"Migrations in the 20 th century and their consequences – ways forward for history lessons within a European context"

be sent to this Lublin-Kholm area and may settle there
.
22
In reality, the Polish inhabitants of 
these areas (over a million) had to leave their homes and were compulsorily displaced to the 
Generalgouvernement
. Many ultimately died in concentration camps or became slave labourers 
in the Reich. In many cases, the German families who arrived at the farms and housing 
vacated for them in Poland observed that 
the fires left by the previous occupants were still 
burning
.
23
In 1941, the city of Lublin and the district of Zamo** were declared the main German 
resettlement area, in which about 90,000 "returning" settlers from the Soviet Union, Bosnia and 
Croatia were to be housed. From November 1942 to August 1943, approximately 
110,000 Polish peasants from 297 villages, including 30,000 children, were evacuated - divided 
into four groups according to "racial characteristics", from "inferior" to "capable of being 
Germanised". Most of them were sent to concentration camps.
It was not only Poles who stayed in the German sphere of influence who had to leave their 
property and belongings: as a result of the agreements concluded between the German Reich 
and the Soviet Union, Poland was occupied by both states after the invasion and divided up, 
with 51% of its territory being incorporated into the USSR. As early as October 1939, the Soviet 
security authorities began preparing the "
deportations of anti-Soviet Polish elements
". Four 
mass deportations were carried out, the first on 10 February 1940. They involved railway 
workers, foresters, forest wardens, forestry workers, medium- and low-ranking civil servants and 
the families of army personnel (about 250,000 people). The second took place in April and 
included factory owners, bank clerks, politically and socially active people and the families of 
police officers, of army personnel and of persons already in detention (about 300,000 people).
Mainly affected by the third deportation, which was carried out in late June/early July 1940, were 
Poles and Jews who had fled from the areas occupied by the Wehrmacht, as well as large 
sections of the population living on the German-Soviet demarcation line (approximately 
300,000-400,000). The fourth deportation took place on the eve of the German-Soviet war in 
July 1941. According to estimates, between 280,000 and 300,000 civilians were removed at 
that time. About 1.2 million Poles (including 200,000 children) living in the areas to the east of 
the river Bug were deported to Siberia, Kazakhstan, the Far East and other areas of central 
Asia. A similar fate befell people of German extraction in the Soviet Union. The deportation of 
these Poles was also an expulsion, because the deportees were not allowed to return to their 
homes after the second world war but were taken as settlers to the former German territories in 
the east.
The flight and expulsion of Germans from the German territories east of the rivers Oder and 
Neisse
22
"40 Jahre nach Flucht und Vertreibung", pp. 16-17.
23
"40 Jahre nach Flucht und Vertreibung", p. 18.

---

43
In 1939, the population of the eastern German provinces, which became part of Poland in 1945, 
was approximately 8.5 million. At the end of 1944, the figure had risen to 10.5 million, including 
about one million foreigners, predominantly Poles, who had been moved there as foreign 
workers.
When the major Soviet offensive began, the front approached very rapidly. It was assumed that 
the arrival of Soviet troops in the German-populated areas would lead to intolerable suffering for 
the inhabitants - ie, women, children and the elderly - and that they could be saved only if they 
fled or were evacuated. However, the orders to clear the areas came too late, when work on 
preparing the evacuation had hardly begun. The situation was worsened by a very severe 
winter, and roads and tracks were blocked by columns of Wehrmacht troops.
Few of those who suffered the miseries and horrors of the attempted escape succeeded in 
reaching safety in the west. Most refugee columns were overrun by the Red Army in the cold 
winter of 1944/45. Many refugees tried to return to their home towns and villages, mostly on 
foot. At the end of June 1945, an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 refugees from the Soviet-
occupied zone had trekked back to their homes east of the Oder and Neisse. The numbers 
returning from Czechoslovakia after the cease-fire were much higher (about 800,000).
24
Their flats and houses had been looted, and some demolished, burned down or left empty.
However, some were already inhabited, either by people looking for a temporary roof over their 
heads, or by those who had lost their homes. Living with the new arrivals led to fears and 
apprehensions on both sides, as well as feelings of hatred and humiliation.
In the personal reminiscences of immigrant Poles we read: