Based on examples from Wrocław (Breslau), we show the fate of archaeologists living in countries under totalitarian regimes. We present cases of bright scientists sent by the German Nazis to the war fronts and the persecution of the "enemies of the system" by post-war communists in Poland. German scholars were killed in the war. Persecuted during the Stalinist period, Polish professor E. Bulanda lost his job and the Chair of Classical Archaeology was closed after the war.