a Polish-speaking ancestor was sufficient.[101] On the other hand, in areas like Lower Silesia and the province of Pomerania, verification was handled much more strictly.[100] Of the 1,104,134 "verified autochthons" in the census of 1950, close to 900,000 were natives of Upper Silesia and Masuria.[102]
To the west of Cassubia in the area of Slovincian settlement, some residents were expelled along with the German population, but some remained.[103] In the 1950s, mainly in the village of Kluki (formerly Klucken), a few elderly people still remembered fragments of Slovincian.[103]
Some non-German residents of the Recovered Territories and the Kaliningrad Oblast who were not of Slavic descent, such as the
The word "autochthon", introduced by the Polish government in 1945 for propaganda purposes,[99] is today sometimes considered an offensive remark and direct naming as Kashubians, Silesians, Slovincians, and Masurians is preferred to avoid offending the people described.[104]
Origin of the post-war population according to 1950 census
During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their place of residence was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. Many areas located near the pre-war German border were resettled by people from neighbouring borderland areas of pre-war Poland. For example, Kashubians from the
Region (within 1939 borders): | West Upper Silesia | Lower Silesia | East Brandenburg | West Pomerania | Free City Danzig | South East Prussia | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Autochthons (1939 DE/FCD citizens) | 789,716 | 120,885 | 14,809 | 70,209 | 35,311 | 134,702 | 1,165,632 |
Polish expellees from Kresy (USSR) | 232,785 | 696,739 | 187,298 | 250,091 | 55,599 | 172,480 | 1,594,992 |
Poles from abroad except the USSR | 24,772 | 91,395 | 10,943 | 18,607 | 2,213 | 5,734 | 153,664 |
Resettlers from the City of Warsaw
|
11,333 | 61,862 | 8,600 | 37,285 | 19,322 | 22,418 | 160,820 |
From Warsaw region (Masovia) | 7,019 | 69,120 | 16,926 | 73,936 | 22,574 | 158,953 | 348,528 |
From Białystok region and Sudovia | 2,229 | 23,515 | 3,772 | 16,081 | 7,638 | 102,634 | 155,869 |
From pre-war Polish Pomerania | 5,444 | 54,564 | 19,191 | 145,854 | 72,847 | 83,921 | 381,821 |
Resettlers from Poznań region
|
8,936 | 172,163 | 88,427 | 81,215 | 10,371 | 7,371 | 368,483 |
Katowice region ( East Upper Silesia )
|
91,011 | 66,362 | 4,725 | 11,869 | 2,982 | 2,536 | 179,485 |
Resettlers from the City of Łódź | 1,250 | 16,483 | 2,377 | 8,344 | 2,850 | 1,666 | 32,970 |
Resettlers from Łódź region | 13,046 | 96,185 | 22,954 | 76,128 | 7,465 | 6,919 | 222,697 |
Resettlers from Kielce region | 16,707 | 141,748 | 14,203 | 78,340 | 16,252 | 20,878 | 288,128 |
Resettlers from Lublin region | 7,600 | 70,622 | 19,250 | 81,167 | 19,002 | 60,313 | 257,954 |
Resettlers from Kraków region | 60,987 | 156,920 | 12,587 | 18,237 | 5,278 | 5,515 | 259,524 |
Resettlers from Rzeszów region
|
23,577 | 110,188 | 13,147 | 57,965 | 6,200 | 47,626 | 258,703 |
place of residence in 1939 unknown | 36,834 | 26,586 | 5,720 | 17,891 | 6,559 | 13,629 | 107,219 |
Total pop. in December 1950 | 1,333,246 | 1,975,337 | 444,929 | 1,043,219 | 292,463 | 847,295 | 5,936,489 |
Rehabilitation of Volksdeutsche
During the war the population of the annexed areas of Poland was classified by the Nazis in different categories according to their "Germanness" in the Deutsche Volksliste. While most of the Volksdeutsche population of pre-war Poland fled or was expelled, some were rehabilitated and offered their pre-war Polish citizenship back.[106] While those who had signed Volksliste category "I" were expelled, rehabilitation was offered to people who had been subject to forced labour before, spoke Polish and were rated as not constituting a threat.[106] Once granted Polish citizenship, they were encouraged to Polonize their names, or to restore their original Polish names if they had been Germanized during the war.[106] Numbers of how many were offered to stay in Poland as Poles and eventually did are not available,[106] but it is assumed that the vast majority had rather opted and left for Germany by 1960.[106] 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 exist.[106]
Exempted 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 as second class citizens, especially 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 1950–52.[20] The other ones retained were not allowed to leave before 1956; these measures also included the families of the retained or the parts thereof remaining with them.[20] About 250,000 had been issued East German passports in the 1950s, ending their former statelessness.[107] Many were concentrated in the areas of Wrocław (former Breslau)[107] Wałbrzych (former Waldenburg),[107][108] and Legnica (former Liegnitz),[107] all in Lower Silesia, and in Koszalin (former Köslin)[107] in Pomerania. How many actually left is uncertain, though it is generally assumed that the majority emigrated.[107] The German society of Wałbrzych has maintained a continuous existence since 1957.[107]
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[109] 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)[110]
- Former slave workers of Nazi Germany: 2.8 million[111] Poles that had been freed from forced labor in Nazi Germany (up to two millions)[112][113]
- Opole Provinceand Lower Silesia. This migratory movement of Polish "Repatriants" was depicted in a "Boża podszewka II" TV series.
- Poles coming from Western and Southern Europe, e.g. French miners[115] and farmers from Prnjavor, Bosnia and Herzegovina region
- Non-Poles forcefully resettled during Operation Vistula in 1947. Large numbers of Ukrainians were forced to move from south eastern Poland under a 1947 Polish government operation, termed Operation Vistula, which aimed at breaking up, 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[116] 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 Wrocław, Szczecin, Dzierżoniów and Wałbrzych.[117] However, most of them later left Poland.
- 10,000–15,000 Greeks and Slavomacedonians — Refugees of the Greek Civil War
Formal end of the expulsions
After 1 January 1948, Germans were primarily shipped to the
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.[118]
Demographic estimates
According to the
According to S. Banasiak, 3,109,900 Germans were expelled to the Soviet and British
Tomasz Kamusella cites estimates of 7 million expelled during both "wild" and "legal" expulsions from the Recovered Territories (Deutsche Ostgebiete) until 1948. The number is based on the 1946 census in which citizens were asked specifically if they were Polish or German. The expelled included German autochthons stripped of Polish citizenship and an additional 700,000 members of the German minority from areas of pre-war Poland.[20] Kamusella states that in 1944-1945, about 5 million had fled from the former eastern territories of Germany, and 500,000 from the Polish lands incorporated into the Third Reich, whereas in 1946-1948, 3.325 million were expelled from the former German territories, (as well as 3 million from Czechoslovakia, and 250,000 from Hungary), emphasizing these numbers are not exhaustive.[70]
Overy cites approximate totals of those evacuated, migrated, or expelled between 1944 and 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.[citation needed]
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.[4]
Legacy
Post-war
In Communist Poland, the expulsions were not to be questioned, and ideologically defended by propaganda.[121] The expulsions were perceived by many Poles as just with respect to the former German Nazi policies, injustices were balanced off with the injustices during the contemporary "repatriation" of Poles.[121] Except for the use in official anti-German propaganda, the expulsions became a taboo in Polish politics, public, and education for decades.[121] German expellee organizations who did not accept the post-war territorial and population changes fueled Communist propaganda dismissing them as "far-right revanchists".[122]
In the first years after the war, the
According to Philipp Ther, pre-1989 Polish historiography has in general either underestimated or concealed the role of force during the expulsions.[124] 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".[124]
Post-communist (1989–present)
The Polish role in the expulsions could not be contemplated in Poland until the end of the Cold War.[75]
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.[122] 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".[125] Polish and joint German-Polish scholarly 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.[122]
In 1995, Polish foreign minister
A 1993 novel Summer of Dead Dreams written by Harry Thürk – a German author who left Upper Silesia annexed by Poland shortly after the war had ended – contained graphic depictions of the treatment of Germans by Soviets and Poles in Thürk's hometown of Prudnik. It depicted the maltreatment of Germans while also acknowledging German guilt, as well as Polish animosity toward Germans and, in specific instances, friendships between Poles and Germans despite the circumstances. Thürk's novel, when serialized in Polish translation by the Tygodnik Prudnicki ("Prudnik Weekly") magazine, was met with criticism from some Polish residents of Prudnik, but also with praise, because it revealed to many local citizens that there had been a post-war German ghetto in the town and addressed the tensions between Poles and Soviets in post-war Poland. The serialization was followed by an exhibition on Thürk's life in Prudnik's town museum.[126]
The Polish government made some efforts to sue Germany for damages inflicted on Poland during World War II in return.[127] The advancing German project of erecting a Centre Against Expulsions depicting the fate of 20th-century European expellees (mostly, but not only, German) is controversial in Poland, and was described by former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński as "equating the victims with the persecutors".[128]
See also
- German minority in Poland
- Polish population transfers (1944–46)
- World War II evacuation and expulsion
- Territorial evolution of Germany
- Territorial evolution of Poland
Notes
- ^ Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958 Pages 38 and 45
- ISBN 3-88557-046-7Page 53
- ^ "Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa". In Verbindung mit A. Diestelkamp [et al.] bearb. von T. Schieder Bonn, Hrsg. vom Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, 1953 pages 78 and 155
- ^ ISBN 0-7391-1607-X [1]
- ISBN 3-88557-067-X. Pages 23–41
- ISBN 963-9241-68-7Pages 286-293
- ^ a b c d Kamusella 2004, p. 28.
- ^ Ludność Polski w XX wieku Andrzej Gawryszewski. Warszawa : Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN, 2005. Pages 455-460 and page 466
- ISBN 9780880331746.
- ISBN 3-525-35790-7: From June until mid July, Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east of the rivers [Oder–Neisse line]
- ^ Kamusella 2004, p. 27.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-796-2
- ^ 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."
- ^ Kamusella 2004, p. 26.
- ^ R. M. Douglas. Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press. p. 261.
- ^ "Ludność Polski w XX wieku / Andrzej Gawryszewski. Warszawa : Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN, 2005. Page 312 and Pages 452 to 466". Archived from the original on 2010-11-06. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
- ^ The quality of the 1946 census data was very low
- ^ Pitor Eberhardt in POLITICAL MIGRATIONS IN POLAND 1939-1948 pages 44–45
- ^ Polski w XX wieku / Andrzej Gawryszewski. Warszawa : Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN, 2005. Page 312[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d Kamusella 2004, p. 29.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-796-2
- ^ ISBN 0-8131-0977-9
- ^ ISBN 83-89078-80-5.
- ^ Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa. Band 1 In Verbindung mit A. Diestelkamp [et al.] bearb. von T. Schieder Bonn, Hrsg. vom Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, 1953 pages 160
- ISBN 3-88557-067-X. Page
- ^ "^ Ingo Haar, Straty zwiazane z wypedzeniami: stan badañ, problemy, perspektywy. Polish Diplomatic Review. 2007, nr 5 (39) Page 18" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-03-02. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
- ISBN 978-3-531-90653-9
- ^ a b Wojciech Roszkowski: "Historia Polski 1914-1997" Warsaw 1998 PWNW page 171
- ^ a b c d "Polacy - wysiedleni, wypędzeni i wyrugowani przez III Rzeszę", Maria Wardzyńska, Warsaw 2004".
- ISBN 83-01-14179-4
- ^ "Project InPosterum: Poland WWII Casualties". www.projectinposterum.org. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
- ^ a b Piotr Eberhardt, Political Migrations in Poland, 1939-1948, Warsaw 2006, p.22
- ISBN 3-8258-9340-5
- ISBN 3-8258-9340-5
- ^ Alfred M. De Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, p.85
- ISBN 3-8258-9340-5
- ^ ISBN 978-3-525-35790-3: 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
- ISBN 0-674-00994-0, p.123
- ^ Viktoria Vierheller, "Polen und die Deutschland Frage 1939-1949", 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
- ^ Przyłączenie Śląska Opolskiego do Polski (1945-1948), Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, Warszawa 1996 Prof. dr hab. Piotr Madajczyk [2] Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-1-107-67148-5.
- ISBN 3-8334-4115-1
- ISBN 3-88680-272-8: reference confirming this for Pomerania
- ISBN 3-437-27380-9: eyewitness account of February radio broadcasts in East Prussia: "Ostpreußen darf nicht verloren gehen. Es besteht keine Veranlassung, die Bevölkerung zu evakuieren".
- ISBN 3-8334-4115-1: confirming this for East Prussia
- ISBN 1-57607-796-9
- ISBN 9780765618337.
- ^ 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
- ISBN 3-8258-4278-9, p.256: 70,000 refugees in Swinemünde on 12 March 1945
- ISBN 3-7701-5926-8
- ISBN 3-89905-491-1
- ISBN 3-88680-272-8
- ^ Habbe, Christian. "Schrecklicher Exodus," Der 2. Weltkrieg: Wendepunkt der deutschen Geschichte. Munich: Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag (2007), 340.
- ^ Sienkiewicz, Witold Hryciuk, Grzegorz; Wysiedlenia, wypędzenia i ucieczki 1939-1959 : atlas ziem Polski : Polacy, Żydzi, Niemcy, Ukraińcy Warszawa : Demart, 2008. Page 170 Określa je wielkosciami między 600tys. a 1.2 mln zmarłych i zabitych. Głowną przyczyną zgonów było zimno, stres i bombardowania.
- ISBN 3-525-36380-X
- ^ Ulf Brunnbauer, Michael G. Esch, Holm Sundhaussen, Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung, p.85
- ISBN 978-1-56000-927-6.
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.
- ^ ISBN 963-9241-68-7Pages 286-293
- ^ a b Kurt W. Böhme - Gesucht wird - Die dramtische Geschichte des Suchdienstes Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1965 Page 274
- ^ a b Kamusella 2004, p. 22.
- ^ Dr. Gerhard Reichling, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1986 (revised edition 1995). Pages 33
- ISBN 3-88557-067-X. Page 36
- ^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.131
- ^ Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130, p.131
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7391-1607-4.
- ^ a b c Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred, p.130
- ISBN 3-88557-067-X. Page 40
- ^ Sienkiewicz, Witold Hryciuk, Grzegorz; Wysiedlenia, wypędzenia i ucieczki 1939-1959 : atlas ziem Polski : Polacy, Żydzi, Niemcy, Ukraińcy Warszawa : Demart, 2008. Page 187 Efektem były liczne zgony, których nie można dokładnie określic z powodu brak statystyk lub ich fałszowania. Okresowo mogly one sięgać kilkudziesięciu procent osadzonych. Szacunki mówią o 200-250 tys internowanych Niemców i ludności rodzimej, a czego zginąć moglo od 15 do aż 60tys. osób.
- ^ Zygmunt Woźniczka, "Obóz pracy w Świętochłowicach," (Dzieje Najnowsze, Rocznik, 31, No. 4, 1999). Woźniczka apparently made his estimate of a 20-50% death rate based on the 1974 German Federal Archives report
- ISBN 0-7100-8468-4pp. 124ff.
- ISBN 978-3-486-56236-1
- ISBN 978-3-929759-62-4. [3]
- ^ ISBN 978-3-486-56236-1
- ^ Naimark, The Russians ..., p. 75 reference 31
- ISBN 978-3-525-35790-3
- ISBN 978-3-525-35790-3
- ISBN 978-3-8258-8033-0
- ISBN 978-3-8258-8033-0
- ^ 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
- ISBN 3-8258-8033-8
- ISBN 0-313-32359-3.
- ^ Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach. Niederschlesien 1942 bis 1949 (in German). pp. 139–141.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-691-14024-7.
- ^ ISBN 3-525-35790-7
- ISBN 3-412-12000-6.
- ISBN 3-525-35790-7
- ^ ISBN 0-415-28078-8
- ^ Przyłączenie Śląska Opolskiego do Polski (1945-1948), Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, Warszawa 1996 Prof. dr hab. Piotr Madajczyk [4] Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Kosiński, Leszek (1960). "Pochodzenie terytorialne ludności Ziem Zachodnich w 1950 r. [Territorial origins of inhabitants of the Western Lands in year 1950]" (PDF). Dokumentacja Geograficzna (in Polish). 2. Warsaw: PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences), Institute of Geography: Tabela 1 (data by county) – via Repozytorium Cyfrowe Instytutów Naukowych.
- ^ ISBN 1-57181-504-X
- ^ ISBN 1-57181-504-X
- ISBN 3-11-005977-0
- ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4) gives 4.55 million within the first years
- ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4): 2.8 million of 4.55 million within the first years
- ^ A. Paczkowski, Historia Powszechna/Historia Polski, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2008, tom 16, p. 28
- ^ a b Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwartz, Geglückte Integration?, p142
- ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4): 1.5 million of 4.55 million within the first years
- ISBN 978-0-415-23885-4): 1.55 million of 4.55 million within the first years
- ^ Wlaźlak, Tadeusz (12 May 2006). "Przemówienie Pana Tadeusza Wlaźlaka, Burmistrza Szczawna-Zdroju, w dniu 12 maja 2006 roku w Teatrze Zdrojowym w Szczawnie-Zdroju, z okazji 60-tej rocznicy przyjazdu pierwszych reemigrantów z Francji do Wałbrzycha i okolic" [Speech by Mr. Tadeusz Wlaźlak, the Mayor of Szczawno-Zdrój, on 12 May 2006 at the Zdrojowy Theater in Szczawno-Zdrój, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the arrival of the first re-emigrants from France to Wałbrzych and the surrounding area.]. Alliance Française w Wałbrzychu (in Polish). Archived from the original on 3 September 2011. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ Thum, p.129
- ISBN 978-0-7146-3413-5
- ^ ISBN 3-486-58002-7
- ^ ISBN 3-486-58002-7
- ^ ISBN 3-486-58002-7
- ^ ISBN 0-7391-1607-X [5]
- ^ ISBN 0-7391-1607-X
- ^ Kraft, Claudia. "Debates on the Expulsion of Germans in Poland since 1945". Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ ISBN 3-525-35790-7
- ^ ISBN 0-7391-1607-X
- ISBN 978-1-57113-535-3.
- ISBN 0-7391-1607-X
- ^ War Compensation Claims Still Plague Polish-German Ties, Deutsche Welle, 30.10.2006
Sources
- Baziur, Grzegorz (2003). "Armia Czerwona na Pomorzu Gdańskim 1945-1947" (Red Army in Gdańsk Pomerania 1945-1947). Warszawa: ISBN 83-89078-19-8.
- Douglas, R.M.: Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-300-16660-6.
- Esch, Michael G.; Sundhaussen, Holm (2006), Brunnbauer, Ulf (ed.), "Geschichte: Forschung und Wissenschaft" (Google books preview), Definitionsmacht, Utopie, Vergeltung: "Ethnische Säuberungen" im östlichen Europa des 20. Jahrhunderts (in German), LIT Verlag Münster, p. 301, ISBN 3-8258-8033-8, retrieved August 18, 2012
- Gormly, James L. From Potsdam to the Cold War. Big Three Diplomacy 1945-1947. Scholarly Resources, Delaware, 1990 (ISBN 0-8420-2334-8)
- 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: ISBN 83-89078-80-5.
- Kamusella, Tomasz (2004), "The Expulsion of the Population Categorized as 'Germans' from the Post-1945 Poland" (PDF direct download, 2.52 MB), Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees (ed.), The Expulsion of the 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War, European University Institute, Florence. Department of History and Civilization, pp. 21–30, EUI Working Paper HEC No. 2004/1, retrieved August 17, 2012
- Naimark, Norman m.: Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth - Century Europe. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2001.
- Naimark, Norman M. The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949. Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-674-78405-7
- Nitschke, Bernadetta (2003). Vertreibung und Aussiedlung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus Polen 1945 bis 1949. Munich: Oldenbourg.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Podlasek, Maria (1995). Wypędzenie Niemców z terenów na wschód od Odry i Nysy Łużyckiej (in Polish). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Polsko - Niemieckie. ISBN 83-86653-00-0.
- Ther, Philipp (1998). Deutsche und polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/DDR und in Polen 1945-1956 (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-35790-7.
- ISBN 3-88680-795-9.
- „Unsere Heimat ist uns ein fremdes Land geworden..." Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße 1945-1950. Dokumente aus polnischen Archiven. Band 1: Zentrale Behörden, Wojewodschaft Allenstein
- Urban, Thomas (2004). Der Verlust. Die Vertreibung der Deutschen und Polen im 20. Jahrhundert (in German). München: C. H. Beck Verlag. ISBN 3-406-52172-X.
- ISBN 0-8032-4910-1
- Alfred M. de Zayas: Die deutschen Vertriebenen. Keine Täter sondern Opfer. Ares, Graz, 2006. ISBN 3-902475-15-3.
- Alfred M. de Zayas: Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht. Universitas, München, 2001. ISBN 3-8004-1416-3.
- ISBN 1-4039-7308-3
- Zybura, Marek (2004). "Niemcy w Polsce" (Germans in Poland). Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie. ISBN 83-7384-171-7.