Expulsion of Germans after World War II in the context of "Provisional Government of National Unity"

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⭐ Core Definition: Expulsion of Germans after World War II

During the later stages of World War II and the post-war period, Reichsdeutsche (German citizens) and Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans living outside the Nazi state) fled and were expelled from various Eastern and Central European countries, including Czechoslovakia, and from the former German provinces of Lower and Upper Silesia, East Prussia, and the eastern parts of Brandenburg (Neumark) and Pomerania (Farther Pomerania), which were annexed by the Provisional Government of National Unity of Poland and by the Soviet Union.

The idea to expel the Germans from the annexed territories had been proposed by Winston Churchill, in conjunction with the Polish and Czechoslovak governments-in-exile in London since at least 1942. Tomasz Arciszewski, the Polish prime minister in-exile, supported the annexation of German territory but opposed the idea of expulsion, wanting instead to naturalize the Germans as Polish citizens and to assimilate them. Joseph Stalin, in concert with other Communist leaders, planned to expel all ethnic Germans from east of the Oder and from lands which from May 1945 fell inside the Soviet occupation zones. In 1941, his government had already transported Germans from Crimea to Central Asia.

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Expulsion of Germans after World War II in the context of Banat Swabians

The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in the former Kingdom of Hungary in Central-Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians and Germans of Romania. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Empire's Banat of Temeswar province, a province which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with the Ottoman Empire. At the end of World War I in 1918, the Swabian minority worked together with the Hungarians and Jews to establish an independent multi-ethnic Banat Republic; however, the province was divided by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. The greater part was annexed by Romania, a smaller part by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 Yugoslavia) and a small region around Szeged remained part of Hungary.

Following World War II most Banat Swabians were expelled to the West by the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries, and after 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union and its republics many of those remaining left for economic and emotional reasons.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Banat Swabians
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
World War II → Post-war period → Reichsdeutsche → Volksdeutsche → Eastern Europe → Central Europe → Czechoslovakia → Province of Lower Silesia → Province of Upper Silesia → East Prussia → Province of Brandenburg → Neumark → Province of Pomerania (1815–1945) → Farther Pomerania → Provisional Government of National Unity → Soviet Union → Winston Churchill → Polish government-in-exile → Czechoslovak government-in-exile → Tomasz Arciszewski → Prime ministers of the Polish government-in-exile → Naturalize → Cultural assimilation → Joseph Stalin → Oder →