Talk:Heimatvertriebenen

It is estimated that 2 1/2 million ethnic German refugees died, most from starvation.

Whose estimate is this?

If you can, clean up these stubs and figure out where they should go...right now they're either out of place or confusingly written


 * See Silent Ethnic Cleansing for a description of the modern political...


 * The Volksdeutschen had lived in lands, that were once part of the Holy Roman Empire of Germany. They came from lands, which at times were ruled by German or Holy Roman Empire connected rulers, were given German Rights as German settlers. In the case of Bohemia-Germans, they lived in a land for 1200 years part of the Holy Roman Empire and in earlier years German lands.


 * The Bohemia-Germans (later known as Sudeten-Germans) and the people of parts of Silesia, Posen-West Prussia, formerly German citizens had since 1919 lived in a newly created "Polish Corridor" and millions were already chased out by brutal suppression from Polish and Czech Slavs between 1919 and 1939.

Anyone who wants to redirect this to Diaspora studies shouldn't unless they can present a convincing argument for doing so. Anyone who simply wants to delete stuff they find confusing should instead point out what they find confusing first.

Please. Work cooperatively and respectfully. --TheCunctator

Which of my reasons (posted on your page because of the edit problems I was having) do you find unconvincing? Could you please be specific? Wait, I'm posting them here, too, now that the site is letting me save...

And if you want people to play nice, you should respond.... :-)

Why am I redirecting this (or trying to)?

This article (in different forms) appears in several other places under different titles.

In an attempt to place this information in this article in the appropriate historical context, I included a version (edited only for grammatical errors and rearranged into chronological order) into the article on Diaspora Studies and redirected the original Expellees and Heimatvertriebene article to that page. 

Heimatvertriebene (the -en ending reflects a non-nominative case ending and is incorrect -- I'm not sure where you get the formal thing -- that's a verb characteristic) should be the German article of the title -- if we must use it at all. The term is one loaded with political meaning in German, and is ONLY used in the case of this particular group of people. Otherwise, every other group of people driven from their homes, whether as part of an act of genocide/ethnic cleansing or not, are referred to as simply "refugees," i.e., these people may have been fleeing something, but they weren't driven from their HOMELAND... (just checked your addition, and it appears the CDU is now using a broadened version of the term to promote themselves as the true party of brothrhood and European unification, so I guess only is a bit strong. Definitely politically loaded, though...)

Granting this subject its own article validates the very dubious theory that the lands where these so-called ethnic Germans lived in some way belonged (and, to follow recent postings, morally still belong) to Germany because they have always been inhabited by Germans. The evidence posted thereto has no foundation in accepted historical method and is often downright incorrect. 

That's why I think it should be redirected -- although recent edits should probably be incorporated into the Diaspora studies (or the Diaspora?) article. JHK