The Brno death marchRozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 208 (german: Brünner Todesmarsch) began late on the night of 30 May 1945 when the

ethnic German , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

minority in Brno (german: Brünn ) was expelled to nearby

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

following the capture of the city by the Allies during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. 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 diseases and

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...

in the following weeks. The number of fatalities caused by the march and imprisonment is disputed as it became part of propaganda: the estimates range between 500 and 8,000.

Background

Liberation of Brno

After six years of German occupation the city of Brno, capital of the Czechoslovak province

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

, was liberated on 26 April 1945 by the Soviet and Romanian armies of

2nd Ukrainian Front The 2nd Ukrainian Front (2-й Украинский фронт), was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War. History On October 20, 1943 the Steppe Front was renamed the 2nd Ukrainian Front. During the Second Jassy–Kishinev ...

, in the context of the Bratislava–Brno Offensive. The next day, the Nazi German administration of the city was abolished and replaced by newly created and Czech-led ''Národní výbor města Brna'' ("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 them were evacuated before the fighting reached the city or fled on their own in fear of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. After the liberation the Národní výbor registered about 26,000 people considered as Germans. Shortly after, the Germans were marked with white armbands and became subject to similar restrictions previously directed against the Jews by the Nazis.

Prelude to expulsion

Shortly after the war had ended, the Czechoslovak government incited the expulsion of its large ethnic German minority from the country. Over half a million people were forced to march to the German and Austrian borders and thousands were killed. During May 1945 the ''Národní výbor'' 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 ''Národní výbor'' 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 lynch the prisoners. Moreover, there was severe housing shortage in Brno as a consequence of the combat and previous bombings. In particular, factory workers demanded confiscation of the apartments of the Germans, as the Germans had done with the apartments of the Jews. On 30 May 1945 the ''Zemský národní výbor'' ("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 the large firearm factory in Brno urged the police director to fulfill 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 rationing system which was originally introduced by Germans at the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

and which also allocated food to the recipients by

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and ethnicity.

The march

At around 6 pm on 29 May 1945, police and assistance troops started to gather all recipients of food coupons marked with a "D" (for Germans) and at around 10 pm on 30 May the first groups of Germans were forced to march south towards the Austrian border. According to police reports, 18,072 Germans were expelled. In the middle of the night the group reached the town of Rajhrad about from Brno, where most of those expelled spent the rest of the night in the

orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or ab ...

. While the Sudeten German propaganda later claimed thousands of people were killed on the march or in Rajhrad and "the road was paved with corpses", there are only 3 confirmed deaths (2 of them violent). As of 2015, none of the alleged mass graves has been found along the road. The next morning the group reached the small town of

Pohořelice Pohořelice (; german: Pohrlitz) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,300 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Nová Ves and Smolín are administrative parts of Pohořelice ...

, further south. Next to the town was an abandoned

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

in which the Germans of Brno were interned. The next day, 1 June, many people were too exhausted, so the guards selected approximately 10,000 people still able to walk and escorted them to the Austrian border near

Mikulov Mikulov (; german: Nikolsburg; yi, ניקאלשבורג, ''Nikolshburg'') is a town in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 7,400 inhabitants. The historic centre of Mikulov is well preserved and ...

. 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.

Pohořelice camp

History of the camp in Pohořelice

The town of Pohořelice had a large German minority and after the

Munich agreement The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

it became part of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. After the outbreak of the war a small camp for prisoners of war was established near the town. In 1944 it became a

for Hungarian Jews 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 by far exceeded the camp's capacity.

Living conditions

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 Germans had to stay in Pohořelice and surrounding villages, where significant German minorities were already accommodated. As the Pohořelice camp was 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 (

shigellosis Shigellosis is an infection of the intestines caused by ''Shigella'' bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass stools even when the bowels are emp ...

) 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.Rozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 209 Later in June, the camp inmates were better identified and approximately 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 about their return spread into the city, police reported a new wave of anti-German protests. About 1,000 expellees were accommodated by families of surrounding villages, and 1,807 mostly elderly people were relocated to the former Institute for Juvenile in Mušlov next to

. Hundreds of individuals with German or Austrian citizenship were allowed to go to Austria. Others were sent to other camps in Brno and Svatobořice. The camp in Pohořelice was officially dissolved on 7 July 1945. At this time, there were still about 80 Germans from Brno in Pohořelice, about 60 of them were sick people in provisory hospital.

Casualties

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. 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 plus 1,062 who died in Austria. German sources regard the later communist police officer Bedřich Pokorný as responsible of organizing the Ústí massacre 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 trucks under supervision of Czechoslovak guards. 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 expulsed from Brno died on Czech territory.

Remembrance

In 1995 Czech writer Ludvík Vaculík filed criminal charge for the crime of

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...

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). 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. In 2002, a joint commission of German and Czech historians collected evidence and published the results in a book titled ''Rozumět dějinám'' ("Understanding History"). In 2007 a group of young people organized a night Memorial March from Brno to Pohořelice to commemorate the event. At the first time, 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 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. There is a memorial stone in St Thomas's Abbey garden to bear the tragic events in remembrance.

References

External links

The Deathmarch of Bruenn
– events described from the BRUNA's (organisation of expelled Brno Germans) point of view
Der Brünner Todesmarsch – das Ende einer Ära (Brno Death March – the End of One Epoch)
– larger, more detailed version of the previous article
Das Deutsche Brünn und sein Ende (German Brno and its End)
– another BRUNNA's publication
„Brněnský pochod smrti“: mýty a skutečnost ("Brno Death March": Myths and Reality)
– 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 {{Authority control Conflicts in 1945 Czechoslovakia in World War II Ethnic cleansing of Germans Post–World War II forced migrations Forced marches German diaspora in Europe History of Brno May 1945 events