Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans After the Second World War
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104. P. Kuhne to Otto Lasch, German Red Cross, April 15, 1946, G 97/1165, CICR.
105. G. Dunand, “Conversations et audiences à Prague,” May 25, 1945, G 97/1165, CICR. Two days previously, Václav Nosek had warned the Czechoslovak cabinet about the level of scrutiny exercised by the CICR. See Staněk and von Arburg, “Organizované divoké odsuny?” part 3: “Snaha vlády a civilních úradu o řízení ‘Divokého Odsunu,’” Soudobé dějiny 13:3–4 (January 2006): 322.
106. Olga Milošević, Secretary General, Yugoslav Red Cross, to CICR Geneva, G 94/1164, CICR.
107. Beckh, “Compte-rendu d’entretiens que le soussigné a eux [sic] avec M. Ehrenhold le 2.2.1949,” February 2, 1949; “Compte-rendu d’un entretien avec M. Boesch le 27.5.1946,” n.d., G 97/1159, CICR.
108. A. Kędzia, “Działalność opiekuńcza i lecznicza Polskiego Czerwonego Krzyśa w akcji repatriacyjnej i przesiedleńczej na Pomorzu Zachodnim,” Archiwum historii i filozofii medycyny 64:2–3 (2001): 175–188.
109. See A.-L. Sans, “‘Aussi humainement que possible’: Le Comité International de la Croix-Rouge et l’expulsion des minorités allemandes d’Europe de l’Est 1945–1950 (Pologne-Tchécoslovaquie),” M.A. thesis, University of Geneva, 2003.
110. Menzel to CICR Geneva, February 18, 1946, G 97/1161, CICR.
111. See J.-C. Favez, Une mission impossible? Le CICR, les déportations et les camps de concentration nazis (Lausanne: Payot, 1988).
112. Beckh to F. Siordet and E. de Weck, November 9, 1949, G 97/1164, CICR. See also telegram from British Embassy, Belgrade, to Foreign Office, September 1, 1946, FO 371/55525.
113. British Embassy, Belgrade, to Southern Department, Foreign Office, December 14, 1945; telegram from German Department, Foreign Office, to British Embassy, Belgrade, March 14, 1946, FO 371/55525.
114. Foreign Office to Belgrade Embassy, November 15, 1946, FO 371/55525.
115. Telegram from Belgrade Embassy to Foreign Office, August 19, 1946, FO 371/55525.
116. Telegram from Belgrade Embassy to Foreign Office, September 1, 1946, FO 371/55525.
117. Daily Herald, March 11, 1946. At a speech in Sheffield the previous spring, John Hynd noted that the lowest standard of nutrition provided to inmates at Belsen during the war had been 800 calories a day.
118. Manchester Guardian, October 10, 1946.
119. Dr. Haas to Office of the Prime Minister, October 30, 1945, ÚPV, box 1163, file 1424/4; Manchester Guardian, November 20, 1946.
120. CICR Prague delegation to Division des Prisonniers, Internés et Civils (PIC), CICR Geneva, November 21, 1948, G 97/1161, CICR.
121. O. Lehner, Prague delegation, CICR, to PIC Division, January 30, 1947, G 97/1162, CICR.
122. Statement of J. Dolezel, July 31, 1952, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, OMGUS/HICOG Criminal Court Case Files, Berlin, 1945–1955, Department of State records RG 466/250/84/32/04, box 53, NARA.
123. Beckh, “Exposé sur l’activité que le CICR a déployé dans le domaine des “Volksdeutsche” et Allemands de l’Est—Problèmes encore à resoudre,” May 10, 1949, G 97/1158, CICR; A. C. White, Control Commission for Germany (British Element), report of interrogation of Gerda Schreinert, ex-detainee of Jaworzno camp, March 12, 1949, FO 1110/172.
124. J. A. Graf, adjunct delegate, CICR Bucharest delegation, to CICR Geneva, June 12, 1946, G 97/1165, CICR.
125. C. Reichard, CICR delegation, Prague, to P. Colombo, CICR Geneva, July 14, 1947, G 97/1162, CICR.
126. The Volksdeutsche internment facility at the former Auschwitz main camp (Auschwitz I) had a capacity of fifteen hundred. After the release or transfer to other camps of the last ethnic Germans in April 1947, it was briefly used as a detention center for members of Poland’s Ukrainian minority arrested under a later ethnic cleansing scheme, Operation “Wisła” (Vistula), before being converted into a permanent memorial site in 1948. Kopka, Obozy pracy w Polsce, pp. 147–8.
127. Note for the Minister of Public Administration concerning the Interministerial Commission for Volksdeutsch Labor Camp Affairs, January 31, 1949, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 1, p. 394.
128. At the then prevailing rates of exchange, approximately fifteen dollars, or three weeks’ wages for an ordinary laborer.
129. Intelligence Organisation, Allied Council for Austria (British Element), “Movement of Volksdeutsche into the British Zone of Austria,” June 13, 1947. FO 1020/2748.
130. Prague Embassy to Northern Department, Foreign Office, March 4, 1949, FO 1110/171.
131. G. MacDonogh, After the Reich: From the Liberation of Vienna to the Berlin Airlift (London: John Murray, 2007), p. 157; Der Spiegel, November 4, 1951.
132. T. Staněk, Verfolgung 1945: Die Stellung der Deutschen in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien (außerhalb der Lager und Gefängnisse) (Vienna: Böhlau, 2002), p. 156.
133. Jewish Daily Forward, July 29, 2005.
134. In 2008 Tadeusz Skowyra, then eighty-four years of age, was charged in Katowice with offenses carrying a maximum three-year sentence, in respect of his tenure as commandant of Mysłowice camp in Upper Silesia. As of the date of publication of this book, the trial—probably the last of its kind to be held in Poland—had not taken place. Die Welt, May 19, 2008.
135. Deutsche National-Zeitung, Verbrecher-Album der Sieger: Die 100 furchtbarsten Schreibtischtäter und Vollstrecker des Vernichtungskrieges gegen Deutschland (Munich: FZ-Verlag, 1997).
136. M. H. Tenz, The Innocent Must Pay: Memoirs of a Danube German Girl in a Yugoslavian Death Camp 1944–1948 (Bismarck, ND: University of Mary Press, 1991).
CHAPTER 6. THE “ORGANIZED EXPULSIONS”
1. Maj. F. A. C. Boothby, No. 1 Liaison Team, Kaławsk, to Lt.-Col. B. I. James, Refugees Branch, Military Government, Hanover, “Report on Train No. 165,” May 18, 1946, FO 1049/515.
2. Memorandum by Maj. E. Nelsen Exton, Chief Protective Officer, UNRRA HQ, British Army of the Rhine, July 2, 1946; Capt. F. Garner, “Report on Train No. 165 (Jewish),” n.d., FO 1049/515.
3. Maj.-Gen. G. W. E. J. Erskine, Office of the Deputy Military Governor, Control Commission for Germany (British Element) (CCG [BE]) to the Control Office for Germany and Austria (COGA), July 23, 1946, FO 1032/836.
4. Unsigned and undated “Extract from a Report by an Officer of PW & DP [Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons] Division Visiting Marienthal Transit Camp on 6/7th July 46.”; memorandum by Erskine, July 23, 1946, FO 1049/515.
5. CRX’s permanent staff consisted of two officers appointed by each of the four occupying powers and a representative of UNRRA. Additional experts were appointed by the occupying powers as required. Lt.-Gen. F. E. Morgan, Chief of Operations, UNRRA German Mission, Field Informational Letter no. 12, October 22, 1945, Series S-0527, box 0090, UNRRA Subject Files 1943–1949, “Repatriation—Conditions Affecting Poland” file, vol. 1, UNRRA records, United Nations Archive, New York City.
6. N. Davies and R. Moorhouse, Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City (London: Jonathan Cape, 2002), p. 437.
7. Kenchington to Col. A. C. Todd, Deputy Chief, Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Division, CCG (BE), January 5, 1946; Advanced Headquarters, CCG (BE), Berlin, to Main HQ, CCG (BE), Lübbecke, January 29, 1946, FO 1052/470.
8. Statement of Lord Jowitt, Parliamentary Debates, Lords, 5th ser., vol. 139, col. 82 (January 30, 1946).
9. Advanced Headquarters, CCG (BE), Berlin, to Main HQ, CCG (BE), Lübbecke, February 13, 1946, FO 1052/470.
10. Maj. A. K. Jones, PW & DP Division, CCG (BE), n.d. (c. February 1947), FO 1052/472.
11. Agreement between Lt.-Col. F. L. Carroll, British Representative, Combined Repatriation Executive, Berlin, and Lt.-Cmdr. T. Konarski, Polish Representative, February 14, 1945, FO 945/560.
12. Agreement between M. Trunov, Director General and Representative of the Delegation of the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany, and Dr. A. Kuĉera, Counsellor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Representative for the Evacuation of G
ermans from the Czechoslovak Republic, June 1, 1946, FO 1052/471; agreement between Lt.-Col. Maslennikov, Soviet Representative, Combined Repatriation Executive, and Konarski, May 5, 1946, in P. Lippóczy and T. Walichnowski, eds., Przesiedlenie ludności niemieckiej z Polski po II wojnie światowej w świetle dokumentów (Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1982), pp. 68–9.
13. Red Cross memorandum, January 9, 1946; Walter Menzel to CICR Geneva, March 4, 1946, Archives Générales 1918–1950, B 97/IV, box 1161, CICR.
14. Col. J. H. Fye, “Final Report—Transfer of German Populations from Czechoslovakia to U.S. Zone, Germany,” November 30, 1946, pp. 7, 10, 15, Margaret Eleanor Fait papers, accession no. 84040–9.02, box 4, file 16, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.
15. “Summary of minutes of a meeting held on 8th and 9th January [1946] between Czechoslovak and United States authorities regarding arrangements for the transfer of Czechoslovak Germans to the American zone of occupation in Germany,” n.d., FO 1049/297; undated and unsigned CRX memorandum, c. winter 1946, Office of the Military Government for Germany, Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Branch, RG 260/390/42/24–25/7–1, box 128, NARA.
16. Memorandum by W. Barker, First Secretary, British Embassy, Prague, December 18, 1945, FO 817/14.
17. Fye, “Final Report,” p. 16.
18. Telegram from W. Mitchell Carse, British Political Mission, Budapest, to Foreign Office, December 13, 1945, FO 371/55390; telegram from CRX to CCG (BE), December 22, 1945, FO 1032/2284.
19. Footage from the film, preserved in the Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, may be seen online at http://resources.ushmm.org/film/display/main.php?search=simple&dquery=Tape+Number%3A+920&cache_file=uia_dtfAHp&total_recs=2&page_len=25&page=1&rec=2&file_num=1475.
20. O. Bamborough, British Consul, Karlovy Vary, to P. Nichols, British Ambassador, Prague, January 26, 1946, FO 945/432.
21. A. L. Lloyd, “A People Moves Out,” Picture Post, August 17, 1946.
22. Reuter’s news agency report, February 13, 1946, FO 371/55391; Capt. D. Bloodworth, “Report on Visits to Budaors on 30 and 31 Jan 46 to Inspect Arrangements for Deportation of Schwabians,” February 1, 1946, ibid.; telegram from Maj.-Gen. W. S. Key, U.S. representative, ACC (H), to the commanding officer, United States Forces Austria (Rear), Salzburg, January 20, 1946, FO 1032/2284; Lt.-Col. H. G. Reeder II, PW & DP Division, to General S. R. Mickelsen, chief, PW & DP Division, January 30, 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 221. “C.R.X. Memos to Polish Representative” file, NARA.
23. Monsignor P. Ramatschi, Wrocław archdiocese, “Report on the First Red-Cross Train which Brought Sick, Old, Care-Needing and Bed-Ridden Persons from Breslau to Aurich,” July 1, 1946, FO 1049/515.
24. Manchester Guardian, March 10, 1946.
25. Report by Dr. Busekirt, medical adviser to Military Government 508 (R) Detachment, Lübeck, March 8, 1946, FO 1052/323.
26. Report by Lieut. C. M. Weldon, Commandant, Pöppendorf camp, March 7, 1946, FO 1052/470.
27. Lt.-Col. F. C. Davis, Military Government, Westphalia Region, to PW & DP Division, CCG (BE), May 15, 1946, FO 1052/323.
28. Col. R. M. Jerram, PW & DP Division, “Operation Swallow: Extract from Various Reports, Letters and Visits of British Staff Officers,” n.d. (c. March 1946), appendix B: statistical table of first 112 Swallow arriving trains, March 19, 1946, FO 1052/323.
29. Memorandum by officer commanding, MilGov, Land Westfalen, March 13, 1946, FO 1052/470.
30. Maj. A. K. Jones, “A Report on SWALLOW and the Visit to 508 R/Det and 626 DP/ Det by Majors Barber and Jones of PW and DP Division,” April 5, 1946, FO 1052/323. The British cartoonist Frederick Roland Emett (“Rowland Emmett”) was renowned for his drawings of comically dilapidated and obsolete trains, many of which resembled the absurdist creations of his American contemporary, Rube Goldberg.
31. 709 (R) Detachment, Military Government, “Second Report on Swallow Trains,” n.d. (c. March 25, 1946), FO 1052/470.
32. Jerram, “Operation Swallow: Extract from Various Reports, appendix B: first 112 Swallow arriving trains, March 19, 1946, FO 1052/323; Brigadier A. G. Kenchington, Chief of Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Division, CCG (BE) to the Deputy Chief of Staff (Policy), British Army of the Rhine, April 30, 1946, FO 1052/471.
33. Extract from report by officer commanding, Military Government Grasleben Detachment, n.d. (c. March 1946), FO 1052/323.
34. Jerram, “Operation Swallow: Extracts from Various Reports.”
35. Major Bieostocki [sic], Commandant of the Group of Operations, Kaławsk, to the British Liaison Team, n.d. (c. June 28, 1946), FO 1052/474.
36. Memorandum by Lieut. C. Weldon, Commandant, Pöppendorf Camp, for 8 Corps HQ, Military Government, March 7, 1946, FO 1052/471.
37. Lt.-Col. F. L. Carroll, CRX, to Lt.-Cmdr. T. Konarski, May 20, 1946, FO 1052/324.
38. Memorandum by No. 1 British Liaison Team, Kaławsk, June 4, 1946, FO 1052/324.
39. Telegram from 709 (R) Detachment, Military Government, to CCG (BE) Main HQ, Lübbecke, April 23, 1946, FO 1052/323.
40. Lt.-Col. H. L. V. Beddington, Commanding Officer, No. 2 Liaison Team, Szczecin, to Kenchington, Weekly Report no. 6, June 18, 1946, FO 1052/324.
41. Jerram to Advance HQ, CCG (BE), Berlin, April 26, 1946, FO 1052/474; memorandum by No. 1 British Liaison Team, Kaławsk, June 4, 1946, FO 1052/374.
42. Boothby to Wolski, June 26, 1946, FO 1052/474.
43. Memorandum by Col. Zdzisław Bibrowski, Polish Repatriation Mission, Berlin, March 11, 1946, MZO 196/527a/B-5638.
44. Kazimierz Kuźmicki to Roman Fundowicz, Commissar for German Repatriation Affairs, Wrocław, August 12, 1946, MZO 541b/B-7414.
45. Telegram from CCG (BE), Berlin to CCG (BE), Lübbecke, April 2, 1946, FO 1052/470.
46. Transcript of broadcast by Radio Warsaw, March 27, 1946, FO 371/55393.
47. Troutbeck to Mark Turner, COGA, April 12, 1946, FO 371/55392.
48. Telegram from Foreign Office to Cavendish-Bentinck, April 10, 1946, FO 371/55393.
49. Telegram from Cavendish-Bentinck to Foreign Office, April 13, 1946, FO 371/55393.
50. Telegram from Cavendish-Bentinck to Foreign Office, April 15, 1946, FO 371/55393; F. Savery to R. M. A. Hankey, April 23, 1946, FO 371/55394.
51. Wilberforce to Troutbeck, April 4, 1946, FO 945/67.
52. Minute by A. A. E. Franklin, n.d. (c. April 19, 1946), FO 371/55394.
53. Minute by D. Allen, April 19, 1946, FO 371/55394.
54. Telegram from CCG (BE), Advance HQ, Berlin, to War Office, May 1, 1946, FO 945/67.
55. Telegram from Bevin to Cavendish-Bentinck, May 7, 1946, FO 371/55393.
56. Telegram from Strang to British Embassy, Warsaw, March 28, 1946.
57. Lt.-Col. P. F. A. Growse, “Report by Liaison Team, Kohlfurt, up to 3 May 1946,” May 4, 1946, FO 1052/474.
58. Minute by Beddington, April 6, 1946, FO 1052/323.
59. S. Jankowiak, “‘Cleansing’ Poland of Germans: The Province of Pomerania, 1945–1949,” in P. Ther and A. Siljak, eds., Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe 1944–1948 (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), p. 95.
60. Dr. Ilse Reicke–von Hülsen, “The Situation of the Women during the Polish Occupation,” n.d., enclosed with letter from Col. R. Jones, HQ Military Government, Lower Saxony, to Political Division, CCG (BE), Berlin, December 27, 1946, FO 1049/521.
61. MZO instruction notes, n.d. (c. 1946), MZO 541d/B-7416; A. Anatol, “Material do okolnika MZO dot. repatriacji niemców,” January 13, 1946, MZO 527a/B-5638.
62. J. Walters, British Vice Consul, Szczecin, May 26, 1946, FO 371/56596.
63. Memorandum by Wacław Majewski, MZO, Warsaw, August 21, 1948, MZO 541h/B-7420.
64. Jank
owiac, “‘Cleansing’ Poland of Germans,” p. 100.
65. P. Dudkiewicz, Starost of Wolinsky Powiat, to the Settlement Department, Szczecin, August 5, 1947, MZO 541h/B-7420.
66. J. Chumiński and E. Kaszuba, “The Breslau Germans under Polish Rule 1945–1946: Conditions of Life, Political Attitudes, Expulsion,” Studia Historiae Oeconomicae 22 (1997): 98.
67. Memorandum by Inspector J. Lipiński, PUR, Szczecin, July 16, 1948, MZO 541h/B-7420.
68. Memorandum by L. Lacisz, Inspection Department, MZO, June 2, 1947, MZO 541b/ B-7414.
69. Report by Maj. E. M. Tobin, Commanding Officer, Marienthal transit camp, n.d. (c. April 1946), FO 1052/324.
70. Telegram from CCG (BE), Lübbecke, to CCG (BE), Berlin, May 30, 1946, FO 1072/471.
71. Telegram from CCG (BE), Lübbecke, to CCG (BE), Berlin, May 31, 1946, FO 1052/474.
72. Boothby to the Voivode, Lower Silesia, May 17, 1946, MZO 541f/B-7418.
73. Boothby to Lt.-Col. B. I. James, 229 (P) Det Mil Gov, Hanover, May 19, 1946, FO 1052/474.
74. Boothby to James, May 25, 1946, FO 1052/474.
75. See, e.g., manifests of expulsion trains to Soviet zone, December 14–24, 1946 inclusive, MZO 527e/B-7334.
76. Report of the Inspection Department, MZO, on inspection on March 12–13, 1946, of Assembly Camp no. 3 (Szczecin-Gumieńce), April 15, 1946, 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), p. 454.
77. Extract from report of No. 2 British Liaison Team, Szczecin, in letter from Maj. F. J. Sibley, CRX, to PW & DP Division, Berlin, January 20, 1947, FO 1052/472.
78. Beddington to Kenchington, April 18, 1946, FO 1052/323.
79. Statement by Friedrich Geppert, transport leader of train no. 76, April 7, 1946, FO 1052/474.
80. Cavendish-Bentinck to R. M. A. Hankey, October 16, 1946, FO 1049/515.
81. Capt. F. Garner, commanding officer, no. 2 British liaison team, Szczecin, to Kenchington, February 1, 1947, FO 1052/475.
82. Monthly report for March 1947 by Dr. Władysław Michno, head of the PUR Health Unit, Szczecin, April 5, 1947, in Borodziej and Lemberg, Die Deutschen östlich von Oder und Neiße, vol. 3, p. 514.