Another vicar, Georg Gottwald, described the scene in Grünberg, where he had to bury the mutilated corpses of women: of the 4000 inhabitants (out of a former population of 35,000) who remained in the town after the surrender:
[…] in the first 14 days [after the Russians arrived] over 500 people (entire families, men, women and children) ended their lives by suicide, including doctors, senior court officials, factory owners and prosperous citizens. The corpses of those who had killed themselves must have remained unburied for two weeks. They had to remain in people’s flats or were left on the pavement in order to frighten others.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “Conclusion: Life After Death.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 387-88. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Die Vertreibung der deutschen Bevölkerung aus den Gebieten östlich der Oder-Neiße, Band ½, p. 349.
‘Erlebnisbericht des Pfarrers Georg Gottwald, Dechant von Grünberg i. Niederschles. Original, 15. Juni 1949’.
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