Brno death march

Liberation of Brno

After six years of German occupation the city Brno, capital of the Czechoslovak province Moravia, was liberated on April 26, 1945 by the Soviet and Romanian armies of 2nd Ukrainian Front, in the context of Bratislava–Brno Offensive. The next day, the Nazi German administration of the city was abolished and replaced by newly created and Czech-led Národní výbor města Brna ("National Committee of the City of Brno"). While at the beginning of 1945 there were registered about 58,000 Germans in the city, most them were evacuated before fights 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 after the Germans were marked with white armband and become subject to similar restrictions previously directed against the Jews by the Nazis.

The background of expulsion

Shortly after the war ended, the Czechoslovak government incited the expelling from the country its large ethnic German minority, over half million people were forced to the German and Austrian borders and thousands were killed. During the 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 Czerchoslovak government to establish immediately the courts for such criminals, because the people in Brno are rioting in front of the prison in the attempt to lynch the prisoners. Moreover, there was severe housing shortage in Brno as the consequence of the fights and previous bombing and especially the factory workers demanded to confiscate the apartments of the Germans, as the Germans have done before with the apartments of the Jews.

The march

On 29 May 1945 the Zemský národní výbor residing in Brno ("National Committee of the Land (of Moravia") issued its order No. 78/1945, which ordered the immediate expulsion of non-working German population from Brno. All women, boys under age of 14 and men of the age over 60 should leave the city immediately, the working men after they wil be replaced in their work. In the morning of 30 May the representants of the large firearm factory in Brno urged the police director to fulfill this order immediately. They also offered armed men from the factory as the assistance. Around 6 pm the police and the assistance troops started to collect the recipients of food coupons marked with "D" (for Germans) and around 10 pm of 30 May the first groups of Germans were forced on a march 55 kilometres (34 mi) south towards the Austrian border. According to police report 18,072 Germans were expelled.

In the middle of the night the column reached the town Rajhrad about 15 kilometres (9 mi) from Brno, where most of the expelees spent rest of the night in the orphanage. While the Sudeten German propaganda later claimed thousands of people killed on march or in Rajhrad and "road lined with corpses" there are only 3 confirmed deaths (2 of them violent). Until today (2015), no alleged mass graves were found along the road. The next morning the column reached small town Pohořelice, 15 kilometres (9 mi) further south. The town had large German minority and after the Munich agreement it became part of Third Reich. After the outbreak of war a small camp for prisoners of the war was established near the town. In 1944 it became a concentration camp for Hungarian Jews who were used for the hardest work. The Jews were liberated by Red Army in the middle of April and now the empty camp was used to accommodate the Germans of Brno, whose number far exceeded the camp capacity.

The next day, 1 June, many people were too exhausted so the guards selected approximately 10,000 people still able to walk and escorted them to Austrian borders close to Mikulov. At the time, the representant of Austria in Brno as well as Soviet occupation authorities in Austria have already protested against this not pre-arranged transfer of large number of people and persuaded Czechoslovak government to stop the expulsion. About half of the expellees thus remained in the camp of Pohořelice.

Pohořelice camp

Because the Austrian authorities refused to accept any people before their Austrian origin is proven and 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 will stay in Pohořelice and surrounding villages, where significant German minorities were already housed. This camp however was abandoned for more than month and there was nothing to provide proper housing, food and health care for thousands of people. It was not until 5 June, when the proper camp administration was established and regular food supply provided. At this time however, the epidemic of dysentery (shigellosis) broke out. According to official records 455 deaths were buried near the town Pohořelice, mostly the victims of diseases. Sudeten German sources however estimate that between 1,300–8,000 died either by disease or by murder.

Later in June, the camp inmates were better identified and selected: approximately 2,000-2,500 were allowed to return to Brno, most of them had Czech origin or Czech relatives in Brno. Once the news about their return spread into the city, police reported a new wave of anti-German protests. About 1,000 of expellees were accommodated by families of surrounding villages, 1807 mostly elderly people were replaced to former Institute for Juvenile in Mušlov by Mikulov. Hundreds of individuals with German or Austrian citizenship were allowed to go to Austria. Others were sent do another camps in Brno and Svatobořice.

The camp in Pohořelice was officially dissolved on 7 July 1945. By this time, there were still about 80 Germans from Brno in Pohořelice, about 60 of them were sick people in provisory hospital.

Casualties

Because of the quick improvised course of events, the exact number of casualties is very difficult to state. The estimates vary widely and have become a source of political disputes and propaganda.

Austrian researchers claimed 1,950 victims of the march itself 2,000 victims in Pohořelice camp and 190 victims in surrounding villages. In total 4,140 German victims from Brno. Plus 1,062 who died in Austria.

The Sudeten German sources also try to blame the later communist police officer Bedřich Pokorný, to whom some authors attribute organisation of the 31 July 1945 Ústí massacre of hundreds of ethnic Germans in. There have been attempts to confirm statements that Pokorný had thousands of people executed. Austrian historian Emilia Hrabowecz investigated, but was unable to substantiate it. She did, however, find that old people and tired young children had been sent away on trucks under Czechoslovak guards.

According to official death records from 1945: 455 people from Brno died and were buried in Pohořelice (near the town), 129 in Mušlov, 65 in villages surrounding the town Pohořelice. In total 649 dead people originally expulsed from Brno

Remembrance

In 1995 Czech writer Ludvík Vaculík filed criminal charge for the crime of genocide related to the event of expulsion of Germans from Brno. Czech police however did not find evidence for such crime as there were only 3 confirmed violent deaths (two on the march and one later in Mušlov).

In 2000 a group of young Czech students called for an adequate way to remember the events in Brno. In 2015 the council of Brno officially regretted the harm of the victims of the death march and organized a "Pilgrimage of Reconciliation" along the route.

In 2002, a joint commission of German and Czech historians collected evidence and published the results in a book titled Rozumět dějinám ("Understanding History").

In 2007 group of young people organized a night Memorial March from Brno to Pohořelice to commemorate the event. First time only three people participated in the march and in following years the attendance was about 20-30 people. On the 70th anniversary of the event in 2015 the march was supported by the city of Brno and the number of participants was about 300, including some representatives of Sudeten German organisations. Until 2013 some eyewitnesses also participated in the memorial march.

There is a memorial stone in St Thomas's Abbey garden.