When German POWs were released from captivity...

Discussions on every day life in the Weimar Republic, pre-anschluss Austria, Third Reich and the occupied territories. Hosted by Vikki.
Post Reply
Kamerad06
Member
Posts: 188
Joined: 11 Dec 2004, 09:18
Location: East Asia

When German POWs were released from captivity...

#1

Post by Kamerad06 » 31 May 2005, 16:33

.. and were allowed to return home, what happened to those who came from areas of Germany which had been given to Poland and the current Czech Republic? These were areas from which all Germans had been expelled after 1945.

Were they automatically sent to the Soviet Zone of Germany (after October 1949 the German Democratic Republic)?

Or were they allowed to resettle in the West if they desired?

Was there a systematic policy regarding these released POWs who came from the former German areas which had become Polish and Czech?

Larry D.
Member
Posts: 4103
Joined: 05 Aug 2004, 00:03
Location: Winter Springs, FL (USA)

#2

Post by Larry D. » 31 May 2005, 18:28

It is my understanding that none of these PoW returnees were desired back into those areas absorbed by Poland (Silesia, Wartheland, Pomerania, etc.), Russia (East Prussia) and Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia), so if they did manage to return to their homes it must have been difficult and involved a lot of paperwork, red tape and a very long wait. They were considered expellees and particularly undesirable as former German soldiers. However they were welcome in the western zones of occupied Germany and this is where most of them resettled. As far as the DDR is concerned, I draw a blank. I don't recall what its policy was. There are a number of excellent books on this subject, which is dear to the hearts of all older Germans. One author who has done several titles on the subject in English is Alfred deZayas. You could do a Google search under his name and see what you come up with, and also do the same on the big internet second-hand book web sites.


Erich Hartmann
Member
Posts: 255
Joined: 26 May 2005, 16:35
Location: Berlin

#3

Post by Erich Hartmann » 31 May 2005, 20:03

Hi,

just one example:
My family stems from Breslau/Silesia. As the russians came near the women took the children and fled to Berlin.
As the russians released my grandpa after the war the whole family stayed in Berlin. In southeast Berlin which became
later the capital of the GDR...what a luck! 8O
So yes, lot's of "Heimkehrer" stayed in the East too...

Larry D.
Member
Posts: 4103
Joined: 05 Aug 2004, 00:03
Location: Winter Springs, FL (USA)

#4

Post by Larry D. » 31 May 2005, 23:15

But what if the family had fled from Breslau to Magdeburg, for example, and your Opa was released in June 1946 (or June 1948 or any other date) from a PoW camp in Texas, or Canada. Could he have legally crossed the Ost-West Grenz and joined his family in Magdeburg?

Erich Hartmann
Member
Posts: 255
Joined: 26 May 2005, 16:35
Location: Berlin

#5

Post by Erich Hartmann » 31 May 2005, 23:26

I'm fairly sure there would have been paperwork, interrogations and a camp (Übergangslager) involved.
But since East Germany was in need of men too...why not?
(I never heard of rejecting Ex-POW's because they sat in the "wrong" camp....)8O
And I'm also sure the control wouldn't end with the reunion with his family. Even as they
released my Opa (he was a lifer and ended the war as Oberst without being in the party) the russians
came for a while nearly every night to take him to questioning....

Larry D.
Member
Posts: 4103
Joined: 05 Aug 2004, 00:03
Location: Winter Springs, FL (USA)

#6

Post by Larry D. » 31 May 2005, 23:58

Thanks for your reply.

Both the BRD and the DDR were paranoid over the subject of Spione back then, so I imagine all of the Übergänger were suspect for years after making the crossing. Both sides were trying their best to plant long-term, deep-cover spies in the other camp. Any German PoW released from Soviet internment was put in a Durchgangslager and relentlessly questioned by the BND and the U.S. Army CIC for days and days before being released and allowed to settle in the BRD. Those who didn't look "quite right", or were thought to have information of intelligence value, were sent to Frankfurt/M. for more detailed interrogation.

Erich Hartmann
Member
Posts: 255
Joined: 26 May 2005, 16:35
Location: Berlin

#7

Post by Erich Hartmann » 01 Jun 2005, 00:02

Yup, the same here...:D

Post Reply

Return to “Life in the Third Reich & Weimar Republic”