Expulsions and the New Post-War Order her expulsion to the Soviet occupation zone in November 1947. Initially she was taken to a camp in Brandenburg before she came to Berlin. Only once did she return to her native Samland, almost fifty years later, together with her husband Emil. Not before spring 1947 were the Germans in Kaliningrad/ Königsberg allowed to leave for the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. In October and November that year several more transports left. In early 1948, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union decided to ‘resettle’ all remaining Germans that same year. In total, around 100,000 people arrived in the Soviet occupation zone in 1947 and 1948 combined. However, many who had fled hunger by escaping to Lithuania were unaware of the transports to Germany. Among them were several hundred orphaned children and adolescents (so-called Wolfskinder, or ‘wolf children’) who, if they had not been fostered or adopted by Lithuanians, were left to fend for themselves. Later official emigration campaigns enabled some to leave for Germany; some, however, preferred to remain in the Soviet Union and applied for Soviet citizenship. CHARLOTTE SCHMOLEI’S DIARY Kaliningrad Oblast (Soviet Union), 1945–47
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