Those expecting Erika Steinbach's visit to Warsaw to be a breakthrough in the discussion concerning a center commemorating the suffering of the Germans in the wake of World War II were disappointed.

The chair of the German Union of the Expelled (BdV), though smiling to her Polish interlocutors, seemed not to hear what they were saying, and left their questions and proposals unanswered. To the consternation of many Poles, she addressed them with the words "We forgive."

Steinbach flew to Warsaw Sept. 16 at the invitation of Rzeczpospolita. In the daily's headquarters, a debate was held with the participation of representatives of the Polish media, institutions dealing with international issues, and major political parties. The televised discussion, focusing on the idea-promoted by Steinbach for several months-of establishing a Center for the Expelled in Berlin, lasted over three hours. However, even in the opinion of the organizers, the meeting did not bring the expected results. Steinbach endeavored to convince her opponents that the idea of establishing a German war-time martyrdom center was not directed against Poland; on the contrary, its intention was to commemorate the suffering of all innocent victims. She remained unconvincing, however, failing to respond to numerous counter-arguments given by the Poles.

"Steinbach did not understand the Polish arguments and did not win support for her project to build a Center for the Expelled. To specific questions, she would not give any answer. Nor did she respond to proposals to suspend, for the sake of Polish-German relations, the project's implementation in Berlin," wrote Rzeczpospolita the day after the debate, in its commentary "Center Against Reconciliation." The daily, in the pages of which debate among political commentators has raged for many weeks, had earlier published Steinbach's articles on the subject.

Frightened by reactions
Participants on the German side, in addition to Steinbach, included political commentator Helga Hirsch, who supported the idea of building the Center in Berlin, and Bundestag deputies Dietmar Nietan of the SPD and Jerzy Montag of the Green Party, who opposed the idea . On the Polish side, those invited to the debate included: Chair of the Sejm European Committee Józef Oleksy of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD); Sejm Deputy Speaker Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform (PO); Marcin Libicki of Law and Justice (PiS), a Polish observer in the European Parliament; and Anna Wolff-Powęska, director of the Western Institute in Poznań. The debate was led by Maciej Łukasiewicz-editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita. An audience of over 100, including political commentators, diplomats, historians and journalists from several countries, took an active role.

At the beginning, Steinbach said that she had decided to come to Warsaw because she was "frightened by Polish responses... I would not like Poles to think that we want to change history. Quite the contrary, without Hitler there would have been no expelled," she said.

During the discussion, however, it turned out that while the German representation were divided in their views, the Polish side presented a generally unanimous position against the center as proposed by the BdV.

Prime Minister Leszek Miller voiced an opinion commonly shared by Polish political forces. Earlier, during a Sejm debate on the subject, Miller said that the government would not consent to the Germans falsifying history. "Poland will not agree to the idea of the center for the displaced being used to demonstrate the harm suffered by only one nation, all the more so since that nation caused the outbreak of the World War II," Miller said, adding that Warsaw supported the idea of the German authorities to establish a center for the displaced that would be of a pan-European character.

Repeating the stance of his party chief, Oleksy reproached Steinbach. "Sharing responsibility for the war is out of the question, and please remember that at the Holocaust monument in Berlin the names of the perpetrators are not there, but such a list is to be present at the Center for the Expelled," he said.

In the opinion of Janusz Reiter, former Polish ambassador to Germany, the Center for the Expelled could harm reconciliation between Poland and Germany. "You ought not, however, force the German party to withdraw," said Reiter, explaining that "the sentiments existing in Germany, if muzzled, would have to explode one day; as a result, we would pay a high price." Reiter said he believed in the possibility of tackling the subject without sentencing both nations to antagonism, which that day, he observed, seemed unavoidable.

Prof. Jerzy Holzer, a historian, said that those to blame for the suffering of the Germans were the Germans themselves. He said that the millions of Germans who perished during the war was a result of actions taken by the then government of Germany. "And now, you want to build a particular monument to the wrongs suffered by the Germans, but actually you will build, if you please-a monument to The Fate Prepared by the Germans for the Germans," Holzer said.

A discord that hurts
Participants in the meeting wanted to know if, for the sake of Polish-German reconciliation, Steinbach would at least suspend plans for the center. "Suspending the project of the Center for the Expelled would prove good will. I have not even the slightest doubt that you will not find acceptance for the center in Poland," Tusk said.

But Steinbach did not answer; nor did she correct any of the statements, including those by journalists, questioning her right to refer to herself as one of the "expelled" (Steinbach was born in Rumia near Gdynia as a daughter of a German soldier participating in the occupation of Poland). However, in her statement ending the debate, referring to the letter of 1966 from Polish bishops to German bishops, Steinbach, on behalf of the Germans displaced after WW II, addressed the Poles with the words "we forgive and ask for forgiveness."

On the following day, the front page of Super Express, one of more popular Polish dailies, read "Unheard-of tactlessness: Occupier's daughter forgives us!" reflecting the reaction of a large part of the public in Poland to the BdV leader's gesture.

In Germany, meanwhile, indignation was voiced over a picture that appeared several days before the debate on the cover of Wprost weekly, presenting Steinbach dressed in SS uniform straddling the back of Chancellor Schröder. "What Ms. Erika Steinbach has done in recent months and what she continues to do for Polish-German relations allows us to publish this kind of cover without scruples. She is confusing the categories of executioner and victim," said Piotr Gabryel, deputy editor-in-chief of Wprost.

"I am very worried about the discord perceptible for several weeks in Polish-German relations," said Henning Tewes of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which co-organized the discussion together with Rzeczpospolita editors. "The accusations directed to the opposite side cause resentment. Concern about preventing this was the main idea behind the meeting." The effect, however, was far from the one intended.