The Czech Republic has apologized to Germany for the transfer of three million German nationals out of its borders at the end of World War II. They were banished from their homes in Sudetenland by Czech President Eduard Benes in 1945. Only seven years earlier, Hitler's troops marched into the Czech Sudetenland and were enthusiastically greeted by the large German population there. In fact, the presence of what was later called a "fifth column" of Germans in Czechoslovakia has been credited with helping Germany take over the country. Over the past few years, however, an increasingly-revised Czech view of the events sees the transfer of this "fifth column" as "morally harmful," culminating in the official apology issued this week.
Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase plans to investigate who in his government released a statement two weeks ago saying that there was no Holocaust in Romania. Romania's Ambassador to Israel met yesterday with Yad Vashem Director Avner Shalev and told him of the intention. She also informed Shalev that her country's Education Minister would visit Israel soon to learn, inter alia, about the Holocaust. A statement two weeks ago by the Romanian Public Information Ministry statement that there was "no Holocaust inside Romanian borders between the years 1940-1945" drew Israeli ire and protests, and was quickly recanted. In fact, 420,000 Romanian and Soviet Jews were murdered in greater Romania during the Holocaust years.