Centre Against Expulsions

The foundation Centre Against Expulsions defines four objectives:[1]

1. To document the history of settlement, culture, post-World War II deportation and expulsion, forced labour, torture, and later emigration of Germans from various countries of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, in a modern museum.[1] The museum shall provide room for the documentation and "additional space for sadness, sympathy and forgiveness" in a requiem rotunda.[1]
2. To document and to evaluate the impact of the integration of millions of uprooted Germans into the post-World War II German society.[1]
3. To document the "expulsion and genocide of other peoples, especially in Europe",[1] arguing that "displacement, expulsion and genocide can never be justified, [...] are always a crime, contradicting human rights and carried out by following the archaic thinking of the bloody vendetta."[1]
4. To donate a Franz Werfel Human Rights Award[10] to people who "sharpen the sense of responsibility through their actions is one of the foundation's tasks".[1]

The purpose of this foundation is stated in §16 of the above-mentioned law[13] as follows:

(1) The purpose of the non-autonomous foundation is to ensure in the spirit of reconciliation the remembrance of flight and expulsion in the 20th century in the historical context of the Second World War and the Nazi expansion and extermination policy and their aftermaths.[13]

(2) This purpose shall be fulfilled especially by the following measures:

• (2.1) Establishment, maintenance and expansion of a permanent exhibition documenting flight and expulsion in the 20th century, the historical background and contexts as well as the European dimension and effects.[13]
• (2.2) Development of singular exhibitions for special aspects of the overall context.[13]
• (2.3) Distribution of research results and scientific findings.[13]
• (2.4) Gathering, documentation and scientific evaluation of respective sources and materials, also and especially eyewitness accounts.[13]
• (2.5) Cooperation with German and international museums and research centers.[13]

Critics in Poland oppose the idea of the centre claiming that it would equate German suffering with that of the Jews and Poles and will suggest a moral equivalence between the victims of war and their oppressors.[20] Marek Edelman, the last living leader of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, criticized the project as nationalistic, arrogant and serving to realize political ambitions of the backers of the project. According to Edelman other nations subject to German expulsions didn't establish any comparable monuments, even as they faced a harsher fate than Germans.[21]

The Polish government opposes the involvement of Erika Steinbach in any issues related to Polish-German history and at the same time supports an international net of centers dedicated to remembrance of totalitarian regimes and their victims called "European Network Remembrance and Solidarity".