"It's probably not well-known outside Germany that at the end of World War ll, around 12 million Germans had to leave their homes in the former eastern German provinces and elsewhere."
Even before it opened its doors, the exhibition "Forced Paths" attracted a lot of controversy in the German and Polish media.
The aim of the organisers of the exhibition at the Kronprinzenpalais on Berlin's Unter Den Linden Avenue is ambitious - to explore the plight of millions of people who were forced to flee their homes in Europe during the 20th Century.
There are dozens of examples of civilians who were expelled in Europe, ranging from the mass killing of Armenians from 1915-16, the Holocaust, to refugees in Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia.
There are many objects on display, including suitcases, photo albums and other personal belongings which the refugees took with them into exile.
But, controversially, the exhibition also focuses on the suffering of Germans who were expelled from Poland and Eastern Europe after World War ll.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |