Collective Guilt and German Expulsion

The concept of German collective guilt for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War has been debated since the ending of the war. Collective guilt is a false theory, used out of hatred, and eventually destroyed the lives of millions of ethnic Germans living outside the German borders established in 1945. Nazi occupation, in countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, became the final straw from many majority groups living in each country.

Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, mostly in the region known as the Sudetenland, for centuries. A much smaller population lived in Poland but many ethnic Germans arrived to Poland during the war from the Balkans. As the course of the war continued, nationalism rose heavily. Nationalists in Poland and Czechoslovakia rallied around the common hatred of Germans and Nazis. This set the basis for their nation-state building desires. Both countries hoped to created a homogeneous state after victory over Nazi Germany.In order to accomplish such ideas, the Germans were no longer welcome in the country and needed to be removed. The Germans would be forcibly deported.

The nationalists also had the support of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also held a deep hatred of Germans which the war only intensified. Together all three countries decided and accepted the idea of expulsion as a solution to their "German problem". The Nazi occupation was the last conflict for Poland and Czechoslovakia and the two countries saw expulsion as the final solution to their German minority problem once and for all.

So by the the end of 1944 and 1945, the "wild transfers" began. After the Potsdam Agreement, an "organized transfer" started, which was in 1946. Ultimately, ethnic Germans remaining in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were forced to leave their homes, with very few personal belongings, and sent via train back to Germany. Millions were expelled and thousands died on the journey as a result of the harsh conditions. These Germans were expelled for no other reason then being of "German" ethnicity. They committed no crimes against humanity and most were not Nazis but yet they suffered from racism and collective guilt. Nazis were Germans and created concentration camps in Europe so its only fair for all Germans to suffer from the same fate - Not true or even justified! The leaders of the Western Allies, like the United States and Great Britain did not stand up for the civil rights of ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. They allowed millions more to suffer after the close of a devastating war. Instead, they chose to stand aside and watch because it was better then risking a war with the Soviet Union.

This is only a snippet of the story of the German expulsion and the concept of collective guilt. Collective guilt is never a reason to destroy the lives of millions of innocent civilians.

For more information on German collective guilt and the German expulsion, check out these works:


Schieder, Theodor, ed. Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central-Europe Volume

I, II, III and IV. Bonn: Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, 1950-1970.

Conner, Ian. Refugees and Expellees in Post-War Germany. Manchester University Press, 2007. 

de Zayas, Alfred M. Nemesis at Potsdam: The Anglo-American and the Expulsion of Germans: 

Background, Execution, and Consequences. London: Rutledge & Kegan Paul, 1977. 

------------------------. The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Margalt, Gilad. Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. 

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.