La narration oublieuse La fuite sans l’expulsion dans le cinéma germanophone

Abstract

From 1945 to 1950 more than 12 million people considered to be German were forcibly displaced in Germany in its new restricted borders. The story of this migration, described as flight and expulsion, is highly complex. The analysis of its "forgetful narrative" in German-language cinema shows that the latter has played a major role in carving out two places of memory for the flight, the Treckand the shipwreck of the Wilhelm Gustloff, in the collective memory. It has also helped to build the myth of successful integration while neglecting to portray the events linked to expulsion, because of competing memories with that of the Shoah.