Describing the fate of the 15 million German civilians who found themselves at the mercy of the Soviet armies and on the wrong side of the new postwar borders, this book sketches the history of the German communities scattered from the Baltic to the Danube, and includes interviews with survivors.
The genocidal barbarism of the Nazi forces has been well documented. What is little known is the fate of fifteen million German civilians who found themselves on the wrong side of new postwar borders. All over Eastern Europe, the inhabitants of communities that had been established for many centuries were either expelled or killed. Over two million Germans did not survive. Some of these people had supported Hitler, but the great majority were guiltless. In A Terrible Revenge, de Zayas describes this horrible retribution. This new edition includes an updated foreword, epilogue and additional information from recent interviews with the children of the displaced.
The closing phase and the aftermath of World War II saw millions of refugees and displaced persons wandering across Easter Europe in one of the most brutal and chaotic migrations in world history. The genocidal barbarism of the Nazi forces has been well documented. What hitherto has been little known is the fate of fifteen million German civillians who found themselves at the mercy of Soviet armies and on the wrong side of new postwar borders. All over Eastern Europe, the inhabitants of communities that had been established for many centuries were either expelled or killed. Over two million Germans did not survive. Many of these people had supported Hitler, and for the Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, and surviving Jews, their fate must have seemed just. However, the great majority--East Prussian farmers, Silesian industrial workers, their wives and children--were guiltless. Their fate, sentenced purely by race, remains an appalling legacy of the period. Alfred de Zayas's book describes this horrible retribution. On the basis of extensive research in German and American archives, he outlines the long history of these German communities, scattered from the Baltic to the Danude, and, most movingly, reproduces the testimonies of surviors from the catastrophic exodus that marked the final end to Nazi fantasies of Lebensraum.
In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council created the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. This book, based on the reports by Dr. Alfred de Zayas, the first mandate-holder (2012-2018), offers a brilliant and comprehensive critique of the UN system, addressing the changes that must be made in order to further the emergence of a democratic and equitable international order. De Zayas proposes concrete reforms of the UN system, notably the Security Council. He advocates recognition of peace as a human right, slashing military budgets, and establishing the right of self-determination as a conflict-prevention measure. As it concerns the global economy, he calls for reversing the adverse impacts of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies, rendering free-trade agreements compatible with human rights, abolishing tax havens and ISDS, alleviating the foreign debt crisis, and criminalizing war-profiteers and pandemic vultures. He denounces unilateral coercive measures, economic sanctions and financial blockades, because they demonstrably have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Book jacket.
The forced displacement of over 14 million Germans from their ancestral homelands in Central and Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1948 resulted in a humanitarian catastrophe, leading to approximately two million deaths. This mass expulsion, which disregarded individual guilt or innocence, marked the loss of Germany's Eastern provinces and the end of its centuries-old presence in regions like Bohemia and Moravia. These events have had profound political, economic, cultural, and psychological repercussions, yet they have remained largely unknown and almost taboo for over 65 years. The scale of these expulsions exceeds that of the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and the Rwandan genocide, yet no international tribunal has ever addressed the issue or held perpetrators accountable. Public indifference to German suffering persists. This work aims to bridge this knowledge gap, presenting the facts and exploring the historical and legal implications, while situating the events within a broader context of human rights and international law. The original German version was well-received by various scholars and educators, and this updated English edition is particularly suitable for educational purposes. Alfred de Zayas, an American lawyer and historian, holds degrees from Harvard and Göttingen and has extensive experience in international law and human rights.
