Luboš Palata on the silence surrounding the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans

This week marks the 65th anniversary of the start of the organised expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia. But the occasion is being met with silence in the Czech Republic, complains the Czech commentator Luboš Palata in the liberal Slovakian daily Sme: "A peculiar silence surrounds this anniversary. On January 25 1945 the co-habitation of two nationalities that lasted almost one thousand years came to an end. ... After that we found ourselves practically alone on our territory. Leading up to the expulsion was not only the Munich Agreement and the betrayal by the Sudeten Germans, but above all the Nazi occupation which aimed at the partial eradication of the Czech population. The Czechs' reaction was almost unanimous: an immediate end to co-habitation with the Germans. ... With today's efforts to open German mass graves and investigate the massacre we are experiencing yet another essential catharsis. Nevertheless there's no getting around the question of whether the expulsion of the Germans was necessary. The fact that we are still unready to ask this question goes a long way to explaining today's silence."

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