Hof: Exhibition on displaced persons of the Second World War – Bavaria

A red checked shirt, small leather shoes: Luitgard Pöpperl took the clothes with her when she had to leave her home in Bohemia in 1946. She really had no use for it anymore. Because her little son Reinhard, to whom the things belonged, died in 1944. Today they can be seen in the Bayerisches Vogtland Museum in Hof, as part of a moving permanent exhibition on the subject of flight and expulsion.

The largest Bavarian refugee camp was once located in the district of Moschendorf; in the museum, a meager loft bed reminds of life there. What did the people who had to flee or were expelled at the end of the Second World War take away with them? Bibles, rosaries, worn suitcases or even a doll are among them. It was important to the museum organizers not only to show things, but also to tell people’s stories with them. Like that of Luitgard Pöpperl, who also honored her boy’s clothes in her new home Naila.

When the UN refugee agency UNHCR speaks of the largest refugee movement in Europe since the Second World War, in view of the 4.5 million people who have left Ukraine, which has been attacked by Russia, memories are awakened. More than two million people came to Bavaria from 1943/44, where the population grew by about a quarter.

At first it was mainly women and children from the bombed-out Ruhr area. Then came those fleeing the Red Army in the east. And finally the displaced came. All of them by no means met a rich, prosperous country, but rather a region that was also emaciated by war and cities that had been destroyed.

A map showing the Allied occupation zones from 1945/46 is also on display in the Bayerisches Vogtland Museum.

(Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa)

“They were first taken into camps. Many were not in a particularly good physical or mental condition, they were provided with the bare essentials. Then they tried to be distributed across the country,” says Thomas Schlemmer, a historian at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History. That was taken over by the refugee administration, which was set up in 1945 under the supervision of the US military government.

“Many cities were badly affected, so the more sparsely populated rural areas were the main target area.” There, refugees and expelled people were simply billeted with the local population. “In the majority of cases, the distribution of the refugees via compulsory admissions worked – that was one of the sharpest swords that the refugee commissioners had in their hands,” explains Schlemmer. One thing should not be overlooked: there was also helpfulness, sympathy and pity. But of course: when complete strangers were suddenly quartered in the children’s rooms on farms, it wasn’t exactly met with great joy.

However, pragmatism prevailed in many places, especially on the farms: quite a few young men had died in the war, been taken prisoner or seriously injured. As a result, workers were needed – the refugees and displaced persons had to lend a hand. The small parlor of a courtyard has been reconstructed in the Hof Museum: the two escaped sisters Emmy and Liddy Künzel lived in their 16 square meters until 1969, as the museum director Magdalena Bayreuther reports.

One of the problems: “Scarcity of goods at all levels – whether food, clothing, household goods, furniture,” as Schlemmer describes. “The refugees and expellees no longer had the most basic things. The people were badly cared for – and the local population had to share with them. You can imagine what that meant in a time of scarcity. That wasn’t necessarily conducive to solidarity.”

And there were other challenges too. Admittedly, the newcomers were German – so it must have worked, at least in terms of the cultural background? Not at all. “Religion played a very important role: When people of the Protestant denomination came to Catholic settlements and vice versa, a line of tension arose that lasted until the 1960s,” says historian Schlemmer. If a Bavarian Catholic boy married a Protestant refugee girl, this often divided families.

There were also other differences – and last but not least, deeply rooted prejudices. What was the reason that the situation, all in all, did not escalate? Schlemmer first mentions the US military government. She made it clear from the start that the refugees and expellees were not temporary and could one day return. “A lot of refugees would have wanted that. But it was clear: this old home would no longer exist, so there was no alternative to integration in Bavaria.” And then the “economic miracle” came up.

Exhibition in Hof: A CSU election poster from the state election in 1946 bears the inscription "Work and home for the new citizen".  In fact, the economic upturn that gradually set in after the end of the war made a decisive contribution to the integration of refugees and displaced persons.

A CSU election poster from the state elections in 1946 bears the inscription “Work and home for the new citizen”. In fact, the economic upturn that gradually set in after the end of the war made a decisive contribution to the integration of refugees and displaced persons.

(Photo: Nicolas Armer/dpa)

It is true that in 1952 the Burden Equalization Act was passed: the local population had to pay a kind of special tax as a result. However, there were no fights over distribution because the economy began to flourish. Schlemmer: “The state now had something to distribute, because tax revenue was bubbling up. That benefited the long-established residents and the so-called new citizens and took out a lot of social explosives. At the same time, the job market was booming. Most refugees and expellees managed to find a place to build existence.”

Nevertheless: It took a generation until the mutual reservations were largely overcome. But the Cold War also helped, as the historian emphasizes: it had now become clear to all refugees and those who had been driven from their homeland that a return to their old homeland was not possible in the foreseeable future.

Back to Hof: the museum rooms are full of stories and destinies. It took a long time to collect the exhibits, says Peter Nürnberger from the Vogtland city. “We wanted to know the stories behind it.” Many of them are sad, tell of trauma, of the loss of home, of the dangerous escape. But they also show hope. After all, many people have managed to start a new life here.

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