Adam Michnik on young German politicians' attitude to history

The new generation of politicians in Germany find it difficult to understand the feelings of their Czech and Polish neighbours, Adam Michnik, chief editor of the left-liberal Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, believes. In an interview with the conservative Czech newspaper Lidové noviny he cites as evidence the debate over the expulsions [of Germans] following the Second World War: "Of course it is possible to discuss whether it was OK to make the Germans emigrate. If Czechs and Poles hold debates on this question that is positive. But there's something wrong when German politicians claim that really everyone was to blame because although the Germans occupied Prague the Czechs then drove them out of Karlsbad [Karlovy Vary]. You can't compare those two things. Neither the Czechs nor the Poles had a Hitler. I have the impression that the new generation of politicians in Germany does not understand this."

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