Polish foreign ministry says Berlin exhibition bad for trust

PAP news agency
11 Aug 06

Warsaw, 11 August: German expellee activist Erika Steinbach’s
Thursday-opened Berlin exhibition on European displaced persons "did
not serve the building of mutual trust and understanding between Poles
and Germans", Poland’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday [11 August].

Poland protested against the display claiming it showed a one-sided
view of post-war deportations of Germans from east Europe and
whitewashed Germany of its responsibility for World War II.

Steinbach’s display shows examples of 20th-century deportations in
Europe, including Turkey’s repressions against Armenians during World
War I, 1945 expulsions of Germans from east Europe and Balkan ethnic
purges in the 1990s.

"This exhibition is no positive contribution to the Polish-German
historical dialogue. Showing (…) post-war resettlements of Germans
outside their historical context is dangerous and suggests
relativization of war responsibilities", the ministry wrote in a
statement sent to PAP.

In its statement, the ministry also wrote that war remembrance "could
not take effect without respect for the truth and understanding for
the feelings of nations who suffered enormous losses in the war, and
could not ignore issues like genocide, the Holocaust and concentration
camps".