Merkel Caught in a Warsaw-Berlin Vice

Chancellor Angela Merkel, one might think, has enough on her plate this year. Saving the economy from collapse has become a fulltime job and, soon, her campaign for re-election in the September vote will become a priority.

But now she's got a new worry brewing. Once again, the issue of how to remember those Germans expelled from Poland following World War II has come to the fore. Merkel only his two choices available to her. She can either side with the expellees, which could do serious damage to Berlin's relations with Warsaw. Or, she could decide in favor of German-Polish relations and risk alienating the conservative wing of her party just months before the general elections. So far, the chancellor has opted to do nothing at all.

The thorn currently working its way into Merkel's side has a name: Erika Steinbach. She is the president of the Federation of Expellees, a group dedicated to remembering the plight of Germans forced out of parts of Eastern Europe following the defeat of Nazi Germany. For years, Steinbach has been lobbying for the creation of a museum in Berlin documenting the expulsions.