Germans After The War. Ethnically Cleansed From Other Countries

[MikeFrank]

I think it said in the documentary that 25% of current Germans are the people or their descendants who were ethnically cleansed from Eastern Europe..

[JFKvsNixon]

After WW2 one of the Soviets main aims was to secure their western border against another possible invasion from Germany so they insisted on moving Poland a couple of hundred of miles to the west to create a larger buffer zone.

 

This meant that Germany lost a huge amount of land, on top of losing the East Prussia enclave.

 

You have to remember the suffering that Germany had given to Russia during the course of the two world wars and as victors they were determined not to allow it ever to happen again, hence the territorial change.

 

I am also sure that there was also an aim to crush the Prussian military culture that was prevalent in Germany prior to them losing WW2.

[SqueakyPete]

Looks interesting,will give it a watch later.

Its certainly a part of the war they don't teach at school,but maybe should do.

[LeMaquis]

I am also sure that there was also an aim to crush the Prussian military culture that was prevalent in Germany prior to them losing WW2.

 

That was reflected in what the allies did to Germany after the war - decentralisation, denazification, democratisation and demilitarisation. The Cold War began after just a few years and the emphasis from then on was anti-Soviet. The rebuilding of Germany and fate of its citizens took place in the shadow of the Cold War where Germany was the front line.

 

Stalin ethnically cleansed Poland, Czechoslovakia and other buffer Soviet states during and after the war. Millions of Germans had lived outside Germany in those countries down the years. Kafka and Grass were two of the more famous.

 

West Germany's citizenship was based on ius sanguinis, the right to belong to a state through a bloodline. This was adopted so that Germans fleeing post-war Soviet states were given a home in West Germany.

[tzijlstra]

A great-uncle of mine was forced to fight for the Wehrmacht in World War 2, despite being Dutch. When he returned the family was ostricised and worse. The winners write history.

[medusa]

I have this recorded to watch later, but I'm not planning on watching it for entertainment, more for learning and understanding.

 

I'm under no illusions about the sort of mentality that existed in much of Europe during the post war years. My great aunt married an English man (with no German links at all) but who was named Herman. Their house was burned down twice in the post war years and the emergency services were not in the least bit interested in investigating the arson or their loss of belongings.

[L00b]

A great-uncle of mine was forced to fight for the Wehrmacht in World War 2, despite being Dutch. When he returned the family was ostricised and worse. The winners write history.

Snap. Those who weren't, didn't know their luck at the time, nor for a long time later.

 

For mine it was worse, he was force-conscripted into the SS Das Reich division, then sent straight to the eastern Front. Either he went in, or his family was deported. That simple. Same story for about a hundred thousand like him.

 

He didn't come back until 1952, with other malgres-nous freed from Tambov. Shell of a man. I barely remember him because I didn't ever see much of him (odd family gatherings, Easter time) and he passed when I was still very young, but I remember well enough thinking that there was a man who had seen and been to hell, and looked it. Well, at least he made it back. Over 50,000 fellow Alsatians in the exact same force-conscripted position (most of them into SS divisions, and none into the Charlemagne division made of volunteer French) never did.

 

You don't ever hear much about them in France, or about the Alsatians and Mosellans who refused to be naturalised German in September 1940 and were forcibly kicked out and dispossessed of everything by the Germans, then cattle train-shipped to central 'free' France as refugees. Where they would then be abused by locals as les boches. Then eventually return home in 1945 to find their homes in ruins or ransacked, and all their goods, furniture, land and more grabbed by the neighbours who'd stayed

Edited May 25, 2015 by L00b

[mjw47]

A friend of mine is married to an Austrian - who is also a friend - she is an extremely interesting woman who experienced the war as a child.

 

Toward the end of the war she and her family spent six weeks in a cellar whilst the Russians virtually leveled Vienna.

 

When they emerged the city stunk of dead horses and dead humans.

They were near to starvation at times and scavenged for food and fuel.

 

Her father was a jeweller and her family in general was reasonably well off, but following the war they lost almost everything.

 

The Russians cleared her uncles bank account out and their family homes were confiscated by the state.

 

Other than conscription her family had no part in contributing to the war but as ever it is the innocent who wind up suffering most.

 

The guilty have seen what's coming and made contingency plans.

[tzijlstra]

It is unfortunately a far more common story than people realise. When my great-uncle returned half the family was tarred and feathered, several of his sisters, I am led to understand over the years, were raped. My grandfather (his youngest brother) didn't speak about it until he was dying and then he hardly spoke about anything else. The stories we heard were horrifying.

[Event Horizo]

People seem to forget that the Hitler had 70% of his manpower tied up on the eastern front. D-Day wouldn't have happened if the russians had folded. They won the war. They lost over 25 million, we lost 500,000.

 

Brutality by the russians was extreme. When they conquered Prussia, it was wiped off the map. The Prussians were either killed or sent to prison camps to die. SS atrocities were the cause of such severe brutality by the ruskies with the help of vodka. Maybe if the germans had of conquered their territory and been hospitable to the population then it could have been a different story.

 

When i was cabbying i once picked up an old german guy. He fought on the eastern front and was one of the last ambulances out of stalingrad before it got encircled. Only 10,000 soldieres from the 6th Army returned to germany whislt 240,000 died in labour camps. Poor devils.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Event Horizo