ABSTRACT
This chapter confirmed that the United States should, wherever possible, favor a selective transfer, and concluded, the Department favors a policy whereby these transfers would be held to a minimum. It is well known, of course, that Prime Minister Churchill did not always express himself quite as carefully. Contrary to these estimates, there lived at least 4 million Germans in these territories at the time of the Potsdam Conference, while an additional million was attempting to return. Article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol provides in part: The Three Governments having considered the question in all its aspects, recognize that the transfer to Germany of German populations, or elements thereof, remaining in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, will have to be undertaken. The authors recognized that certain transfers were unavoidable, but they did not intend at Potsdam to encourage or commit ourselves to transfers in cases where other means of adjustment were practicable.
