World War II evacuation and expulsion

World War II evacuation and expulsion refers to evacuation of the German citizens from the Eastern areas overrun by the Red Army. Main ares of evacuation were: East Prussia, General Government, Danzig-West Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, Wartheland,Bohemia and Slovakia,Hungary. Other nations involved in evacuation were Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Belorussians, Ukrainians and Russians.

The Red Army had entered the easternmost tip of Prussia by August 29, 1944. Massacres and rapes of civilians committed by the Soviet troops spread panic in the province and caused many to flee in long trecks. Prisoners of war were send to Siberia, a fate many feared. Many Germans committed suizid.

When the Red Army approached other parts of eastern Germany, Germans fled. Heavy Soviet assaults were overrunning the eastern German lands (since 1945 Western Poland), more than 2 million refuges died (according to a later published statistic from Western Germany Goverment around 200,000 women during rape). A large part of the population of East Prussia died during the harsh winter as they crossed the ice along the Baltic coast. Caravans of fleeing people and hastily assembled private evacuation transports were often bombed, and evacuation ships were torpedoed by submarines. The Germans suffered the fate they had planed for the Slavs. Attempts were made by the Germans to demolish everything in order to slow the Soviet advance. Children as young as 12 were send to the front line.

This pattern would in the following months repeat itself across the whole of East Prussia, and then spread to West Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia. Fleeing in panic, the citizens of Germany refugees trudged in great columns through the snow at -25°C, while Soviet aircraft performed shellfire raids on them. Many were killed and sick had to be left dying on the road, while the survivors attempted to rescue what they could, carrying their possessions with them. Many women had to give birth in the open, leaving their newborns to die.

The result of German evacuation was sanctioned by the Potsdam conference that called for further expulsion of Germans still living outside the borders of Germany. In June 1945, most of the remaining Germans had to leaf the eastern provinces and were not allowed to return. Only several 10,000s tried to stay, stating familiar relationships with Poles or other Slav minorities.