# What happened to eastern european germans after WW2
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 18, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175 "2005-09-18T02:38:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/1 "2005-09-18T02:38:00Z")
I have heard that over a million germans who ended up in USSR territory after WW2 were murdered and a million or more were displaced and made refugees. Where/when did this happen exactlY?
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/2 "2005-09-18T03:34:31Z")
It happened in the ethnically German areas of Eastern Europe, as you said, after WWII. If you remember, one of the big causes of WWII was the ethnic Germans outside of Germany and their desire to become part of Germany (the Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig). So, they were seen as hostile aliens and forced out.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/3 "2005-09-18T04:15:22Z")
[This site](http://www.answers.com/topic/expulsion-of-germans-after-world-war-ii) gives a good general background.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/4 "2005-09-18T04:34:33Z")
I would note that it’s still a political issue in Germany,since at least some of these displaced people (or their descendants) would want to be indemnized if only for their loss of property.
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### Author:  [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/5 "2005-09-18T06:36:34Z")
Yes, but not nearly as much as it used to be. Obviously the actual displaced persons are dieing out slowly, especially those who didn’t only live in the east as little children. A few people seek compensation, but fortunately this isn’t very frequent. There are organisations on the right fringe of the political spectrum that represent displaced persons and try to raise the issue. However they aren’t a very significant force any more.
One thing that changed after the opening of eastern Europe is that some people see an actual chance to take their claims to the courts where the earlier communist authorities would have laughed them out of the country.
kellner, 2/4 Eastern Prussian + 1/4 Silesian
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/6 "2005-09-18T15:07:36Z")
> [@](#):
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> If you remember, one of the big causes of WWII was the ethnic Germans outside of Germany and their desire to become part of Germany (the Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig).
While some of them did want to be part of Germany, it seems in retrospect that support for the Nazi’s and Germany was not terribly high. Most did not support Nazi policies, and did nothing to support German incursions to bring them within a greater Germany.
Truly a sad thing.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/7 "2005-09-18T15:31:01Z")
> [@](#):
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> While some of them did want to be part of Germany, it seems in retrospect that support for the Nazi’s and Germany was not terribly high. Most did not support Nazi policies, and did nothing to support German incursions to bring them within a greater Germany.
That’s not what I’ve always read. Most of these German populations did support the attempts to secede from their existing countries and be annexed by Germany. There were honest referendums held. In my opinion, this was more support for Germany rather than the Nazi regime but the support was there.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/8 "2005-09-18T16:41:34Z")
The Volga Germans and the inhabitants of the parts of Pomerania, Silesia, and East Prussia taken over by the USSR and Poland were repatriated to Germany. I have no idea about the Sudetendeutsch. AFAIK the Transylvanian Germans are still there, just north of the Transylvanian Magyars, cultural enclaves incorporated in Romania and content with that.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-eastern-european-germans-after-ww2/322175/9 "2005-09-19T03:05:18Z")
> [@](#):
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> I have no idea about the Sudetendeutsch.
They were forced out of Czechoslovakia.