Expellee issue continues to dog Warsaw-Berlin relations

3rd July 2009

A bitter feud between Germany and Poland has received fresh momentum after the party of Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, published its manifesto proclaiming that Germans expelled from Polish territory at the end of WWII have the “right to a homeland”.


The manifesto, outlining the policies of the CDU and its ally the CSU, included the statement, and also called for deportations to be condemned under international law, in an effort to garner support before federal elections in September.

In the last months of the war and in the immediate post-war period millions of ethnic Germans were expelled from homes after border changes dictated that vast areas that had once been part of Ger ...