Poland Seeks Nazi Wartime Damages over $1.3T in Losses

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-01/poland-seeks-nazi-wartime-damages-over-1-3-trillion-in-losses

by artek • 4 years ago

2 1 4 years ago

On 23 August 1953, the People's Republic of Poland, under pressure and control of the Soviet Union, announced it would unilaterally waive its right to war reparations from East Germany on 1 January 1954, with the exception of reparations for Nazi oppression and atrocities. In turn, East Germany had to accept the Oder-Neisse border, which gave around one quarter of Germany's 1937 borders (see Former eastern territories of Germany) to Poland and Russia. West Germany had yet to pay reparations to non-Jewish recipients for the damage inflicted in Poland. In 1972, West Germany paid compensation to Poles that had survived pseudo-medical experiments during their imprisonment in various Nazi camps during the Second World War.[16] In 1975, the Gierek-Schmidt agreement was signed in Warsaw. It stipulated that 1.3 billion DM was to be paid to Poles who, during Nazi occupation, had paid into the German social security system but received no pension.[17]

After German reunification in 1990, Poland demanded reparations, as a reaction to claims made by German refugee organizations demanding compensation for property and land repossessed by the new Polish state that they were forcibly deported from as stipulated in the Potsdam Agreement and the aforementioned Oder-Neisse border. In 1992, the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation was founded by the Polish and German governments, and as a result, Germany paid Polish sufferers approximately 4.7 billion zł (equivalent to 37.8 billion zł or $7.97 billion in 2022). Between 1992 and 2006, Germany and Austria jointly paid compensation to surviving Polish, non-Jewish victims of slave labour in Nazi Germany and also to Polish orphans and children who had been subject to forced labour.

The reparation issue arose again in 2017 with comments made by Polish government officials from the Law and Justice party. Germany still asserts that Poland waived all reparation rights with the 1953 agreement and that the dispute is settled. Poland rejects this view, stating that the then Polish government was under the sway of the Soviet Union and that its 1953 refusal is non-binding.[20] In September 2022, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the Law and Justice party, announced the government's intent to officially demand that the German government pay 6.2 trillion zł ($1.32 trillion) in reparations (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_reparations#Polan...)

Seriously, Germany should tell Poland to go to hell

Poland Seeks Nazi Wartime Damages over $1.3T in Losses

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