the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

Chapter VI The Implementation of the Transfer
Slovakia had been evacuated to the
Protectorate and the occupied Šumava
region.
The total number of Germans to be
found on the territory of the Protectorate
at the end of the war can thus only be
guessed at. However, it was a substantial
number, which plays a fundamental role
in any assessment or interpretation of the
transfer. And this is not only because of
the direct connection with the number of
Sudeten Germans who were expelled or
transferred from Czechoslovak territory
after the war. It also has a far more
profound significance. For behind these
summary historical statistics are
concealed the fates of individual people,
which in a number of cases are not
properly reflected in the statistics. For
example, especially in the first few weeks
after the end of the war, several of the
trains transporting the German
deportees crossed and re-crossed the
borders of the occupied sectors more
than once, were sent back, went back and
forth across the Czech lands, and were
recorded more than once and in different
ways. Their passengers, if they survived
the terrifying journey, might then have
been left for several months in one of the
212
camps or even in their place of origin,
until finally after the Potsdam agreement
they set out on the journey on one of the
properly processed and dispatched
transport trains to Germany.
Figures for the number of Germans
who remained in Czechoslovakia once
the transfer was over are also inexact. By
the end of 1947 there were said to have
been about 200 thousand of them still
living on Czechoslovak territory, with
The atmosphere throughout Europe was made worse by the testimony given by many
freed prisoners about Nazi bestiality in the concentration camps
and on the death marches.
roughly a tenth of these in Slovakia. But
on July 1, 1949 there were said to have
been only about 175 thousand of them.
These discrepancies are due partly to the
repeated migration of individuals, and
partly to the uncertainty that arose
regarding which nationality people
belonged to in the case of mixed
marriages. And there were not
inconsiderable numbers of them –
according to official estimates between
40 and 60 thousand people, but the
German literature – without
documentation – operates with much
higher figures, going up to 700 thousand
people.
In order to understand subsequent
developments it is particularly important
to be aware of the increased tension that