Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961 to document the population transfer of Germans from East-Central Europe that had occurred after World War II. Created by the Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons, Refugees and War Victims, the commission headed by Theodor Schieder (thus known as the Schieder commission) consisted primarily of well-known historians, however with a Nazi past. Therefore, while in the immediate post war period the commission was regarded as composed of very accomplished historians, the later assessment of its members changed. The later historians are debating how reliable are the findings of the commission, and to what degree they were influenced by Nazi and nationalist point of view.
Motivated by the Lebensraum ideology, some of the historians themselves had played an active role in these war crimes. Due to its relative frankness, the final summary volume was suppressed for political reasons and was never finished.
Historical background and origins of the research project
Lebensraum and Generalplan Ost
The Schieder Commission did not inform the readers about the implementation of the earlier Lebensraum concept: in 1938 and 1939 Nazi Germany expanded its territory far into the east, annexing parts of Czechoslovakia and Poland (Sudetenland, Warthegau). This was intended as only a first step towards establishing the so-called A-A line from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan (both located in Russia) as Germany's new eastern border. Parts of Poland were "Germanized" by force, the local Polish majority population being subject to mass executions and murder as well as expelled into other parts of Poland. The Jews were systematically killed. In some cases German historians were involved in determining the fate of villages based on racial criteria. Ethnically German minorities from further east and settlers from within Nazi Reich were invited to settle in the annexed areas. Thousands of children from the occupied territories were kidnapped and examined according to racial criteria. Those who were eventually considered "Aryan" were given German names and thoroughly Germanized, but most were sent to orphanages, died from malnutrition or were killed in Auschwitz.
German expellees in early West Germany
Where they came from. At least 12 million affected, said to be the largest movement of any single ethnic population in modern history (per Expulsion of Germans after World War II#Legacy of the expulsions) Many fled through the Soviet-controlled territory to the western zones Extent of the population influx: Mecklenburg's number of inhabitants doubled. Previously purely Catholic regions got an influx of Protestants and conversely. Explosion of small settlements into big towns, see Heimatvertriebene#Expellee towns. Conditions in early post-war Germany Systematically organized interviews with arriving expellees as material to be used against the Soviet Union Federal ministry for expellees Integration of expellees into West German society
Origins of the project
The project had its roots in initiatives in the British and American occupation zones that preceded the foundation of West Germany in 1951. At the time German politicians expected that a peace treaty would offer the chance for a revision of Germany's new eastern border. The German project which was to portray Germans as alleged victims of suffering, in particular as caused by the Red Army, was hoped to balance the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany and create international sympathy for German territorial claims against neighbouring countries. These motivations were fully endorsed by Schieder and other commission members such as Diestelkamp, who felt that Germany had missed a similar chance after it lost the First World War, and that a related Polish project needed a counter-weight. Domestically, the documentation of the expelled persons' fate was meant to support their integration into West German society.