The Federation Today
When in charge of government, both CDU and SPD have tended to favor improved relations with Central and Eastern Europe, even when this conflicts with the interests of the displaced people. The issue of the eastern border and the return of the Heimatvertriebene to their ancestral homes are matters which the current German government, German constitutional arrangements and German treaty obligations have virtually closed.
The refugees' claims were unanimously rejected by the affected countries and became a source of mistrust between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. These governments argue that the expulsion of Germans and related border changes were not enacted by the Polish or Czech governments, but rather were ordered by the Potsdam Conference. Furthermore, the nationalization of private property by Poland's former communist government did not apply only to Germans but was enforced on all people, regardless of ethnic background. The situation is further complicated by the fact that parts of the current Polish population in historical eastern Germany are themselves expellees (or descendants of expellees) who were expelled from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union and were forced to leave their homes and property behind as well.
The fact that some Germans settled in Poland after 1939 and the treatment under German law of these ex-colonists as expellees are issues which add to the controversy. However, the majority of expelled Germans had lived in Eastern Europe for many centuries, and the majority of German colonists in Nazi-occupied Poland were Baltic and other East European Germans themselves displaced by the Nazi-Soviet population transfers.
In 2000 the Federation of Expellees also initiated the formation of the Center Against Expulsions (German: Zentrum gegen Vertreibungen). Chairwoman of this Center is Erika Steinbach, who headed it together with former SPD politician Prof. Dr. Peter Glotz (†2005).
In February 2009, the Polish paper Polska wrote that over one third of the Federation top officials were former Nazi activists, and based this on an article published by the German magazine Der Spiegel in 2006. The German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that Der Spiegel said this not in respect to the Federation of Expellees, but in respect to a predecessor organization that was dissolved in 1957.
Recently Erika Steinbach, the chair of the Federation of Expellees has rejected any compensation claims. The vice president of the Federation Rudi Pawelka is however a chairman of the supervisory board of the Prussian Trust.
A European organisation for expellees has been formed - EUFV. Headquarter is Triest, Italy.
Read more about this topic: Federation Of Expellees
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