A German lobby group has bowed to pressure from Poland and withdrawn the nomination of a conservative to oversee a new museum that will tell the story of Germans forced out of central and eastern Europe after the second World War.
The League of Expellees’ nomination of Erika Steinbach to sit on the museum’s board had caused outrage in Poland.
The subject of the 12.5 million Germans expelled from Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia after the Nazi defeat has strained relations between Germany and Poland since the war, in which six million Poles died.
Many Poles fear the new museum will portray Germans as victims of a war they began.
Ms Steinbach’s withdrawal will come as a relief to German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was under pressure from fellow conservatives to back her for the post and from Warsaw to drop her.
The appointment requires cabinet approval. – ( Reuters)
