Overview and First-hand Account

Time period- 1945-1950

Later stages of WWII and after the war

German Nationals and ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe were forced to migrate from their homes.

Ended up in areas that would become post-war Germany and Austria.

12 million people were moved, some say 14

Largest movement of any single ethnic population in modern history

500,000 to 2 million deaths associated with flight and expulsions

3 stages of displacement

1944-1945: Spontaneous flight and evacuation of Germans due to the advancing red armies.

Second displacement: disorganized expulsion of Germans immediately following the German defeat

Third displacement- more organized following Potsdam Agreement

Potsdam Agreement between Truman, Churchill and Stalin.

The Agreement:

Redrew national borders

Approved orderly and humane expulsions of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

“If the conscience of men ever again becomes sensitive, these expulsions will be remembered to the undying shame of all who committed or conceived them…The Germans were expelled, not just with an absence of over-nice consideration, but with the very maximum of brutality.” – Victor Gollancz’sbook Our Threatened Values