Immediately after the Second World War, the victorious Allies authorized & helped to carry out the forced relocation of German speakers from their homes across central & southern Europe to Germany. The numbers were almost unimaginable
- between 12, 000, 000 & 14, 000, 000 civilians, most of them women & children
- & the losses horrifying
- at least 500, 000 people & perhaps many more died while detained in former concentration camps, while locked in trains en route, or after arriving in Germany exhausted, malnourished & homeless. This book is the first in any language to tell the full story of this immense man-made catastrophe. Based mainly on archival records of the countries that carried out the forced migrations & of the international humanitarian organizations that tried but failed to prevent the disastrous results, Orderly & Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War is an authoritative & objective account. It examines an aspect of European history that few have wished to confront, exploring how the expulsions were conceived, planned & executed & how their legacy reverberates throughout central Europe today. The book is an important study of the largest recorded episode of what we now call ”ethnic cleansing”, & it may also be the most significant untold story of the Second World War.