Brno death march

After six years of German occupation the city of Brno, capital of the Czechoslovak province of Moravia, was liberated on 26 April 1945 by the Soviet and Romanian armies of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, in the context of the Bratislava–Brno Offensive. The next day, the Nazi German administration of the city was abolished and replaced by the 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. After the liberation the Národní výbor 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.[4]

Soon after the war 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.[5] 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 a 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.[4]

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 a large firearms factory in Brno 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 rationing system which was originally introduced by Germans at the Invasion of Poland and which also allocated food to the recipients by race and ethnicity.[4]

The town of Pohořelice had a large German minority, and after the Munich agreement it became part of the Third Reich. After the outbreak of war a small camp for prisoners of war was established near the town. In 1944 it became a concentration camp for Hungarian Jews, who were used for the hardest work.[10][11] 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.[9]

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 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 (shigellosis) broke out. According to official records, 455 dead were buried near the town of Pohořelice, mostly victims of diseases.[9] Sudeten German sources, however, estimated that between 1,300–8,000 people either died of disease or were murdered.[5]

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 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 Mikulov. Hundreds of individuals with German or Austrian citizenship were allowed to go to Austria. Others were sent to other camps in Brno and Svatobořice.[9]

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.[9]