TheCentre Against Expulsions (German:Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV) was a plannedGerman documentation centre forexpulsions andethnic cleansing, particularly theexpulsion of Germans after World War II.[1][2][3] There were three different phases of expulsion: the fleeing of an oncoming Red Army, 'wild expulsions' before the end of the war, and those sanctioned as a result of the Potsdam Treaty.'[4]
Since March 19, 2008 the name of the project is Sichtbares Zeichen gegen Flucht und Vertreibung.[5]
The project was initiated by theFederation of Expellees, who dedicated a "Foundation Centre Against Expulsions" to the centre.[6] This foundation is based inWiesbaden, and headed byCDU politician and president of the Federation of Expellees,Erika Steinbach. The other head of the foundation wasSPD politicianPeter Glotz who died in 2005. The head of the foundation ZgV since 2018 is Christean Wagner, a politician of the Christian Democratic Union in Germany.
Since late 2008, the project is forwarded by the Federal Republic of Germany, when the federal government and parliament passed a law calling for the constitution of aFoundation German Historical Museum subordinate to the federal government, which in turn shall hold aFoundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation which shall take on the actual documentation in Berlin.[3][7] The project has been subject to criticism, especially in Poland.[8][9]
TheFederation of Expellees (German:Bund der Vertriebenen, BdV) is the German non-governmental head organization of various organized groups of German refugees and expellees. The federation is committed to document thepost- World War II flight and expulsion of Germans[1] as well as other forced displacements, and maintains an exhibition for this purpose shown in changing locations of Germany.[10] To expand this exhibition and to find a permanent place for it, the Federation of Expellees set up the "Foundation Centre Against Expulsions" (German:Stiftung Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV)) on 6 September 2000.[6]
The foundation Centre Against Expulsions defines four objectives:[1]
On 11 November 2005, the largest German political partiesSPD andCDU signed a coalition. One stated goal of the coalition is the establishment of a centre termed "Visible Sign" (German:Sichtbares Zeichen).[12]
On 3 September 2008 the German federal government passed a law calling for the establishment of a center against expulsions in theDeutschlandhaus building of theAnhalter Bahnhof site inBerlin-Kreuzberg.[13] The law passed theGerman parliament and was enacted on 29 December 2008.[7] The center is to be run by a "Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation" (German:Stiftung Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung) subordinate to the governmental "Foundation German Historical Museum" (German:Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum).[7]
The purpose of this foundation is stated in §16 of the above-mentioned law[14] as follows:
(1) The purpose of the non-autonomous foundation is to ensure in the spirit of reconciliation the remembrance of flight and expulsion in the 20th century in the historical context of the Second World War and the Nazi expansion and extermination policy and their aftermaths.[14]
(2) This purpose shall be fulfilled especially by the following measures:
The scientific advisory board includes or includedJörg Baberowski,Arnulf Baring,Peter Becher,Lothar Gall,Bernhard Graf,Helga Hirsch,Walter Homolka,Eckart Klein,Hilmar Kopper,Rudolf Kucera,Otto Graf Lambsdorff,Horst Möller,Christoph Pan,Rüdiger Safranski,Christoph Stölzl,Christian Tomuschat,Krisztián Ungváry,Georg Wildmann,Michael Wolffsohn,Alfred-Maurice de Zayas andZoran Ziletic.
The United Nations' firstHigh Commissioner for Human Rights Dr.José Ayala Lasso, German chancellorAngela Merkel,[15]Nobel literature laureate and Holocaust survivorImre Kertész,Joachim Gauck,Milan Horáček, formerAustrian crown princeOtto von Habsburg, and historians such asGuido Knopp, Hungarian novelistGyörgy Konrád, andChristian Tomuschat, have also voiced their support for the centre.
In a petition initiated by Hans Henning Hahn, Eva Hahn, Alexandra Kurth, Samuel Salzborn and Tobias Weger in 2003, signed by several hundred people, primarily German, Czech, and Polish historians, opponents of the proposed form of Centre expressed concerns the centre would "establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context", and see the dangers of "de-contexualizing the past" and "ethnification of social conflicts".[16] German-Jewish writerRalph Giordano withdrew his initial support for the same reason,[17][18] but defended Steinbach against the latest personal accusations from Poland, which he called defamation.[19] Former German Foreign ministerJoschka Fischer said "This can't be a museum of German war victims. Germans can't point fingers at others".[20]
Critics in Poland oppose the idea of the centre claiming that it would equate German suffering with that of the Jews and Poles and will suggest a moral equivalence between the victims of war and their oppressors.[21]Marek Edelman, the last living leader ofWarsaw Ghetto Uprising, criticized the project as nationalistic, arrogant and serving to realize political ambitions of the backers of the project. According to Edelman other nations subject to German expulsions didn't establish any comparable monuments, even as they faced a harsher fate than Germans.[22]
The Polish government opposes the involvement ofErika Steinbach in any issues related to Polish-German history and at the same time supports an international net of centers dedicated to remembrance of totalitarian regimes and their victims called "European Network Remembrance and Solidarity".
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