Pre-war
1914
Outbreak of the war
1915
1916
1917
1918
End of the war
Post-war
War refugees, photo, 1914

Copyright: dform

Object

Flight and deportation

Millions of people fled during the war from the fighting and the marauding soldiers. The situation was particularly dramatic in ethnically heterogeneous regions on the eastern front. Apart from the invaders, local soldiers also attacked minorities. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were deported far away from the front and behind the lines, in some cases because they were seen as untrustworthy “internal enemies” and in others to exploit them as forced labourers.