After 1945 up to four million German refugees, thus about one third of all displaced persons, entered the Soviet occupation zone. There they accounted for a quarter of the population, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania they made up even almost half of the population. The origin and fate of the displaced persons was not allowed to be discussed in public. In the official language they were euphemistically called "resettlers", later "new citizens". The Soviet occupying power and the neighbouring People's Republic of Poland were now perceived as partner states, relations that should not be burdened by flight and expulsion.
Soviet policy and that of the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – the Socialist Unity Party of Germany that was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic) were aimed at assimilating the "resettlers". They were forbidden to set up their own interest groups and meetings could only take place in private circles. A few years after the recognition of the Oder-Neisse border to Poland in 1950 the GDR finally abandoned an integration policy aimed specifically at the new citizens.
Illustration:
Photo Bohldamm camp in Uelzen
Although the "resettlers" played a part in the socialist reconstruction, it was unable to meet the expectations of a considerable proportion of the new citizens in view of the slow economic