Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest

Coat of arms of Royal Prussia. From 1772 coat of arms of West Prussia – Source Wikipedia

Not all Germans who had made their home in the newly acquired land fled into the central area of Germany. Some hoped that having land annexed to Soviet Lithuania would mean that Lithuanians would be safe. Alas, Stalin Russia did not distinguish between Germans and Lithuanians, with Stalin taking this view on the back of Lithuanian males serving with the German military. The reality was this was not a choice.

In the latter part of 1944 and the early part of 1945 there was a significant number of beggars from East Prussia in the western part of Soviet Lithuania, comprised of mainly women, children and the elderly.

Many spoke Lithuanian, but some only had a limited knowledge of the language, that was further impinged by the Russian government forbidding citizens to help, though some did. The Soviets rounded up adults which were then deported to Germany or Siberia where the majority died. Women left their children to be raised by Lithuanian families. As time has marched on, those children have grown into adulthood and are now just beginning to exploring their ancestry.

The authorities in Russia populated East Prussia with Russians, especially those from Smolensk, Voronezh and a few other locations. By December 1946 some 12,000 families had relocated and by 1988 that number had risen to 800,000 people who were mainly Russian.

The Great Soviet Encyclopaedia, published in 1953 stated that East Prussia had been a Russian or Slavic land which was inaccurate. The authorities amended the names of places, making Prussian names more Russian – Cities, Towns, Villages were frequently named after Bolshevik leaders, military personnel, even Czarist generals. Going a step further, the names of rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, seas and oceans was also changed.

Lithuanian place names, which had been Germanised, initially partially, and only completely in 1938, were now Russified. None of the old Lithuania, or the very least Baltic names were left unchanged. Cultural heritage was ignored, meaning that records relating to citizens who had lived in this region for centuries was destroyed.

Incidentally, Poland partially followed suit, by changing some of the Lithuanian or Baltic names in the Polish part of what was East Prussia.

Coat of arms of Royal Prussia. From 1772 coat of arms of West Prussia – Source Wikipedia

In the last post I mentioned the Potsdam Agreement. This was an incredibly important element to the planning of post war Europe. As we have seen over recent days, the movement of people, plans of nations and restitution of countries has not been linear.

The Potsdam Agreement was the last of a series of three conferences that took place in the final two years of the war. We are going to look in more detail in a forthcoming post series, but this post will focus on this specific agreement.

The Potsdam Agreement specified that:

1. Redefined the borders of Central Europe
   1. approved the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the territories that had been taken over as German and would now be transferred to:
      1. Poland
      2. Russia
      3. Czechoslovakia
2. Approval of German Civilians that enabled them to be sent to:
   1. 1. internment and labour camps in Eastern Europe and
      2. used as forced labour as part of German repatriations to Countries in Eastern Europe

These expulsions were completed in 1950 when it was established that the total of people with German ancestry still living in central and Eastern Europe ranged from 700,000 to 2.7 million.