Orderly and Humane

Orderly and Humane PDF

Author: R. M. Douglas

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2012-06-26

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13: 0300183763

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The award-winning history of 12 million German-speaking civilians in Europe who were driven from their homes after WWII: “a major achievement” (New Republic). Immediately after the Second World War, the victorious Allies authorized the forced relocation of ethnic Germans from their homes across central and southern Europe to Germany. The numbers were almost unimaginable: between 12 and 14 million civilians, most of them women and children. And the losses were horrifying: at least five hundred thousand people, and perhaps many more, died while detained in former concentration camps, locked in trains, or after arriving in Germany malnourished, and homeless. In this authoritative and objective account, historian R.M. Douglas examines an aspect of European history that few have wished to confront, exploring how the forced migrations were conceived, planned, and executed, and how their legacy reverberates throughout central Europe today. The first comprehensive history of this immense manmade catastrophe, Orderly and Humane is an important study of the largest recorded episode of what we now call "ethnic cleansing." It may also be the most significant untold story of the World War II.

Forgotten Voices

Forgotten Voices PDF

Author: Ulrich Merten

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 1351519549

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The news agency Reuters reported in 2009 that a mass grave containing 1,800 bodies was found in Malbork, Poland. Polish authorities suspected that they were German civilians that were killed by advancing Soviet forces. A Polish archeologist supervising the exhumation, said, "We are dealing with a mass grave of civilians, probably of German origin. The presence of children . . . suggests they were civilians."During World War II, the German Nazi regime committed great crimes against innocent civilian victims: Jews, Poles, Russians, Serbs, and other people of Central and Eastern Europe. At war's end, however, innocent German civilians in turn became victims of crimes against humanity. Forgotten Voices lets these victims of ethnic cleansing tell their story in their own words, so that they and what they endured are not forgotten. This volume is an important supplement to the voices of victims of totalitarianism and has been written in order to keep the historical record clear.The root cause of this tragedy was ultimately the Nazi German regime. As a leading German historian, Hans-Ulrich Wehler has noted, "Germany should avoid creating a cult of victimization, and thus forgetting Auschwitz and the mass killing of Russians." Ulrich Merten argues that applying collective punishment to an entire people is a crime against humanity. He concludes that this should also be recognized as a European catastrophe, not only a German one, because of its magnitude and the broad violation of human rights that occurred on European soil.Supplementary maps and pictures are available online at http://www.forgottenvoices.net

Redrawing Nations

Redrawing Nations PDF

Author: Philipp Ther

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Published: 2001-11-13

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 1461642981

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After World War II, some 12 million Germans, 3 million Poles and Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of Hungarians were expelled from their homes and forced to migrate to their supposed countries of origin. Using freshly available materials from Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czechoslovak, German, British, and American archives, the contributors to this book provide a sweeping, detailed account of the turmoil caused by the huge wave of forced migration during the nascent Cold War. The book also documents the deep and lasting political, social, and economic consequences of this traumatic time, raising difficult questions about the effect of forced migration on postwar reconstruction, the rise of Communism, and the growing tensions between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. Those interested in European Cold-War history will find this book indispensable for understanding the profound—but hitherto little known—upheavals caused by the massive ethnic cleansing that took place from 1944 to 1948.

Nemesis at Potsdam

Nemesis at Potsdam PDF

Author: Alfred M. de Zayas

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-10-09

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1003809766

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First published in 1979, Nemesis at Potsdam discusses the expulsion and spoliation of the Germans from most of central and easter Europe during the Second World War, a process which over two million did not survive. How did this extraordinary event come about? Was it necessary for the peace of Europe? What role did Britain and the United States play in authorizing the ‘transfer’? The book answers these questions and relates the integration of the German expellees to the phenomenal resurgence of West Germany, and traces the development of Ostpolitik and détente through to the Helsinki Declaration. It will be of interest to students of history, international relations, and political science.

SILENT NO MORE

SILENT NO MORE PDF

Author: Erika Vora

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2012-07-18

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1477137823

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This book reveals untold living history of thirty ethnic German survivors who finally broke their silence and talked about their heart-breaking experiences of forced deportation, expulsion, and flight during WWII and its aftermath. They were deported from their homes in Romania and Yugoslavia; expelled from their homes in Czechoslovakia; and had to flee from their homes in Poland and all the Eastern provinces of Germany, These ethnic German survivors tell of their weeks-long treacherous over-crowded cattle-train transports, back-breaking work in forced labor camps, starvation and homelessness during bitter cold winters, witnessing mass rapes and beatings to death. They are among the fifteen million Germans who were expelled from their homes in East-Central Europe during the largest forced mass migration of the twentieth century. These now aged survivors, who experienced humanities darkest side but have no malice toward their perpetrators, exemplify the unbreakable and indelible human spirit.

Restitution and Memory

Restitution and Memory PDF

Author: Dan Diner

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9781845452209

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The myriad debates on restitution and memory, which have been going on in Europe for decades, indicate that World War II never ended. It is still very much with us, paradoxically re-invoked by the events of 1989/90 and the expansion of Europe to the east in the aftermath of the collapse of communism and economic globalization. The growing privatization and reprivatization in Eastern Europe revive pre-war memories that lay buried under the blanket of collectivization and nationalization of property after 1945. World War II did not only result in the death and destruction on a large scale but also in an a far-reaching revolution of existing property relations. This volume offers an assessment of the problematic of restitution and its close interconnection with the discourses of memory that have recently emerged.

Hitler's Gift

Hitler's Gift PDF

Author: Jean Medawar

Publisher: Piatkus Books

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13:

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'With material drawn from more than 20 surviving refungee scientists, this is an aweinspiring book.' The Sunday Telegraph'a fascinating account of the thousands of Jewish scientists who left Germany under the Nazis and enriched world science.' New Scientist

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