EXHIBITION ABOUT DISPLACED EUROPEANS OPENS IN BERLIN
Agence France Presse — English
August 9, 2006 Wednesday 4:45 PM GMT
An exhibition about Europeans displaced, deported and expelled during
the 20th century opens in Berlin on Thursday amid concerns that it
will minimise the Nazis’ role.
The exhibition, titled "Paths unchosen", is being mounted by a
foundation created by the powerful Federation of the Expelled.
The federation represents some 14 million Germans who were forced to
leave their homes in eastern Europe from 1944 as the Soviet Red Army
advanced and the Third Reich began crumbling.
Poland and the Czech Republic have warned against any initiative that
could give rise to compensation claims from these Germans against
the countries they were forced to leave.
The Czech Republic has repeatedly baulked at giving special recognition
to the three million Germans who were expelled from the Sudetenland
along the German-Czech border at the end of World War II under the
Benes decrees.
The organisers, the Centre Against Expulsion, has taken care to
highlight the plight of other Europeans who were displaced by conflict,
not only by Nazism, but in Armenia, the Balkans and Poland.
But they are courting controversy by describing the exhibition as
a first step towards creating a centre in Germany to document the
plight of victims of expulsion.
Critics of such a move include former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
They have warned that it could put undue emphasis on the German
victims, thereby diverting attention from the fact that it was Nazi
Germany that began the war in the first place.
Poland is bitterly opposed to the idea of a German-based centre and
there have been suggestions that it would be more appropriate to
honour the displaced in a joint European project spread out over
several capitals.
The deputy president of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Thierse, told AFP:
"We want a project which takes place in accord with our European
partners and not against their will."
The exhibition at the Kronprinzenpalast runs until the end of October.