The Vertreibungsverbrechen – Crimes of Expulsion

In the shadows of history’s pages lies a tragedy of immense proportions – one deliberately obscured from worldwide consciousness. While much has been written about the crimes committed by Germans during World War II, a deafening silence surrounds the crimes committed against Germans. This silence must be broken.

The Systematic Expulsion: A Crime Against Humanity

In the final days of World War II and primarily after Germany’s capitulation on May 8, 1945, an unprecedented human catastrophe unfolded across Eastern, Southeastern, and Central Eastern Europe. Approximately 14.5 million Germans were violently expelled from their ancestral homelands – territories that had been German for centuries, long before America was even discovered.

This wasn’t merely displacement – it was systematic ethnic cleansing. These expulsions weren’t primarily wartime casualties but occurred overwhelmingly (90%) after hostilities had officially ceased. What makes this particularly shocking is that these were crimes committed not during war but in so-called “peace” – a monumental peace crime!

As Professor Werner Frauendienst from Mannheim poignantly stated: “Like hyenas, Poles followed behind the Russians and seized their victims – men, women, and children – who were dragged to prisons and camps, tortured to death and murdered to create space for Poles. They didn’t arrive in an empty space; they made it empty first.”

The Staggering Death Toll

The human cost of this expulsion defies comprehension. According to meticulous documentation, at least three million German expellees perished during this process. The Federal Archives in Koblenz documented that in territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers alone, there were 1,255 camps and prisons designated for Germans, with death rates in some facilities reaching between 20% and 50% of inmates.

The Statistical Federal Office in Koblenz provided the following breakdown of expulsion deaths from East German territories:

• East Prussia: 299,000
• Eastern Pomerania: 364,000
• East Brandenburg: 207,000
• Silesia: 466,000
• Danzig: 83,000

In total, approximately 1,419,000 deaths occurred in East Germany alone, with hundreds of thousands more in the Sudetenland and other regions.

The Hellish Ordeal of German Women

Perhaps the most horrific aspect of this historical crime was the systematic abuse of German women. Subjected to mass rapes, brutal violence, and unimaginable degradation, these women endured suffering that few historical accounts acknowledge. In camps like Potulice, of 50 infants, only two survived – a testament to the deliberate policy of extermination.

In April 1950, U.S. Senator William Langer stated before the Senate: “Mass expulsion is one of the greatest crimes in which we directly participated… Nowhere in all of history is such a heinous crime recorded as in the reports of events in Eastern and Central Europe. Already 15 to 20 million were uprooted from their ancestors’ homes, thrown into the torment of a living hell, or driven like cattle across the devastation of Eastern Europe.”

The Stolen Homeland

The scale of territorial theft is staggering. Poland alone seized approximately 114,140 square kilometers of German territory – an area equivalent to the combined size of Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This represents one-fifth of France’s area, one-third of Italy’s, and almost half the area of the British Isles – more than five times the size of Israel.

The Sudetenland, seized by Czechoslovakia, encompasses 27,000 square kilometers – larger than the German federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland, Hamburg, Bremen, and Berlin combined. It’s almost three times the size of Lebanon and nearly as large as Belgium.

The Conspiracy of Silence

Why has this monumental crime been effectively erased from global consciousness? The world hears everything about the crimes of Germans, but nothing about the crimes against Germans. While Germany has paid approximately 120 billion Deutschmarks in reparations to various parties, including 87 billion to Israel and Jewish citizens between 1953 and 1991, there has been no acknowledgment or compensation for the expulsion holocaust against the German people.

This represents an intolerable inequality – victims with compensation and victims without. A truly sustainable European peace order cannot be built on such a foundation.

A Call for Historical Justice

The German expellees, in their Charter of the German Expellees, solemnly renounced revenge and violence shortly after the war, a gesture often praised as a noble step toward reconciliation. They understood that only peaceful understanding among nations could potentially bring relief or resolution to the plight of the East Germans and Sudeten Germans. Yet, from the perspective of the expellees, this renunciation feels like a bitter pill to swallow. Many families, while bowing their heads in acknowledgment of the past, still harbor deep pain over the loss of their roots, family graves, and history—treasures forcibly taken from them. They cannot fully accept the injustices and wrongdoings they endured. The praise for their renunciation often seems like a narrative driven by media and politics, intent on sweeping the unresolved grievances under the carpet. This one-sided, forced narrative raises questions about the true meaning of reconciliation in a so-called unified Europe, where the wounds of the past remain unhealed for many.

Yet, 80 years after these mass murders and expulsions, Germany’s political class continues to betray its own people by failing to represent the human rights of 20 million expellees and their descendants – one-quarter of their own nation.

As the Israeli newspaper “Israel-Nachrichten” in Tel Aviv commented on September 21, 1992, regarding Germany’s official renunciation of East Germany through the “2+4 Treaty”:“The Japanese are steadfast. They differ from the Germans. The Germans have accepted the loss of their provinces of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia. That’s 100,000 square kilometers of German land. A quarter of Germany. Nevertheless, the Germans give dozens of billions of Deutschmarks to Russia and Poland… The Japanese do not want to accept the loss of 5,000 square kilometers of island territory. ‘First give us back the islands, then you can have money from us!’ they explain to Moscow. (…) The Japanese are not as stupid as the Germans… Even when you lose a war, you don’t necessarily have to say yes and amen to everything.”

Confronting Historical Truth

The expulsion crimes must be brought to public consciousness repeatedly, emphasizing that anyone who renounces East Germany and the Sudeten territories without at least achieving a historical settlement identifies with a criminal act.

The destroyed, stolen, stigmatized, and criminalized national identity and history of Germans cannot be restored without acknowledging East Germany and the Sudetenland, which were never Polish and Czech and cannot remain so exclusively. Taking a quarter of the German Reich – representing a value of 2 trillion Deutschmarks – is theft that cannot stand unchallenged.

In sorrowful anger, we bow before the millions of victims of genocide, the silenced Holocaust against the German people, and the intended final solution to the German question in Eastern, Southeastern, and Central Eastern Europe.

Echoes of Silenced History: The Legacy of Eibicht’s Research

This exploration of the Vertreibungsverbrechen would be incomplete without acknowledging the vital research conducted by Rolf-Josef Eibicht and Anne Hipp, whose groundbreaking work “Der Vertreibungs-Holocaust: Politik zur Wiedergutmachung eines Jahrtausendverbrechens” (The Expulsion Holocaust: Politics for Reparation of a Millennial Crime) published in 2000, forms the foundation of much of our understanding of these events. Eibicht, born in 1951, dedicated himself to documenting this chapter of history despite the considerable political pressure to maintain silence on these matters.

Their meticulous documentation of the suffering endured by German expellees represents one of the most comprehensive attempts to bring these historical crimes to light. While some might dismiss Eibicht’s work as controversial, the raw historical data he compiled—drawn from official statistical sources and contemporaneous accounts—demands serious consideration by anyone seeking to understand Europe’s complex post-war landscape.

80th anniversary

As we mark the 80th anniversary of the mass expulsions and atrocities that followed World War II in 2025, this somber milestone offers a critical opportunity to reflect on a chapter of history that remains largely unaddressed. The pain of the 14.5 million Germans forcibly displaced from their ancestral homes, and the millions who perished in the process, continues to echo through generations. Yet, the silence surrounding these events persists in much of global discourse, overshadowed by other narratives of the war. This anniversary must serve as a catalyst for renewed dialogue, not just to honor the victims but to ensure that such injustices are never repeated.

In recent years, there have been small but significant steps toward acknowledgment. Grassroots movements among descendants of expellees have sought to preserve family histories, while some European scholars and activists have called for a more inclusive historical reckoning. However, official recognition and educational integration of these events remain woefully inadequate. Many school curricula across Europe still omit the scale and brutality of the post-war expulsions, leaving younger generations unaware of this profound human tragedy. On this 80th anniversary, it is imperative to advocate for the inclusion of these events in educational frameworks, ensuring that history is taught in its entirety—uncomfortable truths and all.

Moreover, the anniversary prompts us to consider the broader implications of unresolved historical grievances. In a Europe striving for unity, the lingering wounds of the expulsions represent a barrier to genuine reconciliation. Sustainable peace cannot be built on selective memory. A formal acknowledgment by the international community, coupled with initiatives to document survivor testimonies and establish memorials, could provide a meaningful step toward healing. Such actions would not diminish the recognition of other wartime atrocities but would instead enrich our collective understanding of the multifaceted suffering caused by conflict and its aftermath.

The German expellees, through initiatives like the Charter of the German Expellees, made a significant gesture by renouncing revenge in the aftermath of unimaginable loss—a choice that speaks to a profound strength of spirit among many. Yet, it must be acknowledged that not all could fully accept this renunciation. The pain of losing ancestral homes, land, family roots, and the ability to visit the graves of loved ones remains a deep wound for countless individuals and families. While a shared aversion to war unites us in seeking peace, this does not equate to an acceptance of theft or injustice. As we mark this 80th anniversary, let us commit to breaking the silence—not through empty political rhetoric that glosses over human suffering, but through an honest resolve to honor all victims of history. We must strive for a future where displacement and ethnic cleansing are eradicated, while ensuring that the voices of those still bearing the weight of unresolved loss are heard and respected, rather than buried under narratives of forced reconciliation.