Displacement of Germans from Poland 1941-1949

Abstract

By the end of World War II, Europe witnessed the largest displacement process in its history, and perhaps the largest individual movement of peoples in human history, of which the Germans had the largest share. The inhabitants of the eastern parts of Germany were subjected to a forced displacement process led by the Poles during the period (1941-1949), with the assistance of the British, Soviet, and American governments, which included more than seven million Germans in Danzig, Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia, most of whom were women and children under the age of sixteen. The displacements were often accompanied by great violence, during which hundreds of thousands lost their lives due to mistreatment, starvation and disease while detained in camps. While the greater number died on expulsion trains, where they were confined to freight cars without food, water or heat during trips to Germany that sometimes took several weeks.