Office of the Historian

740.00119 Control (Germany)/9–1245: Telegram

The United States Political Adviser for Germany (Murphy) to the Secretary of State

Berlin, September 12, 1945—10 a.m.
[Received 3:20 p.m.]

502. On matter of transfer of population under Section XIII of the Potsdam agreement, I am wiring Praha and Warsaw informally exploring the possibility of suspending expulsions of populations during the fall and winter and getting some indication of the numbers of persons involved in the transfers. (See my No. 26 of September 11, 10 p.m., to Warsaw, repeated to Dept as 50192 and my No. 35 of Sept 11, 9 p.m., to Praha, repeated to Dept as 500.)

Although very little progress has been made on this matter in the political directorate so far (see my No. 462 of September 7, noon93), I intended to press this matter in future. Marshal Zhukov’s remarks at yesterday’s Control Council meeting (see my No. 490 of Sept 10,

11 p.m.94) give some reason to [apparent omission] the Soviets will now cooperate more fully. Intend to propose in the Directorate that Pol Ad [Poland?], Czechoslovakia and the ACC for Hungary be [Page 1275] requested formally to suspend further expulsions until the spring. Would appreciate Department’s prompt instructions in this matter. From informal and unchecked sources, it appears that out of nine million Germans, formerly in territory now under provisional Polish administration, about four and a half million are already west of the Oder-Neisse line and two and a half million remain to be expelled. On August 16, 3d US Army estimated about 414,000 Germans in its area from East Prussia, Pomerania and Upper and Lower Silesia.

Murphy
  1. See footnote 91, above.↩
  2. Not printed; it reported on the third meeting of the Political Directorate of the Allied Control Authority for Germany. The matter of transfer of populations was discussed inter alia. The Soviet member again stated that he had not yet received instructions from his Government on the matter. The American member observed that the Political Directorate had had the problem of transfer of populations under consideration for 3 weeks. (740.00119 Control (Germany)/9–645)↩
  3. Vol. iii, p. 835; it reported on the fifth meeting of the Allied Control Council for Germany.↩