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Expelled from Germany - IHT Wednesday, July 14, 2004

As an American member of the Center against Expulsions, based in Berlin, I must correct certain wrong impressions that John Vinocur conveys about my organization in the article "For the Germans, the war's ambiguities linger" (Politicus, June 7). The center is there not only to remember the past, but also to help prevent future instances of ethnic cleansing, anywhere in the world.
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Perhaps we should ask ourselves why Slobodan Milosevic is before the Tribunal at the Hague? The answer is revealing: He's there for the crime of ethnic cleansing. If we as a society are going to condemn such crimes, we must not fail to condemn other instances of mass rape and mass expulsion.
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In the last months of World War II and in the years 1945 to 1948, pursuant to Article 13 of the Potsdam Protocol, 15 million Germans were expelled from their homes in East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, East Brandenburg, Sudetenland and beyond, where their ancestors had lived for 700 years. This is a big chapter of history that has been ignored too long - not only by politicians who deem the issue politically incorrect, but by many historians and journalists.
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It is time for American, British, German, Polish, Czech and Russian historians to come to grips with these issues that have been till now largely taboo. And now that Poland and the Czech Republic have joined the EU, they also have a duty to take an honest look at their past, if they want to build a future based on historical truth and human dignity.

Alfred de Zayas, Geneva
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Curiously, the much reduced published letter was followed by a letter from an individual from Trieste (?) which did not appear to react to the Vinocur article at all, but rather to my letter, and seemed to say that because the Allies had approved the expulsion, this was legal and everybody had applauded it then, and still applauds it now. Precisely the type of manipulation that I was complaining about in the Vinocur article. The reader may find it revealing to see the text of the unedited letter below:

Letters to the Editor:

As an American member of the Centre against Expulsions in Berlin, I must
correct certain wrong impressions that Mr. Vinocur conveys in his article.

The Centre is there not only to remember the past, but also to help prevent future instances of ethnic cleansing, anywhere in the world. As the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, stated before the German Expellees at the Paulkirche in Frankfurt on 28 May 1995:
"I submit that if in the years following the Second World War the states had reflected more on the implications of the enforced flight and the expulsion of the Germans, today's demographic catastrophes, particularly those referred to as 'ethnic cleansing', would, perhaps, not have occurred to the same extent."

Perhaps we should ask ourselves why Milosevic is before the Tribunal at the Hague? The answer is revealing: precisely for the crime of ethnic cleansing. Now, if we condemn such crimes, we must not fail to condemn other instances of mass rape and mass expulsion. In the last months of WWII and in the years 1945-48, pursuant to article XIII of the Potsdam Protocol, 15 million Germans were expelled from their homes in East Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, East Brandenburg, Sudetenland, etc. where their ancestors had lived for 700 years. Two million Germans died in the process. This is a big chapter of history that has been ignored too long -- not only by politicians who deem the issue politically incorrect, but by many historians and journalists.

It is time for American, British, German, Polish, Czech and Russian historians to come to grips with these issues that have been hitherto largely tabu. And now that Poland and the Czech Republic have joined the EU, they also have a duty to take an honest look at their past, if they want to build a future based on historical truth and human dignity.