Dispatches International
who strive to learn what their old homes are like today are not nec- essarily aggressive or angry. To a lesser extent, people
now living in the relevant regions may even be curious about those who formerly lived there and about getting to know “their” Germans, as one Polish man puts it. Although the regions are
culturally diverse, Germans have lived in some of them for centuries so the history of places such as Breslau, now called Wroclaw, were largely influenced by the Germans living there. Visiting and learning about the places may thus have a reconciliatory effect on both the descendants of Germans who want to know more about their family’s history as well as for the Polish people who want to learn about the history of their villages and cities.
Whereas her grandfather
has already visited the places, Scheil is still planning such a jour- ney. “Sometime in my life I will definitely go there, I will visit ev- erything and watch it and have my personal view on it, in peace. I know that I will be emotionally overwhelmed when I am going there and I know I have to gather resources and have to prepare so that this does not overwhelm me,” she says. “Because it is, of course, the place that is so overwhelmed with stories and my grandfather, who was so very important for me in my life, who grew up there and the fate of my family there.” To ensure an atmosphere of
28
understanding between the Polish farmers who settled in the relevant regions and the Germans who were expelled, as well as the descen- dants of both groups, Dreher orga- nizes workshops and discussions with citizens from both countries. “Sometimes we even have more Polish than German people,” she says, and I notice the pride in her voice on the achievement of bring- ing those together that share such a complicated history. And what is the view of the
Polish youth on the current de- bates and the topic of displace- ment? Like Wetzel, Schon Prze- myslaw’s interest in the topic was caused by the news coverage about the Flight, Expulsion, and Reconciliation Foundation. The Polish student currently resides in Germany and thus is able to com- pare both the German and the Pol- ish perspective. Przemyslaw is not against the Foundation per se, but he is bothered by some of its pos- turing.
“It tries to show that it was
the German nation which suffered. It is not correct, the truth is sim- pler: it was the German nation which elected Adolf Hitler, it was the German nation which created death camps. Germans started the war and that fact should not be forgotten, otherwise all of this is just propaganda, wiping off the blackboard of history,” he says, explaining that an exhibition dedi- cated to the subject of the German expulsions may lead to a confu- sion of the cause and effect of the
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