A controversial and recurring question that often stubbornly reemerges in Europe is the question of how to, or whether or not to, commemorate the over 10,000,000 German civilians subjected to forced movement, compulsory labour, property seizure, and even internecine murder with the support of the governments of especially Poland, the Soviet Union, and the former Czechoslovakia. Standard historiographical and cultural dogma, which understandably places total responsibility for the war in the hands of the Germans or the German state, makes it unpopular to assert that many ethnic German civilians could have been innocent victims of belligerent Allied expulsion and displacement at the same time. Without in any way denying the horrendous brutality committed by Germany during the war, no nation has officially recognised or commemorated the fact that civilians of diverse political ideologies were targeted as far away as the mountains of Romania and the plains of Russia solely because of their ethnic identity, despite the fact that their ancestors had often not seen Germany for centuries or had any personal affiliation with Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party.
Read Full Article »
