A Terrible Revenge
Encyclopedia
A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944-1950 is a book
by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
about the expulsion of Germans after World War II
. Based on testimonials of German civilians and military, as well as many interviews with British and American politicians and diplomats who participated at the Potsdam Conference
, including Robert Murphy, the political adviser of General Eisenhower, Sir Geoffrey Harrison (drafter of article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol concerning population transfers), and Sir Denis Allen (drafter of article IX on the provisional post-war borders), the book also describes the crimes committed by the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia, at the end of World War II
, and cites the condemnation of the expulsions by Bertrand Russell
, Victor Gollancz
, Bishop Bell of Chichester and other contemporary intellectuals.
The author describes the history of German settlements in Central and Eastern Europe since the 12th century, the impact of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain on German minorities left in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the failure of the League of Nations system of minority protection, the outbreak of World War II and crimes committed by the Nazis, followed by the fate of the refugees from the former Eastern parts of Germany (Silesia
, East Prussia
, Pomerania
, East Brandenburg), as well as the fate of German minorities in Czechoslovakia
, Hungary
, Poland
, Romania
, Yugoslavia
and the Soviet Union
.
In the book, de Zayas claims that approximately two million Germans died during the post period of 1944-1949, although most recent research on the subject has put the number at around half a million.
. It is a popular, more accessible rendition of the author's seminal monography on the expulsion (Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge, German: Die Nemesis von Potsdam. Die Anglo-Amerikaner und die Vertreibung der Deutschen, 14 editions with C.H.Beck, dtv, Ullstein and now Herbig, Muenchen). This shorter introduction to the subject matter was initially published in German as Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung der Deutschen aus dem Osten (4 editions during 1986-1996, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-17009-297-9), first printed in English under the title of The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace (St. Martin's Press
, New York, 1993, Macmillan, London). The new, 1994 English title, included the then neologism "ethnic cleansing
", massively used at these times relating to the crimes committed by Serbs in Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina of 1990s. The 5th expanded German 2006 edition was titled Die deutschen Vertriebenen (Leopold Stocker Verlag, ISBN 3-902475-15-3). The book ends with 12 historical theses, 14 legal theses and 10 conclusions. The Theses were positively reviewed by Professor Andreas Hillgruber
in the Historische Zeitschrift and by Professor Gotthold Rhode in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
See also the review by Dr.habil. Matthias Stickler in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Juli 31, 2006, "Fast ein Klassiker"
The new 2006 English edition with Palgrave/Macmillan is expanded by about 20%. It contains additional information from interviews with the children of the displaced, German expellees who migrated to the United States and Canada, new photos and new statistical tables.
"This is the story of the ethnic Germans who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some two million died and fifteen million were displaced - driven from their lands by those opposed to anyone and everything German... De Zayas's moving plea is that one's home should be a human right. As frontiers once more shift in Eastern Europe and families flee in Bosnia, he could hardly have chosen a better moment to deliver it." The Times
, (London) 18 November 1993.
"Atrocity begins with a euphemism. Under the rubric 'orderly population transfers' the victors of the Second World War drove 15 million Germans out of their ancient homes in an ethnic cleansing far worse than what is happening today in the Middle East or Bosnia Hercegovina ... Western historians have long averted their eyes from the stupendous crime authoritatively described by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas in this grim, essential book. The author has impeccable credentials for this work: a law degree from Harvard, a doctorate in history at Göttingen, mastery of five languages. He has worked in foreign archives and interviewed many survivors for this book, his fourth. For many years he has been a senior legal adviser on human rights to an international organization in Switzerland... The author conservatively takes the lowest available estimate of the deaths: over two million people died in the expulsions...." Ottawa Citizen 16 October 1993.
The book has also been criticized for its victim-perspective, normally unsuitable for scholarly works, unfavourably comparing it with a more recent book of Detlef Brandes. The 2006 revised and enlarged edition of "Terrible Revenge" with Palgrave/Macmillan takes some of these considerations into account. In the introduction the author notes that a "Terrible Revenge" is a popularized version of his longer monograph "Nemesis at Potsdam" (1-3 editions Routledge, 6th edition Picton Press, Rockland, Maine 2003). See also review of the Future of Freedom Foundation.
Other reviews have criticized both de Zayas and Brandes reversely. According to Eagle Glassheim, Brandes does not provide any moral conclusion deriving from violence against civilians due to their ethnic heritage.
by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas is an American lawyer, writer, historian, a leading expert in the field of human rights, as well as a former high-ranking United Nations official...
about the expulsion of Germans after World War II
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
. Based on testimonials of German civilians and military, as well as many interviews with British and American politicians and diplomats who participated at the Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm Hohenzollern, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 16 July to 2 August 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States...
, including Robert Murphy, the political adviser of General Eisenhower, Sir Geoffrey Harrison (drafter of article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol concerning population transfers), and Sir Denis Allen (drafter of article IX on the provisional post-war borders), the book also describes the crimes committed by the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia, at the end of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and cites the condemnation of the expulsions by Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, Victor Gollancz
Victor Gollancz
Sir Victor Gollancz was a British publisher, socialist, and humanitarian.-Early life:Born in Maida Vale, London, he was the son of a wholesale jeweller and nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and Professor Sir Israel Gollancz; after being educated at St Paul's School, London and taking...
, Bishop Bell of Chichester and other contemporary intellectuals.
The author describes the history of German settlements in Central and Eastern Europe since the 12th century, the impact of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain on German minorities left in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the failure of the League of Nations system of minority protection, the outbreak of World War II and crimes committed by the Nazis, followed by the fate of the refugees from the former Eastern parts of Germany (Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
, East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
, Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
, East Brandenburg), as well as the fate of German minorities in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
In the book, de Zayas claims that approximately two million Germans died during the post period of 1944-1949, although most recent research on the subject has put the number at around half a million.
Table of contents of the book
- Foreword
- The Germans of East Central Europe
- The Expulsion Prehistory: Interbellum Years and World War II
- War and Flight
- Allied Decisions on Resettlement
- Expulsion and Deportation
- The Expellees in Germany - Yesterday and Today
- Epilogue
Printing history
The book originated as a script for a television documentary of the Bayerischer RundfunkBayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
. It is a popular, more accessible rendition of the author's seminal monography on the expulsion (Nemesis at Potsdam, Routledge, German: Die Nemesis von Potsdam. Die Anglo-Amerikaner und die Vertreibung der Deutschen, 14 editions with C.H.Beck, dtv, Ullstein and now Herbig, Muenchen). This shorter introduction to the subject matter was initially published in German as Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung der Deutschen aus dem Osten (4 editions during 1986-1996, Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-17009-297-9), first printed in English under the title of The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace (St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, New York, 1993, Macmillan, London). The new, 1994 English title, included the then neologism "ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
", massively used at these times relating to the crimes committed by Serbs in Croatia
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
and Bosnia and Herzegovina of 1990s. The 5th expanded German 2006 edition was titled Die deutschen Vertriebenen (Leopold Stocker Verlag, ISBN 3-902475-15-3). The book ends with 12 historical theses, 14 legal theses and 10 conclusions. The Theses were positively reviewed by Professor Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Fritz Hillgruber was a conservative German historian. Hillgruber was influential as a military and diplomatic historian.At his death in 1989, the American historian Francis L...
in the Historische Zeitschrift and by Professor Gotthold Rhode in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
.
See also the review by Dr.habil. Matthias Stickler in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of Juli 31, 2006, "Fast ein Klassiker"
The new 2006 English edition with Palgrave/Macmillan is expanded by about 20%. It contains additional information from interviews with the children of the displaced, German expellees who migrated to the United States and Canada, new photos and new statistical tables.
- Alfred M. de Zayas: Heimatrecht ist Menschenrecht. Universitas, München 2001. ISBN 3-8004-1416-3.
- Alfred M. de Zayas: Die deutschen Vertriebenen. Keine Täter sondern Opfer. Ares, Graz 2006. ISBN 3-902475-15-3.
- Norman Naimark: Fires of Hatred. Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth - Century Europe. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2001.
- Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees: The Expulsion of the "German" Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War. Florence, Italy, Europe, University Institute, 2004.
Reviews
"This popularly written but still scholarly study follows the author's other successful books in the fields of history and international law [which] were hailed by historians as well as lawyers as masterpieces of academic craftsmanship. His book.presents in a nutshell the history of the ethnic German population which had settled in the early 13th century in large parts of what is nowadays Eastern Europe." Netherlands International Law Review 1986, pp. 430–431"This is the story of the ethnic Germans who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some two million died and fifteen million were displaced - driven from their lands by those opposed to anyone and everything German... De Zayas's moving plea is that one's home should be a human right. As frontiers once more shift in Eastern Europe and families flee in Bosnia, he could hardly have chosen a better moment to deliver it." The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, (London) 18 November 1993.
"Atrocity begins with a euphemism. Under the rubric 'orderly population transfers' the victors of the Second World War drove 15 million Germans out of their ancient homes in an ethnic cleansing far worse than what is happening today in the Middle East or Bosnia Hercegovina ... Western historians have long averted their eyes from the stupendous crime authoritatively described by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas in this grim, essential book. The author has impeccable credentials for this work: a law degree from Harvard, a doctorate in history at Göttingen, mastery of five languages. He has worked in foreign archives and interviewed many survivors for this book, his fourth. For many years he has been a senior legal adviser on human rights to an international organization in Switzerland... The author conservatively takes the lowest available estimate of the deaths: over two million people died in the expulsions...." Ottawa Citizen 16 October 1993.
Criticism
One reviewer argues that de Zayas over-emphasizes the role of the Bund der Vertriebenen (non-governmental association representing the expellees) and its property and territorial claims. It has been noted that no West-East migration occurred when this possibility arose after the unification of the German states, and that practically no Germans have returned to the East after the Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania entered the European Union.The book has also been criticized for its victim-perspective, normally unsuitable for scholarly works, unfavourably comparing it with a more recent book of Detlef Brandes. The 2006 revised and enlarged edition of "Terrible Revenge" with Palgrave/Macmillan takes some of these considerations into account. In the introduction the author notes that a "Terrible Revenge" is a popularized version of his longer monograph "Nemesis at Potsdam" (1-3 editions Routledge, 6th edition Picton Press, Rockland, Maine 2003). See also review of the Future of Freedom Foundation.
Other reviews have criticized both de Zayas and Brandes reversely. According to Eagle Glassheim, Brandes does not provide any moral conclusion deriving from violence against civilians due to their ethnic heritage.
See also
- Against Their Will, a historical research book by Pavel Polyan
- Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during World War II. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers...
- Journey Back to YouthJourney Back to YouthJourney Back to Youth is a 2001 documentary film by Russian film makers, Alexander Gutman and Sergei Litviakov, an interview of four German women who tell the story of four young German girls from East Prussia placed into a Soviet labor camps by the end of World War II according to the Stalin's...
, a 2001 documentary film - Nemmersdorf massacre
- Soviet War Crimes