German Expellees
The German Expellees or Heimatvertriebene (German: [ˈhaɪmaːt.fɐˌtʁiːbənə] , "homeland expellees") are 12–16 million German citizens (regardless of ethnicity) and ethnic Germans (regardless of citizenship) who fled or were expelled after World War II from parts of Germany annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union and from other countries (the so-called einheitliches Vertreibungsgebiet, i.e. uniform territory of expulsion), who found refuge in both West and East Germany, and Austria.