Dispatches International
youth who strive to learn more about their expelled ancestors. “They are coming to us be-
cause they are interested. They learn about us because of their family background. They heard about it from their great-grand- mother or grandmother and they ask, ‘Where do I get information, I cannot imagine that this really happened could you provide me with some more information or details’,” Dreher says. According to Dreher, it is the current conflict about work of the Foundation that acts as a clear cause of interest for those who have expellees in their families. “It is a politically discussed
issue right now, in newspapers, in letters, this conflict about the Foundation, what it is all about,” Dreher explains. “Then there is a discussion, in the families, at reg- ular tables, wherever, and people say they want to know about it and when they Google it, they quickly learn about it and note they can email someone.” In her consultations, Dreher
is often faced with deficient knowledge on the expulsions. She summarizes the most common re- action of those coming to her to learn about the expulsions after World War II: “We did not know that it is not only interesting but also horrible!” “There is often the question
about why did we not learn about this issue in school. In Germany, it was forgotten for decades to in- form about the former East German
26
territories,” says Dreher. “Other topics were more important so the stories from these regions were re- pressed in school books and even at universities.” Dreher noticed the repres-
sion of the stories about the expul- sions initiated right after the end of World War II. The daughter of an expelled mother, she remem- bers the dismissive attitude of the German public regarding the sto- ries of the expellees. “Nobody had time to listen to them, the politics went over it. Then there was the ’68 generation where everything in the past was simply Nazi Germa- ny,” explains Dreher. “When the expelled people said, ‘Hello, we were victims, too, and we had bad experiences,’ then it was uncom- fortable. For this reason, many of these people were condemned to silence.”
For Juliane Schröder, the
grandchild of expellees from the former Sudeten territories in the Czech Republic, it was this atti- tude that she supposes made it so difficult for her grandparents to grapple with their personal experi- ences. “I believe my grandparents have always had a problem with never being allowed to complain because they were not allowed to present themselves as victims,” she says. “I believe this may be a reason why they are not talking about it too much. Because in fact many say that this was revenge [for the activities of World War II].” Dealing with these shadows
of the past is a specific concern
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104