Editing Potsdam Conference (section)

=== Orderly transfers of German populations ===
{{See also|Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)}}
At the conference, the [[Allies of World War II#The Big Three|Allied leaders]] confirmed their previous commitment to the removal of German populations from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, which the provisional governments of those countries had already begun to put into effect. The three allied leaders agreed that transfers of German civilians should proceed in an orderly and humane manner, but according to modern estimates, between [[Demographic estimates of the flight and expulsion of Germans#Casualties|600,000 and 2.2 million Germans died]] during the flight and expulsions.<ref>Willi Kammerer; Anja Kammerer- Narben bleiben die Arbeit der Suchdienste - 60 Jahre nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg Berlin, Dienststelle 2005</ref><ref>Christoph Bergner, Secretary of State in [[Germany]]'s Bureau for Inner Affairs, outlines the stance of the respective governmental institutions in [[Deutschlandfunk]] on 29 November 2006, [http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/kulturheute/569560/]</ref><ref>Willi Kammerer; Anja Kammerer- Narben bleiben die Arbeit der Suchdienste - 60 Jahre nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg Berlin Dienststelle 2005 ( Published by the Search Service of the German Red Cross. The foreword to the book was written by German President [[Horst Köhler]] and the German interior minister [[Otto Schily]])</ref>

The leaders decided that the [[Allied Control Council]] in Germany would deal with the matter, giving priority to the equal distribution of Germans among the various zones of occupation. Representatives on the Control Council were to report to their governments and to each zonal administration the number of people who had already entered Germany from the eastern countries.<ref name="State Dept" /> The representatives would also form an estimate of the future pace of transfers and focus on the German occupied government's capacity to process new arrivals. The provisional governments of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were instructed to temporarily suspend expulsions of German civilians until their respective Control Council representatives had reported these results and estimates.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bevans|1968|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=lM8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1224 1236–1237]}}</ref>