This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality. Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page.

This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future product. It may contain preliminary information that does not reflect the final version of the product.

The Centre Against Expulsions (German: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen, ZgV) is a planned German documentation centre for expulsions and ethnic cleansing, particularly the Expulsion of Germans after World War II from eastern Germany and other parts of Eastern Europe following the Soviet offensive during, and occupation after the Second World War. It is to be erected in Berlin. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Expulsion is one of words used to describe expulsions after World War II, indicating condemnation of the events. ... Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · The Holocaust · Armenian Genocide · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Blood libel · Black Legend Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Ku Klux Klan National Party (South Africa) American Nazi Party Kahanism · Supremacism Anti... Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the forced migration of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ... Historical Eastern Germany or Former German Eastern Territories are terms which can be used to describe collectively those provinces or regions east of the Oder–Neisse line which were parts of Germany after its unification in 1871 and were internationally recognised as such at the time. ... Map of Eastern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium orange),members of the Warsaw pact (light orange), and other former Communist regimes not aligned with Moscow (lightest orange). ... Soviet redirects here. ... Location of Berlin within Germany / EU Coordinates Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country NUTS Region DE3 City subdivisions 12 boroughs Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) Governing parties SPD / Left. ...

The proposal for the documentation centre was initiated by the Federation of Expellees, and it is supported by the CDU/CSU faction in the German parliament as well as the Chancellor Angela Merkel who intend to support building the centre. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU - Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands) is the largest conservative political party in Germany. ... The Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative political party in Germany. ... The Bundestag (Federal Diet) is the parliament of Germany. ... The head of government of Germany is called Chancellor (German: Kanzler). ...   (IPA: ) (born in Hamburg, Germany, on July 17, 1954, as Angela Dorothea Kasner), is the Chancellor of Germany. ...

The "Centre Against Expulsions" foundation, based in Wiesbaden, is headed by CDU politician Erika Steinbach. The other head of the project was SPD politician Peter Glotz who died in 2005. Wiesbaden is a city in central Germany. ... Erika Steinbach, Member of Parliament Erika Steinbach (born July 25, 1943) is a German conservative politician who has been representing the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the state of Hesse as a member of the Parliament of Germany, the Bundestag, since 1990. ... Peter Glotz Prof. ...

Purpose

The official purposes of the Centre Against Expulsions are to:

• document the flight and expulsion of more than 15 million Germans, as well as the expulsion of other peoples, especially in 20th century Europe,

• collect and compile oral and written witness reports from all expulsion and evacuation zones,

• make the culture, fate and history of displaced Europeans (including Germans) known in context, as well as their respective homelands

• remind of the integration of the displaced persons as well as their social reception in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic,

• clear the backlog of current expulsions with temporary exhibitions, and

• construct a Requiem Rotunda that evokes contemplation and prayer in remembrance of the victims.

Support

The Centre Against Expulsions has been supported by a number of human rights activists, historians, political scientists and authors as well as other people. Among these supporters are the United Nations' first High Commissioner for Human Rights Dr. José Ayala Lasso, Nobel literature laureate and Holocaust survivor Imre Kertész, Joachim Gauck, Milan Horacek, former Austrian crown prince Otto von Habsburg, prominent German rabbis Walter Homolka, Eckart Klein, and historians such as Guido Knopp, Hungarian novelist György Konrád, historian Michael Wolffsohn, Hans Maier, Christian Tomuschat and Alfred M. de Zayas. Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. ... Jose Ayala Lasso[1] (born in Quito on 29 January 1932) is a retired Ecuadorian lawyer and diplomat, currently residing in Quito. ... Nobel Prize in Literature medal. ... Imre Kertész (born November 9, 1929) is a Jewish-Hungarian author, Holocaust concentration camp survivor, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002 for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history. Kertész best-known work, Fatelessness (Sorstalanság... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Otto von Habsburg, born 20 November 1912 as Archduke Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xaver Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius of Austria, is the current head of the Habsburg family and the eldest son of Karl of Austria, the last Emperor of Austria and... Dr. Walter Homolka (born May 21, 1964) is a German rabbi. ... Guido Knopp, ZDF (2005) Professor Dr. Guido Knopp (born January 29, 1948 in Treysa, Hesse) is a German historian, author and journalist. ... György (George) Konrád (born 1933) is a Hungarian novelist and essayist, known as an advocate of individual freedom. ... Michael Wolffsohn (May 17, 1947-) is an Israeli-born German historian. ... Hans Maier (born July 11, 1916 in Madioen, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch water polo player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Stub | Post-World War II | American writers ...

Relatively neutral positions

Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia are not harsh critics of the project, since the centre's proclaimed aim is not to qualify history, but to document it. Contrary to initial skepticism, particularly in Poland, Hitler's invasion of Poland was explicitely and elaborately mentioned by the Centre's exhibition this autumn in the Berlin "Kronprinzenpalais". The plight of Poles before and during WW2 was an integral part of the exhibition. Many other refugee histories were covered, such as the expulsion of Armenians, Turks, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Latvians, Karelians, Bosnians and more. The expulsions were always put into the unique historical context in order to not equate them.

Controversy over the location of the Centre

On its official home page, the Centre points out that, "All victims of genocide and expulsion need a place in our hearts and in the historical memory. Human rights are indivisible." Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people as defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or...

Well-known intellectuals and politicians, including Germans Günter Grass and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, in 2003 expressed support for a centre devoted to all expelled during the 20th century, located in some place connected with expulsions, e.g. Wrocław (Breslau). Günter Wilhelm Grass (born October 16, 1927) is a Nobel Prize-winning German author. ... George H. W. Bush and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, November 21st, 1989. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... WrocÅ‚aw ( ; German: ; Czech: ; Latin: Wratislavia or Vratislavia) is the capital of Lower Silesia in southwestern Poland, situated on the Oder River (Odra). ...

However, while Steinbach claims the Centre will represent the suffering of other nations as well, she believes that it is an internal German affair and rejects the proposal of creating the Centre under international control.

The Bavarian Prime Minister and chairman of CSU Edmund Stoiber argued that "the place for a museum showing the dreadful fate of expelled Germans is in the German capital". The Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU – ) is a conservative political party in Germany. ... Edmund Stoiber in Würzburg Edmund Stoiber [IPA: ˈɛtmʊnt ˈʃtɔʏbɐ] (born September 28, 1941) is a German politician, currently minister-president of the state of Bavaria and chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU). ...

Other criticism

This initiative, supported by the CDU/CSU fraction in the parliament, has caused controversy. Opponents of the proposed form of Centre object to emphasizing only German suffering. In the petition "For a critical and enlightened debate about the past" a group of historians expressed concerns the centre would "establish and popularize a one-sided image of the past, without historical context".

Former German Foreign minister Joschka Fischer commented on Steinbach, and her initiative for a Centre Against Expulsions to ...have caused serious damage to German-Polish relations. Not amongst extremist nationalist forces that do exist in Poland, but amongst old friends and major agents for reconciliation between our two countries.^{[citation needed]} Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin Joschka Fischer (April 12, 1948 – ) was German foreign minister and Vice Chancellor in the government of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. ...

Polish criticism

According to an International Herald Tribune article ("Poles riled by Berlin exhibition, Germans’ expulsion after the war is its focus" by Mark Landler, 31 August 2006), critics in Poland oppose the idea of a research centre in Berlin led by Erika Steinbach devoted to victims of expulsion, equating deported Germans, Jews, Poles, Greeks, Armenians and Muslims. They claim it would suggest a moral equivalence between victims that would make the responsibility issue less clear. Poland underline the fact that many Germans have pledged Volkslist (act of loyalty to Nazi authorities) during the war and expulsion was necessary to keep peace in the future. Moreover Poland get western part of its terytory due to international agreements and lost considerable east teritory. Expulsion was determined by soviet autorities occuping Poland after the war and was naturally aftermath unleash war by Germans, who led Hitler to authority in democatic elections - rationalize polish autorities and historicans. Steinbach is a very controversial figure in Polish-German relations, and her status as a person representing the expellees is questioned.^{[citation needed]} The Polish government opposes involvement of Steinbach in Polish-German relations regarding historical issues and at the same time supports an international net of centres dedicated to remembrance of totalitarian regimes and their victims called "Memory and Solidarity" [1]. The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. ...

Some German politicians and Polish journalists Marek Ostrowski have concluded that the main reason for the recent criticism is Polish domestic politics where anti-German sentiment has been exploited to further Polish nationalism and to help the troubled current Polish government win the recent elections.[2].

Some Polish institutions were pressured by their government to demand back the items loaned to the "Forced Paths" exhibition.[3] This was after realizing that Steinbach was its patron instead of Angela Merkel.^{[citation needed]} The institutions alleged that they have been been misled as to who was the organiser of the exhibition and what was its nature.^{[citation needed]} One of the most prominent exhibits was a recovered bell from the Wilhelm Gustloff, whose sinking caused the deaths of nearly 9000 refugees. The bell had been used as decoration in a Polish fish restaurant prior to the exhibit.[4]   (IPA: ) (born in Hamburg, Germany, on July 17, 1954, as Angela Dorothea Kasner), is the Chancellor of Germany. ... The Wilhelm Gustloff slides into the water during launch ceremonies. ...

See also

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Centre Against Expulsions

• Federation of Expellees
• Expulsion of Germans after World War II

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is a sister project of Wikipedia, using the same MediaWiki software. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Germans expelled from the Sudetenland // The expulsion of Germans after World War II refers to the forced migration of people considered Germans (Reichsdeutsche and some Volksdeutsche) from various European states and territories during 1945 and in the first three years after World War II 1946-48. ...

External links

• (German) Official Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen homepage
• (German) Chronik der Vertreibungen europäischer Völker im 20. Jahrhundert at Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen site
• (German) Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen at Bund der Vertriebenen site
• "Border Dispute" (2003)