The Death of East Prussia: War and Revenge in Germany's Easternmost Province

by Peter B Clark

Overview

The Death of East Prussia describes the immense collateral damage inflicted on East Prussia resulting from Hitler's war of annihilation in Poland and the Soviet Union. The Red Army sought revenge when it invaded the province in the winter of 1945. Thousands of Germans tried to flee rampaging Soviet soldiers who raped, assaulted, murdered and pillaged with abandon. A wealth of eyewitness testimony provides gripping, personal narratives of the indomitable will of the East Prussians to survive under horrific conditions. The end was foreshadowed when the wartime Allies divided East Prussia between Russia and Poland and approved the expulsion of all East Prussians. Now outcasts in their own homeland, many succumbed to starvation and disease as virtual slave laborers for their new masters, and the survivors were expelled in the late 1940s. This ethnic cleansing of East Prussia was the price paid for Nazi Germany's own ethnic cleansing of Eastern Europe. Complementing this tale of human suffering is an historical analysis showing that geography, revenge and political calculation can explain the extinction of East Prussia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481935753
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	01/17/2013
Pages:	610
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Peter B. Clark is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate in philosophy from Reed College and received a PhD in economics from MIT. He taught economics at Duke University, worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, and retired as a Senior Adviser from the International Monetary Fund. During his career as an economist, he published widely in his field. Married to a German who escaped from East Prussia in 1944, he became fluent in German and visited Germany many times, including the former capital of East Prussia, Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad). This is his first non-economics book.

Editorial Reviews

"I am so filled with admiration for your empathy and your exemplary ability to summarize the essentials.... I was in tears when I read your description of the fates of individuals. You have the gift to describe these so precisely that I re-lived vividly what I experienced myself as an eyewitness. I would like to tell you...that I regard your book as the most important--because it is the most realistic--documentation yet to appear of the indescribable downfall of East Prussia and Konigsberg that has been written."--Michael Wieck, author of "A Childhood under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew""

"I cannot think of anything written on the terrible moment in history more powerful than what you have written. I'm still thinking about why it is so gut wrenching yet incredibly compelling. This is "New Yorker" quality writing you have done....Your writing is sparse, each word counts, there aren't any frills--which gives a haunting starkness to the terrifying events your witnesses describe."--Charles McCain, author of "An Honorable German"

From the Publisher

A thorough history of East Prussia during and after World War II. Clark (New Look at Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade Flows, 2004) moves away from economics with this history. East Prussia was, until the end of World War II, part of Germany. While its earlier conquerors simply absorbed the region's inhabitants, 20th-century Soviet and Polish rulers instead exercised a policy of ethnic cleansing. During World War II, East Prussia largely avoided the violence that plagued the heart of Germany, but the region eventually saw a Red Army invasion in 1944, accompanied by widespread rape and pillaging. After the war concluded, Allied leaders agreed that this region of Germany should be annexed, with the southern two-thirds of the region given to Poland and the remainder to the Soviet Union. Prussians in the Polish section were forcibly removed from their homes; those in the Soviet-controlled territory were exploited as forced laborers before being expelled. Clark balances recorded political history with eyewitness accounts that put a human face on events. For example, Clark relates Hannelore Schwokowski's heartbreaking story, from her memoir, of the events that led to the death of her mother, Lotte, at age 47. The book is heavily researched, drawing on previous historical volumes and primary source documents. That said, this isn't a completely unbiased account; Clark acknowledges that his wife's East Prussian background inspired him to write the book, and his sympathies definitely lie with this population when he describes an expulsion that "was hardly orderly or humane." A clearly written, extensively researched book and an important contribution to World War II history.

Kirkus Reviews