 |
| Flight and expulsion of Germans during and afterWorld War II |
|---|
| (demographic estimates) |
| Background |
| Wartime flight and evacuation |
| Post-war flight and expulsion |
| Later emigration |
| Other themes |
TheGerman–Soviet population transfers werepopulation transfers of ethnicGermans, ethnic Poles, and some ethnicEast Slavs that took place from 1939 to 1941. These transfers were part of the GermanHeim ins Reich policy in accordance with theGerman–Soviet Frontier Treaty betweenNazi Germany and theSoviet Union.
As a result ofNazi Germany's expansion, most German speakers in Europe were brought under one regime.[1] However, there were millions of ethnic Germans living outside German borders, mostly inCentral andEastern Europe, with the majority of these people beingthe descendants of German migrants to Russia. These Germans – referred to asVolksdeutsche – had lived outside of Germany for centuries, having settled in the lands to the east between the 12th and 18th centuries.
Adolf Hitler had a plan to attract these German-speaking people into Nazi Germany. However, he also believed that the 1937 borders and territories of Nazi Germany, i.e. before theAnschluss (annexation) ofAustria and theSudetenland, were inadequate to accommodate this large increase in population.
At this time, propaganda for moreLebensraum, or living space, grew fast.
With the largest number of ethnic Germans living in Russia, Hitler knew that he could not resettle all these people without the full cooperation ofJoseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. In late August 1939 (a week before the invasion ofPoland and the start ofWorld War II in Europe), Hitler sent his foreign ministerJoachim von Ribbentrop toMoscow to arrange a pact of non-aggression with the Soviet Union. This became known as theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler's aim was to avoid having to fight on two fronts upon the invasion of Poland and best facilitate its successful capture by partition, a crucial matter in the first weeks of the Second World War.
The real issues agreed upon in the pact were thepartition of territories in Central and Eastern Europe into German and Sovietspheres of influence and the reciprocal transfer of ethnic German and Russian people to their native countries.[2]
Hitler's plan was to invade western Poland (having assigned the eastern part to the Soviet Union in the pact) and then force all non-German people (mostly Polish citizens) out of their homes and either use them forforced labour or move them to theGeneral Government area. Once these territories were free of non-Germans, the population transfers could begin with ethnic Germans settling in the homes of the expropriated Polish.
The planned transfers were first announced to the ethnic Germans and the general public in October 1939.[3]
The Nazis set out to encourage the return of the ethnic Germans (calledVolksdeutsche by the Nazis), from the Baltic States by the use of propaganda. This included using scare tactics about the Soviet Union and led to tens of thousands of Germans leaving.[4] Those who left were not referred to as refugees, but were rather described asanswering the call of the Führer.[3] To encourage support of this program, later German propaganda films such asThe Red Terror[5] andFrisians in Peril[6] depicted the ethnic Germans as deeply persecuted in their native lands.
Families were transported by sea from the Baltic States and by train from other territories.[3] The German government arranged for the transfer of their furniture and personal belongings. All immovable property was sold, with the money being collected by the Nazis and not given back to the families.[7] This was an intentional act designed to disconnect the displaced people from their former homeland. The value of thereal estate left behind was to be compensated in cash and Polish property in occupied Poland.
The transported ethnic Germans were initially kept in camps for racial evaluation, to prevent intermixing with the native German population.[8] There they were divided into groups: A (Altreich), who were to be settled in Germany and allowed no farms or businesses (to allow for closer watch), S (Sonderfall), who were used as forced, and unpaid workers, and O (Ost-Fälle), the best classification, to be settled in the 'Eastern Wall'—the occupied regions to protect Germans from the East—and allowed independence.[9] This last group, after spending some time inrefugee camps in Germany, were eventually brought toPolish areas annexed by Nazi Germany and toZamość County, as decided by theGeneralplan Ost. The deportation orders required that enough Polish people be removed to provide space for every settler, e.g. if twenty Nazi, German bakers were sent, twenty Polish bakers were removed.[10] The settlers were often given Polish homes where the families had been evicted so quickly that half-eaten meals remained on the tables and small children had been taken from unmade beds.[11] Members of theHitler Youth and theLeague of German Girls were assigned the task of overseeing these evictions to ensure that the Polish left behind most of their belongings for the use of the settlers.[12] Once they were settled, the process ofGermanization was begun.[13]
Ethnic Germans were evacuated from territories occupied by the Soviets in 1940, notablyBessarabia and theBaltic States ofEstonia andLatvia, all of which traditionally had large ethnic German minorities. However, the majority of the Baltic Germans had already been resettled in late 1939, prior to the occupation of Estonia and Latvia by the Soviets in June 1940. In most cases, they were given farms taken from 110,000Polish who were expelled from the area.[14]
Ethnic Germans Resettled by Nazi Germany 1939–1944
| Ethnic Germans Resettled from | Resettled In | Resettled In | Resettled In | Resettled In | Resettled In | Resettled In | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany | General Government/Poland | Oder-Neisse region | Danzig | Austria | Czechoslovakia | Total | |
| Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union | 56,000 | 17,000 | 46,000 | — | 5,000 | — | 124,000 |
| Chełm &Narew in Poland | 29,000 | 11,000 | 2,000 | — | — | — | 42,000 |
| Baltic States | 87,000 | — | 40,000 | — | — | — | 127,000 |
| Soviet Union | 265,000 | 35,000 | 70,000 | — | — | — | 370,000 |
| Romania | 128,000 | 12,000 | 52,000 | — | 20,000 | — | 212,000 |
| Yugoslavia | 10,000 | — | 10,000 | — | 15,000 | — | 35,000 |
| Reichsdeutsche west of theOder–Neisse Line | — | 290,000 | 225,000 | 15,000 | — | 30,000 | 560,000 |
| Reichsdeutsche east of theOder–Neisse Line | — | 380,000 | — | — | — | 30,000 | 410,000 |
| Total | 575,000 | 745,000 | 445,000 | 15,000 | 40,000 | 60,000 | 1,880,000 |
Source: Dr. Gerhard Reichling, Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Teil 1, Bonn 1995, Pages 23–27
Reichling's figures do not include parts of the more than 200,000 ethnic Germans fromYugoslavia who fled in the autumn of 1944 and who were directed into theGeneral Government. It is not known how many actually arrived there.[citation needed]
