page_title: Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)
section_title: Following Germany's defeat
hierarchical_section_title: Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) / Following Germany's defeat
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Potsdamer Konferenz, Stalin, Truman, Churchill Zentralbild Potsdamer (Berliner) Konferenz der führenden Staatsmänner der drei alliierten Mächte der UdSSR, Grossbritannien und der USA vom 17. Juli bis 2. August 1945 in Schloß Cecilienhof und Babelsberg. Ihr Ergebnis ist das Potsdamer Abkommen, das die völkerrechtlichen Grundfragen für den Aufbau eines friedlichen, demokratischen deutschen Staates und die Politik der Siegermächte gegenüber Deutschland festlegt. Unser Bild wurde während einer Konferenzpause in Potsdam gemacht und zeigt v.l.n.r.: Stalin, Truman und Churchill [Josef Stalin, Harry S. Truman, Winston Churchill] Abgebildete Personen: Churchill, Winston: Premierminister, Großbritannien (PND 118520776) Truman, Harry S.: Präsident, Demokratische Partei, USA (PND 118624210} Stalin, Josef W.: 1878-1953; Marschall, Vorsitzender des Ministerrates, Generalsekretär der KP, Sowjetunion (PND 118642499)
context_page_description: During the later stages of World War II and the post-war period, Germans and Volksdeutsche fled or were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries, including Czechoslovakia, and the former German provinces of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia, which were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union. In 1957, Walter Schlesinger discussed reasons for these actions, which reversed the effects of German eastward colonization and expansion: he concluded, "it was a devastating result of twelve years of National Socialist Eastern Policy." The idea to expel the Germans from the annexed territories was considered by Winston Churchill and by the Polish and Czechoslovak exile governments in London at least since 1942. In late 1944 the Czechoslovak exile government pressed the Allies to espouse the principle of German population transfers. On the other hand, Polish prime minister Tomasz Arciszewski, in an interview for The Sunday Times on 17 December 1944, supported the annexation of Warmia-Masuria, Opole Regency, north-east parts of Lower Silesia, and parts of Pomerania, but he opposed the idea of expulsion.
context_section_description: The Second World War ended in Europe with Germany's defeat in May 1945. By this time, all of Eastern and much of Central Europe was under Soviet occupation. This included most of the historical German settlement areas, as well as the Soviet occupation zone in eastern Germany.
  The Allies settled on the terms of occupation, the territorial truncation of Germany, and the expulsion of ethnic Germans from post-war Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary to the Allied Occupation Zones in the Potsdam Agreement, drafted during the Potsdam Conference between 17 July and 2 August 1945. Article XII of the agreement is concerned with the expulsions and reads:
  The Three Governments, having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. They agree that any transfers that take place should be effected in an orderly and humane manner.
  The agreement further called for equal distribution of the transferred Germans for resettlement among American, British, French and Soviet occupation zones comprising post–World War II Germany.
  Expulsions that took place before the Allies agreed on the terms at Potsdam are referred to as "wild" expulsions (Wilde Vertreibungen). They were conducted by military and civilian authorities in Soviet-occupied post-war Poland and Czechoslovakia in the first half of 1945.
  In Yugoslavia, the remaining Germans were not expelled; ethnic German villages were turned into internment camps where over 50,000 perished from deliberate starvation and direct murders by Yugoslav guards.
  In late 1945 the Allies requested a temporary halt to the expulsions, due to the refugee problems created by the expulsion of Germans. While expulsions from Czechoslovakia were temporarily slowed, this was not true in Poland and the former eastern territories of Germany. Sir Geoffrey Harrison, one of the drafters of the cited Potsdam article, stated that the "purpose of this article was not to encourage or legalize the expulsions, but rather to provide a basis for approaching the expelling states and requesting them to co-ordinate transfers with the Occupying Powers in Germany."
  After Potsdam, a series of expulsions of ethnic Germans occurred throughout the Soviet-controlled Eastern European countries. Property and materiel in the affected territory that had belonged to Germany or to Germans was confiscated; it was either transferred to the Soviet Union, nationalised, or redistributed among the citizens. Of the many post-war forced migrations, the largest was the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe, primarily from the territory of 1937 Czechoslovakia (which included the historically German-speaking area in the Sudeten mountains along the German-Czech-Polish border (Sudetenland)), and the territory that became post-war Poland. Poland's post-war borders were moved west to the Oder-Neisse line, deep into former German territory and within 80 kilometers of Berlin.
  Polish refugees from the Soviet Union were resettled in the former German territories that were awarded to Poland after the war. During and after the war, 2,208,000 Poles fled or were expelled from the eastern Polish regions that were annexed by the USSR; 1,652,000 of these refugees were resettled in the former German territories.
caption: Potsdam Conference: Joseph Stalin (second from left), Harry Truman (center), Winston Churchill (right)
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