Demographic Estimates
According to the Polish census of 1946, there were still 2,036,400 Germans in the "Recovered Territories", 251,900 in the pre-war Polish territories (primarily eastern Upper Silesia, Pomerelia and Greater Poland) and the former Free City of Danzig, and 417,000 in the process of "verification" as "new" Poles. The census data did not include former German citizens already "verified" as ethnic Poles, Germans in forced labor or detention camps and otherwise detained Germans, and Germans employed by the Soviet administration.
According to S. Banasiak, 3,109,900 Germans were expelled to the Soviet and British occupation zones in Germany and thereby registered by Polish officials between 1945 and 1950. Registration by Polish officials was not exhaustive, especially in 1945. An unknown number left without formal registration or was expelled by Soviet military authorities without notifying by Polish officials responsible for statistics. Also, especially in 1945, many Germans returned to their former homes and some were expelled more than once.
Tomasz Kamusella is citing estimates of 7 million expelled during both "wild" and "legal" expulsions from the Recovered Territories (Deutsche Ostgebiete) until 1948. The number is based on 1946 census in which citizens were asked specifically if they were Polish or German. The expelled included German autochthons stripped of Polish citizenship and additional 700,000 members of the German minority from areas of pre-war Poland. Kamusella states that about 5 million had fled from the former eastern territories of Germany, and 500,000 from pre-war Poland in 1944 and 1945, that another 3.325 million were expelled from the former German territories in 1946–1948 (3 million from Czechoslovakia, and 250,000 from Hungary), emphasizing these numbers are not exhaustive.
Overy cites approximate totals of those evacuated, migrated, or expelled between 1944–1950 from East Prussia: 1.4 million to Western Germany, 609,000 to Eastern Germany; from West Prussia: 230,000 to Western Germany, 61,000 to Eastern Germany; from the former German area East of the Oder-Neisse: 3.2 million to Western Germany, 2 million to Eastern Germany.
According to Nitschke, of around 12.4 million Germans residing within the lands of post-war Poland in 1944, 3.6 million were expelled, one million were certified as Poles, 300,000 remained in Poland as a German minority, and up to 1.1 million are unaccounted for and presumed to be dead (killed).
According to Kacowicz, about 3.5 million people had fled before the organized expulsions began, mainly driven by fear of the advancing Soviet Army, between seven hundred and eight hundred thousand Germans were affected by the "wild" expulsions, and another three millions were expelled in 1946 and 1947.
Read more about this topic: Flight And Expulsion Of Germans From Poland During And After World War II
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