Europeizacja pamięci o wypędzeniach 2002-2007?
Europeization of the Memories of Expellees 2002-2007?

Summary/Abstract: The article gives an account of the Polish-German debate of 2002-2007 on themes connected with the problem of commemorating forced migration in Europe in the 20th century, particularly immediately after the Second World War. The debate was initiated by the Polish-German controversy over the project of building the Centre Against Expulsions in Berlin which was proposed by Erika Steinbach’s Federation of Expellees (BdV) and the discussion about the concept of ‘‘expulsion’’ as such that with time became an international issue. By initiative of the ruling SPD (Markus Meckel, a member of the Bundestag) the idea was put forward to ground a Europe-oriented Centre Against Expulsions, which gained the support of the Polish government and also of the other states engaged in the discussion within the framework of the project Vysehrad _ 2. In effect, in February 2005 in Warsaw the creation of the European Network ‘‘Memory and Solidarity’’ was announced, and the governments of Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary declared their support. However, in autumn 2005 after CDU (together with SPD) came to power in Germany and Law and Justice in Poland, relations between the two countries cooled, and the joint realization of the project European Network ‘‘Memory and Solidarity’’ was put into question.

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