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{{Main|Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia}}
[[File:Vertreibung.jpg|thumb|Germans expelled from [[Bohemia]] and [[Moravia]] after the Second World War]]
In the aftermath of [[World War II]], when the Czechoslovak state was restored, the government expelled the majority of ethnic [[Germans]] (about 3 million altogether), in the belief that their behaviour had been a major cause of the war and subsequent destruction. In the months directly following the end of the war, "wild" expulsions happened from May until August 1945. Several Czechoslovak statesmen encouraged such expulsions with polemical speeches. Generally local authorities ordered the expulsions, which armed volunteers carried out. In some cases the regular army initiated or assisted such expulsions.<ref>Biman, S. – Cílek, R.: ''Poslední mrtví, první živí''. Ústí nad Labem 1989. ({{ISBN|80-7047-002-X}})</ref> Several thousand Germans were murdered during the expulsion, and many more died from hunger and illness as a consequence of becoming refugees.
The regular transfer of ethnic nationals among nations, authorized according to the [[Potsdam Conference]], proceeded from 25 January 1946 until October 1946. An estimated 1.6 million "ethnic Germans" (most of them also had Czech ancestors; and even Czechs, who spoke mainly German over the last years), were deported from Czechoslovakia to the [[Allied-occupied Germany#American Zone of Occupation|American zone]] of what would become [[West Germany]]. An estimated 800,000 were deported to the [[Soviet occupation zone of Germany|Soviet zone]] (in what would become [[East Germany]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/65421|title=Memories of World War II in the Czech Lands: the expulsion of Sudeten Germans – Radio Prague|website=radio.cz|date=14 April 2005|access-date=2 April 2018}}</ref> Estimates of casualties related to this expulsion range between 20,000 and 200,000 people, depending on source.<ref name = "Time">P. WALLACE/BERLIN [https://web.archive.org/web/20050314023222/http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020318-216394,00.html "Putting The Past To Rest"], ''[[Time Magazine]]'' Monday, Mar. 11, 2002</ref> Casualties included primarily violent deaths and suicides, rapes, deaths in [[internment camp]]s<ref name = "Time" /> and natural causes.<ref = name = "RD">Z. Beneš, Rozumět dějinám. ({{ISBN|80-86010-60-0}})</ref>
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