The atrocities and crimes committed against Germans in and after 1945

[Theobald]

http://www.historic-battles.com/Arti...Encounters.htm

Introduction

The tragic events that I am about to document in this report have been skimmed over, neglected, and sometimes, outright denied by many of those in the Historical community. Indeed, those who study this subject are often looked upon as trying to deny, or put in a good light the murders perpetrated by the Nazi regime across Europe, especially against the Jewish community. I can assure you, that is not my goal. My only goal in this project is to let events be told that have been largely neglected for decades. Those events are about the revenge taken out upon German prisoners, civilians, and Volksdeutsche (Ethnic Germans) across Eastern Europe, by the Red Army, and Eastern Europeans in general. That history is one of horror upon horror.

The Brewing Storm

By late 1944, the Red Army was grinding its way to the German Fatherland, coming within miles of East Prussia. The battles were no longer going to be fought over Soviet territory, hundreds of miles away, but were coming to German cities, German towns, and German streets. This is where the Soviets intended to get their revenge for the countless mass graves, often filled with hundreds of women and children, they had uncovered sweeping across the USSR (1), for the death camps they had discovered, often being told of the horrible acts committed there, and the tens of millions of their brothers and sisters, both military and civilian (2), killed, be it from a German soldier or an SS officer. Ilya Ehrenburg, a hate-propagandist for the Red Army, wrote, "If you have killed one German, kill another. There is nothing jollier than German corpses (3)." Such statements of Ehrenburg continued well into 1945, with the Red Army deep into German territory. Handmade posters were often put up in German towns stating, "Red Army Soldier! You are now on German soil; the hour of revenge has struck!(4)" A SS foreign intelligence report to the Fremde Heere Ost (5) in February, 1945 summed up the Soviet acts on German soil as, "not due to the orders of their superiors but the consequence of the fanatical anti-German propaganda in the USSR. (6)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, then a Soviet captain, wrote, "All of us knew very well that if the girls were German they could be raped and then shot.(7)" However, some Red Army soldiers stuck up for the German population, stopping their comrades from committing atrocities (8), and giving the German children food (9). A German soldier earlier on in the war predicted events right when he stated, "May God grant us victory because if they get their revenge, we're in for a hard time.(10)"

And so it begins

In October, 1944, the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front captured parts of the farming land in northeastern East Prussia, including the towns of Goldap and Nemmersdorff. In these towns and local areas, unspeakable atrocities took place, all within 48 hours under Soviet rule, after which the Germans launched a successful counterattack. No one was spared. Many civilians were crucified to barn doors. Both old grandparents and young grandchildren were murdered, often in the most brutal of manners, such as by beatings with a shovel or an axe. Nearly all of the females, including eight to twelve year olds, as well as eighty year olds, were raped (often gang-raped), and then usually shot. So wild was the Red Army's cruelty and thirst for revenge, between forty and fifty French prisoners-of-war, forced to work as slaves on the farms for the Germans, were hanged by the Soviets (11). Looting took place upon the dead bodies. These acts played right into the hands of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, who was portraying the Red Army as nothing more than brutal Asiatic hordes.

Silesia, East Prussia and other parts of East Germany

In mid-January, 1945, the Red Army once again started another massive offensive. This time, it brought the Soviets from several bridgeheads over the Vistula river to the Oder, miles away from Berlin (12). This offensive brought the Soviets upon areas of Silesia and East Prussia, which had a history of German origin dating back hundreds of years (13). These two areas would bear witness to one of the greatest sacks in history, destroying hundreds of years of German history with it. The German population had some sense of what was going to happen, as well. After being told countless stories by retreating refugees about the brutality of the coming Red Army, and seeing and hearing Goebbels' propaganda (especially about Nemmersdorf), according to Wehrmacht (14) estimates, some three and a half million civilians (15) were on there way to Germany from the east by late January, 1945. However, the majority stayed behind, mostly due to poor evacuation plans by the local Nazi Gauleiter (16), who sometimes ordered the civilians to stay. Many who stayed killed themselves even before the Red Army arrived, out of pure fear of what would happen (17). These Germans often only had minutes to leave after seeing Soviet tanks on the horizon. Those same Soviet tanks would often chase down and run over the treks (18) the refugees were using, sending bodies and debris flying into the air. Other civilians stayed behind, hoping the propaganda was wrong.

Germans who fled met very harsh winter conditions. Those on treks often had to ride through blinding blizzards on icy roads, causing their horses to slip continuously (19). Treks which crossed ice-covered sections of the Baltic sometimes fell through and sunk (20). Railroads were the fastest way to get to Germany, however, few had any heat. Many Silesians were taken by rail to Dresden, the capital of Saxony, where many trekkers had also arrived. In mid-February, at a time when there was the maximum number of refugees in Dresden (21), the city was terribly fire-bombed by the Allies, causing massive innocent death (22). Those without a land route could be saved by the Kriegsmarine (23). Indeed, two million Germans were saved this way, even after the war ended (24), but many thousands drowned after their ship was torpedoed by Soviet submarines.

As the Red Army swept to the Oder, its armies proceeded to rape and loot on a grand scale (25). In many areas, the first Soviet wave came from the Tank Armies. Usually, Soviet tankists did not have a lot of time to stop and rape, but due to their carrying capacity, they were some of the most effective looters of the war, packing their tanks with the loot (26). The Soviet tankists still managed to get in their fair share of revenge, however, by firing on refugee trains (27), and crushing treks, as described above.

The second wave was made up of Soviet riflemen, who beared the brunt of the Soviet war effort. Due to their trauma, the riflemen often drank any possible alcoholic liquid nearby (28), many taking it too far. In their drunken rage, the riflemen would set of for women. All types of women were raped. German nuns, young children (who often were not aware what was happening to them), old grandmothers, pregnant women (29), and nurses (30). Many times, these acts took place in front of the eye's of their family, in some cases, children had to hold the flashlight while their mothers were raped. In one case, after an elderly woman died due to the endless rapes, her body was still repeatedly violated (31). Men, such as brothers or fathers, who defended the women from such horror were often shot (32).

In other cases, whole groups of women were brought into Red Army barracks and were raped, often gang-raped, for days (33). Even local Poles (34), and Soviet women, recently liberated from Nazi camps, were raped (35). Nearly one and a half million Germans were raped in the areas of East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia (36). In Berlin, up to one hundred and thirty thousand were raped, with several thousand committing suicide soon after (37). Former Allied prisoners of war witnessed these actions as well (38).

With the idea of collective guilt, the Red Army both arrested and murdered thousands of former goverment officials, such as firemen and railway officials (39). In their rage, the Soviets often set fire to houses of those who had escaped their wrath, sometimes after herding refugees into the buildings beforehand (40). These fires were often poorly planned, and usually resulted in whole city blocks going up in flames (41). More damage was done to Eastern Germany by arson than by the fighting over such land (42). These acts angered both Soviet and Polish leaders (43), who had to cover the cost of rebuilding such areas.

Many orders were issued to stop the senseless destruction, restore discipline and halt the harassment of the German population (44). The fighting performance of the Red Army was greatly diminished. However, halting such acts was nearly impossible. If the officers were not involved themselves, which they often were, the task of stopping drunk and armed Soviet soldiers was hard to complete (45). Some order was restored to the areas designated to stay German by the end of summer (46), but brutality continued against Germans in the areas of Prussia and Silesia for years to come. (In East Prussia, the remaining German civilians were expelled from 1947 till 1948. This is because the Germans had become irrelevant as slave workers there (47).)

In the areas of Polish administration, German names for streets and towns were banned, with Polish names replacing them. The Poles arrested Germans and treated them similar to how the SS treated Jews (48). Sometimes, whole German village populations were put into concentration camps, some of which had a mortality rate of 50% (49). Polish civilians could wander through new Polish territory, such as east of the Oder-Neisse line, which had been given to Poland in accordance with the Potsdam agreement, and choose new houses for themselves. If Germans were living in the house they choose, they would be expelled, having only minutes to leave and take whatever belongings they could (50), which were often looted later. Nearly all Germans expelled were robbed, no matter what transportation route they took to Germany. This included those by rail, and those forced into large columns on their treks by the Poles (51).

Several weeks after "liberation", Soviet fronts began deporting thousands of able-bodied Germans back to areas within the USSR to work as slaves. Up to two hundred and eighteen thousand Germans were deported from Silesia, Pomerania and Prussia (52). Due to the horrible treatment the Germans suffered, over one hundred thousand of them died as a result of the deportation (53). The treatment was worse than that of the Nazis perpetrated on their slaves (54), for which Fritz Sauckel was hanged at Nuremburg (55).

Rumania, Yugoslavia and Hungary

By late 1944, with the Soviets in control of a substantial amount of the Balkans, thousands of Volksdeutsche from Rumania, Hungary and Yugoslavia were gathered together and deported to various areas of the USSR for slave labor (56). In Budapest, for instance, seventy-five thousand Hungarian civilians (more than likely Volksdeutsche) were sent to the Gulag almost immediately after the fall of Budapest (57). A few months later, expulsions began, with the Germans often being brutalized on there way out of the country. Those who did not leave had their citizenships revoked, their property confiscated, and were used as slave labor where they were needed, under horrible conditions. The German population dropped off dramatically due to such measures (58).

The prisoners of the German Army Group E who surrendered in Yugoslavia in May, 1945 were forced on a march spanning hundreds of miles throughout Yugoslavia, where local peasants could turn out and take revenge out upon the Germans freely. Less than one hundred and sixty thousand (40%) of the Army Group's troops made it back to Germany alive. This death march is over twenty times greater in scale than Bataan, but how many times have you heard about it (59)?

Czechoslovakia

The Sudeten Germans (all three and a half million of them), were the largest group outside of the 1937 European borders to be expelled (60), often in the most gruesome ways. The agreement to the surrender of Prague in May, 1945 let those Germans in the city who wished to leave, evacuate (61). However, Soviet troops decimated an exiting column, packed with soldiers and civilians. The Soviets poured petrol on the Germans, hung them by their feet on street poles, and set them on fire. Instead of suffocating, the victims were burned to death, making their agony last longer (62).

The Czech militia would surround German villages and go about bringing out the Germans by force into the city. Many would be beaten, shot or humiliated in other ways (63). In one case, after severe beatings, several German males were thrown into a large water tank. As the Germans came up for air, they were smacked at with sticks and poles by the Czechs. Bullets were also shot into the pool, turning the water red (64). In Schonpriesen in late July, 1945 after a suspicious explosion in a nearby ammunition dump, a wave of Czechs murdered over one thousand Germans (including children) by various hideous ways, despite the fact that there was no proof the Germans caused the explosion (65).

Following the immediate revenge suffered, German communities were forced to march to the German border, though some did go by train. Many male Germans were not expelled, but were used as slave labor in coal mines, industrial plants, and agriculture by the Czechs (66). If they were not allowed to cross the border, concentration camps were set up right by the border to keep the Germans in. US military personnel soon became aware of what the Czechs were doing, and they sometimes stepped in to protect German women and children (67). The Walter Commission delivered a report to the US House of Representatives, in which it stated the expulsions were neither humane, nor orderly, as the Czechs promised they would be (68).In the end, over a quarter of a million Germans lost their lives from the expulsions from Czechoslovakia (69).

Conclusion

In this report, I have written about the horrible sufferings millions of Germans went through due to the quest for revenge by some, and the idea of collective guilt. These crimes, and there is no question they are crimes, while understandable, cannot be justified by anyone. Thousands of years of Germanic history was destroyed during this ordeal, as well as over two million lives in the process (70). This project only scratches the surface of a history which has yet to be fully told. I hope this report contributes to the effort of fixing that problem.

[Theobald]

Endnotes:

1. For more on Nazi occupation atrocities in the USSR, see Rhodes, Masters of Death, and Dallin, German Rule in Russia.
2. For the strongest critcism of G. F. Krivosheev's numbers and estimates, look into Boris Sokolov's writings in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies, vol.9, no.1., March 1996, p.152-93.
3. Werth, Alexander. Russia at War, p.388.
4. Ibid., p.871.
5. German intelligence branch for Eastern Front.
6. Zeidler, Manfred. Die Tötungs- und Vergewaltigungsverbrechen der Roten Armee auf deutschem Boden 1944/45.
7. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago, p.21.
8. http://www.anthonybeevor.com/Berlin/cutsfour.htm.
9. http://www.anthonybeevor.com/Berlin/berlincutsone/htm.
10. McAteer, Sean.Reasons to Fight.
11. Zayas, Alfred M. de. Nemesis at Potsdam, p.61-65.
12. See Earl Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin, p. 421-433, and Christopher Duffy, Red Storm on the Reich, p. 67-124.
13. East Prussia and Silesia had a millenium of roots of both Germanic and Polish origin, but the majority of the population had been German for hundreds of years.
14. The German armed forces during WWII.
15. Duffy, p. 272.
16. Local district civilian leader.
17. McAteer, Sean. The Sack.
18. Cart or wagon pulled by horse.
19. Zayas, p.72.
20. Ibid., p.73.
21. Irving, David. Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction of Dresden, p.104.
22. Beck, Earl R. Under The Bombs: The German Home Front, 1942-1945, p.177-179.
23. German navy.
24. McAteer, Sean. Baltic Sea Action '45.
25. McAteer, Sean. The Sack.
26. Duffy, p.275.
27. Vol. 1, Documents On The Expulsion Of The Germans From Eastern-Central-Europe, p.27, Duffy, p.275.
28. Beevor, The Fall of Berlin, p.31.
29. Ibid, p.326.
30. Seaton, Albert. The Russo-German war, p.545.
31. Beck, p. 176.
32. Vol. 1, p.51.
33. Seaton, p.545.
34. Beevor, p.31.
35. Ibid., p.65, p.67.
36. Ibid., p.410.
37. Ibid.
38. Zayas, p.67-68.
39. Vol. 1, p.50.
40. Beck, p.176.
41. Ibid., p.53.
42. Ibid.
43. Zayas, p.66.
44. Zeidler, Manfred. Die Tötungs- und Vergewaltigungsverbrechen der Roten Armee auf deutschem Boden 1944/45.
45. Beevor, p.30.
46. McAteer, Sean. The Sack.
47. Vol. 1, p.74.
48. Ibid., p.85.
49. Ibid., p.86.
50. Ibid., p. 89.
51. Ibid., p. 108-109.
52. Ibid., p.65.
53. Ibid., p.68.
54. Zayas, p.70.
55. Ibid.
56. Vol. 1, p.62.
57. Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History, p.432.
58. Appendix 1.
59. "McAteer, Sean. May 1945.
60. Vol. IV, Documents On The Expulsion Of The Germans From Eastern-Central-Europe, p.3.
61. McAteer, Sean. Bohemia-Moravia, May 1945.
62. Duffy, p.282-283.
63. Vol. IV, p.66.
64. Hausner, Hennine. May 17, 1945: The Day I Will Never Forget.
65. Vol. IV, p.68.
66. Ibid., p.86.
67. Zayas, p.119.
68. Ibid., p.129.
69. Appendix 2.
70. Ibid.

Bibliography:

Primary Sources:
Books:

-Documents On The Expulsion Of The Germans From Eastern-Central-Europe (Volume 1). Bonn: Federal Ministry For Expellees, Refugees and War Victims. 195-.
-Documents On The Expulsion Of The Germans From Eastern-Central-Europe (Volume 4). Bonn: Federal Ministry For Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, 1960.
-Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I. The Gulag Archipelago. Toronto: Harper and Row, 1974.
-Werth, Alexander. Russia At War 1941-1945. New York: Avon Books, 1964.

Internet:
Hausner, Hennine. "May 17, 1945: The Day I Will Never Forget." 20 Dec. 2003, <http://sudetengermans.freeyellow.com/TheDay.html>

Secondary Sources:
Books:
-Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: A History. New York: Doubleday, 2003
-Beck, Earl R. Under The Bombs: The German Home Front, 1942-1945. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
-Beevor, Anthony. The Fall Of Berlin 1945.New York: Viking, 2002.
-Duffy, Christopher. Red Storm On The Reich: The Soviet March On Germany, 1945. New York: Castle Books, 2002 edition.
-Irving, David. Apocalypse 1945: The Destruction Of Dresden. London: Focal Point Publications, 1999 Internet edition.
-Overy, Richard. The Penguin Historical Atlas Of The Third Reich. London: Penguin Books, 1996.
-Seaton, Albert. The Russo-German War 1941-1945. Novato: Presido Press, 1993 edition.
-Zayas, Alfred M. de. Nemesis At Potsdam: The Expulsion Of The Germans From The East. Rockport: Picton Press, 1998 edition.
Internet:
-Beevor, Anthony. Author's Cuts. Anthony Beevor's website. 20 Dec. 2003, <http://www.anthonybeevor.com/Berlin/berlincutsone/htm>
-Beevor, Anthony. Author's Cuts (Continued). Anthony Beevor's website. 20 Dec. 2003,
<http://www.antonybeevor.com/Berlin/berlincutsfour.htm>

Magazines:
-Zeidler, Manfred. Die Tötungs- und Vergewaltigungsverbrechen der Roten Armee auf deutschem Boden 1944/45. Wette/Überschär, 2001, p.418-432.

Unpublished:
-McAteer, Sean M. Baltic Sea Action '45. 12/19/2003, unpublished.,
-Reasons To Fight. 3/26/2002, unpublished.
-The Sack. 3/6/2002, unpublished.
-May 1945. 4/29/2000, unpublished.
-Bohemia-Moravia, May 1945. 3/30/2001, unpublished.
All chapters cited are part of complete work entitled 500 Days; 1944 and 1945 on the Eastern Front in the Second World War by Dr. Sean M. McAteer, privately published, copyright pending.

[East_Prussian]

From R.J. Rummel's Death By Government:

As the Red Army pounded the Wehrmacht back toward Germany's Eastern territories in October 1944, some 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 Germans fled or were forced by the Nazis to evacuate. The roads were clogged with millions of refugees, young and old, maim and sick, along with their carts and horses, and all sorts of belongings littered the roads; 500,000 of these refugees alone formed haphazard caravans across an ice covered lagoon to reach Baltic ports. Thousands were killed by Soviet artillery and strafing planes, machine gunned on the roads and run over by tanks, or disappeared into holes in the ice created by bombs. Thousands more that tried to escape on over crowded ships were killed when the ships were sunk by planes or submarines. Tens of thousands more died from exposure and sickness. Overall possibly 1,000,000 German civilians perished during this evacuation and flight, itself an incredible toll in human lives.
After the defeat of the Wehrmacht millions of Germans tried to return eastward to their former homes or areas. In the lands they passed through or returned to famine was widespread, social and health services were totally disrupted. Signs warned refugees that they would starve to death if they lingered.

Now Rummel's numbers (I hate using that term) are conservative, 15,000,000 deported of whom 1,863,000 were killed (this estimate being far too low). I recovered other information which puts the pre-expulsion population at 17,773,900 of whom 3,484,300 were killed (I can show a provence/region breakdown if anyone wishes), dying of rape (girls as young as 9), being tied to two trucks which were subsequently driven in opposite directions, old men and young boys who had their eyes gouged out before being shot...the list goes on and on....