When they were driven from their homeland in 1945 and squeezed into the warravaged and impoverished territory of Western Germany. the expellees did not fulfill the expectations of the Kremlin: They did not become Communists. in spite of the despair which filled their hearts. The fact that Western Germany and the rest of Western Europe have not succumbed to communism is partly due to the expellees. The full significance of this fact as concerns the free world must be duly recognized. as it involves the moral and political right of millions of refugees to the restoration of their former legal status. and as it encourages the expellees to demand the return of their homeland. The free world is confronted with a responsibility which must be met: It is up to the free world to support the cause of the expelleesnot by unleashing another war. but by becoming strong enough in order to prevent it and. by virtue of such strength. forcing the restoration of the former legal status. Coexistence of the free world with the Soviet Union should not become a principle underlying the foreign policy of the free world. until and unless the oppressed peoples have had their freedom restored to them.
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refugees