1974 German Federal Archive Report
In 1969, the Federal West German government ordered a study of expulsion losses to be conducted by the German Federal Archives which was finished in 1974. The study estimated a total of 600,000 deaths caused by what they call "crimes and inhumanites" in the eyes of West German law, including 200,000 in forced labor in the USSR. Their definition of crimes included confirmed deaths caused by military activity in the 1944-45 campaign as well as deliberate killings and estimated deaths due to forced labor. They maintained that report was only was intended to provide historical documentation not as a basis for criminal charges in the future. However in Poland and Czechoslovakia, during the Cold war, these charges were viewed as an attempt to seek revenge and revert to pre-war borders.
The following is a summary of the deaths estimated in the German Federal Archive Report. The figures are rough estimates and not based on an actual enumeration of persons deported and those that died.
This category of deportees in the Federal Archive Report is also listed above in the Russian archive statistics.
Deported from Former eastern territories of Germany and Poland for forced labor in the USSR- Over 400,000 civilians deported to USSR of whom they estimated about 200,000 died. The author of the study based these figures on the German Red Cross report which is detailed above.
Deported from Yugoslavia for forced labor in the USSR- About 27,000 to 30,000 civilians deported to USSR of whom c. 5,000 died.
The German Federal Archives study did not provide figures for Romania and Hungary.
These civilian deaths in the Federal Archive Report are not listed above in the Russian archive statistics.
In labor camps and prisons in Poland and In North East Prussia Kaliningrad Oblast- Over 200,000 held by Poland, and 110,000 by USSR in northern East Prussia. Overall they estimated more than 100,000 persons perished. The report mentioned that ethnic German citizens from pre-war Poland were considered "traitors of the nation" and sentenced to forced labor.
The Federal Archive Report estimated deaths of 67,000 in internment camps in Yugoslavia and 100,000 Czechoslovakia.
The report also estimated 150,000 violent civilian deaths during military campaign in 1944-1945;( 100,000 in Poland, 30,000 in Czechoslovakia and 8,000 in Yugoslavia.
Read more about this topic: Forced Labor Of Germans In The Soviet Union
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