Summary
Dirk Rochtus
Politiek touwtrekken over de 'Vertreibung' : blindstaren op eigen leed?
Dirk Rochtus describes how since unification the Germans became more interested in the sufferings of their own people during World War II. The tragic events in Kosovo evoked memories of the flight of millions of Germans from the former eastern provinces of the 'Reich'. The proposal of the conservative German League of the Expelled to found a Centre Against Expulsions in Berlin raised indignation in Poland and the Czech Republic. Having suffered under Nazi occupation these countries fear that Germans would focus on their own grief and would mistake the effects for the causes. The League of the Expelled (Bund der Vertriebenen) claims that the centre would also focus on the expulsions of which other European peoples have been the victim during the twentieth Century. The left-wing government in Berlin subscribes to the counterproposal of the Poles to establish a European Centre Against Expulsions to be located outside of Germany. This would diminish the danger that German-Polish and German-Czech relations would be damaged by the differences of opinion over matters of the past.