World War II evacuation and expulsion
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Expulsion of Germans after World War II
World War II evacuation and expulsion refers to organised by German state evacuation of the German citizens from the Eastern areas overrun by Red Army. Some sources put the number of victims on 2 milions. Main ares of evacuation were: East Prussia, General Government, Danzig-West Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, Wartheland. Other nations involved in evacuation were Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Belorussians, Ukrainians and Russians.
The Red Army had entered the easternmost tip of Prussia by August 29, 1944. The brutal massacres and rapes of civilians committed by the Soviet troops spread panic in the province and caused many to flee in long trecks, also via the baltic sea more than 2 million people were evacuated. Many people were also deported as slave labourers to Eastern parts of the Soviet Union and lost their lives there.
When the Red Army approached other parts of eastern Germany, many Germans fled, in defiance of Nazi orders. Individual German military men, such as Admiral DÃÂönitz, took it upon themself to individually aid the millions of refugees and expulsed, thereby limiting the loss to 'only' three million. Had they not aided the refugees and expulsed at the same time heavy Soviet assaults were overrunning the eastern German lands (since 1945 Western Poland), the death toll would have been many millions more. A large part of the population of East Prussia was murdered, men killed immediately and women tortured, raped, and then killed. At the same time US and British bombers heavily damaged cities and refugee camps. Caravans of fleeing people and hastily assembled private evacuation transports were often bombed, and evacuation ships were torpedoed by submarines. It was argued that this resembled exactly the hardships endured during WWII by other European nations attacked by Nazi Germany. Attempts were made by the Germans to demolish bridges in order to slow the Soviet advance. When the Red Army captured a city, everything valuable was taken as war loot. After that, the territory was further devastated by partisans and para-military looters accompanying the Soviets.
This pattern would in the following months repeat itself across entire East Prussia, and then spread to West Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia. Fleeing in panic, the citizens of Germany refugees trudged in great columns through the snow at -25ÃÂðC, while Soviet aircraft performed shellfire raids on them. Many were killed and sick had to be left dying on the road, while the survivors attempted to rescue what they could, carrying their possessions with them. Many women had to give birth in the open, leaving their newborns to die.
The evacuation had very seroius effect on demographics of the areas captured by Red Army. For example, former German provinces east of Oder-Neisse line were left with 4.5 million population (including 1 million Poles) out of pre-war 8.8 million. The result of German evacuation was sanctioned by Potsdam conference that called for further ethnic cleansing of Germans remaining outside the borders of Germany.
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