Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2019-06-04

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_and_expulsion_of_Germans_(1944%E2%80%931950)


00:03:31 1 Background
00:10:35 2 Reasons and justifications for the expulsions
00:13:05 2.1 Ethnically homogeneous nation-state
00:14:58 2.2 View of German minorities as potential fifth columns
00:15:10 2.2.1 Distrust and enmity
00:16:56 2.2.2 Preventing ethnic violence
00:18:11 2.3 Punishment for Nazi crimes
00:20:04 2.4 Soviet political considerations
00:21:01 3 Movements in the later stages of the war
00:21:13 3.1 Evacuation and flight to areas within Germany
00:24:41 3.2 Evacuation and flight to Denmark
00:27:18 4 Following Germany's defeat
00:31:25 4.1 Czechoslovakia
00:34:28 4.2 Hungary
00:40:12 4.3 Netherlands
00:41:28 4.4 Poland, including former German territories
00:53:24 4.5 Romania
00:57:02 4.6 Soviet Union and annexed territories
01:05:37 4.7 Yugoslavia
01:12:58 4.8 Kehl, Germany
01:13:32 4.9 Latin America
01:14:14 4.10 Palestine
01:15:07 5 Human losses
01:16:04 5.1 West German government estimates of the death toll
01:20:37 5.2 Discourse
01:21:31 5.2.1 Analysis by Rüdiger Overmans
01:25:25 5.2.2 Analysis by historian Ingo Haar
01:27:26 5.2.3 Studies in Poland
01:28:53 5.2.4 Study by Hans Henning Hahn and Eva Hahn
01:31:21 5.2.5 German and Czech commission of historians
01:32:00 5.2.6 Rebuttal by the German government
01:33:13 5.2.7 Research by Rudolph Rummel
01:33:58 5.2.8 iSchwarzbuch der Vertreibung/i by Heinz Nawratil
01:35:21 6 Condition of the expellees after arriving in post-war Germany
01:43:56 7 "War children" of German ancestry in Western and Northern Europe
01:44:54 8 Legacy of the expulsions
01:48:04 8.1 Status in international law
01:54:04 8.2 The Berlin Centre
01:55:15 8.3 Historiography
01:57:10 8.4 Political issues
01:58:25 8.5 Misuse of graphical materials



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SUMMARY
=======
During the later stages of World War II and the post-war period, German citizens and people of German ancestry fled or were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries. The idea to expel the ethnic Germans was supported by Winston Churchill and by the Polish and Czechoslovak exile governments in London at least since 1942. The expulsion of Germans formed also part of Stalin's plan, in concert with other Communist subordinates, to expel all Germans from their homes east of the Oder and lands which from May 1945 fell inside the Soviet occupation zones.  Many Germans were murdered or died in transit to the remaining territory of Germany and Austria.
Between 1944 and 1948 about 31 million people, including ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) as well as German citizens (Reichsdeutsche), were permanently or temporarily moved from Central and Eastern Europe. By 1950, a total of approximately 12 million Germans had fled or were expelled from east-central Europe into Allied-occupied Germany and Austria. The West German government put the total at 14.6 million, including 1 million ethnic Germans settled in territories conquered by Nazi Germany during World War II, ethnic German migrants to Germany after 1950 and the children born to expelled parents. The largest numbers came from preexisting German territories ceded to Poland, the Soviet Union (about 7 million) and from Czechoslovakia (about 3 million). 
The areas affected included the former eastern territories of Germany, which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after the war, as well as Germans who were living within the prewar borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Baltic States. The Nazis had made plans—only partially completed before the Nazi defeat—to remove many Slavic and Jewish people from Eastern Europe and settle the area with Germans.The death toll attributable to the flight and expulsions is disputed, with estimates ranging from 500,000-600,0 ...