Situace německých obyvatel Oderska v letech 1945-1948
The position of German population in the region of Odry in the period 1945-1984

Summary/Abstract: Withdrawals, flights, transfers and expulsion of German inhabitants in the Opava Region are still not fully explained parts of the modern history of Czech Silesia. This study deals with the living conditions of German population in the Odry Juridical District between 1945 and 1948. The author is trying to explore living conditions of Germans at the beginning of 1945, during the era of Czech post-war radicalism. Germans, who represented 94 per cent of the district’s population, lost almost all their rights. On the basis of the so- called “Beneš Decrees“ they were deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship, their property was confiscated with no compensation, and they were taken away for forced labour work. Most brutalities were perpetrated in the local detention and labour camp and in the prison. The author mentions examples of rape, torture and misappropriations committed by the head of the detention camp Stanislav Ripper and the head of the prison Josef Mík. However, there are also cases of some Czechs helping the Germans by providing food during evacuation transports between April 1946 and October 1946. The study concludes that Czech Germans (together with all East European Germans) were the last victims of the Second World War. Loss of home, property and in some cases relatives together with the loss of life’s security were too high a price they had to pay for the war started by the Nazis.

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