I first became interested when an op-ed piece appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle about 5 years ago. It was called "Pomerania the Lost Empire". The Polish Consulate in San Francisco went balistic and printed a letter to the editor demanding that German-American and German tourists stay out of the area. He went on to say that nothing wrong had been done and that the Germans had stolen the area themselve in the first place.
Well, that got my attention. I heard conflicting stories from highly reliable sources in the academic community. I recognized the name Pomerania as the place my family was from and I started researching. I had an advantage as I had access to the University of California at Berkeley library. Also I had colleagues in Canada, America and Germany, especially Göttingen University and Humboldt University in Berlin I could talk to.
You have to be careful because Germany is a democrtic country, probably the most democratic in Europe, but German is not a free society. There is no 1st amedment in Germany, no free speech rights. You can be arrested and put in jail in Germany for telling the truth, if it is something that someone does not like. No secret, people in our group from Germany have said as much.
There is much literature available about the "vertreibung" but you must search it out.
You should start by reading "A Terrible Revenge, the Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans 1944-1950", 1994, by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, St. Martins Press, New York ISBN 0-312-12159-8 de Zayas is a Dr. Professor and taught at the very prestigious Göttingen University. This is a scholarly work from a professional not a sensational writing. Maps, pictures, statistics, annotations and references.
I also have a document that I got from the University Published by the Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims- Bonn. This is a government document, four pages of maps and statistics.
Population Census Before Flight & Expulsion of German Population: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Eastern territories of German Reich
| 9,575,000
| East Prussia
| 2,473,000
| East Pomerania
| 1,883,000
| East Brandenburg
| 642,000
| Silesia
| 4,577,000
| Czechoslavakia
| 3,477,000
| Baltic States
| 250,000
| Danzig
| 380,000
| Poland
| 1,371,000
| Hungary
| 623,000
| Yugoslavia
| 537,000
| Romania
| 786,000
| Subtotal*
| 16,999,000
| Gains (birth minus death)
| 659,000
| Total
| 17,658,000
| War losses 1939-45
| 1,100,000
| Losses from flight & expulsions
| 2,100,000
| Total Losses
| 3,211,000
| | *2 million in Soviet Union not included.
|
Dr. Albert Schweitzer in accepting the Nobel Peace prize in 1954 called this expulsion, authorized by the allies at Potsdam, one of the most tragic actions of this century.
Ronald D. Schulz
Moraga, CA, USA
