Loved this book. Lots of interesting information to digest. This is a great read for anyone who loves to read about history. Very well written

For whatever reason, people seem to think that the moment the Allies won World War II, it was all rainbows and unicorns and happiness ensued. Sadly that could not be further from the case, as many used the post-war years for reprisals on just about every side of the conflict – some Germans still targeted Jews, others former Nazis, Neo-Nazis attempted to emerge multiple times, and totalitarian Communist regimes started popping up everywhere. Everything was in chaos and if there ever was one “good” thing that came out the Cold War, it was likely the fact that the threat of “mutually-assured destruction” and common enemies kept most tensions slightly below the surface until everything calmed. The Forgotten German Genocide – Revenge Cleansing in Eastern Europe, 1945–50 by Peter C Brown is a new book published by Pen and Sword that seeks to shed some light on one of the more unfortunate chapters in these post-war years – the mass expulsion of Germans that had been living in occupied areas, sometimes for decades, that is basically an unrecognized genocide in its own right.

These people were referred to as “Volksdeutsche” (literally “The German Folk”) and were “people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship”, according to Wikipedia. As many as twelve million of these people were forced to flee areas that had been taken over by Soviet Influence after the war, and as a result it is estimated that as many as three million men, women, and children died. These deaths were a result of revenge attacks, disease, starvation and many other issues that could have been avoided had cooler heads prevailed. The main spearhead for this was the influence of Joseph Stalin, who worked in concert with other communist leaders to purge the land of their adversarial nemeses. The hardest hit areas were Czechoslovakia, the former German provinces of Silesia, Pomerania, and East Prussia, and Poland.

You can tell the author is very passionate about this topic, and feels possible embarrassment for the former allied nations for their complacency in this whole ordeal. It’s not hard to join his side at times, such as when world leaders have some pretty shocking opinions on the matter. At one of many conferences detailing what would happen to former Nazi-aligned Germans if such a plan were to be put in place and territorial concessions happened, Stalin almost joyously remarked that upwards of 40,000 people could die, with Roosevelt coming back with “maybe we’ll be lucky and it’s just 39,000!” I’m somewhat against the idea that Winston Churchill was the lone “good guy” in the conference, considering he directly caused millions to die in many places such as India, but it does seem like he may have been the voice of reason against the revenge mindset. Keep in mind I am not British, and don’t hold the man on such a pedestal as others.

While this is a very solid well-argued book, I do have some issues and most are with the structure of the book itself. Firstly, the beginning of this book somewhat unnecessarily summarizes the entirety of The Holocaust in order to set the stage for the reprisals that are the main topic. These chapters, however good they are, felt like a smaller book in the middle of the book about the topic at hand. This is especially jarring because the introduction basically summarizes what would come later on. Perhaps removal of the introduction would have been better? The book also repeats information at times, especially when the author goes through a series of chapters that document the upheavals on a country-by-country basis. Neither of these problems are a deal-killer for me, but they make the book not flow as well as it could have.

Despite its flaws, this is a good book that shed light on a topic that is almost never talked about in historical discussions about World War II. As “the winners”, anything short of glowing patriotic praise and bravado is met with concern or condemnation, so pointing out that “we” may not have been the absolute good guys is always brushed under the rug. It’s easy to blame something like this solely on Joseph Stalin and his numerous puppet presidents of neighboring areas, but we let it happen in the end. sometimes silence speaks more than actions do. I feel like reading stuff like this is important for anyone to truly understand the phases of conflict and avoid a one-dimensional viewpoint on ones in the future.

This was an interesting book for me though I did find some parts repetitive. The history of WW2 should never be forgotten and yet some things like how the Germans felt afterwards have been, especially as many of those who were not Nazi’s were so often treated as if they were.

I do recommend this book for a factual and interesting account of how those people, innocent or otherwise, were treated.

I was definitely unfamiliar with these atrocities in 1945 and after. After reading this book, I cannot imagine how people could forget such a time or deny it occurred. Definitely a factual read but wrenching just the same.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

After terrible persecutions, murders and the subjugation of many of Europe's populace by their Nazi overlords, there was a overwhelming desire for revenge once they had been defeated. But the atrocities committed as acts of revenge were as unforgivable as what went before. They say revenge is sweet. There is nothing sweet about the events written about in this book. A harrowing but necessary read. History needs balance.

Thank you NetGalley. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What an emotional and intense read... seriously.
If you're interested in history, this was an amazing book.
I was honestly impressed with this book and would gladly read others by this author.

Even before the end of WW2, in countries of Eastern Europe (especially Poland, Hungary and Czecho-slavkia) those who had been under the boot of Nazi Germany, took revenge on the Volks-Deutsch. (The Volks Deutsch were groups of German speaking people who had settled in Eastern European countries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.) The Soviets exiled the Volga and Crimean Germans wholesale to Siberia and Khazakstan.

The minority German groups who lauded it over the locals people found themselves being subjected to a pogram like had happened to the Jews during the war. Especially hard hit were groups like the Sudeten Germans who helped destroy the Czech state and the Germans who were the elites in the Baltic states. All of the Germans in the former parts of the German Empire that were taken away at the end of WW1 and WW2 were put on trains and sent back to the remainder of Germany.

Just as the Germans who literally put unwanted citizens forcibly put onto trains, now found themselves suffering the same indignities. In area where the Soviet Army defeated the Nazi troops woman and girls were subjected to rape, robbery and murder and then expulsion. Brown does a good job of describing what happened on a country by country order.

The main complaint that I had about this book, was the redundancy of much of the information. You read about much of what happened in the introduction and the in the by-country discussion, but where there were people on the borders, they were listed both times. In some places it seemed that he was apologizing for what had happened. But most of this revenge was like what happened in Yugoslavia when that country broke-up. People have long memories when it comes to ethnic cleansing and oppression by a minority to a majority population.

Sad. Nothing good in WW2. Human's totally lost their humanity. Shame on everyone. Sorry, man's inhumanity to man has been ongoing for forever and continues today. I am familiar with this particular segment of history that has been coming to light in recent years. I have elderly family and friends who experienced the war, before and after the U.S. got involved. I have heard so many different POV on the war, from all sides, it remains an interesting subject for us first generations as we try to make some sort of sense of all those stories. It's good that these books are being written, not only for us, but for our children. Thank you Mr. Brown for providing another, oft overlooked, aftermath of a war. (I think it would be useful if other persecuted peoples wrote their stories, as well.) Most people think the war ended in '45 and the world rebuilt and everyone and everything went back to normal. It didn't. Some of us grew up hearing about the "forgotten" the German Genocide, we know people who lived it first hand. The confiscating of property mass deportations, deaths, nightmarish. very informative book.