Current Affairs Seventy prominent German intellectuals and politicians make a gesture of reconciliation to their neighbours
Seventy prominent German intellectuals, writers and politicians, including the chairman of the federal parliament have signed an open letter to the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, very publicly renouncing claims to any property in the neighbouring countries of Central Europe. All the signatories have one thing in common. They, or their parents, originally came from what is now the territory of Poland or the Czech Republic, but were expelled after the Second World War. Millions of ethnic Germans were forced to move westwards, as the map of Europe was redrawn after the war, an episode that continues to create tensions within the region. David Vaughan joins me in the studio. David, what is the significance of this gesture?
Transfer of the German-speaking minority from Czechoslovakia
Back
