german refugees fleeing Poland

[andreahs]

I am looking for information on the German Refugees who fled Poland at the end of the war, to West Berlin. I am looking for a route these people may have taken from Posen, Poland to Berlin as I am writing a novel about one such journey undertaken by my father when he was four- he does not remember the cities he went through but knows he 'zigzagged' along the route. Has anyone any ideas/possibilities of a route?

[Carl Schwamberger]

I suggest you obtain some detailed road maps from that era and familarize yourself with the possibilites. Then compare these to the times & routes of the Soviet Army advances. This should help you understand the possible routes. In the english language there are some history books covering the last months of that war, the 'Last Battle' by Ryan and another titled 'Armegeddon. I'd expect a lot more in the German language including magazine articals. A thurough search should turn up descriptions by a few others leaving Posen.

[andreahs]

thankyou very much for taking the time to answer my question, I'll hunt down those books you've mentioned. I have a book called the Fall of Berlin which has a map of the Russian advance, I just thought I could find an actual route taken, Andrea Semeniuk

[Benoit Douville]

Andrea,

I wish you good luck in your project, I am more than interested to read your novel when it is gona be over. I also have the book ''The Fall of Berlin'' by Beevor, really worth reading.

Regards

[Reibert-Austria]

Hi, Andrea !

My grandparent´s lived in the capital of Latvia, Riga.
During the war they became citizen´s of the Reich and lived in Litzmannstadt, (today the polish town named Lodz), were my mother was born while grandpa served in a German Panzerdivision.
I´ve got some documents from the escape of grandma. Among them are some paper´s from, (meanwhile "Eastern-German"), authorities under order of Russian Military-Commanders).

Maybe next week I´ll looking for, OK ?

Regard´s,

Reibert


P.S.:
My English isn´t very good. But if you´re interested, I´ll try to translate some paper´s.

[andreahs]

I don't know if you received my last post, I didn't see it in the forum so I'm just making sure. I would be interested in anything you have - at the moment I am absorbing all information possible and have recently found another book sensitive to german refugees 'Witnesses of War' by Nicholas Stargardt. And we seem to come from similiar histories - thanks for taking an interest, I'd love to hear more from you, Andrea Semeniuk

[patrynius]

During the war they became citizen´s of the Reich and lived in Litzmannstadt

It was always Lodz ("Boat" ) - it's Polish city, or rather to say Polish-Jewish-German - so called "Polish Manchester" (because of XIX industralizaton on huge scale). It's rather very young city - at the beginning of XIX century it was just a small village.
Only after september 1939 when German decided to join some parts of Poland to "Reich" Lodz also was part of this. INteresting thing was, that at the beginnig Germans plan was - that Lodz will be part of General Gouverbent, but at least they join this city to "1000 Reich". Also they change name of this city - to Litzmannstadt but only to 1945...

About Posen (Poznan in Polish ) - of course You remember that there were smtg like "Festung Posen" and heavy fight for city.

About novel - as the matter of fact Wielkopolska (Posen is capital of this region) were very short fights - because soviet offensive conquered it quickly (in January 1945) - I suggest smtg. about Silesia (Breslau etc) or north - Danzing (and catastroph of Wilhelm Gustloff, Goya, Steuben)..
but it's just sugestions
regards!