Polish-born German uses own history to heal wounds of WWII

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

ALEKSANDROW KUJAWSKI, Poland (AFP) — Six decades after World War II, the wounds of the conflict are still raw in much of Europe.

One of those trying to heal them is Gustav Bekker, 71, a Polish-born German whose own history is a snapshot of the painful era.

Bekker's father, an ethnic German shoemaker, was killed by Poland's communist security forces in 1945. His body was never found.

"Maybe he's in the garden next to the mill where German civilians were held, or maybe in a quarry," Bekker told AFP in near-perfect Polish.

For the past decade Bekker, who lives near Dresden in eastern Germany, has returned regularly to his former homeland in a personal drive to reconcile long-time enemies.

On Saturday in Aleksandrow Kujawski, his old home town...