Losy ludności na Śląsku Opolskim w czasie działań wojennych i po wejściu Armii Czerwonej w 1945 roku
The vicissitudes of the population of Opole Silesia in the time of military actions and following the entry of the Red Army in 1945

Summary/Abstract: The gehenna of the civilian population of Opole Silesia began along with the spontaneous escape and then the evacuation ordered by the Nazi authorities, which was going on in the conditions of a severe winter, shortly after the entry of the Red Army in January 1945. It is impossible to determine the exact number of the civilian residents of Opole Silesia who fled or were displaced before the frontline actions reached the region; neither is it possible to assess how many got killed or died nameless deaths along the evacuation routes. In consequence, a lot of places were abandoned at the time of the Red Army’s arrival, and in those where the inhabitants remained on the spot there occurred numerous acts of murdering and raping committed by the Soviet soldiers, who – on entering the territory of the Third Reich – took revenge on Germans for the suffering and atrocities inflicted on the people of the Republic of the Soviet Union by the Nazi Reich. The losses borne by the civilian population of the Region from the hands of the Red Army soldiers during the period between January and May 1945 can be estimated only with approximation. According to D. Tomczyk’s estimates, about 250.000 people were evacuated from Opole Silesia to avoid the risk of being involved in the frontline actions, of whom over 66.000 were killed or got lost. Still, the numbers are greatly understated. Shortly after the ending of the military actions, yet before formal taking the area over by the Polish administration, in compliance with the agreements made by the Allied in Yalta, there followed a deportation action involving many thousands of Silesians (primarily males) to the USSR. It has not been possible to assess the actual number of those deported to the USSR from Opole Silesia until today. There must have been several dozens of them though, since according to the assessments made by H. Stańczyk, about 90.000 people were displaced from the whole area of Upper Silesia (that is the pre-War Provinces of Silesia and the area of Opole Silesia). Around 20% of all the deported returned to their homes. The captivity and deportations to the USSR, as well as the remaining of part of the men in the West, brought about a serious problem of split families for many years to come. As a result, there occurred an unprecedented considerable advantage of women in the composition of the local population of Opole Silesia and disproportionally high percentage of children and the old. Additionally, the local population were decimated by diseases, especially by the epidemic of typhus

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