Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans

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Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans after WWII from what was to become a reconstituted communist Czechoslovakia, is a book compiled by Dr. Wilhelm Karl Turnwald (1909–1984)[1] and first published in German as Dokumente zur Austreibung der Sudetendeutschen in 1951. It contains a summary of the crisis and what led to it with eyewitness's accounts and sworn depositions of the crimes.

The English-language edition, translated by Gerda Johannsen, Victor Diodon, and Arnim Johanni, with a foreword by British[2] journalist and author Frederick Augustus Voigt, was published in 1953.

History

File:Tod der Nichte von Herbert Smagon.png
Tod der Nichte (Czech atrocities in German)

After the war ended in early May 1945, one of the most gruesome genocides took place that the history of mankind has ever seen: the expulsion and destruction of the Sudeten Germans. The German government has in the past fifty years suppressed knowledge of this Holohoax and the huge files of documentary evidence remain under lock and key. In other words, this chapter of history is supposed to remain tucked away in the hindmost corners of the Federal German archives, there to gather dust and be forgotten. Their publication is not desired.

Some examples:

The afternoon of May 10th brought what was probably the most horrible incident of these days. A group of armed men came in and selected the 6 youngest and strongest men, I being one of them. After promising our guards that they would, if possible, bring us back alive, they took us to Wenceslas Square. The Square was packed with a yelling crowd and a path had to be cleared for us. I would have never believed that the human face could be degraded to such a grimace, the people looked like snarling dogs, showing their teeth, spitting and screaming at us. It took all the force available and the pistols of our guards to keep these creatures - one could no longer call them human beings - away from us. We reached the corner of Wassergasse and there we were confronted with our task: Three naked bodies, burned with petrol, were hanging by their feet from a large advertising board. The faces were mutilated beyond recognition with all the teeth knocked out, the mouths no longer anything but an opening full of blood. The roasted skin stuck to our hands as we half-carried and half-dragged the bodies to the Stefansgasse.[3]
On May 20 we were led to Wenzel Square where German boys and girls, and soldiers too, were hung alive by their feet from lamp posts and trees and, in front of our very eyes, were doused with petroleum and set on fire.[4]

This book makes horrific reading. To this day none of the Czechs responsible for these murders and atrocities have been apprehended.

See also

Further reading

  • Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans compiled by Dr. Wilhelm K. Turnwald, Munich, 1953. (German-language edition 1951.)
  • The Expulsion of the German Population from Czechoslovakia, edited by Professor Theodor Schieder, et al, Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, Bonn, West Germany, 1960, Band IV, 1 and IV, 2.
  • The Sudeten-German Tragedy by Dr. Austin J. App, PhD., Maryland, 1979.
  • Edvard Benes - The Liquidator by Sidonia Dedina, USA, 2001, ISBN 0-9663968-4-7
  • A Terrible Revenge by Alfred M. de Zayas, 4th edition, Macmillan, England, May 2006.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Wilhelm Karl Turnwald was born on 30 October 1909 in Lichtenstein near Pilsen. He studied in Prague, Marburg and Berlin, earned his PhD as a Dr. Phil., served as a Lieutenant in the Czech army, (service in which was mandatory), was Gymnasium Professor and art historian, served as Oberleutnant in the Wehrmacht during WWII, was severely wounded, was a POW from May 1945 until August 1946, was expelled from his homeland in Autumn 1946, settled in Munich, since 1954 diplomat of West Germany (Bonn and Washington D.C.), in 1969 was Ambassador to Libya until he retired on 12 July 1971. He received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1st Class and died on 13 March 1984 in München. Source: Dr. Wilhelm Turnwald
  2. ↑ Voigt's parents were born in Germany in the 19th century.
  3. ↑ Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans
  4. ↑ Documents on the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans
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