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Brno death march

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Germans had to stay in Pohořelice and surrounding villages, where significant German minorities were already accommodated. As the Pohořelice camp had been abandoned more than a month before, there was no opportunity to provide proper housing, food and health care for thousands of people. Not until 5 June was proper camp administration established and regular food supply provided. At this time, an epidemic of dysentery (
24: 358:("Provincial National Committee"), which resided in Brno, issued its order No. 78/1945, which ordered the immediate expulsion of the non-working German population from Brno. All women, boys under the age of 14 and men over the age of 60 should leave the city immediately, and the working men after they had been replaced in their work. On the morning of 30 May the representatives of 409:. At the time, the representatives of Austria in Brno as well as Soviet occupation authorities in Austria had already protested against this unarranged transfer of large numbers of people, and persuaded the Czechoslovak government to stop the expulsion. About half of the expellees thus remained in the camp of Pohořelice. 279:
in the following weeks. The number of fatalities caused by the march and imprisonment is disputed as it became part of propaganda: It is estimated that between 1,700 and 2,000 people died in the consequence of the march. Some recent studies during the 1990s have indicated that over 5,000 people died.
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In 2007 a group of young people organized a night Memorial March from Brno to Pohořelice to commemorate the event. On the first occasion, only three people participated in the march, and in the following years about 20–30 people attended. On the 70th anniversary of the event in 2015 the march was
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of hundreds of ethnic Germans on 31 July 1945. There have been attempts to confirm statements that Pokorný had thousands of people executed. Emilia Hrabovec was unable to substantiate these charges, but instead, according to her research, old people and tired young children had been sent away on
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Later in June, the camp inmates were better identified, and about 2,000–2,500 were selected and allowed to return to Brno, most of whom had Czech origin or Czech relatives in Brno. Once the news of their return spread into the city, police reported a new wave of anti-German protests. About 1,000
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Since the Austrian authorities refused to accept any people before their Austrian origin was proven and since the Czech authorities in Brno considered the return of Germans to Brno as politically unacceptable, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Interior decided that the group of approximately 10,000
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According to official death records from 1945, 455 people from Brno died and were buried in Pohořelice (near the town), 129 in Mušlov, 65 in villages surrounding the town of Pohořelice. In total 649 victims originally expelled from Brno died on Czech territory.
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In 2000 a group of young Czech students called for an adequate way to remember the events in Brno. In 2015 the council of Brno officially regretted the harm on the victims of the death march and organized a "Pilgrimage of Reconciliation" along the route.
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Austrian researchers found 1,950 victims of the march itself, 2,000 victims in the Pohořelice camp and 190 victims in surrounding villages. In total 4,140 German victims from Brno died in Pohořelice and other camps plus 1,062 who died in Austria.
459:) broke out. According to official records, 455 dead were buried near the town of Pohořelice, mostly victims of diseases. Sudeten German sources, however, estimated that between 1,300–8,000 people either died of disease or were murdered. 390:
marked with a "D" (for Germans); and at around 10 pm on 30 May the first groups of Germans were forced to start to march 55 kilometres (34 mi) south towards the Austrian border. According to police reports, 18,072 Germans were expelled.
313:("People's Committee of the City of Brno"). While at the beginning of 1945 there were about 58,000 Germans registered in the city, most of them were evacuated before the fighting reached the city, or fled on their own in fear of the 263:. Only about half of expellees actually crossed the border. Thousands of people were held in the provisional camps in the border area. While some Germans were later allowed to return to Brno, hundreds of others fell victim to 111: 446:, who were used for the hardest work. The Jews were liberated by the Red Army in the middle of April 1945, and the then empty camp was used to accommodate the Germans of Brno, whose number far exceeded the camp's capacity. 321:
registered about 26,000 people considered as Germans. Shortly afterwards, the Germans were marked with white armbands and became subject to similar restrictions to those previously directed against the Jews by the Nazis.
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supported by the city of Brno and the number of participants was about 300, including some representatives of Sudeten German organisations. Until 2013 some eyewitnesses also participated in the memorial march.
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several times discussed the need to punish Nazi war criminals, their Czech collaborators and the general situation of Germans in the city. About 1,500 people were arrested, most of them Germans. On 23 May the
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related to the event of expulsion of Germans from Brno. Czech police however did not find evidence for such crime as there were only 3 confirmed violent deaths (two on the march and one later in Mušlov).
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Because of the quick improvised course of events, the exact number of casualties is very difficult to state. The estimates vary widely and have become a source of political disputes and propaganda.
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Nousek, Katrina L. (2022). "(Re)constructing Heimat: Intermedial Archives in Saša Stanišić's Vor dem Fest and Alexandra Saemmer's "Böhmische Dörfer"". In Brandt, Bettina; Yildiz, Yasemin (eds.).
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urged the police director to carry out this order immediately. They also offered armed men from the factory to assist. In order to select the particular Germans to be expelled, police used a
1124:– a lecture from international scientific colloquium “Sixty Years since the End of World War II: The End of the Czech-German Coexistence in Czechoslovakia” held in Brno in April 2005 754: 715: 672: 140: 478:
The camp in Pohořelice was officially dissolved on 7 July 1945, when there were still about 80 Germans from Brno in Pohořelice. About 60 of them were sick people in provisory hospital.
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of Brno urged the Czechoslovak government to immediately establish courts for such criminals, because the people in Brno were rioting in front of the prison in an attempt to
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The next day, 1 June, many people were too exhausted to walk, so the guards selected about 10,000 people still able to walk and escorted them to the Austrian border near
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expellees were accommodated by families of surrounding villages, and 1,807 mostly elderly people were relocated to the former Institute for Juvenile in
780: 331: 252: 106: 1142: 351:. In particular, factory workers demanded confiscation of the apartments of the Germans, as the Germans had done with the apartments of the Jews. 64: 1157: 23: 1075: 1028: 891: 348: 870: 1147: 650: 471:. Hundreds of individuals with German or Austrian citizenship were allowed to go to Austria. Others were sent to other camps in Brno and 977: 294: 1162: 180: 847: 619: 423: 334:. Over half a million people were forced to march to the German and Austrian borders and thousands were killed. During May 1945 the 999: 1109: 1060:
Tales that touch: migration, translation, and temporality in twentieth- and twenty-first-century German literature and culture
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In 2002, a joint commission of German and Czech historians collected evidence and published the results in a book titled
309:. The next day, the Nazi German administration of the city was abolished and replaced by the newly–created and Czech-led 371: 632: 1137: 542: 90: 1172: 1167: 1100: 930:"Pietní pochod Brno – Pohořelice, vzpomínka na pochod smrti brněnských Němců uskutečněný ze 30. na 31. 5. 1945" 239: 788: 398:
about 15 kilometres (9 mi) from Brno, where most of those expelled spent the rest of the night in the
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the prisoners. Moreover, there was a severe housing shortage in Brno as a consequence of the combat and
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Ciberfeminismos, tecnotextualidades y transgéneros: Literatura digital en español escrita por mujeres
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At around 6 pm on 29 May 1945, police and assistance troops started to gather all recipients of
1097:– events described from the BRUNA's (organisation of expelled Brno Germans) point of view 1071: 1024: 843: 615: 548: 69: 1101:
Der Brünner Todesmarsch – das Ende einer Ära (Brno Death March – the End of One Epoch)
1063: 464: 427: 1062:. Interdisciplinary German cultural studies. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 233–254. 569: 231: 210: 1118: 443: 359: 1131: 218: 161: 894: 614:
After the Reich: The Brutal History of Allied Occupation, by Giles MacDonogh, 2007
276: 260: 1119:„Brněnský pochod smrti“: mýty a skutečnost ("Brno Death March": Myths and Reality) 456: 431: 1067: 399: 387: 375: 363: 1094: 301:, was liberated on 26 April 1945 by the Soviet and Romanian armies of the 519: 344: 314: 264: 468: 406: 395: 298: 272: 256: 601:
Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948
955:"Ve stopách pochodu smrti: Brno si připomíná 65 let od odsunu Němců" 330:
Soon after the war ended, the Czechoslovak government incited the
268: 222: 819:. Brno: Právnická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity. pp. 12–13 332:
expulsion of its large ethnic German minority from the country
871:"Brněnský pochod smrti: Dnes bez kufrů a bajonetů v zádech" 1110:
Das Deutsche Brünn und sein Ende (German Brno and its End)
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Vývoj nucené práce na území České republiky ve 20. století
651:"Brno lituje "pochodu smrti" Němců po druhé světové válce" 297:
the city of Brno, capital of the Czechoslovak province of
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Němci ven! Die Deutschen raus! Brněnský pochod smrti 1945
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German sources regard the later communist police officer
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In the middle of the night the group reached the town of
978:"Pouť smíření připomněla oběti brněnského pochodu smrti" 1106:– larger, more detailed version of the previous article 259:
following the capture of the city by the Allies during
1017:Ocaña, Isabel Navas; López, Dolores Romero (2023). 781:"Hustopeče: tábor nucených prací pro maďarské Židy" 438:was established near the town. In 1944 it became a 370:and which also allocated food to the recipients by 928:Tučková, Kateřina; Kovařík, David (14 June 2007). 697: 695: 693: 366:which was originally introduced by Germans at the 217:) began late on the night of 30 May 1945 when the 587: 585: 502:trucks under supervision of Czechoslovak guards. 910:Brünn bedauert Vertreibung der Sudetendeutschen 892:Ein Meilenstein: Brünn erinnert an Vertreibung 755:"Vysídlení německého obyvatelstva z Brna (4)" 716:"Vysídlení německého obyvatelstva z Brna (5)" 673:"Vysídlení německého obyvatelstva z Brna (2)" 181: 16:1945 expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia 8: 1000:"Z Brna do Pohořelic: Krvavá cesta do nebe" 1043:: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( 188: 174: 18: 545:garden to commemorate the tragic events. 748: 746: 744: 742: 740: 738: 736: 709: 707: 666: 664: 662: 660: 581: 518:filed criminal charge for the crime of 153: 132: 98: 77: 60:1944–50 flight and expulsion of Germans 51: 30: 1036: 32:Flight and expulsion of Germans during 701:Rozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 209 591:Rozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 208 238: 7: 603:, by Philipp Ther, Ana Siljak, 2001 555:(2012) is a retelling of the march. 434:. After the outbreak of war a small 1153:Post–World War II forced migrations 422:The town of Pohořelice had a large 497:as responsible for organizing the 65:German–Soviet population transfers 14: 418:History of the camp in Pohořelice 114:(incl. former German territories) 633:"Eine Versöhnungsgeste aus Brno" 360:a large firearms factory in Brno 22: 631:Baumann, Meret (26 June 2015). 1143:Czechoslovakia in World War II 1115:– another BRUNNA's publication 141:Refugees in Schleswig-Holstein 1: 1158:Death marches in World War II 976:Šálek, Václav (30 May 2015). 541:There is a memorial stone in 99:Post-war flight and expulsion 78:Wartime flight and evacuation 810:Mojžišová, Veronika (2014). 1148:Ethnic cleansing of Germans 534:("Understanding History"). 317:. After the liberation the 1189: 1163:German diaspora in Europe 1068:10.1515/9783110778922-012 436:camp for prisoners of war 307:Bratislava–Brno Offensive 1095:The Deathmarch of Bruenn 311:Národní výbor města Brna 305:, in the context of the 873:. ČT 24. Česká televize 1023:. Madrid. p. 38. 957:. ČT Brno. 6 June 2010 430:it became part of the 235: 214: 146:Emigration from Poland 838:HERTL, Hanns (2001). 514:In 1995 Czech writer 45:demographic estimates 913:Sueddeutsche Zeitung 637:Neue Zürcher Zeitung 356:Zemský národní výbor 326:Prelude to expulsion 869:rdk (31 May 2014). 354:On 30 May 1945 the 303:2nd Ukrainian Front 293:After six years of 215:Brünner Todesmarsch 842:. Praha: Podlesí. 440:concentration camp 368:Invasion of Poland 289:Liberation of Brno 1138:Conflicts in 1945 1077:978-3-11-077892-2 1030:978-84-669-3792-4 779:Nezhodová, Soňa. 549:Alexandra Saemmer 543:St Thomas's Abbey 450:Living conditions 349:previous bombings 295:German occupation 198: 197: 86:German evacuation 70:Potsdam Agreement 1180: 1123: 1114: 1105: 1082: 1081: 1055: 1049: 1048: 1042: 1034: 1014: 1008: 1007: 996: 990: 989: 987: 985: 973: 967: 966: 964: 962: 951: 945: 944: 942: 940: 934:Informace z Brna 925: 919: 918: 907: 901: 900: 889: 883: 882: 880: 878: 866: 860: 854: 853: 835: 829: 828: 826: 824: 818: 807: 801: 800: 798: 796: 787:. 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Týden.cz 576:References 482:Casualties 284:Background 255:to nearby 52:Background 34:and after 1039:cite book 400:orphanage 382:The march 376:ethnicity 228:‹See Tfd› 207:‹See Tfd› 559:See also 520:genocide 467:next to 315:Red Army 265:diseases 253:expelled 469:Mikulov 407:Mikulov 396:Rajhrad 299:Moravia 273:torture 257:Austria 125:Romania 112:Poland 1074:  1027:  846:  618:  465:Mušlov 251:) was 232:German 211:German 817:(PDF) 345:lynch 236:Brünn 1072:ISBN 1045:link 1025:ISBN 986:2016 963:2016 941:2016 879:2016 844:ISBN 825:2016 797:2016 766:2016 727:2016 684:2016 616:ISBN 442:for 374:and 372:race 275:and 269:rape 223:Brno 200:The 1064:doi 402:. 1134:: 1070:. 1041:}} 1037:{{ 1002:. 932:. 783:. 757:. 735:^ 718:. 706:^ 692:^ 675:. 659:^ 635:. 584:^ 475:. 378:. 271:, 267:, 234:: 213:: 1080:. 1066:: 1047:) 1033:. 988:. 965:. 943:. 881:. 852:. 827:. 799:. 768:. 729:. 686:. 639:. 225:( 204:( 189:e 182:t 175:v 47:) 43:(

Index

Expulsion of Sudeten Germans following the end of World War II
Flight and expulsion of Germans during
and after World War II

demographic estimates
1944–50 flight and expulsion of Germans
German–Soviet population transfers
Potsdam Agreement
German evacuation
East Prussia
Czechoslovakia
Poland (incl. former German territories)
Netherlands
Romania
Refugees in Schleswig-Holstein
Emigration from Poland
Wolf children
v
t
e
‹See Tfd›
German
ethnic German
Brno
‹See Tfd›
German
[bʁʏn]

expelled
Austria
World War II
diseases

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