Poolse reactie op tentoonstelling zorgt voor Duitse kritiek op mensenrechtensituatie (en)

An official from the German government has for the first time reacted to the steady souring of relations between Warsaw and Berlin and suggested human rights are being eroded in Poland. Gunter Nooke, a Christrian Democrat human rights experts for the German government, criticised Poland in the influential German weekly, Der Spiegel, about its handling of a museum exhibition highlighting the fate of the millions expelled from their homes in the 20th century, including Germans in the post war period.

He told the magazine that he had seen credible reports that indicated that Polish supporters of the exhibition were being put under "massive pressure". Mr Nooke also claimed that journalists were afraid to write subtly differentiated reports about the exhibition.

The Polish coastguard has already asked for the return of one of the central pieces of the exhibition - bells from the 'Wilhelm Gustloff' boat. Carrying almost 10,000 German refugees, the Gustloff was sunk by a Soviet U-boat in 1945.

Reacting to these events, Mr Nooke said he was "very worried" about the state of human rights in the neighbouring country. "That the freedom of expression and the freedom to demonstrate is in danger" in Poland can also be seen in the forbidding of demonstrations by homosexuals, said the German lawyer.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Erika Steinbach, a Christian Democrat politician, and head of the German League of Expellees. However, many Poles fear the exhibition casts Germans as victims in a war which they started.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's prime minister, recently said the transferral of Germans after the war was "sad, even tragic" but added that it should be remembered "who was the perpetrator and who was the victim". Plans have also been mooted to turn the exhibition into a permanent centre causing Lech Kaczynski, president of Poland and twin brother of the prime minister, to say "It will be better for relations between our countries if this centre never comes into existence."