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Wars have been with us all through the ages.
Professor Guido Knopp writes about the extreme suffering of the German civilian population at the end of the Second World War. He gives the survivors a chance to tell the world about their experiences and that is innovative. Usually civilians and the effect the war had on them are forgotten - especially those citizens of the nations that “lost” the war.
The suffering and death of the German people was not only caused by opposing nations but also by the Nazis in charge. The Nazis used their unlimited powers to escape Germany at the expense of the lives of women and children. Thousands died because of their cruel, senseless orders.
This book, Die grosse Flucht (The Big Trek), is about inhumanity to man but also about the courage of the survivors. Even at this moment in history, all this is happening again in many parts of the world.
My family too was involved in this long an cruel war. I was born in Germany in 1937 and experienced fear and deprivation first hand. At the end of the war I was 7. My father was missing. We received his last letter written in Kuestrin/Oder on March 5th, 1945. Kuestrin is now part of Poland. I tried to retrace all the places where he had been working during the war and where I had visited him as a child - but there is no trace of him in the archives in Berlin.
Today, I am happy and grateful to have been accepted by Canada as one of its citizens. My translation of the book and the presentation of this web site is a tribute to all those that suffered. Their stories must be told. Inge Barlow For all the lost children and those who died in the war.
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The German population in the Eastern Territories was forced by Hitler to stay put because of his demented notion that they had to persevere. Then it was too late for any attempts to rescue the civilians.  In January 1945, while the Red Army was already fighting on German soil, several hundred thousand civilians started to flee precipitously. On foot, on horse drawn carts laden with their prized possession, they risked the icy roads and extremely low temperatures, helplessly exposed to Soviet attacks.
More than two million of the 12 million refugees did not survive the exodus. The war that had been started by Hitler had ricocheted on the defenseless people in whose name it had been started. "Guido Knopp and his team traveled to the former East Prussia, to Silesia, Pomerania and to the Sudetenland as well as to Kazakhstan and Siberia, where hundreds of thousands of German civilians were kept prisoner in overcrowded camps for months, many even for years. In close collaboration with Russian archives and TV stations the authors found extensive material which reveals up to now unknown facts and makes it possible to depict this catastrophe as vividly as possible. Mutual guilt must not set off claims, but must be spoken about openly. This is the only way that the obstacles between nations can be overcome." |
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