''A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944–1950'' is a 1994 non-fiction book written by Cuban-born American lawyer
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas (born 31 May 1947) is a Cuban-born American lawyer and writer, active in the field of human rights and international law. From 1 May 2012 to 30 April 2018, he served as the first UN Independent Expert on the Promotion o ...
, former research fellow at
MPG in Heidelberg, Germany. The work is based on a collection of testimonials from German civilians and ''
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
'' military personnel; and devoted to the
expulsion of Germans after World War II
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Persona ...
from states previously occupied by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
It includes as well selected interviews with British and American politicians who participated at the
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris P ...
, including Robert Murphy,
Geoffrey Harrison (drafter of article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol), and Denis Allen (drafter of article IX on the provisional post-war borders). The book attempts to describe the crimes committed against the German nation by the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
– as perceived by the expellees themselves and settlers brought in ''
Heim ins Reich'' (Home into the Empire) from the east.
The author begins with the history of German settlement in Central and Eastern Europe since the 12th century, the impact of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
on German minorities in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the failure of the League of Nations system of minority protection, the outbreak of World War II and selected crimes committed by the Nazis, followed by the story of refugees from the former Eastern parts of Germany (Silesia, East Prussia, Pomerania, East Brandenburg), as well as the fate of German minorities in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.
In the book, de Zayas claims that approximately two million Germans died during the post period of 1944–1949, although his claim does not withstand scrutiny. Most recent research on the subject has put the number at around half a million.
Printing history
The book originated as a script for a television documentary by the
Bavarian Broadcasting. It was a popular rendition of the author's monography on the expulsions called the ''Nemesis at Potsdam'' (german: Die Nemesis von Potsdam). This shorter introduction to the subject was published in German as ''Anmerkungen zur Vertreibung der Deutschen aus dem Osten'' (4 editions during 1986–1996,
Kohlhammer Verlag
W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart.
History
Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-l ...
, Stuttgart, ), first printed in English under the title of ''The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace'' (
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, New York, 1993, Macmillan, London). The new, 1994 English title, included the then neologism "
ethnic cleansing", used at that time in relation to the crimes committed by Serbs in
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
and
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
of the 1990s. The 5th expanded German 2006 edition was titled ''Die deutschen Vertriebenen'' (Leopold Stocker Verlag, ). The book ends with 12 historical theses, 14 legal theses and 10 conclusions. It was positively reviewed in Germany by
Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Fritz Hillgruber (18 January 1925 – 8 May 1989) was a conservative German historian who was influential as a military and diplomatic historian who played a leading role in the ''Historikerstreit'' of the 1980s. In his controversial book ...
in the Historische Zeitschrift and Gotthold Rhode in the ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
''.
The 2006 English edition was expanded by about 20%. It contains additional information from interviews with the children of the displaced, German expellees who migrated to the United States and Canada, new photos and new statistical tables.
Reviews
"This popularly written but still scholarly study follows the author's other successful books in the fields of history and international law
hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
were hailed by historians as well as lawyers as masterpieces of academic craftsmanship. His book.presents in a nutshell the history of the ethnic German population which had settled in the early 13th century in large parts of what is nowadays Eastern Europe." ''Netherlands International Law Review'' 1986, pp. 430–431.
"This is the story of the ethnic Germans who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some two million died and fifteen million were displaced – driven from their lands by those opposed to anyone and everything German... De Zayas's moving plea is that one's home should be a human right. As frontiers once more shift in Eastern Europe and families flee in Bosnia, he could hardly have chosen a better moment to deliver it." ''The Times'', (London) 18 November 1993.
Criticism
One reviewer,
Rainer Ohliger of
Humboldt University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiati ...
, argues that de Zayas over-emphasizes the role of the Bund der Vertriebenen (non-governmental association representing the expellees) and its property and territorial claims. It has been noted that no West–East migration occurred when this possibility arose after the unification of the German states, and that practically no Germans have returned to the East after the Baltic States, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania entered the European Union.
[Review by Rainer Ohliger.](_blank)
''H-Soz-u-Kult''. On the theme of de Zayas' revisionism, see Rainer Ohliger's February 1997 HABSBURG review of Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, ''A Terrible Revenge: The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944–1950'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994).
The book has also been criticized for its victim perspective, normally unsuitable for scholarly works, unfavourably comparing it with a more recent book of
Detlef Brandes.
The 2006 revised and enlarged edition of "Terrible Revenge" with Palgrave/Macmillan takes some of these considerations into account. In the introduction the author notes that a "Terrible Revenge" is a popularized version of his longer monograph "Nemesis at Potsdam" (1–3 editions Routledge, 6th edition Picton Press, Rockland, Maine 2003). See also review of the Future of Freedom Foundation.
Other reviews have criticized both de Zayas and Brandes reversely. According to
Eagle Glassheim on the
H-Net
__NOTOC__
H-Net ("Humanities & Social Sciences Online") is an interdisciplinary forum for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. It is best known for hosting electronic mailing lists organized by academic disciplines; according to the o ...
website, Brandes does not provide any moral conclusion deriving from violence against civilians due to their ethnic heritage.
Genocide historians
Donald Bloxham
Donald Bloxham FRHistS is a Professor of Modern History, specialising in genocide, war crimes and other mass atrocities studies. He is the editor of the ''Journal of Holocaust Education''.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Keele and pos ...
and
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American author, playwright, and screenwriter. Lauded for his work on stage he's most known for his seminal work ''Angels in America'' which earned a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. At the turn ...
describe the book as "tendentious".
See also
*''
Against Their Will'', a historical research book by
Pavel Polyan
Pavel Markovich Polian, pseudonym: Pavel Nerler (russian: Павел Маркович Полян; born 31 August 1952) is a Russian geographer and historian, and Doctor of Geographical Sciences with the Institute of Geography (1998) of the Russia ...
*
Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union
Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during the Axis-Soviet campaigns (1941-1945) of World War II. Soviet a ...
*''
Journey Back to Youth'', a 2001 documentary film
*
Nemmersdorf massacre
The Nemmersdorf massacre was a civilian massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II. Nemmersdorf (present-day Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first prewar ethnic German settlements to fall to ...
of 21 October 1944, in Kaliningrad Oblast
*
Soviet war crimes
The war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated by the Soviet Union and its armed forces from 1919 to 1991 include acts which were committed by the Red Army (later called the Soviet Army) as well as acts which were committed ...
from 1919 onward
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terrible Revenge, A
1994 non-fiction books
Books by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
St. Martin's Press books
History books about World War II
History books about Czechoslovakia
History books about Germany
History books about Hungary
History books about Poland
History books about Romania
History books about the Soviet Union
History books about Yugoslavia
Ethnic cleansing of Germans
Works about post–World War II forced migrations
History books about ethnic cleansing