Marianne Drews´ memory about German expulsions
@ Netzwerk Migration in Europ [ ]

Stefan Chwin´s memory about Polish expulsions
@ Netzwerk Migration in Europa [ ]

German and Polish Expulsion 1944 –1948

Potsdam Agreement, August 1945
© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz

Poland before and after the Second World War

Polish experience of forced migration

German expellees from Slesia, 1946
© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz

German refugees in a camp in Germany, 1945
© Bildarchiv preußischer Kulturb [ ]

GERMAN AND POLISH EXPULSIONS AND FLIGHT IN THE 1940S

After the Second World War, flight, displacement and forced re-settlement led to one of the biggest migration movements in the history of Europe.

In Europe, Poland and Germany were particularly affected. When the Polish borders were shifted west in 1945, millions of Polish and Germans had to leave their regional home:
The Poles from the east region of Poland, which belonged to the Soviet Union, were resettled in the west, in the formerly German regions that had now been handed over to Poland.
The German population was then displaced from there, in as much as they had not already fled from the approaching Red Army, and were replaced by Polish new settlers, most of whom were resettling after losing their regional home in East Poland.

The former Breslau, now Wroclaw, is exemplary for the Polish and German flight, forced migration, displacement and forced resettlement: What was formerly the largest German city east of Berlin became Wroclaw, a city in west Poland.
The loss of their regional home affected the lives of both the German and Polish displaced and resettled people for a long time to come.

Anne von Oswald, Netzwerk Migration in Europa e.V.