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RESEARCH PRODUCT

La représentation des Aussiedler dans le Grafschafter Bote

subject

description

The Grafschafter Bote is a monthly newspaper, published since 1950 and written for Germans who were expelled from Silesia at the end of the Second World War. Initially intended to maintain links between these forced migrants within Germany, to defend their interests and give voice to their claims, over time the newspaper’s outlook evolved, as it began looking to maintain links with both the lost territory, and the German population remaining there. The Grafschafter Bote supported requests from Germans wanting to leave the territories which had become Polish and move to the Federal Republic (Aussiedler), and also supported associations struggling to defend the rights of the German minority, denied them by the communist regime.The Grafschafter Bote is thus aimed at two categories of migrants. With the expelled population, it looks towards the past and seeks to keep the memory of their tragic expulsion alive. By supporting the Aussiedler, it looks towards the present. The experience of the expelled migrants themselves can partly explain this interest. The Aussliedler population have new difficulties, linked mainly to their lack of knowledge in German (forbidden in Poland). The Grafschafter Bote also defends the rights of the German minority in the lost territories, even if this cause is often misunderstood, and suspected to be motivated by a desire for vengeance.