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dpa
Berlin
A new Berlin museum looking at the fate of Germans expelled from non-German territory after World War II closes “a gap” in the way Germans deal with history, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at its opening on Monday.
“This centre has been the subject of long and intensive discussions in Germany, but also with our partners in Europe,” said Merkel, who was connected by video to the opening ceremony of the new museum, which is named the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation.
She was all the more pleased that the ambassadors of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary had joined the ceremony.
For years, there was a sometimes bitter debate about how much the fate of the German expellees should be the focus of attention.
Especially in Poland, there were fears that the Germans could paint themselves as victims and divert attention from their guilt during the Nazi era.
“In order to be able to shape a good future, we must keep the memory of past suffering alive,” Merkel said.
“We have gained a dignified place of remembrance of flight and expulsion that always makes people aware: without the terror brought upon Europe and the world by Germany under National Socialism, without the breach of civilization of the Shoah committed by Germany under national socialism and without the Second World War unleashed by Germany, it would not have come about that millions of Germans had to suffer flight, expulsion and forced resettlement at the end of the Second World War and afterwards.”
The Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
“It is crucial that the history of the expulsion of Germans is embedded in its historical context of cause and consequence and not presented in isolation,” Merkel said.
Berlin
A new Berlin museum looking at the fate of Germans expelled from non-German territory after World War II closes “a gap” in the way Germans deal with history, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at its opening on Monday.
“This centre has been the subject of long and intensive discussions in Germany, but also with our partners in Europe,” said Merkel, who was connected by video to the opening ceremony of the new museum, which is named the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation.
She was all the more pleased that the ambassadors of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary had joined the ceremony.
For years, there was a sometimes bitter debate about how much the fate of the German expellees should be the focus of attention.
Especially in Poland, there were fears that the Germans could paint themselves as victims and divert attention from their guilt during the Nazi era.
“In order to be able to shape a good future, we must keep the memory of past suffering alive,” Merkel said.
“We have gained a dignified place of remembrance of flight and expulsion that always makes people aware: without the terror brought upon Europe and the world by Germany under National Socialism, without the breach of civilization of the Shoah committed by Germany under national socialism and without the Second World War unleashed by Germany, it would not have come about that millions of Germans had to suffer flight, expulsion and forced resettlement at the end of the Second World War and afterwards.”
The Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.
“It is crucial that the history of the expulsion of Germans is embedded in its historical context of cause and consequence and not presented in isolation,” Merkel said.
