Nostalgia and visits to the lost homelands weakened expellees’ own demand for return

Evidence

Moreover, recovering the ‘lost homelands’ became less important to the West German public at large and even to refugees and expellees themselves. Nostalgic commemorations that celebrated provincial and regional identities allowed many to assuage the pain of their loss, while reports of conditions in the homelands, often cast in anti-Slavic stereotypes of ruination, persuaded exiles that they could never return. ‘Homesick tours’ to former German territory in Poland further confirmed the irreversibility of their departure. Indeed for Germans who remained behind after the initial migrations, going ‘home’ meant seeking a better life in West Germany rather than remaining as minorities in hostile and radically transformed environments. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s core question: grievance/threat-sustained solidarity decays when the hoped-for remedy is cognitively foreclosed — here by nostalgic commemoration, ruin reports, and homesick tours displacing the return demand. — connects to: Expellees neither forgot their Heimat through prosperity nor held genuine desire for physical return — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 86; Economic success did not erode expellees’ attachment to their lost homeland — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 104; Ruin reports cast in anti-Slavic stereotypes persuaded expellees return was impossible — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 193 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Expellees commemorated their lost Heimat while abandoning any intention to return #corroborates (0.95) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 513
• Actual photographs of transformed homeland undermined the optimistic return fantasy #corroborates (0.92) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 952
• Ruin reports cast in anti-Slavic stereotypes persuaded expellees return was impossible #corroborates (0.85) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 193
• Elite revanchist propaganda failed to reverse expellees’ acceptance of loss #corroborates (0.82) — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East, 756
• Expellee political power eroded once generational change and border settlement removed grievances #expands (0.75) — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 403