Exposure to the transformed Heimat eroded expellee support for territorial revision.

Evidence

Those leaders who were more concerned about government debates than expellee sentiment felt certain that travel would further the cause of border revision by “proving” Polish inability to manage the German East. … Fearing that for this very reason travel to Poland could undermine the presumed expellee desire for territorial revision (which it did), other leaders reacted to travel with open hostility. But here they were trapped by yet another contradiction: How could they discourage travel to lands that they claimed were still theirs? Making matters worse, leaders opposed to travel quickly grew aware that they could never control the rising numbers of homesick tourists. They could only implore travelers to keep the right “mindset” when traveling, lest the dangerous knowledge of Silesia’s transformation lead to some unspoken ill effect that could serve Polish political purposes (namely a lack of will for a return to the East). — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 1328

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the reader’s core question about threat-hardened belief systems and what happens when correction (here, direct contact) is applied — the leadership’s attempt to control the ‘mindset’ is an attempt to suppress information that undermines manufactured solidarity. — connects to: Expellees’ apolitical memory work outweighed their leaders’ revanchist politics — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 201; Expellees commemorated their lost Heimat while abandoning any intention to return — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 513; Native Silesians fled their Heimat as Polonization made remaining rightsless — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 634 (+10 more)
• QUESTION: The two factions each assumed travel could be instrumentalized (either to prove Polish incompetence or to be banned) — both were wrong. This strategic internal contradiction resembles how leaders find it hard to manage belief when direct evidence contradicts the manufactured enemy.

Broader Connections

• Expellee political power eroded once generational change and border settlement removed grievances #corroborates (0.88) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 403
• Electoral competition for expellee votes fossilized symbolic irredentism that no longer meant return #corroborates (0.85) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 741
• Expellee revisionism decayed internally through decades of reflection, not political pressure #complicates (0.85) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 1404
• Expellees integrated into the SPD lost their group-based identity politics #exemplifies (0.84) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 751
• Expellee organizations lost all influence once the territorial goal became moot #qualifies (0.82) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 384