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TOPIC OF GERMAN EXPULSION STILL TABOO
Waterloo Chronicle
March 21, 2010 Sunday
Canada
WATERLOO - It's a dark chapter in world history that many know nothing
about, that others refuse to acknowledge.
It concerns the expulsion of millions of Germans living in Eastern
Europe after the Second World War, from such places as Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and eastern areas of Germany.
It's estimated that as many as 15 million people may have been forced
from their homes, a move in part condoned by the Allied leaders in the
Potsdam Agreement, which authorized the return of Germans in Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany.
Those transfers were to be conducted in "an orderly and humane manner,"
according to the agreement signed by British, American and Soviet
leaders. It would prove to be anything but.
While casualty estimates vary, many historians - including Alfred
de Zayas, whose books Nemesis at Potsdam and A Terrible Revenge were
among the first English works to chronicle the tragedy - believe that
two million Germans died as a result.
De Zayas, a lawyer and human rights expert who spent 25 years with
the United Nations, says it deserves to be recognized alongside such
failures of humanity as the Armenian genocide and ethnic cleansing
in the former Yugoslavia.
"We would be ashamed of ourselves if we realized the magnitude of
the crimes," said de Zayas, who will speak tonight at the University
of Waterloo.
"The subject matter belongs in the schools," he said in an interview.
"It should be taught in genocide courses, courses that deal with
crimes against humanity."
And although the Cuban-born de Zayas - now a professor at the Geneva
School of Diplomacy & International Relations - said he "broke the
taboo" by writing about the expulsion, it's a topic that still remains
off-limits to many.
"They've got a problem with the concept of Germans as victims," he
said. "I don't have a problem ... I came to it because I thought it
was an important subject."
He says he's been asked whether he's anti-Semitic or a Holocaust
denier, and he quickly dismisses those assertions.
"If I only deal with one category of victims, and deliberately ignore
the experience of other victims, I am essentially taking away the
human dignity of the other," he said. "I'm essentially saying my
corpses are prettier than your corpses."
De Zayas will speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. at UW's Arts Lecture Hall.
Tickets are $12, and $10 for students and seniors.
Waterloo Chronicle
March 21, 2010 Sunday
Canada
WATERLOO - It's a dark chapter in world history that many know nothing
about, that others refuse to acknowledge.
It concerns the expulsion of millions of Germans living in Eastern
Europe after the Second World War, from such places as Czechoslovakia,
Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia and eastern areas of Germany.
It's estimated that as many as 15 million people may have been forced
from their homes, a move in part condoned by the Allied leaders in the
Potsdam Agreement, which authorized the return of Germans in Poland,
Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany.
Those transfers were to be conducted in "an orderly and humane manner,"
according to the agreement signed by British, American and Soviet
leaders. It would prove to be anything but.
While casualty estimates vary, many historians - including Alfred
de Zayas, whose books Nemesis at Potsdam and A Terrible Revenge were
among the first English works to chronicle the tragedy - believe that
two million Germans died as a result.
De Zayas, a lawyer and human rights expert who spent 25 years with
the United Nations, says it deserves to be recognized alongside such
failures of humanity as the Armenian genocide and ethnic cleansing
in the former Yugoslavia.
"We would be ashamed of ourselves if we realized the magnitude of
the crimes," said de Zayas, who will speak tonight at the University
of Waterloo.
"The subject matter belongs in the schools," he said in an interview.
"It should be taught in genocide courses, courses that deal with
crimes against humanity."
And although the Cuban-born de Zayas - now a professor at the Geneva
School of Diplomacy & International Relations - said he "broke the
taboo" by writing about the expulsion, it's a topic that still remains
off-limits to many.
"They've got a problem with the concept of Germans as victims," he
said. "I don't have a problem ... I came to it because I thought it
was an important subject."
He says he's been asked whether he's anti-Semitic or a Holocaust
denier, and he quickly dismisses those assertions.
"If I only deal with one category of victims, and deliberately ignore
the experience of other victims, I am essentially taking away the
human dignity of the other," he said. "I'm essentially saying my
corpses are prettier than your corpses."
De Zayas will speak tonight at 7:30 p.m. at UW's Arts Lecture Hall.
Tickets are $12, and $10 for students and seniors.