The spring of 1945 marked the end of the greatest slaughter in human history: the Second World War. This devastating conflict claimed more than 70 million lives and severely impacted hundreds of millions more across every continent and ocean. Throughout the war, the actions of the Axis forces led to the establishment of terms and concepts in international historical memory, such as pogroms, the Holocaust, the Shoah, genocide against Slavs, ethnic cleansing, forced deportations, and other forms of mass violence. However, it is often overlooked by the general public that while the war has ended, the suffering has not; it has merely shifted to another context, exemplified by the Roman phrase "Vae victis!" (Woe to the vanquished!). Following the war, approximately 12 million people were forcibly displaced from Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, resulting in over 500,000 deaths according to conservative estimates. One of the largest expulsions occurred in Czechoslo-vakia, a country that had been home to around 3 million German nationals before the war. Almost all of these individuals were evicted, while the remainder were forcibly assimilated. In my thesis, I examine the background and progression of these events. I explore whether they can be classified as deportation, forced expulsion, ethnic cleansing, or even genocide. I also analyse the influence of decisions made at the Allied conferences and the Beneš decrees on these occurrences. Personal testimonies from survivors of the expulsion provide an individual and emotional perspective, complementing my research and being supported by historical sources and literature.
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