Office of the Historian

840.4016/9–1145: Telegram

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

Berlin, September 11, 1945—9 p.m.
[Received 11:35 p.m.]

500. Refer to last paragraph of Section XIII of the Potsdam agreement requesting governments of Poland and Czechoslovakia to suspend further expulsions of Germans pending an examination of this question by the Control Council. Gen. E. F. Wood of PW and Displaced Persons branch89 recently returned from Poland reports Poles [Page 1274] agree to suspend expulsions except from Oppeln and Stettin. Would appreciate if you90 would sound out informally Czech Government as to its willingness to suspend expulsions during coming fall and winter in view of present chaotic conditions in Germany and lack of housing and food. Would also appreciate any data you can obtain informally regarding numbers of Germans already expelled and still awaiting expulsion. We are pressing study of this problem in political directorate of Allied Control Commission but progress so far very slow.

Sent to Prague as 35.91

Murphy
  1. Brig. Gen. Eric Fisher Wood, Deputy Director of the Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons Division of the United States Group Control Council for Germany.↩
  2. i.e., the Ambassador in Czechoslovakia. This telegram was sent to Praha and repeated to the Department.↩
  3. A virtually identical message, mutatis mutandis, was sent to Warsaw as No. 26 and was repeated to the Department as telegram 509 (later corrected to read 501), September 11, 10 p.m., from the United States Political Adviser for Germany (840.4016/9–1145).↩