To the Editor:

Book Review - Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Century Europe

Well before September 11, 2001, in November of 2000, the History Department of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, in collaboration with Austin College, Austin, TX and the Institute for German American Relations (IGAR) convened the First International Conference on Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in 20th Century Europe, the origins of terrorism.

More than forty scholars from North America and Europe presented papers, which were edited by Professors Steven Bela Vardy, Agnes Huszar Vardy, and T. Hunt Tooley and then was published by Columbia University Press, New York, NY. Control Number 2003102445, ISBN 0-88033-995-0.

In more than 850 pages, the volume presents scholarly research and a number of eyewitness reports. In the following are a few highlights:

The foreword to this authoritative document was written by Archduke Dr. Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last Emperor of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Chapter One: The Rise of Twentieth-Century Ethnic Cleansing: Origins and Preconditions

N.F. Dreisziger reported about the ethnic cleansing and genocide upon Native Americans and reminded us that such brutality took place here too, even though. Native Americans did not develop a culture and civilization similar to that in Europe. It also reviewed the genocide committed by the British and French colonial powers and later by the U.S. Government between 1536 and 1946.

Hunt Tooley reviewed World War I and the ethnic cleansing, which occurred during and after it. The Twentieth Century's First Genocide, International Law, Impunity, the Right to Reparations, and the Ethnic Cleansing Against the Americans, 1915-16 by Alfred de Zayas. Ethnic Cleansing in the Greek-Turkish Conflicts from the Balkan Wars through the Treaty of Lausanne: Identifying and Defining Ethnic Cleansing by Ben Lieberman.

Chapter Two: The Ethnic Cleansing of Germans During and After World War II (which President George W. Bush in a letter TO IGAR called "the greatest crime against civilians during the Twentieth Century").

Anglo-American Responsibility for the Expulsion of the Germans 1944-48 by Alfred de Zayas. The London Czech Government and the Origins of the Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans by Christopher Kopper. Escaping history: The Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans as a Leitmotif in German-Czech Relations by Scott Brunstetter. Polish-speaking Germans and the Ethnic Cleansing of Germany East of Oder-Neisse by Richard Blanke. Ethnic Cleansing in Upper Silesia, 1944-1951 by Tomasz Kamusella. Events in Gdansk (Danzig) by Elizabeth Morrow dark. The Genocide in Yugoslavia by John R. Schindler. Expulsion of Ethnic Germans from Hungary by Janos Angi. The Deportation of Ethnic Germans from Romania to the Soviet Union, 1945-1949 by Nicolae Harsanyi.

Chapter Three: In this chapter a number of papers deal with the origins and execution of the largest expulsion of over 16 million German people from East of the Oder-Neisse rivers (now Poland), the Sudetenland (now Czech Republic) and South East Europe.

Chapter Four: is devoted to eyewitness reports. Martha Kent, at age four, spent four years in a Polish concentration camp with her family. Erich A. Helfert was 12 when he and his mother were driven from their home in the Sudetenland. Karl Hausner was 16 when he was forced into a Czech labor camp and Hermine Hausner was 12 when Czech partisans murdered her father and uncle, among others. Raymond Lohne spoke about ethnic Germans from Banat. Andreas Roland Wesserle reported on the fate of the Carpathian Germans.

Chapter Five:  deals with ethnic cleansing and genocide in Yugoslavia during recent years, a repeat of what happened in 1944-1946 (Bosnia and Kosovo).

The U.S. House of Representatives, in its Resolutions No. 557 and 30L of October 9 and October 13 of 1998, demands that those countries that have joined NATO and committed crimes against humanity, must immediately issue laws to compensate those expelled for the property losses and permit them to return to their native homeland. Regrettably, nothing of the kind has happened at this writing.

The book "Ethnic Cleansing in 20th Century Europe" is available in book stores or can be ordered from:

ELMED INCORPORATED LITERARY RESOURCES
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The purchase price of the book is $85.00 (plus $10.00 for shipping and handling).

This document belongs in every public and school library. Obtain and donate it. Remember, it is everybody's business to fight the war against terrorism and to be successful you have to understand the origin of it. This book reveals the grass root problems.
 
 

Karl Hausner
E 8893 County Road B - Hausner Lane
Sauk City, WI 53583