does anyone know if there is a list of surnames availa ble of those who were displaced by the allies. Germans moved to Germany?????????????? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aida Kraus" <akibb1@verizon.net> To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 10:35 AM Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald > For anyone who wishes to look at some of the farms in the Boehmerwald, > (Bohemian forest, Sumava) > here is a link where you can see how some of the larger farms (Gutshof) > looked when the German owners lived there and what they found when they > came back to visit... Go to this link, it is one available in English. > Those of you who are from the Egerland, these larger farms had the same > architecture there and the tenant families lived there sometimes for > centuries with the owners. > On this page, there are also a few village names given and names > mentioned, just in case it would fit into your family. Forgive the > bitterness on this page, but a person robbed of their ancestral home > becomes "homeless" until the next generation plants their own roots into a > new homeland, wherever the wind of fate has scattered them since the > expulsion between 1945-1948, after WW2. German Bohemians lived for > centuries on their farms and each generation built on this inheritance and > "made it prettier" than it was before, this was their pride. Ours was not > a "moving or wandering" society, but a very earthbound one, and the > expulsion has impacted very harshly on these families. > Aida > http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jschopper/englisch.htm > > > ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== > Would you like to see messages that were posted before you joined the > list? To browse the archives, go to: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L/ > >

I doubt it that there are lists of person that went with the Americans to West Germany. Americans knew what was coming and took anyone with them who wanted to leave. Those German Bohemians having some ties to the Nazi Regime left on their own and took the chance to hop on the American trucks. But here it must be explained here that German citizens were unable to continue their profession under the Hitler regime (like as a doctor, lawyer, industrialist or businessman) if you did not belong to the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. All of these party members on the transport trucks of the Americans were handed over at the border to the courts where they were put into "Denazification" camps. They enjoyed there very decent treatment and three full meals a day with classes during the day....and for us Non-Members this seemed like a "cushy existence." The rest of us stayed at home, we had nothing to fear, we just waited that the "old republic" would establish itself again. Or so we thought...... There must be deportation lists of all Germans in the Czech archives, because everyone expelled went through a local camp and name lists were checked off as the people were put into transports. This process happened after most of the people had been thrown out of their house and fleeced for their valuables. Most of our people found shelter with neighbors or friends, who in turn were also booted out of their homes and many of us saw these cruel displacements more than once. The nicest homes were appropriated first in quite a horrible manner (spare me the details!), then the next best category was selected for a convenient location, the least desirable places were left to the last. Into these abandoned garrets the remaining German population huddled together, but there was no chance for invisibility, because every German had to wear a white arm band when going out of the house. You never knew when they "grabbed" you. Eventually, all of us were chased into camps and sorted out for transports to either East or West Germany. The expulsion was pretty much completed in 1947, the year the Czech people voted for a Communist Regime with a sweeping majority. What was left in the Czech Republic of our German Bohemians were either mixed marriages with Czechs, or anti-fascist Germans, or those very few that had belonged to the Communist Party before Hitler's occupation. Then new transports - for these remaining people who had been loyal to the Czech Republic - were formed. But these were transported to slave labor - oh horror! - into the Interior of the Czech Republic .... and promptly forgotten. It would have been better, had they been expelled. It was my father and his friend, a Czech Police Director who helped these scattered people. Our friend searched for our family in all the expulsion transport records - and this is why I know that they exist - and found us as slave laborers in the Interior. He and my father worked together in making lists of Germans on these farms to be rescued. At that time, Czechoslovakia no longer supported the expulsion, because they had realized that mass transporting German people from their ancestral homeland had left a horrible void very visible in the countryside and it was quite near a collapse of their entire economy, because the industrial section of the Czech Republic is mainly in the area of the Sudetenland. The interior of the Czech Republic is mostly agricultural. What followed in the years to come, was just a "real mess!" Only 800,000 Czechs were taking over an area from where 3 Million Germans had been expelled and that mistake was all to obvious in 1948. I was able to remain in my homeland until December1948, so I have seen the "aftermath" and it was not pretty: it was a decaying vacuum. Then, the Czech government made it very difficult for anyone to leave. German people had to pay for their release and their transport to Germany, they were "held" rather than "expelled," but what was left of our group was only a sad remainder. In other words who was still there were those old loyal Republicans badly abused by the Country they supported. There was no reason any longer to remain in a homeland that was highjacked by Communists and slowly it dawned even on the Czech people that all this was a bad mistake. As we were able to gather information into what corners of the Czech landscape our people had been scattered, my father and his Czech friend (a Police Director loyal to the old Republic) tried desperately to find them and rescue them. The news traveled steadily by word of mouth, one person knew where another could be found. When we had a few together, I typed transport lists in the office of my father's friend Velitel Zlatohlavek at Maierhöfen near Karlsbad......... and I would say, that the Czech Republic must have these lists in some archives somewhere!???!!! After that, many like-minded Czechs followed their German brethren in escaping from the Communist regime, and in most of the cases they had to establish German connections to be able to leave to West Germany. Many of our German Bohemian people had to go before the German courts to vouchsafe the character of their Czech friends or families in order that they were accepted in Germany. A crazier scenario could not be contrived. There is another later chapter to this. After the Prague Spring another exodus started to West Germany from the Czech Republic, when mostly "mixed marriage couples" were granted a leave for Germany, that is, if they could bring proof of their family's connection to West Germany. Between 1965-1968 another group, mostly of Czech ethnicity, escaped their Communist country. It is a tragedy among all our Bohemian people, German and Czech alike! And this tragedy for so many million of people was contrived with a fewbold signatures on a document in Yalta and Potsdam by politicians who let their hatred rule over their conscience. May future politicians learn from this! Aida --------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Veda Anderson" <anderv@cyberlodge.com> To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:09 AM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald > does anyone know if there is a list of surnames availa ble of those who > were displaced by the allies. Germans moved to Germany?????????????? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Aida Kraus" <akibb1@verizon.net> > To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 10:35 AM > Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald > > >> For anyone who wishes to look at some of the farms in the Boehmerwald, >> (Bohemian forest, Sumava) >> here is a link where you can see how some of the larger farms (Gutshof) >> looked when the German owners lived there and what they found when they >> came back to visit... Go to this link, it is one available in English. >> Those of you who are from the Egerland, these larger farms had the same >> architecture there and the tenant families lived there sometimes for >> centuries with the owners. >> On this page, there are also a few village names given and names >> mentioned, just in case it would fit into your family. Forgive the >> bitterness on this page, but a person robbed of their ancestral home >> becomes "homeless" until the next generation plants their own roots into >> a new homeland, wherever the wind of fate has scattered them since the >> expulsion between 1945-1948, after WW2. German Bohemians lived for >> centuries on their farms and each generation built on this inheritance >> and "made it prettier" than it was before, this was their pride. Ours >> was not a "moving or wandering" society, but a very earthbound one, and >> the expulsion has impacted very harshly on these families. >> Aida >> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jschopper/englisch.htm >> >> >> ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== >> Would you like to see messages that were posted before you joined the >> list? To browse the archives, go to: >> http://archiver.rootsweb.com/GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L/ >> >> > > > ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== > Forgotten how to UNSUBSCRIBE? > Visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/mailinglist/mailinglist.html >

thank you so much for this email........it will be kept among my family geneology records. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aida Kraus" <akibb1@verizon.net> To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 10:42 AM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald I doubt it that there are lists of person that went with the Americans to West Germany. Americans knew what was coming and took anyone with them who wanted to leave. Those German Bohemians having some ties to the Nazi Regime left on their own and took the chance to hop on the American trucks. But here it must be explained here that German citizens were unable to continue their profession under the Hitler regime (like as a doctor, lawyer, industrialist or businessman) if you did not belong to the NSDAP, the Nazi Party. All of these party members on the transport trucks of the Americans were handed over at the border to the courts where they were put into "Denazification" camps. They enjoyed there very decent treatment and three full meals a day with classes during the day....and for us Non-Members this seemed like a "cushy existence." The rest of us stayed at home, we had nothing to fear, we just waited that the "old republic" would establish itself again. Or so we thought...... There must be deportation lists of all Germans in the Czech archives, because everyone expelled went through a local camp and name lists were checked off as the people were put into transports. This process happened after most of the people had been thrown out of their house and fleeced for their valuables. Most of our people found shelter with neighbors or friends, who in turn were also booted out of their homes and many of us saw these cruel displacements more than once. The nicest homes were appropriated first in quite a horrible manner (spare me the details!), then the next best category was selected for a convenient location, the least desirable places were left to the last. Into these abandoned garrets the remaining German population huddled together, but there was no chance for invisibility, because every German had to wear a white arm band when going out of the house. You never knew when they "grabbed" you. Eventually, all of us were chased into camps and sorted out for transports to either East or West Germany. The expulsion was pretty much completed in 1947, the year the Czech people voted for a Communist Regime with a sweeping majority. What was left in the Czech Republic of our German Bohemians were either mixed marriages with Czechs, or anti-fascist Germans, or those very few that had belonged to the Communist Party before Hitler's occupation. Then new transports - for these remaining people who had been loyal to the Czech Republic - were formed. But these were transported to slave labor - oh horror! - into the Interior of the Czech Republic .... and promptly forgotten. It would have been better, had they been expelled. It was my father and his friend, a Czech Police Director who helped these scattered people. Our friend searched for our family in all the expulsion transport records - and this is why I know that they exist - and found us as slave laborers in the Interior. He and my father worked together in making lists of Germans on these farms to be rescued. At that time, Czechoslovakia no longer supported the expulsion, because they had realized that mass transporting German people from their ancestral homeland had left a horrible void very visible in the countryside and it was quite near a collapse of their entire economy, because the industrial section of the Czech Republic is mainly in the area of the Sudetenland. The interior of the Czech Republic is mostly agricultural. What followed in the years to come, was just a "real mess!" Only 800,000 Czechs were taking over an area from where 3 Million Germans had been expelled and that mistake was all to obvious in 1948. I was able to remain in my homeland until December1948, so I have seen the "aftermath" and it was not pretty: it was a decaying vacuum. Then, the Czech government made it very difficult for anyone to leave. German people had to pay for their release and their transport to Germany, they were "held" rather than "expelled," but what was left of our group was only a sad remainder. In other words who was still there were those old loyal Republicans badly abused by the Country they supported. There was no reason any longer to remain in a homeland that was highjacked by Communists and slowly it dawned even on the Czech people that all this was a bad mistake. As we were able to gather information into what corners of the Czech landscape our people had been scattered, my father and his Czech friend (a Police Director loyal to the old Republic) tried desperately to find them and rescue them. The news traveled steadily by word of mouth, one person knew where another could be found. When we had a few together, I typed transport lists in the office of my father's friend Velitel Zlatohlavek at Maierhöfen near Karlsbad......... and I would say, that the Czech Republic must have these lists in some archives somewhere!???!!! After that, many like-minded Czechs followed their German brethren in escaping from the Communist regime, and in most of the cases they had to establish German connections to be able to leave to West Germany. Many of our German Bohemian people had to go before the German courts to vouchsafe the character of their Czech friends or families in order that they were accepted in Germany. A crazier scenario could not be contrived. There is another later chapter to this. After the Prague Spring another exodus started to West Germany from the Czech Republic, when mostly "mixed marriage couples" were granted a leave for Germany, that is, if they could bring proof of their family's connection to West Germany. Between 1965-1968 another group, mostly of Czech ethnicity, escaped their Communist country. It is a tragedy among all our Bohemian people, German and Czech alike! And this tragedy for so many million of people was contrived with a fewbold signatures on a document in Yalta and Potsdam by politicians who let their hatred rule over their conscience. May future politicians learn from this! Aida --------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Veda Anderson" <anderv@cyberlodge.com> To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 7:09 AM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald > does anyone know if there is a list of surnames availa ble of those who > were displaced by the allies. Germans moved to Germany?????????????? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Aida Kraus" <akibb1@verizon.net> > To: <GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 10:35 AM > Subject: [GERMAN-BOHEMIAN] Boehmerwald > > >> For anyone who wishes to look at some of the farms in the Boehmerwald, >> (Bohemian forest, Sumava) >> here is a link where you can see how some of the larger farms (Gutshof) >> looked when the German owners lived there and what they found when they >> came back to visit... Go to this link, it is one available in English. >> Those of you who are from the Egerland, these larger farms had the same >> architecture there and the tenant families lived there sometimes for >> centuries with the owners. >> On this page, there are also a few village names given and names >> mentioned, just in case it would fit into your family. Forgive the >> bitterness on this page, but a person robbed of their ancestral home >> becomes "homeless" until the next generation plants their own roots into >> a new homeland, wherever the wind of fate has scattered them since the >> expulsion between 1945-1948, after WW2. German Bohemians lived for >> centuries on their farms and each generation built on this inheritance >> and "made it prettier" than it was before, this was their pride. Ours >> was not a "moving or wandering" society, but a very earthbound one, and >> the expulsion has impacted very harshly on these families. >> Aida >> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jschopper/englisch.htm >> >> >> ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== >> Would you like to see messages that were posted before you joined the >> list? To browse the archives, go to: >> http://archiver.rootsweb.com/GERMAN-BOHEMIAN-L/ >> >> > > > ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== > Forgotten how to UNSUBSCRIBE? > Visit http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/mailinglist/mailinglist.html > ==== GERMAN-BOHEMIAN Mailing List ==== Visit the German-Bohemian Heritage Society Web Page! http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs/