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Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans After the Second World War

Page 59

by R. M. Douglas


  9. Statement of Hrneĉek, July 25, 1952, RG 466/250/84/32/04, box 50, NARA.

  10. Otto Lasch to CICR, March 3, 1946; G 97/1165, CICR; F. E. Kaplan, “Bericht über die Lage der deutsch-sprechenden Menschen in Jugoslawien,” April 1, 1946, G 97/1164, CICR.

  11. S. Jankowiak, Wysiedlenie i emigracja ludności Niemieckiej w polityce władz Polskich w latach 1945–1970 (Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2005), p. 44.

  12. Bogusław Kopka, who has compiled the most detailed database to date of the Polish forced-labor camp system, lists 206 establishments in operation between 1944 and 1950, though the existence of “wild” camps set up by local authorities continues to complicate any definitive count. Joël Kotek and Pierre Rigoulot estimate that in Czechoslovakia, some six hundred places of detention for Sudetendeutsche were to be found in Bohemia alone. B. Kopka, Obozy pracy w Polsce 1944–1950: Przewodnik encyklopedyczny (Warsaw: Karta, 2002); J. Kotek and P. Rigoulot, Le siècle des camps: Détention, concentration, extermination (Paris: Lattès, 2000), p. 534.

  13. Letter from Chief Commissioner, MZO Szczecin branch, March 14, 1947; A. Chorzewski, head of the Settlement Unit of the Szczecin Voivodeship Office, to Chief Commissioner, MZO, April 24, 1947, in W. Borodziej and H. Lemberg, eds., Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße 1945–1950: Dokumente aus polnischen Archiven, vol. 3: Wojewodschaft Posen, Wojewodschaft Stettin (Hinterpommern) (Marburg: Verlag Herder-Institut, 2004), pp. 513, 526 n. 1.

  14. T. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích 1945–1948 (Opava: Slezský ústav Slezkého zemského muzea, 1996), p. 99. See also the directive by the Ministry of the Interior ordering the closure of “improvised internment camps” for “Germans, sometimes even with members of their families,” and requiring the conveyance of their inmates to duly authorized camps, Predvoj, August 29, 1945.

  15. W. Menzel to CICR Geneva, February 12, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR.

  16. L. Olejnik, Zdrajcy narodu? Losy volksdeutschów w Polsce po II wojnie światowej (Warsaw: Trio, 2006), p. 75.

  17. See, e.g., Office of the Pomeranian Voivodeship to the Świece powiat administration, September 14, 1945, directing that “all Germans” were “to be interned in camps and put out to labor without pay.” Quoted in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 4: Wojewodschaften Pommerellen und Danzig, Wojewodschaft Breslau (Marburg: Verlag Herder-Institut, 2004), p. 126.

  18. Olejnik, Zdrajcy narodu? p. 133.

  19. T. Staněk and A. von Arburg, “Organizované divoké odsuny? Úloha ústředních státních orgánů při provádění “evakuace” německého obyvatelstva (květen až září 1945),” part 2: “Ĉeskoslovenská armáda vytváři ‘hotové skuteĉnosti,’ vláda je před cizinou legitimizuje,” Soudobé dějiny 13:1–2 (January 2006): 22.

  20. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, p. 23.

  21. S. Gabzdilová and M. Olejnik, “Proces internácie nemeckého obyvatel’stva na Slovensku v rokoch 1945–1946,” Historický ĉasopis 50:3 (2002): 425.

  22. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, pp. 105–6.

  23. Maj. W. Bradbury, Combined Repatriation Executive, to Gen. S. R. Mickelsen, chief, Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Division, January 19, 1946, Office of Military Government for Germany, Records of the Civil Administration Division: The Combined Repatriation Executive, U.S. Elements: Records re Interzonal Population Transfers, 1945–49,” RG 260/390/42/26–27/6-1, box 227, “Movement of Sudeten-Germans (Vol. I)” file, NARA.

  24. Unsigned memorandum, “Les camps de concentration du gouvernement Tito dans le Batchka,” dated July 1947, unsigned and undated (c. August 1947) “Liste de camps ou lieux de confinement de personnes appartenant à la minorité éthnique allemande en Yougoslavie (civils),” G 97/1164, CICR.

  25. V. Geiger, “Josip Broz Tito i sudbina jugoslavenskih Nijemaca,” Ĉasopis za suvre-menu povijest 40:3 (September 2008): 57; Z. Janjetović, “The Disappearance of the Germans from Yugoslavia: Expulsion or Emigration?” Revue des études sud-est européennes 40:1 (2002): 227; M. Portmann, “Repression und Widerstand auf dem Land: Die kommunistische Landwirtschaftspolitik in der jugoslawischen Vojvodina (1944 bis 1953),” Südost-Forschungen 65/66 (2006/2007): 349.

  26. H. G. Beckh, International Committee of the Red Cross, “Rapport de la mission de M. Beckh en Bavière (Furth i[m]/W[ald] et Munich) du 16 au 23.3.50,” n.d., G 97/ 1158, CICR; J.-L. Muller, L’expulsion des allemands de Hongrie: Politique internationale et destin méconnu d’une minorité (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2001), p. 67.

  27. H. F. A. Schoenfeld, U.S. Representative in Hungary, to E. Stettinius, June 27, 1945. FRUS: Diplomatic Papers, 1945: General: Political and Economic Matters, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 1259.

  28. H. G. Beckh, “Compte-rendu d’un entretien du 9.4.46 entre MM. Kolb et de Steiger, délégués, et M. Beckh concernant les minorités en Roumanie,” April 11, 1946, G 97/ 1165, CICR; Osservatore Romano, September 30, 1944.

  29. R. W. Zweig, “Feeding the Camps: Allied Blockade Policy and the Relief of Concentration Camps in Germany, 1944–1945,” Historical Journal 41:3 (1998): 826.

  30. See J. Caplan, “Political Detention and the Origin of the Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany, 1933–1935/6,” in N. Gregor, ed., Nazism, War and Genocide: Essays in Honour of Jeremy Noakes (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2005), pp. 22–41.

  31. B. Kopka, “Polski Gułag,” Wprost, March 24, 2002; E. Nowak, Lager im Oppelner Schlesien im System der Nachkriegslager in Polen (1945–1950): Geschichte und Implikationen (Opole: Zentrales Kriegsgefangenenmuseum Lambinowice-Opole, 2003), p. 57.

  32. W. Menzel, head of CICR delegation, Prague, to P. Kuhne, January 28, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR.

  33. Georges Dunand, “Camp d’internés civils de Patronka (Bratislava),” July 25, 1945, G 97/1160, CICR.

  34. Jean Duchosal, secretary general, CICR, “Internment Camps in Slovakia,” January 4, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR. The French-speaking Duchosal was writing in English, and by “cave” he no doubt meant “cellar” (cave in French).

  35. Report of inspection by Dr. Josef Markowicz, March 31, 1947, MZO 196/541b, AAN.

  36. Unsigned memorandum, “Les Camps de Concentration du Gouvernment Tito dans le Batchka,” dated July 1947, G 97/1164, CICR.

  37. New York Times, April 20 and 29, 1946; extract from report of CICR Prague delegation, quoted in E. de Ribaupierre to Mme Dainow, October 2, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR; D. Gerlach, “Beyond Expulsion: The Emergence of ‘Unwanted Elements’ in the Postwar Czech Borderlands, 1945–1950,” East European Politics and Societies 24:2 (May 2010): 278; E. Hrabovec, “Neue Aspekte zur ersten Phase der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Mähren 1945,” in R. G. Plaschka, H. Haselsteiner, et al., eds., Nationale Frage und Vertreibung in der Tschechoslowakei und Ungarn 1938–1948: Aktuelle Forschungen (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997), p. 122.

  38. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 6, 2002. See also the statement by the Czechoslovak ambassador to the United States, V. S. Hurban, Washington Post, September 26, 1945.

  39. Beckh to G. Dunand, June 12, 1946; unsigned memorandum, “Les Camps de Concentration du Gouvernement Tito dans le Batchka,” dated July 1947, G 97/1164, CICR.

  40. See, e.g., Lt.-Col. W. Alkan, RAMC, to the Allied Control Commission for Austria, June 21, 1946, FO 1020/2470.

  41. Memorandum by F/O A. Reitzner, RAF, n.d. (c. September 1945), FO 371/46901.

  42. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, p. 25.

  43. A. Dziurok and A. Majcher, “Salomon Morel and the camp at Świętochłowice-Zgoda,” http://www.ipn.gov.pl/portal/en/2/71. The prisoner, Eric van Calsteren, was one of at least forty-two foreigners, of thirteen different nationalities, known to have been interned at Świętochłowice.

  44. Statement of a twenty-six-year-old female Potulice detainee, n.d., covered by letter from O. P. Brennscheidt (the author’s cousin) to the CICR, June 15, 1947, G 97/1159, CICR.

  45. Herr Lang, Government Commissioner for
Refugee Organisation, Regensburg, to the State Secretariat for Refugee Organisation, Munich, August 17, 1948, covering testimony of Walter Hacker and Herbert Loges, fifteen-year-old escapees from Bunzlau, G 97/1156, CICR.

  46. Unsigned “Constatations que nos délégués ont faites au cours du mois de juillet 1947 sur la situation des civils internés en Tchécoslovaquie,” August 27, 1947, G 97/1162, CICR.

  47. T. Staněk, Pováleĉné “excesy” v ĉeskych zemích v roce 1945 a jejich vyšetřování (Prague: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny, 2005), p. 79. For official categorizations of Polish camps, see W. Stankowski, Lager für Deutsche in Polen am Beispiel Pommerellen/Westpreußen (1945–1990): Durchsicht und Analyse der polnischen Archivalien (Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen, 2001), pp. 37–9.

  48. See, e.g., interview with Prime Minister Zdeněk Fierlinger, Bulletin of the Ministry of Information, 1st Department, Prague, September 8, 1945; Gabzdilová and Olejnik, “Proces internácie nemeckého obyvatel’stva,” 432.

  49. See, e.g., circular letter from Dr. Novák, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, November 17, 1945, MV-NR, box 7450, file B 1469.

  50. See circular letter of Ministry of the Interior to all Regional National Councils, November 17, 1945, MV-NR, box 7450, file B 1478.

  51. Unsigned minute, c. August 20, 1945, Mirošov camp records, fond 534, box 1, file 18, SOA, Plzeň.

  52. P. Nichols to Sir O. Sargent, August 11, 1945, FO 371/47154.

  53. Nitschke, Wysiedlenie ludności niemieckiej z Polski, p. 98.

  54. A. Dziurok, Obóz pracy w Świętochłowicach w 1945 roku: Dokumenty, zeznania, relacje, list y (Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2002).

  55. W. Borodziej, “Einleitung,” in Borodziej and Lemberg, eds., Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 1: Zentrale Behörden, Wojewodschaft Allenstein (Marburg: Verlag Herder-Institut, 2000), p. 94; W. R. Dubiański, Obóz Pracy w Mysłowicach w latach 1945–1946 (Katowice: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, 2004), pp. 77, 80.

  56. Letter from Officer Krenc, Bydgoszcz Civil Registry Office, to the Pomeranian Provincial Voivodship, December 4, 1945, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 4, p. 167; see also Kopka, “Polski Gułag.”

  57. Nitschke, Wysiedlenie ludności niemieckiej z Polski, pp. 97–98.

  58. An exception to this generalization was the incidence of sexual assault or coercion of prisoners by other inmates. Birgit Beck has also pointed out that members of the German armed forces stationed in occupied countries observed no such restraint with respect to the unincarcerated civilian population. See J. G. Morrison, Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women’s Concentration Camp 1939–45 (Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2000), p. 229; B. Beck, “Sexual Violence and Its Prosecution by Courts Martial of the Wehrmacht,” in R. Chickering, S. Förster, and B. Greiner, eds., A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 317–331.

  59. Thus Přemysl Pitter recorded the 1945 case of a German woman in a Prague camp who had been raped 120 times over the course of several weeks. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, p. 85.

  60. Unsigned “Extrait d’un rapport de camp fait par un observateur étranger,” August 1945; second report, same title and date, G 97/1160, CICR.

  61. J. Duchosal, “Internment Camps in Slovakia,” January 4, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR.

  62. G. Dunand, “Camp d’internés civils de Patronka (Bratislava),” July 25, 1945, G 97/ 1160, CICR.

  63. Copy of Royal Artillery, “W” Assembly Centre, Leibnitz, report, n.d. (c. September 1946); Capt. R. Camidge to Central Civil Affairs Office, Control Commission for Austria (British Element), September 19, 1946, FO 1020/2470.

  64. Report by Antoni Białecki, Deputy Director, Division IV, Katowice Voivodeship Office for Public Security, May 16, 1945; report by staff of the 8th Self-Defense Battalion of the Internal Security Corps, August 8, 1945, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 2: Zentralpolen, Wojewodschaft Schlesien (Oberschlesien) (Marburg: Verlag Herder-Institut, 2003), pp. 83, 101.

  65. Statement of twenty-six-year-old Potulice detainee, G 97/1159, CICR.

  66. Statement by Wilhelm Lubberich to the Hamburg Red Cross, February 2, 1949, ibid.

  67. Quoted in Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, p. 80.

  68. Captain Dix, 313 Field Security Section, Frontier Control, to Styria District Security Office, March 24, 1947, FO 1020/2471.

  69. Captain of Police Václav Heřmanov, regulations for employment of Mirošov detainees, June 3, 1945, Mirošov camp records, fond 534, box 2, file 15, SOA, Plzeň.

  70. Staněk, Tábory v ĉeskych zemích, p. 113.

  71. See, e.g., the complaint of the Velkostatek Liblín-Libštejn-Zikov firm, Liblín, to the District National Committee, Rokycany, September 6, 1945, Mirošov camp records, fond 534, box 2, file 13, SOA, Plzeň.

  72. Strážmistr Grédl, SNB, to the Terešov SNB, August 16, 1945, Mirošov camp records, fond 534, box 1, file 10, SOA, Plzeň.

  73. Report by I. Cedrowski on sanitary conditions in Pomerania Voivodeship prisons and camps for the period January 1, 1946–March 1, 1947, April 11, 1947, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 4, p. 263.

  74. See, e.g., M. Schenk-Sopher, “Note on Conditions in ‘Rupa’ Internment Camp,” July 17, 1945, ÚPV-T, box 11, item 488.

  75. Gabzdilová and Olejnik, “Proces internácie nemeckého obyvatel’stva,” 433.

  76. P. W. Mock, “Camp d’internés civils de Petržalka (Bratislava),” November 6, 1945; same, “Camp d’internés civils de Trnavská Cesta, Bratislava,” November 15, 1945, G 97/1160, CICR.

  77. Dr. B. Nohel, “Bericht über Besuch des Spitals ‘Selmovska,’” n.d. (c. May 1946), G 97/1161, CICR.

  78. Report by A. Białecki, May 16, 1945, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 2, p. 82.

  79. Quoted in Olejnik, Zdrajcy narodu, p. 153.

  80. British Embassy, Belgrade, to Southern Department, Foreign Office, July 18, 1946, FO 371/55525.

  81. See, e.g., memorandum by Dr. Haas, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, for the Office of the Prime Minister, November 30, 1946, ÚPV, box 1163, file 1424/4.

  82. See, e.g., telegram from Nichols to Foreign Office, June 19, 1945, FO 371/47088; same, “Weekly Information Summary for week of July 31–August 6, 1945,” August 6, 1945, FO 371/47091; same, “Weekly Information Summary for week of August 17–22, 1946,” August 23, 1946, FO 371/56004; report by Major E. M. Tobin, Kaławsk, n.d. (c. April 1946), FO 1052/324; Lt.-Col. F. L. Carroll, “German Expellee Movement from Poland—Tour of Lt.-Col. F. L. Carroll, in Company with Cmdr. T. Konarski, Polish Representative, Combined Repatriation Executive,” March 1, 1946, FO 1052/470; J. H. Marton, “A Forgotten People,” Contemporary Review, January 1947.

  83. Minute by Major P. B. Monahan, Directorate of Civil Affairs (Displaced Persons), February 4, 1946, FO 938/241.

  84. The CICR delivered another 2.5 tonnes of food to the Ruzyně camp near Prague at the same time, but was unable to determine what had happened to it. Menzel to Paul Kuhne, January 28, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR.

  85. Menzel to Max Huber, president of the CICR, September 14, 1945, G 97/1160, CICR; inspection report by Menzel on visits to Modřany, Ruzyně, Hradištko, and Štěchovice camps, n.d. (c. October 21, 1945), G 97/1160, CICR.

  86. Death certificates for Mirošov camp, May 11–October 18, 1945, Mirošov camp records, fond 534, box 2, file 15, SOA, Plzeň; inspection report by Menzel on visits to Modřany, Ruzyně, Hradištko, and Štěchovice camps, n.d. (c. October 21, 1945), G 97/1160, CICR.

  87. Unsigned memorandum, “Les Camps de Concentration du Gouvernement Tito dans le Batchka,” dated July 1947, G 97/1164, CICR.

  88. Minute by J. Colville, August 15, 1946, FO 371/55525.

  89. Quoted in B. Soukupová, “Německá menšina v ĉeském veřejném mínění po druhé světové v�
�lce: Několik poznámek k etnickému klimatu v postevropském ĉase,” Historica [Ostrava] 16 (2009): 284.

  90. Draft telegram from Nichols to C. F. A. Warner, Foreign Office, June 25, 1945, FO 817/14.

  91. Col. J. H. Fye, “Final Report—Transfer of German Populations from Czechoslovakia to U.S. Zone, Germany,” November 30, 1946, p. 7, Margaret Eleanor Fait papers, accession no. 84040–9.02, box 4, file 16, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.

  92. Letter from Kežmarok District National Committee to the Slovak National Council, July 27, 1945, quoted in Gabzdilová and Olejník, “Proces internácie nemeckého obyvatel’stva,” 427.

  93. As a result of Obzory’s revelations, the Ministry of Information suppressed the journal and initiated criminal proceedings against its editors and publishers in December 1945. These were eventually dropped and the paper reappeared after receiving an official censure, only to be banned once again, this time permanently, following the 1948 coup. See M. Drápala, “Na ztracené vartě západu: Poznámky k ĉeské politické publicistice nesocialistického zaměření v letech 1945–48,” Soudobé dějiny 5:1 (January 1998): 16–24.

  94. Obzory 1:12 (November 20, 1945): 177–8.

  95. Ibid., 1:14 (December 8, 1945): 210.

  96. Letter from František Jilek, ibid., 220.

  97. Letter from Hanuš Wollner, ibid., 220–1.

  98. Letter from Dr. Bedřich Bobek, ibid., 219.

  99. Olejnik, Zdrajcy narodu? p. 169.

  100. Gedye had gained access to Hagibor by posing as a Red Cross official. Daily Herald, October 9, 1945; Yorkshire Post, June 11, 1945; Daily Mail, October 4, 1945.

  101. Steinhardt to James F. Byrnes, October 3, 1945, U. S. Embassy, Czechoslovakia, Classified General Records, 1945–1957, Department of State records RG 84, 350/54/13/03, box 1, NARA.

  102. Nichols to C. F. A. Warner, Foreign Office, July 30, 1945; Sir O. Sargent to Nichols, August 24, 1945, FO 371/47154.

  103. Memorandum by H. Krajewski, State Repatriation Office, Szczecin, October 29, 1946, MZO 196/541b.

 

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