Editing Population transfer (section)

===Central Europe===
{{Further|World War II evacuation and expulsion}}
{{Main|Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)}}
[[File:Vertreibung.jpg|thumb|Germans being deported from the [[Sudetenland]] in the aftermath of World War II]]
Historically, expulsions of [[Jews]] and of [[Romani people]] reflect the power of state control that has been applied as a tool, in the form of expulsion edicts, laws, mandates etc., against them for centuries.

After the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] divided [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] during [[World War II]], Germans deported [[Polish people|Poles]] and [[Jews]] from [[Polish territories annexed by Nazi Germany]], and the [[Soviet Union]] deported Poles from areas of Eastern Poland, [[Kresy]] to Siberia and Kazakhstan. From 1940, [[Adolf Hitler]] tried to get Germans to resettle from the areas in which they were the minority (the Baltics, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe) to the [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Warthegau]], the region around [[Poznań]], German ''Posen''. He expelled the Poles and Jews who formed there the majority of the population. Before the war, the [[Germans]] were 16% of the population in the area.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/displacementofpo031323mbp|title=The Displacement Of Population In Europe|first=Eugene M.|last=Kulischer|date=28 October 2017|publisher=The International labour Office|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

The [[Nazis]] initially tried to press Jews to emigrate and in Austria succeeded in driving out most of the Jewish population. However, increasing foreign resistance brought the plan to a virtual halt. Later on, Jews were transferred to [[ghetto]]es and eventually to [[death camp]]s. Use of [[forced labor in Germany during World War II|forced labor in Nazi Germany during World War II]] occurred on a large scale. Jews who had signed over properties in Germany and Austria during Nazism, although coerced to do so, found it nearly impossible to be reimbursed after World War II, partly because of the ability of governments to make the "personal decision to leave" argument.

The Germans abducted about 12 million people from almost twenty European countries; about two thirds of whom came from [[Eastern Europe]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html|title=Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers - DW - 27.10.2005|website=Deutsche Welle|access-date=4 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813200714/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html|archive-date=13 August 2009}}</ref>
After World War II, when the [[Curzon line]], which had been proposed in 1919 by the Western Allies as Poland's eastern border, was implemented, members of all ethnic groups were transferred to their respective new territories ([[Polish people|Poles]] to Poland, [[Ukrainians]] to Soviet Ukraine). The same applied to the [[Former eastern territories of Germany|formerly-German territories]] east of the [[Oder-Neisse line]], where German citizens were transferred to Germany. [[Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)|Germans were expelled from areas annexed]] by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Poland]] as well as territories of [[Czechoslovakia]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]] and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/495765/refugee|title=refugee|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081007164845/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/495765/refugee|archive-date=2008-10-07}}</ref> From 1944 until 1948, between 13.5 and 16.5 million Germans were expelled, [[East Prussia#Evacuation of East Prussia|evacuated]] or fled from Central and Eastern Europe. The Statistisches Bundesamt (federal statistics office) estimates the loss of life at 2.1 million <ref>Statistisches Bundesamt, ''Die Deutschen Vertreibungsverluste'', Wiesbaden 1958, see also Gerhard Reichling "Die deutschen Vertriebenen in Zahlen", vol. 1–2, Bonn 1986/89.</ref>

Poland and [[Soviet Ukraine]] conducted population exchanges. Poles residing east of the new Poland-Soviet border were deported to Poland (2,100,000 persons), and [[Ukrainians]] that resided west of the New border were deported to Soviet Ukraine. [[Population transfer in the Soviet Union|Population transfer to Soviet Ukraine occurred]] from September 1944 to May 1946 (450,000 persons). Some Ukrainians (200,000 persons) left southeast Poland more or less voluntarily (between 1944 and 1945).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.migrationeducation.org/13.0.html|title=Forced migration in the 20th century|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151021014423/http://www.migrationeducation.org/13.0.html|archive-date=2015-10-21}}</ref> The second event occurred in 1947 under [[Operation Vistula]].<ref>[http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/pol6_en.html The Euromosaic study: Ukrainian in Poland] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080222170612/http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/pol6_en.html |date=2008-02-22}}. [[European Commission]], October 2006.</ref>

Nearly 20 million people in [[Europe]] fled their homes or were expelled, transferred or exchanged during the process of sorting out ethnic groups between 1944 and 1951.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Postwar Population Transfers in Europe: A Survey|first=Joseph B.|last=Schechtman|date=28 October 2017|journal=The Review of Politics|volume=15|issue=2|pages=151–178|doi=10.1017/S0034670500008081|jstor = 1405220|s2cid=144307581 }}</ref>