Brno death march
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The Brno march, sometimes also called a death march[1][2] [3] (German: Brünner Todesmarsch) started late on the night of 30 May 1945[1] when the German population of Brno, Czechoslovakia was expelled to Austria.
This expulsion of about 20,000 Germans from Brno was directed by the Zemský národní výbor initiative. The psychological motivation of the action was probably negative experiences during the German Nazi occupation.[4]. Brno, along with Ostrava, were cities where German forces did not surrender and the Allies had to gain it in a firefight. The group of Germans was forced to march 56 kilometres (35 mi) south towards the border to Austria[4].
Most of the victims were not adult men since most were prisoners of war (POWs) at the time. The main tragedy happened when Austria refused to accept refugees and sent them back. They were interned in the villages near Pohořelice. There were about 800 confirmed deaths which included natural causes, diseases and violent crimes. Some sources claim there were 1300 - 8000 deaths, but those are not based on the investigation evidence[4].
Agent Bedřich Pokorný, who had already organized the Ústí massacre of hundreds of ethnic Germans in Ústí nad Labem (German: Aussig an der Elbe) on 31 July 1945, was behind the act which happened towards the end of the Potsdam conference (17 July to 2 August 1945).
After the war there were several attempts to confirm the statement there were thousands people shot, Austrian historian Emilia Hrabowecz was engaged in but was unable to substantiate such claims. She mentioned that old people and young tired children were on the trucks and some of them were in the arms of Czechoslovak guards[4]. In 2002, the joint commission of German and Czech historians collected evidence and created a book Rozumět dějinám (Understanding History).
[edit] References
- ^ a b Rozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 208
- ^ Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948, by Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, 2001 [1]
- ^ After the Reich: The Brutal History of Allied Occupation, by Giles MacDonogh, 2007 ISBN 0465003370
- ^ a b c d Rozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 209
