Map of 'ethnic-German' areas. Click to enlarge.
As we mentioned previously in Rewriting History - Playing Victim, Germany is still, after all these years and several devastating wars, obsessed with the idea of "Ethnic Germans".
The League of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen, BdV) opened its annual national "Homeland Day" commemorations this year with new demands and strong attacks against several east European neighboring countries. BdV President, Erika Steinbach, demands that the German government finally declare a national day of commemoration for the German WW2 "victims of expulsion" and include BdV functionaries in delegations on trips to foreign countries.
Germans had been resettled after the war because they had extensively collaborated with the Nazis and had participated in the destruction of Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Poland.
Steinbach, a parliamentarian in the German Bundestag, also claims that the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia had "diligently continued to function, even without Hitler." Steinbach also attacked the annual Moscow anniversary celebrations of the victory over Nazi Germany, and announced her league's new memorial activities.
Her statements, which set the tone for the local "Homeland Day" commemoration events throughout the next month across Germany were made last Saturday at a BdV ceremony in Berlin. This ceremony was greeted with messages of welcome from German President Christian Wulff and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During a meeting of the management committee of the CDU's parliamentary group in 2010, Steinbach said she couldn't change the fact that Poland had mobilized its forces in March 1939 -- in other words, months before Germany invaded in September 1939.
It has been German government policy for decades, to spend millions on re-locating ethnic-Germans to territories deemed as having a Germanic history, especially since the Kohl Chancellorship and reunification.
In the course of her speech last Saturday at the "Homeland Day" ceremony in Berlin, BdV President Erika Steinbach alleged that even after the victory over the Nazi regime, methods of "terror" were still being applied in east and southeast Europe. Steinbach, using a formulation insinuating a similarity between the Allies and the German criminals running the concentration camps, was referring to Nazi concentration camp buildings being used to house German deportation candidates but also to imprison Nazi war criminals. "Buchenwald and Theresienstadt continued diligently to function even without Hitler," she said.
Steinbach announced in her speech that in the near future, the BdV would express its interpretation of history via various activities of its own. For example the BdV's Centre against Expulsions Foundation is planning to open a new exhibition in the German Bundestag to be presented, beginning in March 2012, in Berlin's Palace of the Crown Prince.
The exhibits focus on a timeframe extending from the origins of "Germandom" in east and southeast Europe to the integration of the displaced persons in the Federal Republic of Germany. With this approach, claims Steinbach, "the historical context of the expulsions cannot be set, shortsightedly and ahistorically, at the beginning of the Second World War," because the "roots of expulsion" extend back to the "middle of the 19th Century." Referring of course, to previous reasons for Lebensraum.
The exhibits focus on a timeframe extending from the origins of "Germandom" in east and southeast Europe to the integration of the displaced persons in the Federal Republic of Germany. With this approach, claims Steinbach, "the historical context of the expulsions cannot be set, shortsightedly and ahistorically, at the beginning of the Second World War," because the "roots of expulsion" extend back to the "middle of the 19th Century." Referring of course, to previous reasons for Lebensraum.
"Only a few states in Europe," Steinbach continued, referring to Poland and the Czech Republic, "are still refusing to cooperate." That is why "German policy" must now apply pressure. She "appeals to the German government," on its future trips abroad, "not to include only business delegations," but "also representatives of the expellees."
This is "particularly necessary, when it involves historically mined terrain." It is not difficult to recognize that Steinbach is thinking particularly of future trips to Warsaw or Prague. Concluding, Steinbach called for finally declaring a national day of commemoration for the "victims of expulsion." This is exactly what the German Bundestag had commissioned the federal government to do last February.
The date still under consideration is August 5, the anniversary of the adoption in 1950 of the "Charter of the German Homeland Expellees." The "Charter" claims that the German "expellees" were "those hardest hit by the suffering of that period," that their fate is "a global problem, whose solution demands the highest ethical responsibility and commitment to enormous efforts."
The date still under consideration is August 5, the anniversary of the adoption in 1950 of the "Charter of the German Homeland Expellees." The "Charter" claims that the German "expellees" were "those hardest hit by the suffering of that period," that their fate is "a global problem, whose solution demands the highest ethical responsibility and commitment to enormous efforts."
This year's "Homeland Day," will be commemorated throughout the country. Numerous BdV regional, district and community organizations will hold public events to commemorate the flight and resettlement of many Germans from east and southeast Europe.
For last Saturday's inaugural ceremony, the German Minister of the Interior ordered that the German flag be flown on all federal government administrative and other official buildings as well as on all its auxiliary facilities. Regional and local events commemorating "Homeland Day" are usually organized in close cooperation with representatives at the respective state levels - with the presence of regional ministers as well as community personalities.
Germany's covert backing for terrorist groups, as well as support for minorities in Other Countries, is easier to understand when you consider this ethnic-victim stance.
If any British person was talking about 'ethnic Brit' there would be widespread condemnation and accusations of being far-right.
Yet the various German charities supporting ethnic terms are left, right and centre. Meaning it is not a party view, but a general view. These ethnic political concepts are being used to legitimize claims against neighboring countries.
As we mentioned in German Propaganda In Polish Schools, German subversives have been trying to re-write history for a generation of Polish School children, in an attemp to convince the next generation of Polish that Germany was a victim of the war, and deserves some land back for ethnic Germans. No doubt EU 'Human Rights' laws will be used for German expansion.
Thanks to German-Foreign-Policy.com for their research.
News flash! WWII was a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Many of the countries in eastern Europe were created from or received large chunks of Germany. Danzig, for instance had been part of Germany for 700 years. You also seem to forget that prior to WWII as result of the Holy Roman Empire and the resulting German Empire, there were large German communities all over Europe. Many of which existed since the middle ages and predate the nation state. Lastly, you unjustly portray Germany as an aggressive nation. I'd like to point out that when Germany reclaimed the Sudatenland, which was sanctioned by the English who acknowledged it should never have been taken, (an act of contrition on their part) the Polish and Hungarians felt free to help themselves to some of Czechoslovakia as well. Funny no one ever mentions that.
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