G.C. Paikert – författare

Sedulo curavi humanas actiones non rid ere , non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere. SPINOZA This monograph is an attempt to present some information on the fabric and patterns of an ethnic minority group whose destiny was totally deflected by Hitler and his war. The people in question are the Danube Swabians, German populations who were so called because of their habitat in the middle Danube region of east-central and south-eastern Europe. Research for this study was done in 1964 in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany, in which countries the author contacted persons of competence and made use of archives and other sources. He also attended the annual con­ vention of the Danube Swabians in July, 1964 in VIm, Germany. In fact, he himself had a small part in the events which he at­ tempts to analyze here. From 1934 until 1944 he served in the Hungarian Ministry of Education in Budapest and headed for some years the department for the schooling of national minorities and also the department in charge of Hungary''s cultural inter­ change. He resigned from the former post in 1939, and was ousted from the second when German troops occupied Hungary in March, 1944. His personal recollections relating to the events during and after his tenure (he left Hungary for England in June, 1946) have been used to some extent in this study, especial­ ly in Chapter X.

Sedulo curavi humanas actiones non rid ere , non lugere, neque detestari, sed intelligere. SPINOZA This monograph is an attempt to present some information on the fabric and patterns of an ethnic minority group whose destiny was totally deflected by Hitler and his war. The people in question are the Danube Swabians, German populations who were so called because of their habitat in the middle Danube region of east-central and south-eastern Europe. Research for this study was done in 1964 in Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria and the Federal Republic of Germany, in which countries the author contacted persons of competence and made use of archives and other sources. He also attended the annual con­ vention of the Danube Swabians in July, 1964 in VIm, Germany. In fact, he himself had a small part in the events which he at­ tempts to analyze here. From 1934 until 1944 he served in the Hungarian Ministry of Education in Budapest and headed for some years the department for the schooling of national minorities and also the department in charge of Hungary's cultural inter­ change. He resigned from the former post in 1939, and was ousted from the second when German troops occupied Hungary in March, 1944. His personal recollections relating to the events during and after his tenure (he left Hungary for England in June, 1946) have been used to some extent in this study, especial­ ly in Chapter X.

This brief study of the 1945 expulsion of German populations from Eastern-Central and Eastern Europe does not by any means pretend to be a complete and exhaustive analysis of a subject so massive, complex and controversial. Moreover, it is selective: in dealing with the reception of the expellees it focuses on West Germany, which though most extensively involved, is nevertheless only one of the many countries affected by the exodus. Yet the writer feels that even by presenting barely the funda­ mentals he can still hope to make some contribution to a field which -at least in the English speaking world - is far from being explored, analyzed and evaluated. His concentration on West Germany has been stimulated by two factors. First, this is the part of the former Reich which is most immediately affected by the transfer. Second, as a result of this involvement it is in West Germany that documentation and literature on the question are most extensive. Indeed, to obtain proper information and data from those countries within the Soviet orbit which are in any way linked with the problem is difficult and at times even impossible. For obvious reasons, in these countries interest is centered, and quite understandably, not on the expulsion of the Germans, but rather on the transfer, dispersion, and annihilation of their own peoples under the Nazi conquest, events, which, in turn, many Germans prefer to keep forgotten.