In Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia by
Max Egremont, the author visits, in a literal and historical sense, the long tongue of land
captured by the Teutonic Knights in Slavic lands to the
east. East Prussia was absorbed by other
countries after the war, and its German residents killed, sent to Soviet camps,
or forced to flee to West or East Germany.
This fascinating work details the history of this complex
land, where rulers changed with rapidity, and Slavic and German people rubbed
elbows for centuries. It would all end
in the transfer of East Prussians from 1945-1948 – thousands, hundreds of
thousands, sent away with very little.
Like the other large population transfers or exchanges in the twentieth century
(India and Pakistan) the suffering was immense.
Egremont is fair is his presentation, detailed, and writes
in vivid prose.
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