216 217 An estimated 44,000 people were taken to Siberia, the Ural mountains or the far north of the Soviet Union, where they were forced to work in mines or in railway construction. From 1946 onwards, many were released into the Soviet occupation zone in Germany on grounds of poor health. The last ones only returned in the early 1950s. In the autumn of 1945, there were still about 140,000 Germans in the northern part of East Prussia. Their lives were now defined by the strict obligation to work, by eviction and rehousing, by limited freedom of movement and also, frequently, by violence. Hunger was ubiquitous. In the winter of 1946/47 in particular, a disproportionately large number of the local German population died of exhaustion and from epidemics such as typhoid and malaria. Among the memorable and harrowing items documenting this time is the diary of Charlotte Schmolei. This young woman from Samland recorded her life, from April 1945 to November 1947, on the reverse pages of a simple invoice book. The main topics are constant hunger, hard physical labour on a military sovkhoz (a state-owned farm), disease and death. She also writes about looting, rape, her fears and her longing for safety. Many of her thoughts revolve around mere survival: ‘9th February 1947 – Now Jutta Podack has died as well. Yesterday Willi Linda collapsed in the street. He, too, fainted from hunger. Dei also died of hunger. [...] Mama has gone to Heiligenkreutz. Maybe she can get a few turnips there. If only we were all six feet under, we’d have peace at last. It looks as though nothing’s ever going to change. Every day I can feel my strength waning. Papa is also looking wretched. 3rd March 1947 – Frau Stange has died, and Holz’s child, Zander’s child, Mazewski, Karell’s boy. All died of hunger and cold. 8th March 1947 – Hard snowfall once again. I’m losing all hope. They say we’re leaving. I wish our time had come. 16th March 1947 – Sunday. We’ve eaten the last of our soup. I think it’s all over now. [...] Frau Kuschinski has just died of hunger as well. Now it’s frosty again. Spring just doesn’t want to come. [...] Dewinske also died three days ago. Frau Wittke killed her dog and ate it. [...] Papa is still sick. 29th March 1947 – Mama is fetching linden buds to make soup. [...] I felt so sick in the morning, if only we had something to eat.’ The appalling living conditions and the lack of prospects reinforced the desires of the German population to leave the area for good. Charlotte Schmolei’s hardship in East Prussia ended with Northern East Prussia Under Soviet Rule According to the Potsdam Agreement, East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland. The northern part was incorporated, in 1946, into the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (RSFSR) as the Kaliningrad Oblast; the Memel region was ceded to the Lithuanian Soviet Republic. The larger southern part fell under Polish administration. While the Agreement made provisions for the German population in Poland, Germans now on Soviet territory fell outside its remit. The Soviet Union did not wish to take over a deserted area, therefore its military ordered those refugees whom the Red Army had overrun in the winter of 1944/45 and the following spring to return to their hometowns. Many also returned of their own volition after the fighting had stopped. Already in February 1945 the Red Army began to deport able-bodied adults from East Prussia to the interior of the Soviet Union on the basis of a decision taken at Yalta to use German labour for reparations.
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