"Kill the Germans, wherever they are!
Every German is our enemy!
Have no mercy with women, children, and old people!
Kill every German, throw them out!"
Eduard Benes
Death was a constant presence during the flight from the eastern territories. Elderly, sick and disabled people had the least chance of surviving the ordeal.
People froze or starved to death, drowned in ice-cold water, were crushed by tanks, killed by shellfire, beaten, shot, hanged, burned, tortured or deported.
Many died on the ice of the Vistula Lagoon, on roads and in draughty railway wagons. Bodies were often left where people had fallen; when the ground was not frozen and burial was possible, the dead were frequently buried anonymously.
2,800,000 dead
In other places, frozen bodies remained unburied until rising temperatures caused decomposition or animals scattered the remains.
Refugee woman with her child at a Berlin railway station