The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II. The German population fled or was expelled from all regions which are currently within the territorial boundaries of Poland: including the former eastern territories of Germany annexed by Poland after the war and parts of pre-war Poland; despite acquiring territories from Germany, the Poles themselves were also expelled from the former eastern territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. West German government figures of those evacuated, migrated, or expelled by 1950 totaled 8,129,800 (6,981,000 from the former eastern territories of Germany; 290,800 from Danzig, 688,000 from pre-war Poland and 170,000 Baltic Germans resettled in Poland during the war).Die deutschen Vertreibungsverluste. Bevölkerungsbilanzen für die deutschen Vertreibungsgebiete 1939/50. Herausgeber: Statistisches Bundesamt - Wiesbaden. - Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 1958 Pages 38 and 45 Research by the West German government put the figure of Germans emigrating from Poland from 1951 to 1982 at 894,000; they are also considered expellees under German Federal Expellee Law.Gerhard Reichling. Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen, Bonn 1995, Page 53

The German population east of Oder-Neisse was estimated at over 11 million in early 1945."Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa". In Verbindung mit A. Diestelkamp [et al.] bearb. von T. Schieder Bonn, Hrsg. vom Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, 1953 pages 78 and 155 The first mass flight of Germans followed the Red Army's advance and was composed of both spontaneous flight driven by Soviet atrocities, and organised evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through to the spring of 1945.Arie Marcelo Kacowicz, Pawel Lutomski, Population resettlement in international conflicts: a comparative study, Lexington Books, 2007, pp.100,101 Overall about 1% (100,000) of the German civilian population east of the Oder–Neisse line perished in the fighting prior to the surrender in May 1945.Spieler, Silke. ed. Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945–1948. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974. Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte. Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen. (1989). . Pages 23–41 In 1945, the eastern territories of Germany as well as Polish areas annexed by Germany were occupied by the Soviet Red Army and communist Polish military forces. German civilians were also sent as "reparation labor" to the USSR.Pavel Polian-Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Central European University Press 2003 Pages 286-293 The Soviet Union transferred former German territories in the east of the Oder–Neisse line to Poland in July 1945. In mid-1945, 4.5 to 4.6 million Germans remained on the territories that were given under Polish controlLudność Polski w XX wieku Andrzej Gawryszewski. Warszawa : Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN, 2005. Pages 455-460 and page 466 pending a final peace conference with Germany, which eventually never took place.; ;

Early expulsions in Poland were undertaken by the Soviet-backed communist military authorities in PolandPhilipp Ther, Deutsche Und Polnische Vertriebene: Gesellschaft und Vertriebenenpolitik in SBZ/ddr und in Polen 1945-1956, 1998, p.56, : From June until mid July, Polish military and militia expelled nearly all people from the districts immediately east of the rivers [Oder–Neisse line] even before the Potsdam Conference ("wild expulsions"), to ensure the later integration into an ethnically homogeneous PolandMatthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, 2005, p. 197, , as envisioned by the Polish communists.Naimark, Russian in Germany. p. 75 reference 31: "a citation from the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers Party, May 20–21, 1945." Between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected. Contrary to the official declaration that the former German inhabitants of the so-called Recovered Territories had to be removed quickly to house Poles displaced by the Soviet annexation, the lands initially faced a severe population shortage.

By early 1946, 932,000 people had been "verified" as having Polish nationality. In the February 1946 census, 2,288,000 persons were listed as Germans and 417,400 became subject to verification aiming at the establishment of nationality.The quality of the 1946 census data was very low From the spring of 1946 the expulsions gradually became better organised, affecting the remaining German population. By 1950, 3,155,000 German civilians had been expelled and 1,043,550 were naturalised as Polish citizens.Pitor Eberhardt in POLITICAL MIGRATIONS IN POLAND 1939-1948 pages 44–45 Germans considered "indispensable" for the Polish economy were retained; virtually all had left by 1960. Some 500,000 Germans in Poland, East Prussia, and Silesia were employed as forced labor in communist-administered camps prior to being expelled from Poland.Polski w XX wieku / Andrzej Gawryszewski. Warszawa : Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. Stanisława Leszczyckiego PAN, 2005. Page 312 Besides large camps, some of which were re-used German concentration camps, numerous other forced labour, punitive and internment camps, urban ghettos, and detention centres sometimes consisting only of a small cellar were set up.

The attitude of Polish civilians, many of whom had experienced brutalities during the preceding German occupation, was varied.Matthew J. Gibney, Randall Hansen, Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, 2005, p.198, , There were incidents when Poles, even freed slave labourers, protected Germans, for example by disguising them as Poles. The attitude of the Soviet soldiers was ambivalent. A number of them committed numerous atrocities, most prominently rapes and murders,Earl R. Beck, Under the Bombs: The German Home Front, 1942-1945, University Press of Kentucky, 1999, p. 176, and did not always distinguish between Poles and Germans, often mistreating them alike. Other Soviets were taken aback by the brutal treatment of the Germans and engaged in their protection. According to the West German Schieder commission of 1953, the civilian death toll was 2 million.Dokumentation der Vertreibung der Deutschen aus Ost-Mitteleuropa. Band 1 In Verbindung mit A. Diestelkamp [et al.] bearb. von T. Schieder Bonn, Hrsg. vom Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, 1953 pages 160 However, in 1974 the German Federal Archives estimated a death toll of about 400,000 (including the victims of those deported from Kaliningrad).Spieler, Silke. ed. Vertreibung und Vertreibungsverbrechen 1945-1948. Bericht des Bundesarchivs vom 28. Mai 1974. Archivalien und ausgewählte Erlebnisberichte, Bonn: Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen. (1989). . PageIngo Haar, Bevölkerungsbilanzen" und "Vertreibungsverluste. Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der deutschen Opferangaben aus Flucht und Vertreibung :Herausforderung Bevölkerung : zu Entwicklungen des modernen Denkens über die Bevölkerung vor, im und nach dem Dritten Reich Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2007

Background Historical background

German settlement in the former eastern territories of Germany and pre-war Poland dates back to the medieval Ostsiedlung. Nazi Germany used the presence and the alleged persecution of Volksdeutsche as propaganda tools in preparation for the invasion of Poland in 1939. With the invasion, Poland was partitioned between Germany and the Soviet Union according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This was followed by population exchanges and included Baltic Germans who were settled in occupied Poland.

The Nazis' Generalplan Ost strategy for Central and Eastern Europe envisioned the creation of a Greater Germany, which was to be built through removing a variety of non-Germans from Poland and other areas in Central and Eastern Europe, mainly Slavs and Jews believed by Nazis to be subhuman. These non-Germans were targeted for slave labor and eventual extermination. While Generalplan Ost's settlement ambitions did not come into full effect due to the war's turn, millions of Germans, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, were settled by the Nazis to replace Poles removed or killed during the occupation. Germany deported millions of Poles either to other territories, to concentration camps or as slave workers. A number of others were deported by the Soviet Union during the years 1939-1941, when Germany and Soviet Union cooperated against Poles.

German communities living within the pre-war borders of Poland participated in wartime German activities, starting with the invasion of Poland.Wojciech Roszkowski: "Historia Polski 1914-1997" Warsaw 1998 PWNW page 171 Created on order of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, a Nazi ethnic German organisation called Selbstschutz carried out mass murder during Intelligenzaktion alongside operational groups of German military and police. In addition, the German minority engaged in such activities as identifying Poles for execution and illegally detaining them. To Poles, moving Germans out of Poland was seen as an attempt to avoid such events in the future and, as a result, the Polish government in exile proposed a population transfer of Germans as early as 1941."Polacy - wysiedleni, wypędzeni i wyrugowani przez III Rzeszę", Maria Wardzyńska, Warsaw 2004".

During World War II, expulsions were initiated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland. The Germans deported 2.478 million Polish citizens from the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany,Nowa Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN. Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 2004, pages 811–812 (volume 8), s. 709 (volume 6). murdered 1.8 to 2.77 million ethnic Poles and another 2.7 to 3 million Polish Jews, and resettled 1.3 million ethnic Germans in their place.Piotr Eberhardt, Political Migrations in Poland, 1939-1948, Warsaw 2006, p.22 Around 500,000 Germans were stationed in Poland as part of its occupation force; these consisted of people such as clerks, technicians and support staff.

Allied decisions: Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam conferences

Representatives of the Polish Government were not present at any of those conferences and felt betrayed by their western Allies who decided about future Polish borders behind their backs.