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Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia

June 14, 2023

The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II.

During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the Czech resistance groups demanded the deportation of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia. The decision to deport the Germans was adopted by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile which, beginning in 1943, sought the support of the Allies for this proposal.[1][2] The final agreement for the expulsion of the German population however was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the Potsdam Conference.

In the months following the end of the war, "wild" expulsions happened from May until August 1945. Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš on 28 October 1945 called for the "final solution of the German question" (Czech: konečné řešení německé otázky) which would have to be solved by deportation of the ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia.[3][4]

The expulsions were carried out by order of local authorities, mostly by groups of armed volunteers. However, in some cases it was initiated or pursued with the assistance of the regular army.[5] Several thousand died violently during the expulsion and more died from hunger and illness as a consequence. The expulsion according to the Potsdam Conference proceeded from 25 January 1946 until October of that year. Roughly 1.6 million ethnic Germans were deported to the American zone (West Germany), and an estimated 800,000 were deported to the Soviet zone (East Germany).[6]

The expulsions ended in 1948, but not all Germans were expelled; estimates for the total number of non-expulsions range from approximately 160,000[7] to 250,000.[8]

The West German government in 1958 estimated the ethnic German death toll during the expulsion period to be about 270,000,[9] a figure that has been cited in historical literature since then.[10] Research by a joint German and Czech commission of historians in 1995 found that the previous demographic estimates of 220,000 to 270,000 deaths were overstated and based on faulty information; they concluded that the actual death toll was at least 15,000 persons, and that it could range up to a maximum of 30,000 dead if one assumes that some deaths were not reported. The Commission statement also said that German records show 18,889 confirmed deaths including 3,411 suicides. Czech records indicated 22,247 deaths including 6,667 unexplained cases or suicides.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

The German Church Search Service was able to confirm the deaths of 14,215 persons during the expulsions from Czechoslovakia (6,316 violent deaths, 6,989 in internment camps and 907 in the USSR as forced laborers).[18]

Plans to expel the Sudeten Germans

See also: Potsdam Agreement
 
Czech districts with an ethnic German population in 1934 of 20% or more (pink), 50% or more (red), and 80% or more (dark red)[19] in 1935

Following the Munich Agreement of 1938, and the subsequent Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by Hitler in March 1939, Edvard Beneš set out to convince the Allies during World War II that the expulsion of ethnic Germans was the best solution. Expulsion was even supported by Czechs who had moderate views about the Germans.[20] The pro-Nazi Sudeten German Party had gained 88% of ethnic German votes in May 1938.[21]

Almost as soon as German troops occupied the Sudetenland in October 1938, Edvard Beneš and, later, the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile, pursued a twofold policy: the restoration of Czechoslovakia to its pre-Munich boundaries, and the removal, through a combination of minor border rectifications and population transfer, of the state's German minority, so as to bolster the territorial integrity of state. Although the details changed, along with British public and official opinion, and pressure from Czech resistance groups, the broad goals of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile remained the same throughout the war.

The pre-war policy of minority protection was viewed as counterproductive (and the minorities themselves seen as the source of unrest and instability), because it was associated with the destruction of the Czechoslovak state and its democratic régime. Therefore, Czechoslovak leaders[who?] made a decision to change the multi-ethnic character of the state to a state of two or three ethnicities (Czechs, Slovaks and, initially, Ruthenians). That goal was to be reached by the expulsion of most of the other minority groups and the successive assimilation of the rest. Because almost all people of German and Magyar ethnicity gained German or Hungarian citizenship during the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the expulsion could be legalized as the banishment (German: Ausweisung) of foreigners.[22]

On 22 June 1942, after plans for the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans had become known, Wenzel Jaksch (a Sudeten German Social Democrat in exile) wrote a letter to Beneš protesting about the proposed plans.[23]

Initially, only a few hundred thousand Sudeten Germans were to be affected — people who were perceived as being disloyal to Czechoslovakia and who, according to Beneš and Czech public opinion, had acted as Hitler's "fifth column". Due to the escalation of Nazi atrocities in the Protectorate as the war progressed, there were increasing demands by the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile, Czech resistance groups, and the majority of Czechs, for the expulsion of more and more Germans, with no individual investigations or inference of guilt on their part. The only exception were to be 160,000 to 250,000 ethnic German "anti-fascists", and those ethnic Germans crucial for industries. The Czechs and their government did not want a future Czechoslovakia to be burdened with a sizable German minority.

The idea of expelling ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia was supported by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill[24] and Britain's Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.[25] In 1942, the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile received the formal support of the United Kingdom for the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia and, in March 1943, President Beneš received Moscow's support. In June 1943, Beneš traveled to Washington, D.C., and obtained support for the evolving expulsion plans from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.[25]

During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, especially after the Nazis' brutal reprisal for the assassination of Heydrich, most of the Czech resistance groups demanded the final solution of the German question, which would have to be achieved by transfer or expulsion.[citation needed] Those demands were adopted by the Government-in-Exile which, beginning in 1943, sought the support of the Allies for the proposal.[2] The April 1945 Košice Program, which outlined the postwar political settlement of Czechoslovakia, stipulated an expulsion of Germans and Hungarians from the country.[26] The final agreement for the transfer of the German minority however was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the Potsdam Conference.

Sir Geoffrey Harrison, who drafted article XIII of the Potsdam Communique concerning the expulsions, wrote on 31 July 1945 to John Troutbeck, head of the German Department at the Foreign Office: "The Sub-Committee met three times, taking as a basis of discussion a draft which I circulated ... Sobolov took the view that the Polish and Czechoslovak wish to expel their German populations was the fulfilment of an historic mission which the Soviet Government were unwilling to try to impede. ... Cannon and I naturally strongly opposed this view. We made it clear that we did not like the idea of mass transfers anyway. As, however, we could not prevent them, we wished to ensure that they were carried out in as orderly and humane manner as possible". (FO 371/46811, published in facsimile in A. de Zayas, Nemesis at Potsdam, pp. 232–34).

Germans in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war

 
Sudeten Germans are forced to walk past the bodies of 30 Jewish women starved to death by German SS troops in Volary (total of 95 women were tortured to death here)

Developing a clear picture of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia is difficult because of the chaotic conditions that existed at the end of the war. There was no stable central government and record-keeping was non-existent. Many of the events that occurred during the period were spontaneous and local rather than being the result of coordinated policy directives from a central government. Among these spontaneous events was the removal and detention of the Sudeten Germans which was triggered by the strong anti-German sentiment at the grass-roots level and organized by local officials.

According to the Schieder commission, records of food rationing coupons show approximately 3,070,899 inhabitants of occupied Sudetenland in January 1945, which included Czechs or other non-Germans. In addition, most of the roughly 100,000 Carpathian Germans from Slovakia were evacuated on Himmler's orders to the Czechia region just before the end of the war. During April and May 1945, an estimated 1.6 million Germans from Polish Silesia fled the advancing Soviet forces and became refugees in Bohemia-Moravia. Thus according to German estimates there were 4.5 million German civilians present in Bohemia-Moravia in May 1945.[27]

Chronology of the expulsions

From London and Moscow, Czech and Slovak political agents in exile followed an advancing Soviet army pursuing German forces westward, to reach the territory of the first former Czechoslovak Republic. Beneš proclaimed the programme of the newly appointed Czechoslovak government on 5 April 1945, in the northeastern city of Košice, which included oppression and persecution of the non-Czech and non-Slovak populations of the partially restored Czechoslovak Republic. After the proclamation of the Košice program, the German and Hungarian population living in the reborn Czechoslovak state were subjected to various forms of court procedures, citizenship revocations, property confiscation, condemnation to forced labour camps, and appointment of government managers to German and Hungarian owned businesses and farms, referred to euphemistically as "reslovakization".[citation needed]

Role of the Czechoslovak army

 
The Potsdam Conference sanctioned the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia

Western Czechoslovakia was liberated by U.S. forces under General Patton. General Zdeněk Novák, head of the Prague military command "Alex", issued an order to "deport all Germans from territory within the historical borders."[28]

A pamphlet issued on 5 June 1945 titled "Ten Commandments for Czechoslovak Soldiers in the Border Regions" directed soldiers that "The Germans have remained our irreconcilable enemies. Do not cease to hate the Germans ... Behave towards Germans like a victor ... Be harsh to the Germans ... German women and the Hitler Youth also bear the blame for the crimes of the Germans. Deal with them too in an uncompromising way."[28]

On 15 June, a government decree directed the army to implement measures to apprehend Nazi criminals and carry out the transfer of the German population. On 27 July, the Ministry of National Defence issued a secret order[which?] directing the transfer should be carried out on as large a scale as possible, and as expeditiously as possible to present the Western powers with a fait accompli.[28]

Beneš decrees

Main article: Beneš decrees

Between 1945 and 1948, a series of Czechoslovak government decrees, edicts, laws and statutes were proclaimed by the president of the republic, the Prague-based Czechoslovak Parliament, the Slovak National Council (Parliament) in Bratislava and by the Board of Slovak Commissioners (an appendage of the Czechoslovak government in Bratislava).

After the revocation of Munich Agreement had been publicly announced in the British Parliament in August 1942, the British government gave its consent to the transfer of German population from the Czech Crown Lands. President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt joined the relocation policy in June 1943. Moscow gave its consent by a declaration on June 5, 1943. The transfer was internationally approved at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.[29][30]

Potsdam Agreement: XIII. Orderly Transfers of German Populations.

"The Conference reached the following agreement on the removal of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary:— The three Governments (The United States, Great Britain and Soviet Union), 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."[31]

The conclusions of the Potsdam Conference were confirmed by its signatory states in 1996. The US government, said: "The decisions made at Potsdam ... were soundly based in international law. The conference conclusions have been endorsed many times since in various multilateral and bilateral contexts. ... The conclusions of Potsdam are historical fact and the United States is confident that no country wishes to call them into question".[32][33] No Czechoslovak/Czech/Slovak legal norm (decree, law, etc.) ever existed that would have dealt with the displacement of the German population.[33]

Decrees 5, 12, 33, 108/1945 concerned the expropriation of wartime traitors and collaborators accused of treason but also all Germans and Hungarians[citation needed]. They also ordered the removal of citizenship from people of German and Hungarian ethnic origin[citation needed] who were treated collectively[citation needed] as collaborators (these provisions were cancelled for the Hungarians in 1948). This was then used to confiscate their property and expel[citation needed] around 90% of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia. These people were collectively[citation needed] accused of supporting the Nazis (through the Sudetendeutsche Partei (SdP), the political party led by Konrad Henlein) and the Third Reich's annexation of the Czech borderland in 1938. Decrees 33/1945 and 108/1945 explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti-fascists. Typically it was up to the decision of local municipalities. 160,000–250,000 Germans, some anti-fascists, but mostly people crucial for the industry[citation needed] remained in Czechoslovakia.

Decree No. 33/1945 of 2 August 1945. (After the decision made at Potsdam). On the basis of this decree, the Czechoslovak State released from its citizenship those persons who, "in compliance with the regulations of the foreign occupation forces had acquired German or Hungarian citizenship". Czechoslovak citizenship was maintained in the cases of those Germans (280 000) who, at the time of the increasing threat to the Czechoslovak Republic, had officially supported the Czechs, or those who had manifested "their loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic, had never committed any offence against the Czech and Slovak nations, and who had either actively participated in the struggle for the liberation of the country, or had suffered under Nazi or fascist terror".[33]
The decree was in accordance with the Czechoslovak constitution which did not allow dual citizenship.

Decree No. 5/1945 of 3 June 1945, determining that "any form of property transfer and transaction affecting property rights in terms of movable and immovable assets, and public and private property shall be invalidated, if it was adopted after September 29, 1938, under pressure of the Nazi occupation or national, racial or political persecution" (i.e. this Decree repealed the Nazi confiscation measures adopted against the victims of Nazism).

Decree No. 108/1945 of 25 October 1945: (After the decision made at Potsdam) "There is confiscated, without any compensation properties and property rights which are owned by:

  • The German Empire; the Hungarian Kingdom ...
  • Private persons of German and Hungarian nationality, (cf. Decree No. 33/1945) except for persons who have proved that they kept loyal to the Czechoslovak Republic ...
  • Private persons who have performed activities against independence, autonomy ..., security and defense of the Czechoslovakian Republic ..."

The confiscation was based on the international consensus declared in the documents of the Potsdam Conference and the 1945 Paris Agreement.[33] Similar confiscation measure were also taken in other states such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Denmark.[34][35]

Massacres

The 1945 expulsion was referred to as the "wild transfer" (divoký odsun) due to the widespread violence and brutality that were not only perpetuated by mobs but also by soldiers, police, and others acting under the color of authority.[36] In the summer of 1945, for instance, there were localised massacres of the German population. The following examples are described in a study done by the European University Institute in Florence:[37]

  • 18–19 June 1945, in the Přerov incident, 71 men, 120 women and 74 children (265 Germans) who were Carpathian Germans from Dobšiná were passing through Horní Moštěnice near Přerov railway station. Here they were taken out of the train by Czechoslovakian soldiers, taken outside the city to a hill named "Švédské šance", where they were forced to dig their own graves and all were shot.[38] The massacre did not become publicly known until the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.[39]
  • 20,000 Germans were forced to leave Brno for camps in Austria. Z. Beneš reported 800 deaths.[40]
  • Estimates of those killed in the Ústí massacre range from not less than 42 up to 2,000 civilians. Recent estimates range from 80 to 100 deaths.[41]
  • 763 ethnic Germans were shot dead in and around Postelberg (now Postoloprty).[40][42]

During the wild transfer phase, it is estimated that the number of murdered Germans was between 19,000 and 30,000.[36] Accounts indicated that the Czechoslovak government was not averse to "popular justice" as long it did not excessively blacken the country's reputation abroad.[43] There were even government officials who maintained that the massacres at Usti would not have happened if the government dealt with the Germans more harshly.[43]

Internment camps

According to the German "Society against Expulsion", some Germans were sent to what the society terms "concentration camps".[44] A 1964 report by the German Red Cross stated that 1,215 "internment camps" were established, as well as 846 forced labour and "disciplinary centres", and 215 prisons, on Czechoslovak territory. Special Courts sentenced 21,469 persons to prison and 713 were executed for crimes committed during the Nazi occupation. They made rough estimate claiming 350,000 Germans in Czechoslovakia passed through one or more of these institutions and 100,000 perished.[45] However the Red Cross was able to confirm only 6,989 deaths in the internment camps.[46]

According to Alfred de Zayas:

One of the worst camps in post-war Czechoslovakia was the old Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Conditions under the new Czech administration are described by H. G. Adler, a former Jewish inmate as follows: ... in the majority they were children and juveniles, who had been locked up only because they were Germans. Only because they were Germans ...? This sentence sounds frighteningly familiar; only the word 'Jews' had been changed to 'Germans'. ... The people were abominably fed and maltreated, and they were no better off than one was used to from German concentration camps.[47]

The civilian internees who survived to be expelled recorded the horrors of months and years of slow starvation and maltreatment in many thousands of affidavits. Allied authorities in the American and British zones were able to investigate several cases, including the notorious concentration camp at České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia. The deputy commander of this camp in the years 1945–6, Václav Hrneček, later fled Czechoslovakia and came to Bavaria where he was recognized by former German inmates of the camp. Hrneček was brought to trial before an American Court of the Allied High Commission for Germany presided by Judge Leo M. Goodman. The Court based an eight-year sentence against Hrneček upon findings that the Budějovice camp was run in a criminal and cruel way, that although there were no gas chambers and no systematic, organized extermination, the camp was a centre of sadism, where human life and human dignity had no meaning.[48]

Expulsions

Germans living in the border regions of Czechoslovakia were expelled from the country in late 1945. The joint German and Czech commission of historians estimated that there were about 15,000 violent deaths.[13][14][15][17] Czech records report 15,000–16,000 deaths not including an additional 6,667 unexplained cases or suicides during the expulsion,[49] and others died from hunger and illness in Germany as a consequence. In 1946, an estimated 1.3 million ethnic Germans were deported to the American zone of what would become West Germany. An estimated 800,000 were deported to the Soviet zone (in what would become East Germany).[6]

Act No. 115/1946 Coll.

On 8 May 1946 the Czechoslovak provisional National Assembly passed Act No. 115/1946 Coll. It was enacted in conjunction with the Beneš decrees and it specifies that "Any act committed between 30 September 1938 and 28 October 1945 "the object of which was to aid the struggle for liberty of the Czechs and Slovaks or which represented just reprisals for actions of the occupation forces and their accomplices", is not illegal, even when such acts may otherwise be punishable by law." This law, which is still in force, has de facto ensured that no atrocities against Germans during the time-period in question have been prosecuted in Czechoslovakia.[50]

Decree No. 115/1946 of 8 May 1946. Activities (which would otherwise be considered criminal), were not illegal if their "objective was to contribute to the fight for regaining of freedom of Czechs and Slovaks or were aimed at righteous retaliation for deeds of occupants or their collaborators". Inappropriate violence or any other similar excesses were not amnestied. They were always crimes and were always punishable as crimes.Decrees of the President of the Republic, page 27 Without such act, many resistance combatants would be open to criminal prosecutions for their activities against Nazis.[citation needed] The law stipulating that the sentences pronounced against the Czech Resistance fighters during the war had been lawful were valid in Germany until 1997.President Decrees 2.a

However, the Czech government did express its regret in the 1997 Joint Czech–German Declaration on the Mutual Relations and their Future Development:

III. The Czech side regrets that, by the forcible expulsion and forced resettlement of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the war as well as by the expropriation and deprivation of citizenship, much suffering and injustice was inflicted upon innocent people, also in view of the fact that guilt was attributed collectively. It particularly regrets the excesses which were contrary to elementary humanitarian principles as well as legal norms existing at that time, and it furthermore regrets that Law No. 115 of 8 May 1946 made it possible to regard these excesses as not being illegal and that in consequence these acts were not punished.

II. "The German side acknowledges Germany's responsibility for its role in a historical development, which led to the 1938 Munich Agreement, the flight and forcible expulsion of people from the Czech border area and the forcible breakup and occupation of the Czechoslovak Republic. It regrets the suffering and injustice inflicted upon the Czech people through National Socialist crimes committed by Germans. The German side pays tribute to the victims of National Socialist tyranny and to those who resisted it."Czech–German Declaration 1997

Results

The joint Czech–German commission of historians in 1996 stated the following numbers: the deaths caused by violence and abnormal living conditions amount approximately to 10,000 persons killed; another 5,000–6,000 persons died of unspecified reasons related to expulsion; making the total number of victims of the expulsion 15,000–16,000 (this excludes suicides, which make another approximately 3,400 cases).[13][14][15][17]

The Communist Party controlled the distribution of seized German assets, contributing to its popularity in the border areas, where it won 75 percent of votes in the 1946 election. Without these votes, the Communist Party would not have achieved a plurality in the Czech lands. The expulsions of Germans are therefore considered a key factor in the success of the 1948 coup.[51]

Long-term impact

According to a 2020 study, the expulsion of the Germans triggered a depopulation and de-urbanization of the border areas.[52] Compared to adjacent areas outside the Sudetenland, fewer people work in high-skill sectors such as finance and healthcare. Significantly lower educational enrollment was first observed in 1947 and lower educational achievement is still evident from the results of the 2011 Czech census.[53]

Legacy

The UN Human Rights Committee issued decisions in three cases concerning Sudeten Germans (Des Fours Walderode v. Czech Republic; Petzoldova v. Czech Republic; Czernin v. Czech Republic) in which violations of articles 26 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were established and the Czech Republic was ordered to return the property to the rightful owners. As of 2010, the committee's views had not been implemented.[needs update][54]

Public opinion surveys indicate that the public is opposed to such measures.[55]

According to an article in the Prague Daily Monitor:

The Czech–German Declaration [of] 1997 has achieved a compromise and expressed regret over the wrongs caused to innocent people by "the post-war expulsions as well as forced deportations of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia, expropriation and stripping of citizenship" on the basis of the principle of collective guilt.

In the Czech–German Declaration of August, 1997:

The German side took full responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime and their consequences (the allied expulsion).
"The German side is conscious of the fact that the National Socialist policy of violence towards the Czech people helped to prepare the ground for post-war flight, forcible expulsion and forced resettlement."

"The Czech side regrets that, by the forcible expulsion and forced resettlement of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the war ..., much suffering and injustice was inflicted upon innocent people."[56] The Czech Republic has not expressed regret for the allied transfer of Sudeten Germans with Nazi-German citizenship or those who had not manifested "their loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic".

German politicians and the deported Sudeten Germans widely use the word "expulsion" for the events. However, political representatives in both the Czech Republic and Poland, from where millions of Germans had to move after WW2, usually avoid this expression and rather use the word deportation.[57]

Compensation to expellees

The British Foreign Office and the U.S. State Department planned a "population transfer commission" similar to the arrangement in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 to provide compensation for private property to transferred Greeks and Turks following the Kemalist war of 1919–1923. But events went faster and the expulsions began in May 1945, long before the Potsdam Conference and before any agreement on a commission had been settled. No population transfer commission with competence to evaluate the claims of the German expellees was ever established. (See Public Record Office documents FO 371/46810 and FO 371/46811).

Since the Czechoslovak government-in-exile decided that population transfer was the only solution of the German question, the problem of reparation (war indemnity) was closely associated. The proposed population transfer as presented in negotiations with the governments of U.S., UK and U.S.S.R., presumed the confiscation of the Germans' property to cover the reparation demands of Czechoslovakia; then Germany should pay the compensation to satisfy its citizens. This fait accompli was to prevent Germany's evasion of reparation payment as happened after World War I.[58]

This plan was suggested to the Inter-Allied Reparation Agency (IARA) in 1945, but because of the advent of the Cold War was never confirmed by any treaty with Germany. The IARA ended its activity in 1959 and the status quo is as follows: Czech Republic kept the property of expelled ethnic Germans while Germany did not pay any reparations (only about 0.5% of Czechoslovak demands were satisfied [59]). For this reason, every time the Sudeten Germans request compensation or the abolition of the Beneš decrees, the Czech side strikes back by the threat of reparation demands.

Even during the preparation of the Czech–German declaration, the German side avoided the Czech demand to confirm the status quo by the agreement. However, Germany adopted the Czechoslovak fait accompli and has paid compensation to the expellees. One source claims the German government paid about 141bn DM to the expellees until 1993.[60] Other sources state an overall amount of roughly 60bn EUR paid out as partial compensation to all citizens of Germany and ethnic-German expellees — a group of 15m people alone — affected by property loss due to consequences of the war.[61][62] The payout to Germans from Czechoslovakia can be assumed to represent a much smaller fraction of that sum.

In contrast to Germany, the issue of compensation of expellees was, at least nominally, closed by several treaties with Austria and Hungary.[63] The most important follow:

  • Treaty of 3 February 1964: According to this treaty, Czechoslovakia pledged to satisfy all demands of Hungary and Hungarian citizens related to confiscations by paying 20,000,000 Kčs.
  • Treaty of 19 December 1974: According to this treaty, Czechoslovakia pledged to pay 1,000,000,000 ATS to cover the property demands of Austrian citizens and waived all former territory and all other demands of country or individuals against Austria. The Austrian side waived all demands against ČSSR and pledged to not support any demands of individuals against the ČSSR related to expulsion.

Incidents

References

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Further reading

  • Execution of German Civilians in Prague (9 May 1945) (Czech TV documentary, perpetration disputed) (Adobe Flash Player, 2:32 min)
  • Bracey, S. (2019). "The Symmetry of Hypocrisy in Czech-German Legal Conciliation, 1989–1997." Central European History, 52 (3), 496–526.
  • Čapková, Kateřina (2018). "Between Expulsion and Rescue: The Transports for German-speaking Jews of Czechoslovakia in 1946". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 32 (1): 66–92. doi:10.1093/hgs/dcy005.
  • R.M. Douglas: Orderly and Humane. The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War. Yale University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-300-16660-6.
  • Glassheim, Eagle (2000). "National Mythologies and Ethnic Cleansing: The Expulsion of Czechoslovak Germans in 1945". Central European History. 33 (4): 463–486. doi:10.1163/156916100746428. S2CID 145302399.
  • Glassheim, Eagle (2016). Cleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands: Migration, Environment, and Health in the Former Sudetenland. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-6426-1.
  • Kittel, Manfred; Möller, Horst (2006). "Die Beneš-Dekrete und die Vertreibung der Deutschen im europäischen Vergleich". Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. 54 (4): 541–581. doi:10.1524/VfZg.2006.54.4.541. ISSN 2196-7121. S2CID 144450653.
  • Mrňka, Jaromír (2020). "The Moment between Occupation and Freedom: Forms of Collective Violence at the End of World War II in the Czech Lands". Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung. 69 (4): 471–494. ISSN 0948-8294.
  • Testa, Patrick A (2021). "The Economic Legacy of Expulsion: Lessons from Post-War Czechoslovakia". The Economic Journal. 131 (637): 2233–2271. doi:10.1093/ej/ueaa132.
  • Tomáš Staněk Internierung und Zwangsarbeit: das Lagersystem in den böhmischen Ländern 1945–1948 (Originaltitel: Tábory v českých zemích 1945–1948, übersetzt von Eliška und Ralph Melville, ergänzt und aktualisiert vom Autor, mit einer Einführung von Andreas R. Hofmann) Oldenbourg / Collegium Carolinum, München 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-56519-5 / ISBN 978-3-944396-29-3 (= Veröffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum, Band 92).
  • Tomáš Staněk, Verfolgung 1945: die Stellung der Deutschen in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien (außerhalb der Lager und Gefängnisse), übersetzt von Otfrid Pustejovsky, bearbeitet und teilweise übersetzt von Walter Reichel, Böhlau, Wien / Köln / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99065-X (= Buchreihe des Institutes für den Donauraum und Mitteleuropa, Band 8).
  • Suppan, Arnold (2019). Hitler–Beneš–Tito: National Conflicts, World Wars, Genocides, Expulsions, and Divided Remembrance in East-Central and Southeastern Europe, 1848–2018. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press. ISBN 978-3-7001-8410-2. JSTOR j.ctvvh867x.
  • Zückert, Martin; Schvarc, Michal; Fiamová, Martina (2020). Die Evakuierung der Deutschen aus der Slowakei 1944/45: Verlauf, Kontexte, Folgen (in German). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-31075-5.

June 14, 2023
expulsion, germans, from, czechoslovakia, expulsion, germans, from, czechoslovakia, after, world, part, series, evacuations, deportations, germans, from, central, eastern, europe, during, after, world, during, german, occupation, czechoslovakia, czech, resista. The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a series of evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia the Czech resistance groups demanded the deportation of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia The decision to deport the Germans was adopted by the Czechoslovak Government in Exile which beginning in 1943 sought the support of the Allies for this proposal 1 2 The final agreement for the expulsion of the German population however was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the Potsdam Conference In the months following the end of the war wild expulsions happened from May until August 1945 Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes on 28 October 1945 called for the final solution of the German question Czech konecne reseni nemecke otazky which would have to be solved by deportation of the ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia 3 4 The expulsions were carried out by order of local authorities mostly by groups of armed volunteers However in some cases it was initiated or pursued with the assistance of the regular army 5 Several thousand died violently during the expulsion and more died from hunger and illness as a consequence The expulsion according to the Potsdam Conference proceeded from 25 January 1946 until October of that year Roughly 1 6 million ethnic Germans were deported to the American zone West Germany and an estimated 800 000 were deported to the Soviet zone East Germany 6 The expulsions ended in 1948 but not all Germans were expelled estimates for the total number of non expulsions range from approximately 160 000 7 to 250 000 8 The West German government in 1958 estimated the ethnic German death toll during the expulsion period to be about 270 000 9 a figure that has been cited in historical literature since then 10 Research by a joint German and Czech commission of historians in 1995 found that the previous demographic estimates of 220 000 to 270 000 deaths were overstated and based on faulty information they concluded that the actual death toll was at least 15 000 persons and that it could range up to a maximum of 30 000 dead if one assumes that some deaths were not reported The Commission statement also said that German records show 18 889 confirmed deaths including 3 411 suicides Czech records indicated 22 247 deaths including 6 667 unexplained cases or suicides 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 The German Church Search Service was able to confirm the deaths of 14 215 persons during the expulsions from Czechoslovakia 6 316 violent deaths 6 989 in internment camps and 907 in the USSR as forced laborers 18 Contents 1 Plans to expel the Sudeten Germans 2 Germans in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war 3 Chronology of the expulsions 3 1 Role of the Czechoslovak army 3 2 Benes decrees 3 3 Massacres 3 4 Internment camps 3 5 Expulsions 3 6 Act No 115 1946 Coll 4 Results 4 1 Long term impact 5 Legacy 5 1 Compensation to expellees 5 2 Incidents 6 References 7 Further readingPlans to expel the Sudeten Germans EditSee also Potsdam Agreement Czech districts with an ethnic German population in 1934 of 20 or more pink 50 or more red and 80 or more dark red 19 in 1935 Following the Munich Agreement of 1938 and the subsequent Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by Hitler in March 1939 Edvard Benes set out to convince the Allies during World War II that the expulsion of ethnic Germans was the best solution Expulsion was even supported by Czechs who had moderate views about the Germans 20 The pro Nazi Sudeten German Party had gained 88 of ethnic German votes in May 1938 21 Almost as soon as German troops occupied the Sudetenland in October 1938 Edvard Benes and later the Czechoslovak Government in Exile pursued a twofold policy the restoration of Czechoslovakia to its pre Munich boundaries and the removal through a combination of minor border rectifications and population transfer of the state s German minority so as to bolster the territorial integrity of state Although the details changed along with British public and official opinion and pressure from Czech resistance groups the broad goals of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile remained the same throughout the war The pre war policy of minority protection was viewed as counterproductive and the minorities themselves seen as the source of unrest and instability because it was associated with the destruction of the Czechoslovak state and its democratic regime Therefore Czechoslovak leaders who made a decision to change the multi ethnic character of the state to a state of two or three ethnicities Czechs Slovaks and initially Ruthenians That goal was to be reached by the expulsion of most of the other minority groups and the successive assimilation of the rest Because almost all people of German and Magyar ethnicity gained German or Hungarian citizenship during the occupation of Czechoslovakia the expulsion could be legalized as the banishment German Ausweisung of foreigners 22 On 22 June 1942 after plans for the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans had become known Wenzel Jaksch a Sudeten German Social Democrat in exile wrote a letter to Benes protesting about the proposed plans 23 Initially only a few hundred thousand Sudeten Germans were to be affected people who were perceived as being disloyal to Czechoslovakia and who according to Benes and Czech public opinion had acted as Hitler s fifth column Due to the escalation of Nazi atrocities in the Protectorate as the war progressed there were increasing demands by the Czechoslovak Government in Exile Czech resistance groups and the majority of Czechs for the expulsion of more and more Germans with no individual investigations or inference of guilt on their part The only exception were to be 160 000 to 250 000 ethnic German anti fascists and those ethnic Germans crucial for industries The Czechs and their government did not want a future Czechoslovakia to be burdened with a sizable German minority The idea of expelling ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia was supported by the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill 24 and Britain s Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden 25 In 1942 the Czechoslovak Government in Exile received the formal support of the United Kingdom for the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia and in March 1943 President Benes received Moscow s support In June 1943 Benes traveled to Washington D C and obtained support for the evolving expulsion plans from President Franklin D Roosevelt 25 During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia especially after the Nazis brutal reprisal for the assassination of Heydrich most of the Czech resistance groups demanded the final solution of the German question which would have to be achieved by transfer or expulsion citation needed Those demands were adopted by the Government in Exile which beginning in 1943 sought the support of the Allies for the proposal 2 The April 1945 Kosice Program which outlined the postwar political settlement of Czechoslovakia stipulated an expulsion of Germans and Hungarians from the country 26 The final agreement for the transfer of the German minority however was not reached until 2 August 1945 at the end of the Potsdam Conference Sir Geoffrey Harrison who drafted article XIII of the Potsdam Communique concerning the expulsions wrote on 31 July 1945 to John Troutbeck head of the German Department at the Foreign Office The Sub Committee met three times taking as a basis of discussion a draft which I circulated Sobolov took the view that the Polish and Czechoslovak wish to expel their German populations was the fulfilment of an historic mission which the Soviet Government were unwilling to try to impede Cannon and I naturally strongly opposed this view We made it clear that we did not like the idea of mass transfers anyway As however we could not prevent them we wished to ensure that they were carried out in as orderly and humane manner as possible FO 371 46811 published in facsimile in A de Zayas Nemesis at Potsdam pp 232 34 Germans in Czechoslovakia at the end of the war Edit Sudeten Germans are forced to walk past the bodies of 30 Jewish women starved to death by German SS troops in Volary total of 95 women were tortured to death here Developing a clear picture of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia is difficult because of the chaotic conditions that existed at the end of the war There was no stable central government and record keeping was non existent Many of the events that occurred during the period were spontaneous and local rather than being the result of coordinated policy directives from a central government Among these spontaneous events was the removal and detention of the Sudeten Germans which was triggered by the strong anti German sentiment at the grass roots level and organized by local officials According to the Schieder commission records of food rationing coupons show approximately 3 070 899 inhabitants of occupied Sudetenland in January 1945 which included Czechs or other non Germans In addition most of the roughly 100 000 Carpathian Germans from Slovakia were evacuated on Himmler s orders to the Czechia region just before the end of the war During April and May 1945 an estimated 1 6 million Germans from Polish Silesia fled the advancing Soviet forces and became refugees in Bohemia Moravia Thus according to German estimates there were 4 5 million German civilians present in Bohemia Moravia in May 1945 27 Chronology of the expulsions EditFrom London and Moscow Czech and Slovak political agents in exile followed an advancing Soviet army pursuing German forces westward to reach the territory of the first former Czechoslovak Republic Benes proclaimed the programme of the newly appointed Czechoslovak government on 5 April 1945 in the northeastern city of Kosice which included oppression and persecution of the non Czech and non Slovak populations of the partially restored Czechoslovak Republic After the proclamation of the Kosice program the German and Hungarian population living in the reborn Czechoslovak state were subjected to various forms of court procedures citizenship revocations property confiscation condemnation to forced labour camps and appointment of government managers to German and Hungarian owned businesses and farms referred to euphemistically as reslovakization citation needed Role of the Czechoslovak army Edit The Potsdam Conference sanctioned the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia Western Czechoslovakia was liberated by U S forces under General Patton General Zdenek Novak head of the Prague military command Alex issued an order to deport all Germans from territory within the historical borders 28 A pamphlet issued on 5 June 1945 titled Ten Commandments for Czechoslovak Soldiers in the Border Regions directed soldiers that The Germans have remained our irreconcilable enemies Do not cease to hate the Germans Behave towards Germans like a victor Be harsh to the Germans German women and the Hitler Youth also bear the blame for the crimes of the Germans Deal with them too in an uncompromising way 28 On 15 June a government decree directed the army to implement measures to apprehend Nazi criminals and carry out the transfer of the German population On 27 July the Ministry of National Defence issued a secret order which directing the transfer should be carried out on as large a scale as possible and as expeditiously as possible to present the Western powers with a fait accompli 28 Benes decrees Edit Main article Benes decrees Between 1945 and 1948 a series of Czechoslovak government decrees edicts laws and statutes were proclaimed by the president of the republic the Prague based Czechoslovak Parliament the Slovak National Council Parliament in Bratislava and by the Board of Slovak Commissioners an appendage of the Czechoslovak government in Bratislava After the revocation of Munich Agreement had been publicly announced in the British Parliament in August 1942 the British government gave its consent to the transfer of German population from the Czech Crown Lands President of the United States Franklin D Roosevelt joined the relocation policy in June 1943 Moscow gave its consent by a declaration on June 5 1943 The transfer was internationally approved at the Potsdam Conference in July 1945 29 30 Potsdam Agreement XIII Orderly Transfers of German Populations The Conference reached the following agreement on the removal of Germans from Poland Czechoslovakia and Hungary The three Governments The United States Great Britain and Soviet Union 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 31 The conclusions of the Potsdam Conference were confirmed by its signatory states in 1996 The US government said The decisions made at Potsdam were soundly based in international law The conference conclusions have been endorsed many times since in various multilateral and bilateral contexts The conclusions of Potsdam are historical fact and the United States is confident that no country wishes to call them into question 32 33 No Czechoslovak Czech Slovak legal norm decree law etc ever existed that would have dealt with the displacement of the German population 33 Decrees 5 12 33 108 1945 concerned the expropriation of wartime traitors and collaborators accused of treason but also all Germans and Hungarians citation needed They also ordered the removal of citizenship from people of German and Hungarian ethnic origin citation needed who were treated collectively citation needed as collaborators these provisions were cancelled for the Hungarians in 1948 This was then used to confiscate their property and expel citation needed around 90 of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia These people were collectively citation needed accused of supporting the Nazis through the Sudetendeutsche Partei SdP the political party led by Konrad Henlein and the Third Reich s annexation of the Czech borderland in 1938 Decrees 33 1945 and 108 1945 explicitly stated that the sanctions did not apply to anti fascists Typically it was up to the decision of local municipalities 160 000 250 000 Germans some anti fascists but mostly people crucial for the industry citation needed remained in Czechoslovakia Decree No 33 1945 of 2 August 1945 After the decision made at Potsdam On the basis of this decree the Czechoslovak State released from its citizenship those persons who in compliance with the regulations of the foreign occupation forces had acquired German or Hungarian citizenship Czechoslovak citizenship was maintained in the cases of those Germans 280 000 who at the time of the increasing threat to the Czechoslovak Republic had officially supported the Czechs or those who had manifested their loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic had never committed any offence against the Czech and Slovak nations and who had either actively participated in the struggle for the liberation of the country or had suffered under Nazi or fascist terror 33 The decree was in accordance with the Czechoslovak constitution which did not allow dual citizenship Decree No 5 1945 of 3 June 1945 determining that any form of property transfer and transaction affecting property rights in terms of movable and immovable assets and public and private property shall be invalidated if it was adopted after September 29 1938 under pressure of the Nazi occupation or national racial or political persecution i e this Decree repealed the Nazi confiscation measures adopted against the victims of Nazism Decree No 108 1945 of 25 October 1945 After the decision made at Potsdam There is confiscated without any compensation properties and property rights which are owned by The German Empire the Hungarian Kingdom Private persons of German and Hungarian nationality cf Decree No 33 1945 except for persons who have proved that they kept loyal to the Czechoslovak Republic Private persons who have performed activities against independence autonomy security and defense of the Czechoslovakian Republic The confiscation was based on the international consensus declared in the documents of the Potsdam Conference and the 1945 Paris Agreement 33 Similar confiscation measure were also taken in other states such as the Netherlands Belgium Luxemburg and Denmark 34 35 Massacres Edit The 1945 expulsion was referred to as the wild transfer divoky odsun due to the widespread violence and brutality that were not only perpetuated by mobs but also by soldiers police and others acting under the color of authority 36 In the summer of 1945 for instance there were localised massacres of the German population The following examples are described in a study done by the European University Institute in Florence 37 18 19 June 1945 in the Prerov incident 71 men 120 women and 74 children 265 Germans who were Carpathian Germans from Dobsina were passing through Horni Mostenice near Prerov railway station Here they were taken out of the train by Czechoslovakian soldiers taken outside the city to a hill named Svedske sance where they were forced to dig their own graves and all were shot 38 The massacre did not become publicly known until the fall of the Communist regime in 1989 39 20 000 Germans were forced to leave Brno for camps in Austria Z Benes reported 800 deaths 40 Estimates of those killed in the Usti massacre range from not less than 42 up to 2 000 civilians Recent estimates range from 80 to 100 deaths 41 763 ethnic Germans were shot dead in and around Postelberg now Postoloprty 40 42 During the wild transfer phase it is estimated that the number of murdered Germans was between 19 000 and 30 000 36 Accounts indicated that the Czechoslovak government was not averse to popular justice as long it did not excessively blacken the country s reputation abroad 43 There were even government officials who maintained that the massacres at Usti would not have happened if the government dealt with the Germans more harshly 43 Internment camps Edit According to the German Society against Expulsion some Germans were sent to what the society terms concentration camps 44 A 1964 report by the German Red Cross stated that 1 215 internment camps were established as well as 846 forced labour and disciplinary centres and 215 prisons on Czechoslovak territory Special Courts sentenced 21 469 persons to prison and 713 were executed for crimes committed during the Nazi occupation They made rough estimate claiming 350 000 Germans in Czechoslovakia passed through one or more of these institutions and 100 000 perished 45 However the Red Cross was able to confirm only 6 989 deaths in the internment camps 46 According to Alfred de Zayas One of the worst camps in post war Czechoslovakia was the old Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt Conditions under the new Czech administration are described by H G Adler a former Jewish inmate as follows in the majority they were children and juveniles who had been locked up only because they were Germans Only because they were Germans This sentence sounds frighteningly familiar only the word Jews had been changed to Germans The people were abominably fed and maltreated and they were no better off than one was used to from German concentration camps 47 The civilian internees who survived to be expelled recorded the horrors of months and years of slow starvation and maltreatment in many thousands of affidavits Allied authorities in the American and British zones were able to investigate several cases including the notorious concentration camp at Ceske Budejovice in Southern Bohemia The deputy commander of this camp in the years 1945 6 Vaclav Hrnecek later fled Czechoslovakia and came to Bavaria where he was recognized by former German inmates of the camp Hrnecek was brought to trial before an American Court of the Allied High Commission for Germany presided by Judge Leo M Goodman The Court based an eight year sentence against Hrnecek upon findings that the Budejovice camp was run in a criminal and cruel way that although there were no gas chambers and no systematic organized extermination the camp was a centre of sadism where human life and human dignity had no meaning 48 Expulsions Edit Germans living in the border regions of Czechoslovakia were expelled from the country in late 1945 The joint German and Czech commission of historians estimated that there were about 15 000 violent deaths 13 14 15 17 Czech records report 15 000 16 000 deaths not including an additional 6 667 unexplained cases or suicides during the expulsion 49 and others died from hunger and illness in Germany as a consequence In 1946 an estimated 1 3 million ethnic Germans were deported to the American zone of what would become West Germany An estimated 800 000 were deported to the Soviet zone in what would become East Germany 6 Act No 115 1946 Coll Edit On 8 May 1946 the Czechoslovak provisional National Assembly passed Act No 115 1946 Coll It was enacted in conjunction with the Benes decrees and it specifies that Any act committed between 30 September 1938 and 28 October 1945 the object of which was to aid the struggle for liberty of the Czechs and Slovaks or which represented just reprisals for actions of the occupation forces and their accomplices is not illegal even when such acts may otherwise be punishable by law This law which is still in force has de facto ensured that no atrocities against Germans during the time period in question have been prosecuted in Czechoslovakia 50 Decree No 115 1946 of 8 May 1946 Activities which would otherwise be considered criminal were not illegal if their objective was to contribute to the fight for regaining of freedom of Czechs and Slovaks or were aimed at righteous retaliation for deeds of occupants or their collaborators Inappropriate violence or any other similar excesses were not amnestied They were always crimes and were always punishable as crimes Decrees of the President of the Republic page 27 Without such act many resistance combatants would be open to criminal prosecutions for their activities against Nazis citation needed The law stipulating that the sentences pronounced against the Czech Resistance fighters during the war had been lawful were valid in Germany until 1997 President Decrees 2 a However the Czech government did express its regret in the 1997 Joint Czech German Declaration on the Mutual Relations and their Future Development III The Czech side regrets that by the forcible expulsion and forced resettlement of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the war as well as by the expropriation and deprivation of citizenship much suffering and injustice was inflicted upon innocent people also in view of the fact that guilt was attributed collectively It particularly regrets the excesses which were contrary to elementary humanitarian principles as well as legal norms existing at that time and it furthermore regrets that Law No 115 of 8 May 1946 made it possible to regard these excesses as not being illegal and that in consequence these acts were not punished II The German side acknowledges Germany s responsibility for its role in a historical development which led to the 1938 Munich Agreement the flight and forcible expulsion of people from the Czech border area and the forcible breakup and occupation of the Czechoslovak Republic It regrets the suffering and injustice inflicted upon the Czech people through National Socialist crimes committed by Germans The German side pays tribute to the victims of National Socialist tyranny and to those who resisted it Czech German Declaration 1997Results EditThe joint Czech German commission of historians in 1996 stated the following numbers the deaths caused by violence and abnormal living conditions amount approximately to 10 000 persons killed another 5 000 6 000 persons died of unspecified reasons related to expulsion making the total number of victims of the expulsion 15 000 16 000 this excludes suicides which make another approximately 3 400 cases 13 14 15 17 The Communist Party controlled the distribution of seized German assets contributing to its popularity in the border areas where it won 75 percent of votes in the 1946 election Without these votes the Communist Party would not have achieved a plurality in the Czech lands The expulsions of Germans are therefore considered a key factor in the success of the 1948 coup 51 Long term impact Edit According to a 2020 study the expulsion of the Germans triggered a depopulation and de urbanization of the border areas 52 Compared to adjacent areas outside the Sudetenland fewer people work in high skill sectors such as finance and healthcare Significantly lower educational enrollment was first observed in 1947 and lower educational achievement is still evident from the results of the 2011 Czech census 53 Legacy EditThe UN Human Rights Committee issued decisions in three cases concerning Sudeten Germans Des Fours Walderode v Czech Republic Petzoldova v Czech Republic Czernin v Czech Republic in which violations of articles 26 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were established and the Czech Republic was ordered to return the property to the rightful owners As of 2010 the committee s views had not been implemented needs update 54 Public opinion surveys indicate that the public is opposed to such measures 55 According to an article in the Prague Daily Monitor The Czech German Declaration of 1997 has achieved a compromise and expressed regret over the wrongs caused to innocent people by the post war expulsions as well as forced deportations of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia expropriation and stripping of citizenship on the basis of the principle of collective guilt In the Czech German Declaration of August 1997 The German side took full responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime and their consequences the allied expulsion The German side is conscious of the fact that the National Socialist policy of violence towards the Czech people helped to prepare the ground for post war flight forcible expulsion and forced resettlement The Czech side regrets that by the forcible expulsion and forced resettlement of Sudeten Germans from the former Czechoslovakia after the war much suffering and injustice was inflicted upon innocent people 56 The Czech Republic has not expressed regret for the allied transfer of Sudeten Germans with Nazi German citizenship or those who had not manifested their loyalty to the Czechoslovak Republic German politicians and the deported Sudeten Germans widely use the word expulsion for the events However political representatives in both the Czech Republic and Poland from where millions of Germans had to move after WW2 usually avoid this expression and rather use the word deportation 57 Compensation to expellees Edit The British Foreign Office and the U S State Department planned a population transfer commission similar to the arrangement in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 to provide compensation for private property to transferred Greeks and Turks following the Kemalist war of 1919 1923 But events went faster and the expulsions began in May 1945 long before the Potsdam Conference and before any agreement on a commission had been settled No population transfer commission with competence to evaluate the claims of the German expellees was ever established See Public Record Office documents FO 371 46810 and FO 371 46811 Since the Czechoslovak government in exile decided that population transfer was the only solution of the German question the problem of reparation war indemnity was closely associated The proposed population transfer as presented in negotiations with the governments of U S UK and U S S R presumed the confiscation of the Germans property to cover the reparation demands of Czechoslovakia then Germany should pay the compensation to satisfy its citizens This fait accompli was to prevent Germany s evasion of reparation payment as happened after World War I 58 This plan was suggested to the Inter Allied Reparation Agency IARA in 1945 but because of the advent of the Cold War was never confirmed by any treaty with Germany The IARA ended its activity in 1959 and the status quo is as follows Czech Republic kept the property of expelled ethnic Germans while Germany did not pay any reparations only about 0 5 of Czechoslovak demands were satisfied 59 For this reason every time the Sudeten Germans request compensation or the abolition of the Benes decrees the Czech side strikes back by the threat of reparation demands Even during the preparation of the Czech German declaration the German side avoided the Czech demand to confirm the status quo by the agreement However Germany adopted the Czechoslovak fait accompli and has paid compensation to the expellees One source claims the German government paid about 141bn DM to the expellees until 1993 60 Other sources state an overall amount of roughly 60bn EUR paid out as partial compensation to all citizens of Germany and ethnic German expellees a group of 15m people alone affected by property loss due to consequences of the war 61 62 The payout to Germans from Czechoslovakia can be assumed to represent a much smaller fraction of that sum In contrast to Germany the issue of compensation of expellees was at least nominally closed by several treaties with Austria and Hungary 63 The most important follow Treaty of 3 February 1964 According to this treaty Czechoslovakia pledged to satisfy all demands of Hungary and Hungarian citizens related to confiscations by paying 20 000 000 Kcs Treaty of 19 December 1974 According to this treaty Czechoslovakia pledged to pay 1 000 000 000 ATS to cover the property demands of Austrian citizens and waived all former territory and all other demands of country or individuals against Austria The Austrian side waived all demands against CSSR and pledged to not support any demands of individuals against the CSSR related to expulsion Incidents Edit Usti massacre Brno death marchReferences Edit Prozatimni NS RCS 1945 1946 2 schuze cast 2 4 28 10 1945 Psp cz Retrieved 29 September 2015 a b Ceskoslovensko sovetske vztahy v diplomatickych jednanich 1939 1945 Dokumenty Dil 2 cervenec 1943 brezen 1945 Praha 1999 ISBN 80 85475 57 X Bohumil Dolezal Bohumildolezal lidovky cz Archived from the original on 5 January 2015 Retrieved 29 September 2015 The Routledge history of genocide Maguire Richard 1966 Carmichael Cathie London 2015 p 80 ISBN 978 0 415 52996 9 OCLC 908389544 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link Biman S Cilek R Posledni mrtvi prvni zivi Usti nad Labem 1989 ISBN 80 7047 002 X a b Memories of World War II in the Czech Lands the expulsion of Sudeten Germans Radio Prague Radio cz 14 April 2005 Retrieved 25 March 2011 Piotr Eberhardt Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth Century Central Eastern Europe History Data Analysis M E Sharpe 2002 ISBN 0 7656 0665 8 Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste Bevolkerungsbilanzen fur die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939 50 Herausgeber Statistisches Bundesamt Wiesbaden Stuttgart Kohlhammer Verlag 1958 Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste Bevolkerungsbilanzen fur die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939 50 Herausgeber Statistisches Bundesamt Wiesbaden Stuttgart Kohlhammer Verlag 1958 Alfred M de Zayas A Terrible Revenge Palgrave Macmillan New York 1994 p 152 Odsun pocet umrti Fronta cz Retrieved 29 September 2015 Benes Z Kuklik J ml Kural V Pesek J Odsun Vertreibung Transfer Nemcu z Ceskoslovenska 1945 1947 Ministerstvo mladeze a telovychovy CR 2002 pp 49 50 Haar Ingo 2009 Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste Forschungsstand Kontexte und Probleme In Mackensen Rainer in German Ursprunge Arten und Folgen des Konstrukts Bevolkerung vor im und nach dem Dritten Reich Zur Geschichte der deutschen Bevolkerungswissenschaft VS Verlag p 371 ISBN 3 531 16152 0 a b c Hoensch Jorg K und Hans Lemberg Begegnung und Konflikt Schlaglichter auf das Verhaltnis von Tschechen Slowaken und Deutschen 1815 1989 Bundeszentrale fur politische Bildung 2001 ISBN 3 89861 002 0 a b c Stellungnahme der Deutsch Tschechischen Historikerkommission zu den Vertreibungsverlusten in German 17 December 1996 Archived from the original on 22 July 2011 Retrieved 1 December 2016 a b c Deutsch Tschechische und Deutsch Slowakische Historikerkommission Dt ds historikerkommission de Archived from the original on 18 July 2011 Retrieved 29 September 2015 P Wallace March 11 2002 Putting The Past To Rest Time Accessed 2007 11 16 a b c Odsun pocet umrti Fronta cz Retrieved 29 September 2015 Spiegel Silke ed Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945 1948 Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28 Mai 1974 Archivalien und ausgewahlte Erlebnisberichte Bonn Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen 1989 ISBN 3 88557 067 X p 47 Statisticky lexikon obci v Republice ceskoslovenske I Zeme ceska Prague 1934 Statisticky lexikon obci v Republice ceskoslovenske II Zeme moravskoslezska Prague 1935 Cohen Pfister Laurel Wienroeder Skinner Dagmar 2012 Victims and Perpetrators 1933 1945 Re Presenting the Past in Post Unification Culture Berlin Walter de Gruyter p 235 ISBN 978 3 11 018982 7 Hruska E 2013 Boj o pohranici Sudetonemecky Freikorps v roce 1938 in Czech Prague Nakladatelstvi epocha p 11 Miroslav Travnicek Osidlovani s hlediska mezinarodniho a vnitrostatniho pravniho radu In Casopis pro pravni a statni vedu XXVII 1946 Sudeten German Inferno Part 4 The hushed up tragedy of the ethnic Germans in Czechoslovakia Ingomar Pust Churchill s Role in the Explusion of Germans from Easter Europe Der Spiegel 20 August 2010 a b The Myriad Chronicles Johannes Rammund De Balliel Lawrora 2010 p 113 ISBN 1 4500 9791 X McEnchroe Tom 5 April 2019 The Kosice manifesto the 1945 document that sealed Czechoslovakia s eastern orientation Radio Prague Retrieved 9 September 2019 Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevolkerung aus der Tschechoslowakei Band 1 in German Archived from the original on 20 February 2005 Retrieved 18 March 2008 a b c Benes Z Kural V 2002 Facing History The Evolution of Czech German Relations in the Czech Provinces 1848 1948 Prague CES pp 216 217 ISBN 978 80 86010 64 9 Jan Kuklik 26 October 2018 Czech law in historical contexts Charles University in Prague Karolinum Press ISBN 978 80 246 2860 8 via Google Books Godfrey Lias 26 October 2018 Memories Of Dr Eduard Benes From Munich To New War And New Victory Houghton Minfflin Company Boston via Internet Archive GHDI Document Page www germanhistorydocs ghi dc org Institute for International Studies Charles University Prague page 165 PDF Retrieved 3 March 2022 a b c d Kriegs und Nachkriegsfolgen www mzv cz Retrieved 3 March 2022 Decrees of the President of the Republic Retrieved 3 March 2022 page 6 Retrieved 3 March 2022 a b McDermott Kevin 2015 Communist Czechoslovakia 1945 89 A Political and Social History New York Palgrave MacMillan p 45 ISBN 978 0 230 21714 0 The Expulsion of German Communities from Eastern Europe at the end of the Second World War Archived 1 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees European University Institute Florence HEC No 2004 1 pg 18 Verbrechen an Vertriebenen Das Massaker von Prerau Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 18 June 2015 in German Big cross near Prerov to commemorate Germans killed after WW2 Prague Monitor www praguemonitor com a b Z Benes et al p 221 Rada Uwe 2013 Die Elbe Europas Geschichte im Fluss in German Siedler ISBN 978 3 641 09237 5 Revenge on Ethnic Germans Czech Town Divided over How to Commemorate 1945 Massacre Der Spiegel 4 September 2009 a b Glassheim Eagle 2016 Cleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands Migration Environment and Health in the Former Sudetenland Pittsburgh PA University of Pittsburgh Press ISBN 978 0 8229 6426 1 Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen Z g v de Archived from the original on 15 October 2006 Retrieved 25 March 2011 Kurt W Bohme Gesucht wird Die dramtische Geschichte des Suchdienstes Suddeutscher Verlag Munchen 1965 Page 264 Spiegel Silke ed Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945 1948 Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28 Mai 1974 Archivalien und ausgewahlte Erlebnisberichte Bonn Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen 1989 ISBN 3 88557 067 X Page 47 Alfred M De Zayas Nemesis at Potsdam the Anglo Americans and the expulsion of the Germans p 125 Alfred M de Zayas Nemesis at Potsdam Routledge amp Kegan Paul London 1977 ISBN 0 7100 8468 4 pp 124ff Odsun pocet umrti Fronta cz Retrieved 29 September 2015 Supporting analyses Search database PDF Europarl europa eu Retrieved 29 September 2015 Testa 2021 p 26 Testa 2021 p 30 Testa 2021 pp 3 20 Jakob Th Moller United Nations Human Rights Committee Case Law N P Engel Verlag Kehl am Rhein 2009 The German exodus 1 March 2004 Czech German Declaration 1997 PDF Retrieved 3 March 2022 http launch praguemonitor com en 56 czech national news 4131 Retrieved 4 April 2007 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Missing or empty title help Retrieved April 4 2007 dead link Memorandum o transferu Nemcu a Madaru z CSR Fronta cz Retrieved 25 March 2011 CNR 1990 1992 tisk 260E Psp cz Archived from the original on 5 June 2011 Retrieved 25 March 2011 Benesovy dekrety podivna diskuse Blisty cz Retrieved 25 March 2011 Zur Liquidierung unserer inneren Kriegsschuld Deutschlandfunk Retrieved 20 March 2019 Lastenausgleichsgesetz in German Memorandum on the Benes Decrees Archived from the original on 6 October 2007 Retrieved 6 April 2007 Further reading EditExecution of German Civilians in Prague 9 May 1945 Czech TV documentary perpetration disputed Adobe Flash Player 2 32 min Bracey S 2019 The Symmetry of Hypocrisy in Czech German Legal Conciliation 1989 1997 Central European History 52 3 496 526 Capkova Katerina 2018 Between Expulsion and Rescue The Transports for German speaking Jews of Czechoslovakia in 1946 Holocaust and Genocide Studies 32 1 66 92 doi 10 1093 hgs dcy005 R M Douglas Orderly and Humane The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War Yale University Press 2012 ISBN 978 0 300 16660 6 Glassheim Eagle 2000 National Mythologies and Ethnic Cleansing The Expulsion of Czechoslovak Germans in 1945 Central European History 33 4 463 486 doi 10 1163 156916100746428 S2CID 145302399 Glassheim Eagle 2016 Cleansing the Czechoslovak Borderlands Migration Environment and Health in the Former Sudetenland University of Pittsburgh Press ISBN 978 0 8229 6426 1 Kittel Manfred Moller Horst 2006 Die Benes Dekrete und die Vertreibung der Deutschen im europaischen Vergleich Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte 54 4 541 581 doi 10 1524 VfZg 2006 54 4 541 ISSN 2196 7121 S2CID 144450653 Mrnka Jaromir 2020 The Moment between Occupation and Freedom Forms of Collective Violence at the End of World War II in the Czech Lands Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropa Forschung 69 4 471 494 ISSN 0948 8294 Testa Patrick A 2021 The Economic Legacy of Expulsion Lessons from Post War Czechoslovakia The Economic Journal 131 637 2233 2271 doi 10 1093 ej ueaa132 Tomas Stanek Internierung und Zwangsarbeit das Lagersystem in den bohmischen Landern 1945 1948 Originaltitel Tabory v ceskych zemich 1945 1948 ubersetzt von Eliska und Ralph Melville erganzt und aktualisiert vom Autor mit einer Einfuhrung von Andreas R Hofmann Oldenbourg Collegium Carolinum Munchen 2007 ISBN 978 3 486 56519 5 ISBN 978 3 944396 29 3 Veroffentlichungen des Collegium Carolinum Band 92 Tomas Stanek Verfolgung 1945 die Stellung der Deutschen in Bohmen Mahren und Schlesien ausserhalb der Lager und Gefangnisse ubersetzt von Otfrid Pustejovsky bearbeitet und teilweise ubersetzt von Walter Reichel Bohlau Wien Koln Weimar 2002 ISBN 3 205 99065 X Buchreihe des Institutes fur den Donauraum und Mitteleuropa Band 8 Suppan Arnold 2019 Hitler Benes Tito National Conflicts World Wars Genocides Expulsions and Divided Remembrance in East Central and Southeastern Europe 1848 2018 Austrian Academy of Sciences Press ISBN 978 3 7001 8410 2 JSTOR j ctvvh867x Zuckert Martin Schvarc Michal Fiamova Martina 2020 Die Evakuierung der Deutschen aus der Slowakei 1944 45 Verlauf Kontexte Folgen in German Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht ISBN 978 3 525 31075 5 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia amp oldid 1159434442, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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