August 2, 1954
GERMAN EXODUS: (K.G. Zafeiropoulos’s impressions from Germany) – «(…) The most tragic ‘exodus’ in history is that of the Germans from the countries that are now under Soviet control. Usually, Germans talk about our own Asia Minior catastrophe and find that, in comparison to their own refugee problem, it is an extreme case. However, since August 1945, 4.5 million Germans alone have left Eastern Prussia and asked for asylum within Germany. German families or those of German origin east of the Oder-Neisse line have been exiled from Poland, other Eastern European countries and Southeastern Europe. Sixteen-and-a-half-million people have been forced to abandon their homes carrying just a suitcase and to walk – just like the Jews in the Bible – back to their country of origin. Just 14 million of them survived the journey. About 2.5 million Germans lost their lives on the way or were sent to Siberia. Coutless thousands of the elderly, infirm, or children died of starvation.» MAKARIOS: Archbishop Makarios, Ethnarch of Cyprus, has delivered a speech to the Greek-Cypriot people in which he categorically rejected the British government’s plan to impose a colonial constitution on the Greek population of the island.
