The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace

During the latter months and immediate aftermath of WW II, some 15 million ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe, caught between the Soviet armies to the east and the Allied armies to the west, were driven from their ancestral homelands and in many cases slaughtered by Red Army troops and Polish civilians seeking revenge for the brutality of Hitler's army. This relatively unknown holocaust claimed more than two million lives, even though, as the author makes clear, few of the victims had actually supported the Nazi regime. De Zayas ( Nemesis at Potsdam ), a lawyer, historian and human rights expert specializing in refugees and minorities, has uncovered testimony in German and American archives detailing these atrocities, adding a new chapter to the annals of human cruelty. His carefully documented book serves as a reminder that many different peoples have been subjected to ``ethnic cleansing.'' Photos. (July)