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The German evacuation from East-Central Europe ahead of the Soviet advance in World War II was delayed until the last moment. Plans to evacuate people from the territories controlled by Nazi Germany in Central and Eastern Europe including from former eastern territories of Germany were prepared by German authorities only when the defeat was inevitable, resulting in utter chaos. The evacuation in most of the Nazi-occupied areas began in January 1945, when the Soviet forces were already rapidly advancing westward.〔 The number of civilians in the eastern territories during the final stages of World War II is currently estimated at 10 million.〔 The authors used the phrase ''deutschsprachige Bevölkerung'' (i.e. population) consistently throughout the entire book although the phrase ''deutschsprachige Bewohner'' (i.e. residents) is also used by the historians.〕 Among them, were the 7,3 million permanent residents with one million ethnic Poles spared the expulsions and 6,4 million German speaking persons including settlers (''deutschsprachige Bevölkerung''), as well as 2,5 million transients consisting of 1 million slave workers from occupied Europe and 1.5 million bombing raid evacuees from the Reich. The evacuation did not concern all of them. The priority was given to bureaucratic administrative staff with their families estimated at 750,000. Along with the German civilians, well over a million German speakers from the east were evacuated or fled.〔 Most of them had settled into occupied Poland before March 1944. They took up farms and homes of Poles forcibly removed (or executed) during the ethnic cleansing operations in the preceding years. The number of Germans who had fled eastward temporarily in fear of the British and American bombings in the heartland of Germany is also estimated between 825,000 at a minimum,〔 and 1,134,000 by some historians.〔Jerzy Topolski (1988), ''Dzieje Poznania w latach 1793-1945: 1918-1945.'' ISBN 8301081953; page 941: "Dopiero nasilenie bombardowań Rzeszy zmusiło władze do przeniesienia do Poznania kilku przedsiębiorstw przemysłowych wraz z załogą, a także osiedlenia w nim ewakuowanych z niektórych dużych miast matek z małymi dziećmi oraz młodzieży szkół podstawowych i częściowo także szkół średnich, ewakuowanych z niektórych dużych miast" - Jerzy Topolski.〕 Apart from the evacuation of civilians, the Germans also evacuated Nazi concentration camp prisoners of many nationalities who were forced to walk to the Austrian and German borders as the Soviets approached from the east.〔 The German SS evacuated camp after camp as the war drew to a close, sending at least 250,000 men and women on death marches starting in March and April 1945. Some of those marches to the heartland of Germany and Austria lasted for weeks, causing thousands of deaths along the road.〔Yad Vashem, ( Death Marches. ) The Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority 2015. PDF direct download.〕〔The Holocaust Encyclopedia (2015), ( The largest death marches, winter of 1944-1945. ) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.〕 Statistics dealing with the evacuations are incomplete and there's no guarantee that estimates are accurate because in the Cold War years various government offices have manipulated them in order to make a political point. According to a recent estimate in Germany up to six million Germans may have fled or had been evacuated from the areas east of the Oder-Neisse line before the Red Army and the Soviet-controlled Polish People's Army took hold of the entire territory of postwar Poland. The West German search service was able to confirm the deaths of 86,860 civilians due to the wartime flight and evacuations from those areas.〔 == Overview == The plans to evacuate the German speaking population westwards from Eastern Europe including from cities and towns in the Eastern Gaue of Nazi Germany were prepared by various Nazi authorities towards the end of the war.〔 According to report submitted in 1947 by the Nazi governor of Warsaw, ''Gruppenführer'' Ludwig Fischer: "in roughly mid-August () Gauleiter – of the Warthegau district – Greiser directed a huge column of trains and other transportation means filled with goods, furniture, textiles, and medical supplies from Warsaw to Posen. During the whole time that fighting was ongoing Greiser evacuated not only gasoline, but everything that he could." By most current accounts drawing on research carried out by Theodor Schieder, up until the end of the war 7,494,000 persons evacuated from East-Central Europe to the heartland of Germany including 3,218,000 from Silesia, 2,053,000 from East Prussia, 1,081,000 from East Pomerania, 330,000 from East Brandenburg, and 812,000 from General Government.〔 Among them, were the Germans who had fled or have been resettled during the war into occupied Poland (''deutschsprachige Bewohner''), and who took up homes of Poles subjected to ethnic cleansing operations in the preceding years. Before the end of war the number of Germans who evacuated from Czechoslovakia is estimated at 150,000 to 370,000; from Hungary 50,000-60,000; from Romania 100,000; from Yugoslavia 200,000-300,000 and from the USSR 324,000. According to sources, the total number ranged from 10 to 15 million persons. Many of those who were evacuated during the war returned to their homes in the east after May 1945; only to be transferred back to Germany in the following years. According to Rudiger Overmans the West German search service was able to confirm the deaths of 93,283 civilians due to the wartime flight and evacuations including 86,860 from the territory of present day Poland and the Russian Kaliningrad region.〔Rűdiger Overmans, ''Personelle Verluste der deutschen Bevölkerung durch Flucht und Vertreibung.'' (this paper was a presentation at an academic conference in Warsaw Poland in 1994), Dzieje Najnowsze Rocznik XXI- Warsaw 1994 p. 55; in: (Mathias Beer 1998, p. 128. Note: 46 ) (these figures are included in the 473,013 confirmed deaths listed by the search service and do not include missing persons whose death was not confirmed).〕 According to the German Federal Archives 100,000 to 120,000 civilians were killed during the wartime flight and evacuation from the territory east of the Oder Neisse line.〔 ''Note:'' the 1974 ''Bundesarchivs'' report estimated that about 1 percent of the total population of eastern Germany within its prewar borders lost their lives due to military activity in the 1944–45 campaign. Per 1937 census: there were 9,600,000 residents living in German Silesia, Brandenburg, Pomerania and East Prussia; both, east and west of the Oder Neisse line. ( (Paikert 1962, p. 2.) )〕 In most cases, however, the implementation of the plans was either delayed until Allied forces had already advanced into the areas to be evacuated, or it was prohibited entirely by the Nazi apparatus. Despite the rapid advances of the Red Army, the German authorities in many areas forbade leaving one's place of residence without a permit and an officially valid reason. Millions of Germans were left in these areas until combat conditions overwhelmed them, as a direct result of both the draconian measures taken by the Nazis towards the end of the war against anyone even suspected of 'defeatist' attitudes (such as suggesting evacuation) and the fanaticism of many Nazi functionaries in their mindless support of useless 'no retreat' orders. When the German authorities finally gave people the order to leave their homes, the available means of transport (such as trains and ships) were inadequate, and this forced many to leave most of their belongings behind. The first mass movement of German civilians in the eastern territories included both spontaneous flight and organized evacuation starting in the summer of 1944 and continuing through to the spring of 1945. The guards and inmates of the Majdanek camp were evacuated starting on April 1, 1944. However most of the evacuation efforts commenced in January 1945, when Soviet forces were already at the eastern border of Greater Germany, including the largest death marches.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「German evacuation from East-Central Europe near the end of World War II」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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