Czechoslovak Refugees in West Germany 1947-1953

Title: Czechoslovak Refugees in West Germany 1947-1953 Author: Bc. Ilona Hypšová Supervisor: PhDr. Ondřej Vojtěchovský, Ph.D. This master's thesis examines Czechoslovak refugees who lived in German refugee camps and highlights the challenges they faced on their journey to freedom. The thesis addresses several key questions: "How did emigration from Czechoslovakia proceed, primarily between 1947 and 1953? Which organisations were responsible for the refugees? How were the refugee camps in Germany categorised, and in which centres did Czechoslovaks reside? What was the refugee situation in Regensburg after the Second World War? What was life like in the Goetheschule camp, which was designated for Czechoslovak refugees?" To answer these questions, I primarily used German and American sources from the Bavarian State Archives in Munich (Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München) and Czechoslovak records from the Security Services Archive in Prague. The thesis presents the process of emigration from Czechoslovakia, which was highly complex during the years 1947-1953. Refugee statistics for this period remain imprecise and vary across primary sources and secondary literature. The work also maps the complexities of legal travel and the crossing of the Czechoslovak-German border. After a successful crossing,...