Seven million expellees came from Prussian eastern territories long German-settled

Evidence

Fourth, and finally, the lost territories had different stories. The largest number of expellees (seven million) came from Eastern territories of the German Empire (1871–1945) which had belonged to Prussia since the eighteenth century. The Silesian Wars (1740–63) and the Partitions of Poland (1772–95) had transformed Prussia into a German–Polish empire. In 1830, the kingdom initiated a policy of German settlement and cultural assimilation in its Polish-speaking territories that was continued after the foundation of the German Empire in 1871.32 This policy was disrupted after World War I when 90 percent of Posen and 66 percent of West Prussia were ceded to Poland, accompanied by the mass emigration of 1.5 million Germans from these areas and the dissolved Habsburg and Russian empires. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 48

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Both German expellees and Polish settlers manufactured usable historical pasts to justify claims — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 196; Over twelve million ethnic Germans were expelled from postwar Europe — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1530

Broader Connections

• Over twelve million ethnic Germans were expelled from postwar Europe #corroborates (0.90) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1530