Flight and expulsion
"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 omnipresent on the run and the fate was cruel, the elderly, sick or disabled people had least likely chance to survive.
The people froze to death, starved, drowned in ice-cold water, were crushed by enemy tanks, torn by shells, beaten, shot, hanged, burned, tortured, deported.
Millions died on the ice of the Haff, on the dirty road, in drafty boxcars, and their tortured bodies were simply left lying on the ground. If the soil was not frozen and someone took pity, they were buried anonymously.
2,800,000 dead
But thousands of frozen bodies were simply stored somewhere where they decomposed at increasing temperatures or the remains were eaten by wild animals.
Refugee woman with her child at the Berlin railway station
Every German is our enemy!
Have no mercy with women, children, and old people!
Kill every German, throw them out!"
Eduard Benes
Death was omnipresent on the run and the fate was cruel, the elderly, sick or disabled people had least likely chance to survive.
The people froze to death, starved, drowned in ice-cold water, were crushed by enemy tanks, torn by shells, beaten, shot, hanged, burned, tortured, deported.
Millions died on the ice of the Haff, on the dirty road, in drafty boxcars, and their tortured bodies were simply left lying on the ground. If the soil was not frozen and someone took pity, they were buried anonymously.
2,800,000 dead
But thousands of frozen bodies were simply stored somewhere where they decomposed at increasing temperatures or the remains were eaten by wild animals.
Refugee woman with her child at the Berlin railway station