Berlin's exhibition about mass expulsion

Heinrich Wefing went to see the exhibition 'Erzwungene Wege. Flucht und Vertreibung in Europa im 20. Jahrhundert' (Forced Destinies: Escape and Expulsion in 20th Century Europe) organised by the exiles' associations, before it opens on Thursday. He hopes that at some point there will be cooperation between this exhibition and 'Flucht, Vertreibung, Integration' (Escape, Expulsion and Integration) at the Deutsches Historisches Museum just across the way. "By portraying exiles as victims that have featured again and again in the history of Europe in every corner of the troubled continent, the exhibition seeks to pre-empt accusations that it's just about revanchism and German navel gazing or soothing the hurt pride of the victims. Stretching across six hundred square metres, the exhibition traces the complicated and murderous history of Europe's enforced mass exoduses in the twentieth century. And after a preliminary viewing it would seem that the intention of 'Europeanising' this phenomenon has been achieved... Nine case studies illustrate the 'different motives and contexts for the expulsions', starting with the mass murder of Armenians and moving on to the expulsion of Europe's Jews as a 'cornerstone of the Holocaust' (Moshe Zimmermann), the deportation of Italians from Yugoslavia after 1944 and finally the 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia."

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