[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] expulsion of Germans from the East at the end of the Second World War

[Sigrid Pohl Perry]

To all,

My family also lived through forced resettlement in Poland in 1940 and 
escape from the advancing Russian army early 1945. The recent issue of 
the New York Review of Books reviewed a book published last year by R.M. 
Douglas: Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans After the 
Second World War. Douglas's book tells the story of the forced 
relocation of 12 to 14 million ethnic Germans from central and southern 
Europe after borders were changed by treaty. Most of these refugees were 
women and children because the men had already been drafted into the 
German army and some 500,000 died during the journey to a Germany ill 
equipped to care for them.

The review by Paul Wilson, "Kicking the Germans Out of the East," can be 
read here:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/may/23/kicking-germans-out-east/?pagination=false

Another review of Douglas's book is here: 
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/orderly-and-humane-the-expulsion-of-the-germans-after-the-second-world-war-by-rm-douglas-8076666.html

It is available in some libraries. An hour long podcast is available: 
http://newbooksinhistory.com/2013/02/14/r-m-douglas-orderly-and-humane-the-expulsion-of-the-germans-after-the-second-world-war-yale-up-2012/ 


Survivors were often reluctant to talk about these experiences in 
families, and history books both in Germany and abroad have ignored the 
story until recently.

Sigrid Pohl Perry

On 5/13/2013 6:26 PM, Helen Gillespie wrote:
> To all,
>
> Some members of the listserv might have families that experienced the expulsion from Eastern Europe during the Second World War. Sometimes these folks did not talk about their experiences.
>
>
> The German magazine Der Spiegel regularly puts special issues covering specific topics.  In 2002, they covered the flight and expulsion of Germans from the East. Unfortunately it is in German.  The PDF versions (on the left side of the page) do include some photos.  Some are pretty grim.Although the articles don't cover Wolhynians specifically, their experiences would be about the same.
>
>
>
> http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelspecial/index-2002-2.html
>
> My own family experienced some of this.
>
>   
> Helen
>
> ---------------------------------
>
>
> The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
> --Herbert Spencer
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