Since 1945, what are the most severe examples of "ethnic cleansing" in Europe?

Flynn_17

The Srebrenica fiasco springs to mind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre Apr 27 06, 4:19 PM

bloomsby

The expulsion of Germans from Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia, and of ethnic Germans from Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. These explusions took place for the most part in 1945-46. See, for example, the section entitled 'Aftermath of World War II' in this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudetenland Apr 27 06, 4:47 PM

zbeckabee

Between 1945 and 1950, 11,730,000 Germans fled and were expelled from eastern territories of Germany, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern European countries; specifically, over 6.9 million from the eastern territories of Germany, more than 2.9 million Germans from Czechoslovakia, and more than 1.8 million from other parts of Eastern Europe. And besides the forced expulsion of these 11.7 million people, another 2.1 million died or "disappeared" during the expulsion process. http://www.fff.org/freedom/0795f.asp Apr 27 06, 4:58 PM

bloomsby

Norman Davis, in "God's Playground: A History of Poland ...", Vol. 2, published by the OUP, reproduces documents signed by British, American and Polish army officers on the routes to be be used and on how many German expellees a day the Western zones were willing to accept; in what cirucmstances the British and American military governments in Germany could call a brief, temporary halt to the explusions. From what I remember, the British authorities agreed to accept 2,000 Germans a day at Helmstedt (just east of Brunswick) and a further 1,500 in Schleswig-Holstein. (The Americans also agreed to accept German expellees at the rate of 3,500 a day). For their part, the Polish signatories undertook to keep families together as far as possible and _not_ to send trainloads consisting of children, old people, sick or disabled people. When I first came across this I felt the level of Western complicity was horrifying. From what I have heard, the expulsions from Czechoslovakia were among the most disorderly and unpleasant. Apr 27 06, 6:18 PM

Arpeggionist

Stalin started his own ethnic cleansing in the USSR while Hitler was building concentration camps. Hitler was killed and the genocide in his country was stopped, but Stalin's reign of terror did not stop until 1953, when he died. Even as he was trying to establish good relations with the young state of Israel in 1948, Stalin was sending Soviet Jews off to the gulags. Apr 27 06, 11:47 PM