Poles and Germans at odds over how Europe's end-of-war history should be written
Ethnic German's expelled from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe at the end of the second World War are applauding German opposition leader Angela Merkel. Ms Merkel, who may become German Chancellor next month, is supporting a center in Berlin to remember their suffering and says there should be an official remembrance day and their history should be taught more in schools. But there's no applause from Poland.
Speaking at a congress, which brought together 5,000 representatives of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe after World War II, Angela Merkel called on the movement to give up their claims for compensation for property left in Poland:
"Compensation claims, advanced for example by the Prussian Trust, are evoking concern in Poland. We will not give them political support."
Eva Krafczyk of the German DPA news agency in Warsaw says that it is a very important signal for Poland:
"I think a very essential point is that the Prussian trust got a clear 'no' from the Christian Democrats as well. This would be an important signal for Poland and other central European countries as well, that at least this attitude, as formulated by Chancellor Schroeder last year in Warsaw, will not change even under a conservative government."
Angela Merkel is a candidate for the German chancellorship, with her party the CDU topping all popularity polls. The 2 million strong German expellees' union constitutes a traditional electorate of the Christian Democrats. The party promised to back the idea of a centre against expulsions in Berlin, forced through by the expellees' leader Erica Steinbach. Merkel reiterated that support at the expellees' congress:
"I support the creation of a centre against expulsions in Berlin, a center which will commemorate that tragedy while at the same time promote reconciliation. I take seriously fears expressed in other countries, especially in Poland. But I believe that we have arguments to dispel them."
In Angela Merkel's opinion the Berlin centre should be a part of an international network of such institutions, made up of centers created for example in the south-western Polish city of Wroclaw or in Sarajevo in the Balkans.
The projected centre against expulsions in Berlin has been fiercely criticized in Poland, which says that it should be remembered who started the war in the first place. Former foreign minister Bronislaw Geremek urged Angela Merkel to dissociate herself from the plan. And political analyst, leftist MP Tadeusz Iwinski, who welcomes Merkel's firm stand on expellee claims, is worried that she supports the Berlin centre project:
"Poland has been against the establishment of the center for German expellees. As vice president of the Parliament of the Assembly of the Council of Europe I've been working very hard with some German MPs like Markus Merkel to set up, under the auspices of the Council of Europe, let's says Strasburg or elsewhere, such a center that could analyze the whole processes of mass migration and expulsions in the 20th century. But this cannot be accepted in bilateral relations - Polish-German, Czech-German, etc. So, I'm afraid if this idea of an establishment of this Berlin Centre is to be continued we would have a very heavy moment in our Polish-German relations."
However, DPA's Eva Krafczyk believes that Erica Steinbach and her expellees' movement will not give up the idea of a centre against expulsions.
"I hope the center will not cast a shadow on German-Polish relations. The discussion about the center against expulsion freely lets you step backwards in German-Polish relations. Unfortunately, the present German government has supported very clearly the idea of an international angle of research about population movements and expulsions."
Angela Merkel will visit Poland on August 16th, almost exactly a month before the elections in Germany. The problem of the Berlin center is certain to be on the agenda of her talks here.
