Customer Reviews

A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944 - 1950

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This book tells the tale of millions of ethnic Germans who were murdered, deported or otherwise ethnically cleansed from areas in eastern Europe towards the end of World War II and in the immediate years following the Third Reich's final defeat. This story has rarely been touched upon in books until now. The author recounts many first hand narratives of survivors of the violence that was doled out to anyone of German ancestry who found themselves in areas conquered by the Soviet army plus lists evidence gathered by the German Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau. Among the horrors the reader will encounter is the savagery dealt out to citizens of the German town of Nemmersdorf which included crucifictions of women and the mass murder of children. The reader will march along ethnic Germans being forced from their homes in eastern Europe and will witness the wholesale murders that befell many.

De Zayas proves that victims know no nationality. I recommend this book for all interested in World War II and the immediate aftermath.

Being a (young) German, and not from an expelled family, I was quite unaware of what went on during the last days of the war in Eastern Germany. Nobody tells you about that here. The "Vertriebenen" (Expelled ones) are considered to be very strange and right-wing and do not have much public exposure. Reading this book I was very shocked and touched, understanding the pain and loss of those people. Even worse, they are not even allowed to express what they have witnessed. The Shoah is very well documentated (and rightly so), but this dark chapter of the holocaust on the Germans after the war will soon be forgotten. The book is very well written, very balanced and not biased, the facts are proven and documentated. Reading it, I had the same bitter feeling that I head reading the KZ-Documents F321 and other first-hand recollection of the Shoah: Men are beasts, and there is no cruelty they will not commit if they are allowed to do that. Hitler allowed the SS to kill the Jews any which way they wanted. Chuchill and Roosevelt allowed Stalin and Benez to kill the Germans any which way they wanted. And they all did.

Alfred-Maurice De Zayas' book recounts the events that unfolded during the first few-months of 1945 in Germany's historic eastern provinces. This tragedy, that was the extermination of an 800-year old civilization in Eastern Europe, is regrettably an event that still remains an unknown, even in modern western intellectual circles. De Zayas' book decribes the harrowing tale that the 13 million eastern Germans faced: the largest ethnic-cleansing of human beings, the largest maritime evacuation of civilians, and the most horrific naval disasters in history. The book is a monument to the great cruelty and depravity that mankind is capable of, and the little dignity that even moral powers can have for their victims. It is a dedication to the millions that suffered because of their ethnic origin and to the 2.5 million Germans that vanished. Today, the survivors and relatives of these expellees acount for 1/5 of the German population. This book will be intstrumental in understanding the future evolution of Polish-German and Czech-German affairs. A DEFINITE BUY! A+

In his narration, de Zayas appears to have a threefold objective: (1) to describe where all the Volksdeutsche (European Germans living outside of Germany) had settled; (2) how they were mistreated by advancing armies and hostile civilians; and (3) postwar reconciliation of the German displaced persons situation in general. De Zayas description of where the Volksdeutsche were located before World War I and II is interesting and enlightening from a historical perspective. With regard to how the Volksdeutsche were treated, the majority of the book is dedicated to accounts of terror and brutality that the Volksdeutsche received from the advancing Russian military as well as from the citizens of the countries that they had occupied outside of Germany proper. The last section of the book, regarding reconciliation, is well done. I was somewhat disappointed with the book since I had expected a broader view especially with regard to the D.P. (displaced persons) camps, but on reconsideration, since de Zayas is writing on the "ethnic cleaning" of these Volksdeutsche, he has met his goal with his more narrow view. Overall: a good account of the harsh treatment the Volksdeutsche received as World War II came to a close.

Among the most horrific of acts following the carnage of World War Two in Europe was the so-called revenge events against civilian Germans in the eastern-most provinces of what had been Germany until the end of the war and retracing of national boundaries pursuit with treaty agreements that had been reached. Much of the indigenous German population within what is now western Poland was subjected to unspeakable acts of violence, retribution, and forced resettlement, much as the German and Polish Jews had been under the repressive hands of the Third Reich during the war. This well-researched and superbly written book focuses on the ways in which this set of events triggered a genocidal wave of reaction against ethnic Germans unfortunate enough to be living in the areas suddenly no longer part of Germany proper.

This is not to either suggest any legal rationale for the genocide which ensued, but to admit the pent-up grievances and immense frustration of other ethnic groups toward Germany in particular, and to any ethnic Germans in general, such that they became the victims of an incredible amount of focused antipathy and homicidal rage after the war. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is the way in which the author animates the events with first-person anecdotes, which serve to graphically demonstrate what the edicts and events meant in human terms to those individuals caught in the cross hairs of place and circumstance, victims ineluctably on the wrong side of history.

For anyone well-read in the events of the times, the incidents of brutality in the immediate period following cessation of hostilities are legend, and Jews and other forced "evacuees" returning to liberated Germany, Austria, and Eastern Europe most often found all their legal property - farms, houses, apartments, and businesses, - still occupied by people who had summarily usurped them during the war and were now singularly disinterested in giving them back. The lack of simple humanity shown by so many individuals under the duress of war is testimony to the continuing enmity the ethnic Germans soon felt the rage of. Thus this book adds the curious and yet fascinating dimension of those civilian Germans, just as much victimized in their own way by the German Third Reich's geo-political activities as anyone, suddenly victimized for the mere reason of ethnicity and the endless enmity of other groups within the country itself. This is a fascinating book, and one I can highly recommend. Enjoy!

The book presents evidence of the explusion from territories their families had inhabited for centuries. The author does not gloss over nor excuses the crimes planned and executed by the Nazi government during WW2, and I found this to be very reassuring. After reading the book, I went and did more research, and found that there were other authors also writing books that present some of the facts that are contained in Mr. De Zayas' research (for example, John Sachs' book on Polish concentration camps for Germans). I even found books at Rutgers University library (from the 1950's)that detailed the Allied plans to resettle millions of expelled Germans from Poland and the (current) Czech republic within the four occupation zones of postwar Germany -- these details were negotiated by the victorius western powers and the Soviet Union.

I applaud this and other efforts to inform the public of the truth, regardless of ideology. It is a reminder that, after all, the blood we all spill is exactly the same shade of red ...

Important and often ignored truths concerning the ugly side of the allied victory over NAZI Germany. De Zayas presents a very much needed perspective into the suffering experienced by ordinary Germans during and after the war - specifically in the former German provences of East Prussia, Silesia and Pommerania, as well as the Sudeten and Donauschwaben Germans.
Not a pleasant read when one hears testimony after testimony of heinous acts of revenge perpetrated by the Poles, Russians and Czechs - esp. the murderous gang rapes which were seen as an almost just reparation for the crimes of the German nation.
De Zayas does an equally admirable job in questioning the "moral high ground" of the allies in prosecuting German millitiary leaders for "war crimes" involing making war on civilian populations, while at the same time they incinerated 100,000+ cilivians in Dresden, sank German refugee ships in the Baltic containing upwards of 8000 cililian passengers fleeing the Russian advance (Wilhelm Gustloff), and sent attack planes to machine-gun fleeing German cililians at Dresden and Danzig (Frische Nehrung).
A BALANACED view you won't get from "cut and paste" historians or Hollywood --- in whose perspective no one but the allies were killed or suffered, only British civilians were killed in air attacks, and all Germans are non-persons screaming "schnell" and "actung."

I highly praise this book written by Alfred de Zayas. It is very well-balanced and puts the other side of the story on the table. Dialogue about war and after-war atrocities about ALL ethnic groups must be honest and open and NOT one sided.
I am the daughter of German immigrants. My father was an expelled German from East Prussia; his experiences and those of his mother and sisters were terrrible. I have known about the "Vertreibung" all of my life. There was even a case of the Danish Red cross starving to death 8000 children of German refugee Mothers in Aalborg Denmark, because they were German--this was AFTER the WWII was officially declared over!!! This account was researched and published by a Danish medical doctor. No one in the USA ever talked about the Vertreibung or the suffering they endured afterwards. Now 30-40 years later the truth gets published. I was born, raised, and university educated in the USA, but believe me, because I was born to German parents I was persecuted during my childhood by ignorant teachers (some who even beat me)other ignorant parents, ignorant schoolmates. I was an innocent child, but yet I was persecuted because of my race. I never knew the reason really until I was older and could understand the Holocaust and the WWII. But still, it did not excuse those Americans who tormented an 'innocent' child. Terrible. If that happened today, that would mean lawsuits, but not back during the cold war days of the 1960's. Teachers did what they wanted, without any reflection.

It is wrong to kill 'anyone' because of their race,ethnicity, or religion.
It is wrong to torment 'any' child based on race, ethnicity or religion.
I really hope that the 'Expellee Literature' will be taught in schools as a way of teaching that no ethnic group should be hated and mistreated.

I am a highly educated woman - Ph.D level- and have read widely. It is really a shame that up until the present day in the USA such ignorance about the Germans still exists and that no sympathy is given to those innocent persons like my parents, or even myself. The German Expellee literature has an important place in history, because it must be shown that these events did happen and could happen again. The only way to prevent future 'driving out' of people from their homelands is to study historical cases so that it never happens again to any group of people.

Sincerely,

An Expellees' daughter, May 4, 2005.
contact: lagniappe_58@yahoo.it

Most historians or the public in general do not have knowledge of this ethnic cleansing.

How can this have been silenced away for so many years?

15 Million Germans were herded out of their homelands of eastern Germany and other parts of eastern Europe, that in earlier years were part of the German Empire. People act as if this never happened or dismiss it. Any attempt at making this expulsion known, was until now totally rejected by any mainstream publisher. Anyone daring to even hint at it, was and is immediately attacked.

A. de Zayas has the courage to stand up against intimidation. This book is the tip of the iceberg of the actual records of the

survivors. De Zayas made an event public, that by mere denial of the actively involved perpetrators for the last 50 years, led to many repeats such as Kosovo.

This is a wonderful book that one cannot do without. This would complete your knowledge of WWII. What happened to the Germans is a hidden chapter that no one wants to talk about or write about. This book explains almost everything with a smooth tone, the author gives you the backround of what he is talking about first, so you cannot get lost.

He has plenty of facts and in them he describes how the Allies turned their backs on Humanity, the humanity they championed as one of the reasons for them going to war and let many, many horros happen to many innocent people, who's only crime was to live in an area in which they were a Minority. In essence almost no Germans live in places were there families use to live for hundreds of years. Pussia, Bohemia, Morovia, Siliesa, Pomenaria. They were put into camps, were most starved to death. The were robbed of all there possesions, beaten, some escaped but most just died.

The main point that the author puts forth and proves it is that all that happened, happened because the Allies allowed it to happen. The treaty of Potsdam, in which Relocations of all German populations living outside of Germany was approved, was the cruelest of all punishment for a people who were not Nazis but just farmers and who wanted to live a peaceful life. The relocations were supposed to be humane, but no one was there to reinforce them and so, the New Rulers of the the land did as they pleased.

Read this book and understand that from hate comes hate. The unltimate responsibility of one's mind is his own. Feed your mind with good things and good things will come out of it. Read this story and understand the suffering that people go through because they are different, no matter who they are, in the end were are all just human.