Merkel backs Berlin memorial for Germans expelled in World War II
Chancellor Angela Merkel Monday backed establishing a memorial in Berlin to the millions of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Speaking in Berlin at the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Federation of Expellees (BdV), Merkel said her government would soon put forward a concept.
Given the sensitivities in Poland and the Czech Republic in particular, she pledged that the memorial would be established in dialogue with Germany's eastern neighbours.
The sufferings of the millions of Germans thrown out of Eastern Europe were "part of our German identity and part of our culture of remembrance," the chancellor said.
But in reference to the Nazi atrocities that preceded the expulsions, she said: "We are not confusing cause and effect when we remember the expulsions."
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Given the sensitivities in Poland and the Czech Republic in particular, she pledged that the memorial would be established in dialogue with Germany's eastern neighbours.
The sufferings of the millions of Germans thrown out of Eastern Europe were "part of our German identity and part of our culture of remembrance," the chancellor said.
But in reference to the Nazi atrocities that preceded the expulsions, she said: "We are not confusing cause and effect when we remember the expulsions."