Centre Against Expulsions

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The Centre Against Expulsions (German: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV) is a planned German documentation centre for expulsions and ethnic cleansing, particularly the Expulsion of Germans after World War II from eastern Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe following the Soviet offensive during, and occupation after the Second World War. It is to be erected in Berlin.

The proposal for the documentation centre was initiated by the Federation of Expellees, and it is supported by the CDU/CSU faction in the German parliament as well as the Chancellor Angela Merkel who intend to support building the centre.

The "Centre Against Expulsions" foundation, based in Wiesbaden, is headed by CDU politician Erika Steinbach. The other head of the project was SPD politician Peter Glotz who died in 2005.

Contents

[edit] Purpose

The official purposes of the Centre Against Expulsions are to:

  • document the flight and expulsion of more than 15 million Germans, as well as the expulsion of other peoples, especially in 20th century Europe,
  • collect and compile oral and written witness reports from all expulsion and evacuation zones,
  • make the culture, fate and history of displaced Europeans (including Germans) known in context, as well as their respective homelands
  • remind of the integration of the displaced persons as well as their social reception in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic,
  • clear the backlog of current expulsions with temporary exhibitions, and
  • construct a Requiem Rotunda that evokes contemplation and prayer in remembrance of the victims.

[edit] Support

The Centre Against Expulsions has been supported by a number of human rights activists, historians, political scientists and authors as well as other people. Among these supporters are the United Nations' first High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr. José Ayala Lasso, Nobel literature laureate and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertész, Joachim Gauck, Milan Horacek, former Austrian crown prince Otto von Habsburg, prominent German rabbis Walter Homolka, Eckart Klein, and historians such as Guido Knopp, Hungarian novelist György Konrád, historian Michael Wolffsohn, Hans Maier, Christian Tomuschat and Alfred M. de Zayas.

[edit] Relatively neutral positions

Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia are not harsh critics of the project, since the centre's proclaimed aim is not to relativate history, but to document it. Contrary to initial skepticism, particularly in Poland, Hitler's invasion of Poland was explicitely and elaborately mentioned by the Centre's exhibition this autumn in the Berlin "Kronprinzenpalais". The plight of Poles before and during WW2 was an integral part of the exhibition. Many other refugee histories were covered, such as the expulsion of Armenians, Turks, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians, Karelians, Bosnians and more. The expulsions were always put into the unique historical context in order to not equate them.

[edit] Controversy over the location of the Centre

On its official home page, the Centre points out that, "All victims of genocide and expulsion need a place in our hearts and in the historical memory. Human rights are indivisible."

Well-known intellectuals and politicians, including Germans Günter Grass and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, in 2003 expressed support for a centre devoted to all expelled during the 20th century, located in some place connected with expulsions, e.g. Wrocław (Breslau).

However, while Steinbach claims the Centre will represent the suffering of other nations as well, she believes that it is an internal German affair and rejects the proposal of creating the Centre under international control.

The Bavarian Prime Minister and chairman of CSU Edmund Stoiber argued that "the place for a museum showing the dreadful fate of expelled Germans is in the German capital".

[edit] Other criticism

This initiative, supported by the CDU/CSU fraction in the parliament, has caused controversy. Opponents of the proposed form of Centre object to emphasizing only German suffering. In the petition "For a critical and enlightened debate about the past" a group of historians expressed concerns the centre would "establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context".

Former German Foreign minister Joschka Fischer commented on Steinbach, and her initiative for a Centre Against Expulsions to ...have caused serious damage to German-Polish relations. Not amongst extremist nationalist forces that do exist in Poland, but amongst old friends and major agents for reconciliation between our two countries.[citation needed]

[edit] Polish criticism

According to an International Herald Tribune article ("Poles riled by Berlin exhibition, Germans’ expulsion after the war is its focus" by Mark Landler, 31 August 2006), critics in Poland oppose the idea of a research centre in Berlin led by Erika Steinbach devoted to victims of expulsion, equating deported Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, Armenians and Muslims. They claim it would suggest a moral equivalence between victims that would make the responsibility issue less clear. Steinbach is a very controversial figure in Polish-German relations, and her status as a person representing the expellees is questioned.[citation needed] The Polish government opposes involvement of Steinbach in Polish-German relations regarding historical issues and at the same time supports an international net of centres dedicated to remembrance of totalitarian regimes and their victims called "Memory and Solidarity" [1].

German officials and other analysts (including one Pole Ostrowski) have concluded that the main reason for the recent criticism is Polish domestic politics where anti-German sentiment has been exploited to further Polish nationalism and to help the troubled current Polish government win the recent elections.[2].

Polish institutions were pressured by their government to demand back the items loaned to the "Forced Paths" exhibition.[3] This was after realizing that Steinbach was its patron instead of Angela Merkel.[citation needed] The institutions alleged that they have been been misled as to who was the organiser of the exhibition and what was its nature.[citation needed] One of the most prominent exhibits was a recovered bell from the Wilhelm Gustloff, whose sinking caused the deaths of nearly 9000 refugees. The bell had been used as decoration in a Polish fish restaurant prior to the exhibit.[4] The bell has inscription Bochumer Verein 1937 Bochum and isn't a ship bell of the Wilhelm Gustloff.

Many Poles oppose the Centre Against Expulsion, expecting it would muddy the issue of responsibility.

[edit] See also

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[edit] External links

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