| Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after World War II |
|---|
| (demographic estimates) |
| Background |
| German exodus from Eastern Europe Nazi–Soviet population transfers Potsdam Agreement |
| Wartime flight and evacuation |
| German evacuation East Prussia |
| Post-war flight and expulsion |
| Czechoslovakia Poland (incl. former German territories) Netherlands Romania |
| Later emigration |
| Emigration from Poland |
Demographic estimates of the flight and expulsion of Germans have been derived by either addition of registered refugees and expellees or by comparison of pre-war and post-war population data. Estimates of the number of displaced Germans vary in the range of 12.0–16.5 million. The deaths of about 500,000 to 600,000 are verified; estimates derived with the population balance method put the death toll at about two million.
Contents |
Due to a lack of accurate records listing confirmed deaths, estimates of German population transfers from 1945–1950 and associated deaths depended upon a population balance methodology. West German government official figures derived during the 1950s using the population balance method put the death toll at about 2 million. Recently some German historians believe the death toll is closer to 500,000 based on recently disclosed documentation that listed only confirmed deaths. The wide range of estimates stems from a number of factors. First, the ethnic German population in 1939 was by no means certain because bilingual persons were of dubious German Cultural heritage. Second, Civilian losses were overstated because German military casualties in 1945 were poorly documented. Third, After the war it was difficult to gather reliable population data; post war census data in eastern Europe did not breakout the ethnic German population and during the Cold War there was a lack of cooperation between West Germany and eastern European countries in the effort to locate persons reported missing. Persons reported missing may have been living in eastern Europe after having been assimilated into the local population. Estimates of total populations expelled and deaths often include figures from the evacuation, because these people were not allowed to return, thus making it difficult to arrive at an accurate and undisputed estimate of population movements and deaths due solely to the expulsions. Some of the differences may arise from political bias, as the expulsion of Germans was widely utilized as political weapon during the Cold War.
There are also disputes over the definition of "expulsion", which may cover the flight and evacuation during the war as well as forced labor and internment before expulsion and deaths due to malnutrition and disease in the post war era. The estimated losses include civilians killed in battle during the flight and evacuation in the final months of the war as well as direct intentional actions of violent soldiers, militias and senseless killings by opportunistic mobs and individuals in the immediate aftermath of the war. Other deaths occurred in post war internment camps and the deportation to the USSR for forced labor. The privations of a forced migration in a postwar environment characterized by crime, chaos, famine, disease, and cold winter conditions added to the death toll. West German sources give only rough estimates to attribute the proportions of these deaths to specific causes.
The estimates can be classified by methodology into two main groups:
Studies of this kind try to count individual deaths, by various means. Sources may include registry death records, police and military records, church files of missing and killed persons, or reports of relatives.
Studies using the population balance methodology tend to yield higher estimates than those based on detailed research.
In 1953 the West German government set up a unified body (the Erhebung zur Klärung des Schicksals der Vertriebenen) to trace the individual fates of those persons who were dead or missing as result of the Expulsions. The information was compiled from the records of the local communities in Eastern Europe(Soll-Listen)and information provided by survivors of the Expulsions. They were able to survey the records(Soll-Listeen) of 31,362 local communities that encompassed 8.6 million persons,only one half of all Germans in the territory of the Expulsions. The German Red Cross sent 2.8 million questionnaires to survivors to obtain relevant information on the fates of the dead and missing. By 1964 conclusions and final report was issued by the Suchdienst (search service) of the German churches which was able to confirm 473,013 civilian deaths in eastern Europe (detailed as follows: 58,256 violent deaths ; 14,356 suicides; 49,542 forced labor dead ; 80,522 in the transit camps prior to expulsion; 93,283 during in the flight west; 63,876 after the expulsions; 112,612 cause undetermined; 566 other deaths). There were an additional 1,905,991 cases of persons reported missing whose fate could not be determined by 1964. This report remained confidential until the end of the Cold War. Dr.Rüdiger Overmans revealed a summary of this unpublished data at a 1994 historical symposium in Poland. Overmans pointed out that the figures are incomplete and only a partial not an exact accounting of total deaths. Overmans believes that since there are only about 500,000 confirmed deaths of German civilians in eastern Europe, the balance being a demographic estimate, that new research on the number of expulsion deaths is needed. The information from the Search Service was also used by the West German government when compiling the 1958 statistical analysis Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste which is detailed below.[1] The German historian Ingo Haar believes the Church Service study has provided a more realistic view of the total deaths due to the expulsions. After its completion, the German church numbers were archived and not released to the general public - according to Ingo Haar, this was due to a fear that they were "too low" and would lead to "politically undesirable conclusions".[2][3]
On 28 May 1974, the West German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) issued a report following a directive of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to "compile and evaluate information available in the Federal Archives and elsewhere regarding crimes and brutalities committed against Germans in the course of the expulsion".[4] In particular, the report was to identify deaths due to crimes against international law: the 1958 report of the Federal Office for Statistics listed as "post-war losses" two million people whose fate remained unaccounted for in the population balance, but who according to the 1974 report were "not exclusively victims of crimes against international law".[5] The report defined the term "expulsion" (Vertreibung) "according to its prevailing interpretation", i.e. the "whole uprooting process".[6] Sources used for the report were:
The final report included deaths confirmed by at least two independent sources.[10] Deaths reported by one source only were rejected unless they met certain reliability criteria laid out in a catalogue adopted from Schieder et al. (1958): Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mittewleuropa Vol. I/1, page IIIf.[10] The report states that the sources hint at the magnitude of crimes, but are not sufficient for a thorough statistic.[11] Of only a faction of the sources it is said that they detail names and number of victims, others would merely point to crime scenes but do not elaborate on numbers and details.[11] Especially the extent of crimes in larger municipalities and, with few exceptions, in camps and prisons is not replicable with the sources given according to the report.[11]
In the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line, the reviewers identified 3,250 crime scenes in the sources.[11] For 630 of those, the number of victims could not be established, while 23,200 people were identified who died at the other 2,620 scenes.[11] To estimate a total number of casualties, the 1974 report relied on a data set retrieved from the 1964 Church Search Service report compiling the most complete of the "soul lists".[12] For 455 rural communities of East Prussia and 432 rural communities of Pomerania, these lists reported 1,731 and 1,278 people killed, respectively, which is about 1% of their 1939 population (152,124 and 137,709 inhabitants, respectively).[12] To the number of these identified deaths added the number of 4,000 missing, some of whom may also be unconfirmed deaths.[12] The 1974 report then relates the 1% confirmed deaths as a minimum value to the 1939 population of the former eastern territories of Germany set at 9.6 million people, thus receiving a number of at least 96,000 people killed in that area during the expulsion.[12] Similarly it was estimated that at least 19,000 people were killed during the expulsions from the area of pre-war Poland, which was calculated as 1% of 1,9 million Germans living there in 1944.[13] On the premise that in the area of pre-war Poland, 20% more people were overrun by the advancing Red Army than in areas occupied later on, the number was adjusted to above 20,000, resulting in a total of at least 120,000 people killed east of the Oder and Neisse rivers.[13] Furthermore, it was estimated that 200,000 people were incarcerated in Polish-run and 110,000 in Soviet-run camps and prisons in that area with death rates between 20% and 50%.[14] Therefore, it was estimated that at least 100,000 people died in these camps and prisons.[15] Another 200,000 people died as a result of deportation to the USSR, based on German Red Cross estimates.[15] From addition of these values, the report found that east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, at least 400,000 people died during the expulsions.[15]
Of the abovementioned sources, 2,000 were concerned with Czechoslovakia (including Sudetenland).[16] Of those, only a faction included reliable numbers of killed Germans adding to about 6,000 confirmed deaths.[16] The report cites an estimate by Kurt W. Böhme (1965): Gesucht wird..., p. 264, according to whom 350.000 Germans were interned in camps, about 100,000 of whom died.[17] From the sources, the 1974 report says that the numbers of the interned are likely to be higher, and refers to another study by A. Bohmann (1959): Das Sudetendeutschtum in Zahlen, p. 199, presenting an estimate of up to one million internees.[17] The report further states that from Czechoslovakia, relatively few Germans were deportated to the USSR.[17]
For Yugoslavia, the report says that their sources confirm that about 7,200 Germans were killed outside of camps.[18] The researchers suspected that the numbers given in the sources are in part inflated, but also referred to sources reporting other killings without quantifying the victims.[18] Adding to those numbers the victims of executions of camp inmates, the report estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 Germans died a "violent death".[18] The report thereby refers to sources about 49 large camps, where of an estimated total of 67,000 deaths about 8,000 were due to violence, and the rest primarily due to starvation, disease and maltreatment.[18] For many small camps and prisons, as well as for Yugoslav German POWs shot in captivity by partisans, the report lacked detailed sources.[19] Regarding the numbers of Yugoslav Germans deported to the USSR, the report refers to Theodor Schieder et al. (1958): Dokumentation der Vertreibung vol. V, p. 97E, citing the numbers of 27,000 to 30,000 deportees and the respective death toll of 4,500 people given there.[20] The report postulates that at least 80,000 Yugoslav Germans died during the expulsions.[20]
The report concludes that
The report summarizes the abovementioned findings as follows: A total of at least 600,000 Germans died during the expulsion, at least 400,000 of whom died east of the Oder-Neisse line, at least 130,000 in Czechoslovakia and at least 80,000 in Yugoslavia.[21]
Rüdiger Overmans believes that the 1974 report is only a partial not a definitive accounting of total deaths in the expulsions.[1] However, the German historian Ingo Haar believes the Archives study has provided a more realistic view of the total deaths due to the expulsions.[2][3]
In early 1945, the then German city of Swinemünde (Świnoujście in contemporary Poland) was the destination port for refugees from East Prussia. On the 12th of March 1945, the US Eighth Air Force raided the city.[22] Due to uncertainty concerning the number of refugees within the city the exact number of casualties is unknown. As the capacity of air raid shelters was limited to the regular populace, many refugees were killed at the spa gardens.[23] The motor vessel Andros, carrying about 2,000 refugees, had just arrived at the harbour and was sunk with the loss of about 570 people.[23] About 500 victims of the raid were identified and buried close to the entrance of the cemetery and the remaining dead were buried in mass graves. The estimated number of victims, including residents of Swinemünde who were also encompassed by the expulsions, varies from about 5,000 to 23,000.[24] 1958 the West German Government demographic study of expellee deaths estimated the total civilian dead in the East Pommerian region due to Anglo-American air raids after 1/31/45 at 8,000.[25] The German War Graves Commission estimates that 20,000 victims are buried at the Golm War Cemetery with further burials within the town limits.
An unknown number of refugees from the east were among the estimated total 18,000-25,000 dead in the Bombing of Dresden in World War II. The German historian Rüdiger Overmans believes that “the number of refugee dead in the Dresden bombing was only a few hundred, hardly thousands or tens of thousands” [26]
Estimates for the population losses in the Expulsions that appear in historical literature are ultimately derived from reports published by the German government. The "methodology" behind these figures is a computation of the estimated population deficit.
The West German government statistical office was responsible for analyzing the figures relating to the losses. In 1958 they issued a final report, estimating a demographic loss of some 2.225 million German civilians in all of eastern Europe. The figures listed in the table below are from this report Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste(The German Expulsion Casualties)
| Description | German Population 1939 | War Deaths | Population growth 1939-50 | Remained in East Europe & USSR 1950 | Expelled by 1950 | Unresolved Cases (post war losses) [27] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany 1937 Borders(Eastern Provinces) | 9,575,200 | 667,500 | 546,000 | 1,134,000 | 6,981,000 | 1,338,700 |
| Poland 1939 Borders | 1,371,000 | 108,000 | 46,000 | 436,000 | 688,000 | 185,000 |
| Free City of Danzig | 380,000 | 22,000 | 22,000 | 4,000 | 290,800 | 83,200 |
| Czechoslovakia | 3,477,000 | 180,000 | 235,000 | 258,700 | 3,000,400 | 272,900 |
| Baltic States | 249,500 | 15,000 | 5,700 | 19,300 | 169,500 | 51,400 |
| Yugoslavia | 536,800 | 40,000 | 23,500 | 87,000 | 297,500 | 135,800 |
| Hungary | 623,000 | 32,000 | 17,000 | 338,000 | 213,000 | 57,000 |
| Romania | 786,000 | 35,000 | 41,000 | 438,000 | 253,000 | 101,000 |
| Total | 16,998,500 | 1,099,500 | 936,200 | 2,717,000 | 11,893,200 | 2,225,000 |
Source:
Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Verlag W. Kohlhammer, 1958[28]
The West German government report of 1958, using prewar population figures, wartime estimates and postwar figures from both German states and in Eastern Europe, concluded that 3,325,000 people died war and expulsions, and estimated that 1,100,000 of these were war dead, including 11,500 civilians killed by Allied Strategic Bombing (up until 1/31/1945), thus reducing the number of civilian deaths in the flight during the war and the subsequent expulsions to 2.225 million.[29] The 1958 German government report also listed a total of approximately 12.0 million who were actually expelled. The summary table in the West German government statistical office report uses a description giving total "post war losses" of 2.225 million persons, however the detailed analysis in the text lists 169,000 civilian deaths during the flight and evacuation during the war ( 128,000 pre-war Germany, 35,000 Czechoslovakia and 4,000 Hungary). The figures in the report also include losses during the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union.[30]
Notes
The principal weakness of statistical calculation is in uncertainty of input parameters, such as war losses. For example, the German researcher Rüdiger Overmans published a study, Deutsche Militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg (German military losses in the Second World War), that revises war losses upwards from older estimates. As in the population-balance approach all these numbers are tightly interconnected, this means revision of deaths related to expulsion would be also necessary.
Another example can be quoted from the Opinion of Czech-German commission of historians, explaining how recent changes in the estimated number of Sudeten Germans in East Germany would influence the result of balance calculations in case of Czechoslovakia
Ingo Haar of the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University of Berlin said on 14 November 2006 in Deutschlandfunk that about 500,000 to 600,000 victims are realistic, based on a German governmental study initiated in the 1960s and published in 1974, reporting 400,000 deaths east of the Oder-Neisse line and 100,000 deaths in Czechoslovakia.[46] Haar said these numbers were compiled from actually reported deaths, while higher figures of about two million deaths were estimated with the population balance method in a German governmental study of 1958.[46] Haar said the higher estimates must be seen in the historical context of the 1950s, when the government of West Germany needed high numbers for political reasons.[46] Military historian Rüdiger Overmans said on 6 December 2006 in Deutschlandfunk that only the about 500,000 registered deaths could be counted, and that the unaccounted cases calculated with the population balance method need first be confirmed by further research.[47]
A U.S. Congressional report from 1950 placed the number of Germans subject to deportation at about 16.5 million. According to this study, about 2 million Germans were "lost on the way".[48] In 1958, U.S. Congressman B. Carroll Reece charged that 3 million German civilians had died during the expulsions.[49] These early estimates have been at the extreme high end of the range of estimates. Subsequent calculations have arrived at far lower figures ranging from 1.2 to 2.1 million deaths.
The German foundation Centre Against Expulsions of the Federation of Expellees has compiled the following data from various sources.[50]
| Time period | Number of expellees (incl. deaths) |
Group expelled | Expelled by | Expelled, deported, fled from |
To | Deaths* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 1941 - Jun 1942 | 900,000 | Russian-Germans | Soviet Union | Ukraine, Volga Republic, Caucasus, etc. | Siberia, Central Asia, etc. | 210,000 |
| Oct 1944 - Mar 1948 | 200,000 | Germans | Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia | Germany, Austria | 62,500 |
| Jan/Feb 1945 | 75,000 | Germans | Soviet Union, Romanians | Romania | USSR | 11,000 |
| 1944 - 1948 | 2,209,000 | Germans | Poland, Soviet Union | East Germany, East Prussia | West Germany, Middle Germany | 299,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 5,820,000 | Germans | Poland | former East Germany, Pomerania, East Brandenburg, Silesia | West Germany, Middle Germany | 914,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 367,000 | Germans | Poland | Free State of Danzig | West Germany, Middle Germany | 83,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 3,159,000 | Germans | Czechoslovakia | Czechoslovakia | West Germany, Middle Germany, Austria | 238,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 857,000 | Germans | Poland | Poland | West Germany, Middle Germany | 185,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 320,000 | Baltic Germans, Romanian-Germans, etc. | Poland, Soviet Union | Poland, East Germany | West Germany, Middle Germany | 99,000 |
| 1945 - 1948 | 30,000 | Baltic Germans, Romanian-Germans, etc. | Soviet Union | Poland, East Germany | Siberia, Central Asia | 10,000 |
| 1945 - 1946 | 280,000 | Russian-Germans | Soviet Union, Western Allies | Middle Germany | Siberia, Central Asia, etc. | 90,000 |
| 1946 - 1948 | 250,000 | Germans | Hungary | Hungary | Germany, Austria | 6,000 |
| Totals | 13,567,000 | 2,207,500 |
This more detailed accounting is susceptible to specific objections and questions about the meaning of the numbers. While the table is presented as estimates of the number of expelled, and column Expelled by suggests which government was responsible, these assertions have been questioned. The following points are relevant to the interpretation of the above statistics
In the Czech Republic these events are not referred to as expulsions, rather they use the expression "Odsun" meaning "evacuation" in English. In the case of Czech Republic, The 1996 Report of the Commission on the losses connected with the transfer, which was prepared a the joint Czech-German Historical Commission . It reported that the number of deaths was 15,000 to 30,000 and that number of 220,000 estimated by the Centre Against Expulsions is not supported by the evidence. The Commission was abel to confirm 15,580 deaths related to the expulsions and an additional 6,667 suicides, a total of 22,247 confirmed deaths. In the final report the Commission raised the total estimated maximum to 30,000 deaths in order to account for the possibility of unreported deaths.The commission found that the demographic estimates by the German government of 220,000 to 270,000 civilian deaths due to expulsions from Czechoslovakia were based on faulty data. The Commission determined that the demographic estimates by the German government counted as missing 90,000 ethnic Germans assimilated into the Czech population; military deaths were understated and that the 1950 census data used to compute the demographic losses was unreliable.[43] [10] [43]
Developing a clear picture of the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia is difficult because of the chaotic conditions that existed at the end of the war. There was no stable central government and record-keeping was non-existent. Many of the events that occurred during that period were spontaneous and local rather than being the result of coordinated policy directives from a central government. Among these spontaneous events was the removal and detention of the Sudeten Germans which was triggered by the strong anti-German sentiment at the grass-roots level and organized by local officials.
Records of food rationing coupons show approximately 3,325,000 inhabitants of occupied Sudetenland in May 1945. Of these, about 500,000 were Czechs or other non-Germans. Thus, there were approximately 2,725,000 Germans in occupied Sudetenland in May 1945.
On the initiative of the joint Czech-German Commission of Historians, a statistical and demographic investigation was conducted, resulting in the publication of the "Opinion of the Commission on the losses connected with the transfer". The number that the commission arrived at has since been accepted by a large section of the historians, press and media in other countries:
The organizations of the ethnic German Expellees from Yugoslavia have traced the fate of the civilians who perished in the expulsions. In 1991-1995 the results of their research were published in a four volume study that listed the names and cause of death of each person. The following is a summary of their findings.
| Description | Before Internment | In Internment Camps | In Flight from Internment Camps | In the USSR | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Murdered | 7,199 | 558 | 79 | 7,836 | |
| Driven to Death | 154 | 60 | 0 | 214 | |
| Deaths while escaping | 143 | 143 | |||
| Starvation | 47,654 | 47,654 | |||
| In Forced Labor | 0 | 0 | 1,994 | 1,994 | |
| Missing | 696 | 175 | 18 | 889 | |
| Total | 8,049 | 48,447 | 240 | 1,994 | 58,730 |
The report also listed the deaths of 605 civilians killed in military operations outside of Yugoslavia and 26,064 men who were dead and missing in the German Armed forces. The report mentioned that a total of 166,970 civilians were interned by the Yugoslav authorities and an additional 12,380 were deported to the USSR as forced laborers.
Source: Leidensweg der Deutschen im kommunistischen Jugoslawien / verfasst vom Arbeitskreis Dokumentation im Bundesverband der Landsmannschaft der Donauschwaben aus Jugoslawien, Sindelfingen, und in der Donauschwäbischen Kulturstiftung, München. Imprint München : Die Stiftung, 1991-1995. Vol 4 p. 1018–1019[54]
In Poland these events are not referred to as expulsions, rather they use the expression Wysiedlenie i emigracja ludności niemieckiej The Deportation and Emigration of the German people.
A 2005 study in Poland reported the data of Polish government indicated that about 4 million Germans remained on Polish territory in mid 1945, out of the pre war population of about 10 million. The remaining balance were killed in the war, held as POWs or had fled to Germany in the final months of the war. By 1950 about 3.0 million persons had been deported from Poland and 1.1 million persons were verified as Polish citizens. .[55]
By 1964 the Suchdienst (search service) of the German churches was able to confirm 367,392 civilian deaths from the territory of contemporary Poland (detailed as follows: 44,603 violent deaths ; 10,330 suicides; 32,947 forced labor dead ; 27,847 in the transit camps prior to expulsion; 86,860 during in the flight west; 57,814 after the expulsions; 106,991 cause undetermined). There were an additional 1,404,993 unconfirmed cases of persons reported dead and missing.[1]
The 1974 Report of the German archives estimated 60,000 German civilians died in Polish communist camps and 40,0000 in Soviet detention in Poland. Not including 100,000 killed by the Red army and their Allies during the war and 200,000 in forced labor in the USSR.
The Polish historian Bernadetta Nitschke has provided a summary of the research in Poland on the calculation of German losses due to the flight and resettlement of the Germans from Poland only, not including other eastern European countries. Nitschke contrasted the estimate of 1.6 million deaths in Poland reported in 1958 by the West German government with the more recent figure of 400,000 that was detailed by Rudiger Overmans in 1994. She noted that the Polish researcher Stefan Banasiak estimated in 1963 that the death toll was 1.136 million, a figure accepted by other Polish historians who maintain that that most of the deaths occurred during the flight and evacuation during the war, the deportation to the U.S.S.R. for forced labor and after the resettlement due to the harsh conditions in the Soviet occupation zone in post war Germany.[56] This is in sharp contrast to the 1958 West German government Schieder commission report which maintained that these deaths occurred after the war on Polish territory.
2,612,000 Germans left Poland in 02.1946 - 12.1949 according to S. Jankowiak,[57] as cited by B. Nitschke.
During the pre-Potsdam expulsions, many Germans were forced to march over 100 and sometimes even 200 kilometres.[58] Different estimates of the number of Germans expelled by People's Army of Poland alone during pre-Potsdam deportations (all numbers after Jankowiak)[59]: 365,000 - 1,200,000 Germans were deported by Polish administration.[60]
The 1958 German government report of 1958 listed 7,960,000 expellees from Poland (including the pre-war territories of Germany, Poland and Danzig). This figure includes those persons who fled during the war and returned POWs as well as those who left Poland after the war.
Estimated Deaths
Former German citizens remaining in Poland after 1950 in the Oder-Neisse territories are put at 1.1 million according to 1950 Polish Census figures including "autochthons" – Polish-speaking or bilingual German citizens – in Upper Silesia, Masuria and West Prussia.[55] This figure was confirmed by the 1950 German government demographic study of the population. Dr. Gerhard Reichling in 1995 put the total number at 1.3 million in 1950(Note: A significant proportion of Germans remaining in postwar Poland were allowed to emigrate after 1956 and benifited as a result of Brandt's Ostpolitik.)
| Year | Estimate | Source | Reference | Provided in | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 3,000,000 | West German Government | Wirtschaft und Statistik April 1950 | This was a preliminary demographic estimate of the losses by the West German government which included 1.5 million from pre-war eastern Germany and 1.5 million ethnic Germans from East Europe, and is no longer considered valid. At this time only 162,000 missing had been registered with the government. | |
| 1953 | 3,140,000 | Gotthold Rhode | The first attempt to compute the losses was made in 1953 by the German scholar Gotthold Rhode who estimated civilian and military dead and missing in the area of the expulsions at 3,140,000. This estimate is no longer considered valid. | ||
| 1954–1961 | 2,300,000 | Schieder commission | Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa | Details by country Poland 2,000,000; Czechoslovakia 225,600; Yugoslavia 69,000; Rumania 20,000; Hungary 11,000[65] The statistical information in the Schieder Report was later superseded by the 1958 German Government demographic study. | |
| 1958 | 3,000,000 | U.S. Congressman B. Carroll Reece | Based on 1950 West German estimate, no longer considered valid. Charged that 3 million German civilians had died during the expulsions.[49] | ||
| 1958 | 2,225,000 | Statistisches Bundesamt German Federal Statistics Office |
Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste, 1939–50 (German losses from expulsion, 1939–50) German Federal Statistics Office. |
This is official German government report on losses. Does not include Soviet Germans. | |
| 1965 | 2,379,000 | German Church Search Service | Gesamterhebung zur Klärung des Schicksals der deutschen Bevölkerung in den Vertreibungsgebieten, (General compilation towards accounting for the fate of the German population in the areas of expulsion), Munich, 1965-German Church Service prepared this report.[66] | Figures were revealed by Dr. Rudiger Overmans in 1994. Includes 473,000 confirmed dead and 1,906,000 reported missing[1] | |
| 1965 | 473,000 | German Church Search Service | Polish translation of Haar after Süddeutsche Zeitung | Gazeta Wyborcza | Figure is derived from the German Church Service report mentioned above. Confirmed deaths only, does not include 1,906,000 reported missing but unconfirmed. |
| 1966 | 2,111,000 | Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims | Facts concerning the problem of the German expellees and refugees | West German government figure cited by Alfred de Zayas | |
| 1974 | 600,000 | German Federal Archive | Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen, 1945-1948 : Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974 : Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte | Includes estimated deaths due to acts of violence, deaths in camps and forced labor. Excludes losses resulting from war related famine and disease. | |
| 1974 | 400,000 | German Federal Archive | Polish translation of Haar after Süddeutsche Zeitung | Gazeta Wyborcza | Figures from German Federal Archive Report mentioned above for Poland only |
| 1977 | 2,111,000 | Alfred de Zayas | Alfred M. de Zayas: A terrible Revenge. Palgrave/Macmillan, New York, 1994-Page 152. | Figures from German Ministry of Expellees, 1967. | |
| 1982 | 2,800,000 | Heinz Nawratil | Schwarzbuch der Vertreibung 1945 bis 1948 (the black book of the expulsions 1945 to 1948) (Universitas Verlag, Munich, 9th edition 2001, p. 75) | Nawratil’s figures include the 1958 German government figure of 2.2 million dead plus 350,000 Soviet Germans and 250,000 Germans who were resettled in the Poland during the war which were not included in the 1958 demographic study. In 1987 the German historian Martin Broszat described Nawratil's writings as "polemics with a nationalist-rightist point of view and exaggerates in an absurd manner the scale of "expulsion crimes".[67] |
|
| 1995 | 2,020,000 | Dr. Gerhard Reichling | Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen (the German expellees in figures), Teil 1, Bonn 1995, Tabelle 7, page 36 | This report has the endorsement of the German government. Includes those who perished as a result of the expulsion and deportation for forced labor in the Soviet Union. Includes the deaths of 310,000 Soviet Germans, not included in 1958 report. | |
| 2000 | 500,000 confirmed deaths; 2,000,000 total demographic estimate | Rudiger Overmans | Deutsche Militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg (German military losses in the Second World War) The Overmans study did not investigate civilian losses, only military casualties, he merely noted that other studies estimated of expulsion losses were about 500,000. | Overmans believes new research on the number of expulsion deaths is needed since only 500,000 of the reported 2,000,00 deaths are confirmed.[1] | |
| 2003 | 600,000 | Bernadetta Nitschke | Wysiedlenie czy wypedzenie? ludnosc niemiecka w Polsce w latach 1945-1949 p. 240 | Wysiedlenie czy wypedzenie? ludnosc niemiecka w Polsce w latach 1945-1949p. 240 | Figure from 1974 German Archives report mentioned above. Nitschke cites a figure of 610,000 (including Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, resp.: 400,000 + 130,000 + 80,000; in "Wysiedlenie ...", p. 240). She also presented 600,000 in her earlier book available online at http://zbc.uz.zgora.pl/ (page 232) |
| 2006 | 500,000 to 600,000 | Ingo Haar | Deutschlandfunk web site | Figures from German Church Service and German Archives reports mentioned above. |