The news agency Reuters reported in 2009 that a mass grave containing 1,800 bodies was found in Malbork, Poland. Polish authorities suspected that they were German civilians that were probably killed by advancing Soviet forces or in their subsequent flight. A Polish archeologist supervising the exhumation, said “We are dealing with a mass grave of civilians, probably of German origin. The presence of children…. suggests they were civilians.â€
More than sixty years ago the German Nai regime committed great crimes against innocent civilian victims: Jews, Poles, Russians, Serbs, and other people of Central and Eastern Europe. At war’s end, however, innocent German civilians in turn became victims of crimes against humanity. Forgotten Voices lets these victims of ethnic cleansing tell their story in their own words, so that they and what they endured are not forgotten. This volume is an important supplement to the voices of victims of totalitarianism, and has been written in order to keep the historical record clear.
The root cause of this tragedy was ultimately the Nai German regime as such. As a leading German historian, Hans-Ulrich Wehler has noted “Germany should avoid creating a cult of victimiation, and thus forgetting Auschwit and the mass killing of Russians.†Ulrich Merten here argues that applying collective punishment to an entire people, no matter what the circumstances, is a crime against humanity. He concludes that this should also be recognied as a European catastrophe, and not only a German one, because of its magnitude and the broad violation of human rights that occurred on European soil.