Persecution of Germans

rdf:langString Persecution of Germans

rdf:langString The persecution of Germans based on their ethnicity has occurred at various points throughout history. These instances have been due to either one of two reasons: 1. The German populations in the area were considered, correctly or not, linked with German nationalist regimes (e.x. Imperial Germany or Nazi Germany) 2. The German people were seen as foreigners lacking properties in the country in which they resided. An example of the first case can be found in both the World War I era persecution of Germans in the United States and of those in Eastern and Central Europe following the end of World War II. While many victims of these persecutions did not have any connection to those regimes, cooperation between German minority organizations and the Nazi regime did occur, for example in Selbstschutz organizations. This was used as a justification for hostility against both Germans directly involved in these organizations, and those uninvolved. After World War II, many Germans were killed or driven from their homes in acts of vengeance, or else as part of campaigns of ethnic cleansing. In other cases (e.g. in the case of the German-speaking populations of Russia, Estonia, or the Transylvanian (Siebenbürgen) German minority in Romania and the Balkans), communities with no connection to the Third Reich were also persecuted. Examples of this include the persecution of ethnic German Mennonite, Amish, and Hutterite communities in the United States, and that of Tyrolean Germans in the province of South Tyrol. In South Tyrol, these hostilities hit the historically German population of an Austrian territory that had been annexed by Italy after World War I. The debate also sometimes encompasses the persecution of citizens of German descent in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia during World War I and World War II.