BERLIN’S ETHNIC CLEANSING EXHIBITION CONTROVERSIAL IN POLAND
Report by Krysia Kolosowska

Radio Polonia, Poland
Aug. 9, 2006

Some Poles are wary of an exhibition on expulsions in the 20th century
which opens in Berlin tomorrow, headed by the vocal champion of German
expellee claims, Erica Steinbach.

The exhibition aims to show how expulsions – what we would call today
‘ehtnic cleansing – affected various European nations, starting from
the Armenians in 1915, through the Germans at the end of World War II,
to the Balkan nations more recently.

Erica Steinbach went out of her way to assure that the exhibition is
not biased and that its intentions are honest.

"Naturally, we will show forced expulsions and deportations after
1939 of Poles, the Baltic people and Ukrainians and the expulsions
of Germans at the end of World War II. Their fate will be presented
in a historical context."

But Poland is wary when such exhibitions are organized by the German
Union of Expellees, which represents the interests of Germans displaced
from their homes in present-day Poland, the Czech republic and other
east European countries.

The resettlement was orchestrated by the victorious Western Allies and
the Soviet Union and affected also millions of Poles, Ukrainians and
Jews. German expellees have long been advancing compensation claims
towards Poland for property left behind on its territory.

Piotr Nowina-Konopka from the Warsaw-based Schumann Foundation says
that under Erica Steinbach the Union of German Expellees did a lot
to sour bilateral relations.

"Mrs Steinbach is neither a historian nor an expellee, she hasn’t
a moral right to defend the case. Second point – we had already bad
experience with the association under her leadership and that’s why
in Poland there is a generally bad feeling about its activities and
this latest initiative. Of course, must see the exhibition to judge
whether it’s objective and whether it shows the reason that led to
all the cruelties that, without any doubt, happened."

Voices can be heard in Germany today that the suffering of Poles at
the hands of Nazi Germans between 1939 and 1945 is comparable with
the suffering of German expellees at the end of the war.

Eva Kraftchyk of the German DPA agency understands Poland’s suspicions
that Germany is trying to rewrite its history, but she thinks such
fears are exaggerated.

"The tone of discussions in Poland over the past months is not very
objective. I don’t think that anyone who is serious in Germany would
try to pretend that Germany did not attack Poland, is not responsible
for the Holocaust and did not start the war."

Furthermore, Eva Kraftchyk believes that the expellees have a moral
right to show their suffering.

"The refugees lost their homes in what is now western Poland,
Kaliningrad, the Czech Republic and other countries. That was a very
dramatic experience for these people. Now they are very old and they
want to tell their stories. I don’t think this should arouse fears
that Germany is trying to rewrite its history. It’s about showing
all the facts."

Piotra Nowina-Konopka agrees that the suffering of the expellees needs
to be remembered but he expects more good will first to be shown by
the German Expellees Union.

"The most important problem in Polish-German relations is to find
reconciliation in truth and good will. But this was missing when we
were observing the activities of Mrs Steinbach."

The Polish government is sending an independent expert to Berlin to
visit the exhibition and appraise its message. Only then will Warsaw
take a stand on the exhibition.

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