Volume I Issue 2


for Dreher, who is also the chair- woman of the German Federation of Expellees. “Many say the expel- lees should more or less finish the whole topic. If something is un- comfortable, one has to talk about it and deal with it. If one does not talk about it, but instead covers it up, there is an explosive force,” she states, conveying her hope for a more open approach to the Ger- man expulsions in the families and public.


In her view, the Flight Ex-


pulsion and Reconciliation Foun- dation may be a valuable contri- bution to this goal. “We have to reprocess that now. In a way that people can talk, share their opin- ion and ask questions in the pub- lic. And for this reason there is the Foundation.” The reprocessing and re-


membrance of the expellees is also something Wetzel would embrace. “My opinion is that this would be something positive. In principle, they were simply victims as well,” the student says. The Foundation could also work as a platform for those who want to share their ex- periences of the expulsion after so many years. “I listen to stories and have learnt that this genera- tion has an incredible need to talk; everyone has his story to tell,” Scheil adds, drawing on her con- versations with expellees. But apart from overcoming


the expellee’s reluctance to tell their stories, Dreher also points to the importance of involving Po- land in the passing-down of their


experiences. As most of the former homes of the expellees are now part of that country, and Poland was also among the countries hit hardest by the German aggression in WWII, she considers the Polish as important participants in her efforts to deal with the German ex- pulsions. When the Germans were expelled, their homes were given to Polish citizens and members of the White Russian and Ukrainian minorities living in Poland. In the Charter of the Ger-


man Expellees, the leaders of the expellees publicly announced in 1950 that they reject any de- sires of revenge for their expul- sion. Schröder witnessed that her grandparents share this attitude towards the people that now live in the regions where the expulsion took place. “They do not talk an- grily about the people. They don’t know them and they know that it is not their fault. The bad person was always Hitler, because he initi- ated the war.” Scheil’s grandfather even


has made contacts among the peo- ple that now live there. “He visited the places several times when it was possible again. He could get so angry at this whole thing but at the same time he sends pack- ets there, he got in touch with some Polish people and he knows they still have farms there but no money and he always sends them care packets and money, if he has something left, and chocolate and socks and everything.” His exam- ple illustrates that the Germans


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