German Expellees and Reparations Continued

Perfectly enough, the recent issue of the National Geographic magazine contains an informational page regarding the “Stumbling Stones” in Germany (see last week’s blog). In addition, this past week in the New Jersey Star Ledger, a newspaper that covers NJ news as well as world and global news, published an article by Kathleen O’Brien called “For some victims of Nazis, decades until an amends”. Under previous German law, the length of suffering by victims of the Third Reich was set for at least 18 months. Recently, according to this article, the limit was changed to 12 months thus allowing thousands of Jewish victims to receive payments form the German government.

Holocaust discussions are, more often then not, focused on the Jewish experience. Millions of other social and religious groups were murdered such as Jehovah’s Witness, homosexuals, and the mentally and physically handicapped (which included Dwarfism - most of whom did not survive the war). Many prisoners in the camps died after they were liberated by Allied and Soviet troops but as troops liberated concentration camps, ethnic Germans were killed as they were forcibly kicked out of liberated territories. Much like the restrictions placed on Jews during the war, Germans outside of occupied Germany could not hold property, restricted on the hours when they could go shopping and places they could go, and many other ways. Ultimately, most Germans were expelled to Germany. Some 12 million Germans were expelled Germany and more than 2 million Germans died in the process. These Germans, who lost most, if not all of their property and wealth, never received reparations payments from the expelling states, like Poland and Czechoslovakia. In 1950, the Charter of the German Expellees was published by leaders of the expellee leaders. This document represented the expellee population in all of Germany and renounced revenge and retaliation. To this day, no reparations have been made to Germans affected by the expulsion.

The expulsion is looked at as a righteous punishment against Germans for the crimes Nazis committed during the war. Expellee leaders today are seen as “revisionist” - in other words, trying to downplay the suffering of Jews and other victims of the Holocaust and make the focus of the war the suffering of Germans. Expellee leaders are not “revisionist” nor are they down playing the suffering of Holocaust victims. BUT, the German expulsion cannot be ignored. It is an important part of German history as well as an important side-effect of the Second World War. It can also be proven that the expulsion was the boiling point of the eventual “Cold War” that had been looming. Expellees, expellee organizations, and their leaders never expected payments for their suffering and loss. They only demand recognition where recognition is due such as in textbooks and in the discussions on the Second World War and its aftermath. Accepting the actions by victors, aka the Allies and the Soviet Union, accepts the concept of collective guilt and the millions of innocent and avoidable deaths (see first blog on “Collective Guilt”).

The evolution of German nationalism since the founding of the unified German state in 1871 to the expulsion (1944-1950) is an interesting and important topic. In research regarding the expulsion, several hints have been made to the unification in 1871 and the rise of German nationalism (mind you, Germans are not the only country at the time with nationalistic views) as the point in modern history that set the stage for the “Cold War”. This topic will be discussed in detail at a later time.

Questions for consideration:

1. Where do you think the German expulsion fits into German history?

2. How does the German expulsion fit into the Second World War?

3. How has nationalism changed since the end of the Second World War?

Check out the New Jersey Star Ledger article here:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_kathleen_obrien/2012/06/obrien_for_some_payments_to_ho.html

The Charter of German Expellees can be found in most works regarding the German Expulsion. Check out the closest university library (or Google).

Stolpersteine

These plaques are called "Stumbling Blocks" (Stolpersteine) and are located in Salzburg, Austria. During the 1990s, Gunter Demnig, from Cologne, Germany, created the "Stumbling Blocks" in order to give average Germans the ability to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Germans buy the plaque[s] then they are engraved and installed into sidewalks, usually at the entrance where the victims once lived or worked. As you can see, the plaques contain the person's name, their birth year, the day of deportation and to where, and the place and date of where they were murdered.  Demnig's "Stumbling Blocks" spread throughout Europe. These two photos are taken personal while on my study aboard trip to Salzburg. Unless a tour guide or other individual personal points the plaques out, they are easy to simply overlooked by tourists and visitors to the city. The city of Salzburg, as well as the rest of Austria, is beautiful in all aspects - architecturally, traditional culture, and of course, its history. Yet, Austria, and Salzburg, still holds the theory that the country never supported Nazi Germany and was the victim of Nazi occupation. This is one item in which Austria needs to accept - the country was in fact willing supporters of Nazism and the Nazi occupation. Accepting this is the only way they will be able to accept and understand their role in the Holocaust. Salzburg is a fine example of this. The city's Jewish population was wiped out and it's synagogue burned. As of 2009, no memorial plaque rests in the place where the synagogue stood. The bridge in the city that was renovated by the city's Jewish population and other slave labor was not commemorated or even acknowledged until 2007. Even though not all Germans or Austrians can be blamed for the Holocaust, those who died because of it, and the Holocaust itself, can never be forgotten and ignored. As we look at the world today, massacres and genocides still occur with no world outrage.

For more information and details about Gunter Demnig and his work with "Stumbling Blocks", check out his website at:

 http://www.stolpersteine.com/DE/start.html

Collective Guilt and German Expulsion

The concept of German collective guilt for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War has been debated since the ending of the war. Collective guilt is a false theory, used out of hatred, and eventually destroyed the lives of millions of ethnic Germans living outside the German borders established in 1945. Nazi occupation, in countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, became the final straw from many majority groups living in each country.

Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, mostly in the region known as the Sudetenland, for centuries. A much smaller population lived in Poland but many ethnic Germans arrived to Poland during the war from the Balkans. As the course of the war continued, nationalism rose heavily. Nationalists in Poland and Czechoslovakia rallied around the common hatred of Germans and Nazis. This set the basis for their nation-state building desires. Both countries hoped to created a homogeneous state after victory over Nazi Germany.In order to accomplish such ideas, the Germans were no longer welcome in the country and needed to be removed. The Germans would be forcibly deported.

The nationalists also had the support of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also held a deep hatred of Germans which the war only intensified. Together all three countries decided and accepted the idea of expulsion as a solution to their "German problem". The Nazi occupation was the last conflict for Poland and Czechoslovakia and the two countries saw expulsion as the final solution to their German minority problem once and for all.

So by the the end of 1944 and 1945, the "wild transfers" began. After the Potsdam Agreement, an "organized transfer" started, which was in 1946. Ultimately, ethnic Germans remaining in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were forced to leave their homes, with very few personal belongings, and sent via train back to Germany. Millions were expelled and thousands died on the journey as a result of the harsh conditions. These Germans were expelled for no other reason then being of "German" ethnicity. They committed no crimes against humanity and most were not Nazis but yet they suffered from racism and collective guilt. Nazis were Germans and created concentration camps in Europe so its only fair for all Germans to suffer from the same fate - Not true or even justified! The leaders of the Western Allies, like the United States and Great Britain did not stand up for the civil rights of ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. They allowed millions more to suffer after the close of a devastating war. Instead, they chose to stand aside and watch because it was better then risking a war with the Soviet Union.

This is only a snippet of the story of the German expulsion and the concept of collective guilt. Collective guilt is never a reason to destroy the lives of millions of innocent civilians.

For more information on German collective guilt and the German expulsion, check out these works:


Schieder, Theodor, ed. Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central-Europe Volume

I, II, III and IV. Bonn: Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, 1950-1970.

Conner, Ian. Refugees and Expellees in Post-War Germany. Manchester University Press, 2007. 

de Zayas, Alfred M. Nemesis at Potsdam: The Anglo-American and the Expulsion of Germans: 

Background, Execution, and Consequences. London: Rutledge & Kegan Paul, 1977. 

------------------------. The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Margalt, Gilad. Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. 

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.