ZGram - 6/25/2002 - "And why not?"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

June 25, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Somebody sent me a couple of articles on a very controversial subject 
but dear to many Germans:  the reclamation of the territories lost 
after World War II.  These articles shall be my ZGram for today and 
tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I do not have the source for this one, but 
tomorrow's ZGram ran in the Chicago Tribune, so I assume the topic is 
legit.

[START]

Poland rejects return of Germans

Leszek Miller: The case is closed

Poland has rejected a call from the conservative challenger in 
Germany's forthcoming election for Germans expelled from the country 
after World War II to be allowed back.

"I believe these questions are permanently closed," said Prime 
Minister Leszek Miller.

Stoiber: Wounds remain open

"The Polish Government does not intend to return to them."

Poland expelled millions of Germans from the swathes of German 
territory it received after the Potsdam conference of the Allied 
Powers in 1945.

Their property was taken over by the Polish state.

On Sunday, Bavarian leader Edmund Stoiber, who is challenging Gerhard 
Schroeder for the chancellorship in September's election, called on 
Poland to annul the decrees that led to the expulsion.

Noble gesture

"So long as [the decrees] remain valid, wounds remain open," he told 
an 8,000-strong gathering in Leipzig.

We do not accept equating the so-called Benes decrees and the 
situation in Poland

Leszek Miller "It is in Poland's own interests to part in a binding 
and conciliatory way with this part of the past."

The Bavarian leader added that it would be a "noble gesture" to allow 
the Germans to return.

Mr Stoiber has already won support among Sudeten Germans, many of 
whom settled in Bavaria after being expelled from what was then 
Czechoslovakia when the war ended.

He is now widely seen to be moving towards picking up support from 
the descendents of those Germans ejected from Poland.

Mr Stoiber has made clear that he would like the issue of expulsions 
linked to entry into the European Union for those east European 
countries which carried them out.

Compensation fears

He has in particular championed the cause of the Sudeten Germans, who 
were kicked out on the order of the then Czechoslovak president, 
Edvard Benes.

Some 2.5 million Germans were expropriated and expelled under the 
act, accused of collaborating with the Nazi regime.

The Czech Government has refused outright to repeal the decrees, 
insisting they are not only part of the country's history but also 
constitute an important part of its current legal foundation.

It is feared that the annulment of the decrees could also lead to a 
flood of court cases by people trying to get their property back or 
wanting compensation.

Warsaw has watched the row closely, fearing it too could face 
restitution claims.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has also criticised the Czech 
Republic over the Benes decrees, although he has appeared reluctant 
to link it to gaining membership of the EU or to transform it into an 
election issue.

Mr Schroeder's ruling Social Democrat Party have been trailing behind 
the conservatives, an alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and 
Mr Stoiber's own Christian Social Union, in the opinion polls for 
months.

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