Posted on 08/03/2004 1:35:58 PM PDT by lizol
Germans file suit against Poland over wartime compensation
3 August 2004
LEVERKUSEN - A hardline leader of ethnic Germans expelled from Poland at the end of the Second World War said Tuesday his group would haul Poland before the European courts this year.
Rudi Pawelka, the chairman of Preussische Treuhand, said the suits would demand restitution of confiscated homes and farms.
Preussische Treuhand is a private company with expellees as shareholders. Its capital is to be spent on legal fees, pursuing claims that many legal experts say have almost no chance of success and which are to be opposed by the German government.
Pawelka said in an interview the suits would be filed in both Polish and European courts "this autumn".
Well over 2 million Germans were forcibly removed after 1945 from pockets of eastern Europe that had been German-speaking for centuries. Redrawing of boundaries was seen by the Allies as a way of ensuring Germany would not go to war to aid ethnic allies abroad.
Pawelka said that since his group believed it stood little chance in Polish courts, it would put an appeal in place in advance to the European Human Rights Tribunal in Strasbourg. A suit before the European Court of Justice was also under consideration.
He said his group believed Poland was in breach of European Union law. Poland joined the 25-member union in May.
Pawelka said suggestions that Poles would be expelled from homes they had occupied for the past 55 years if the group succeeded were "absurd". There were lots of abandoned farms in the southern Polish province of Silesia that the Germans could take over and revive.
"The unresolved issues should be settled by negotiation," he said. "We don't want the Poles to think they are being steamrollered."
Pawelka added, "There are in any case not that many people left who can make claims." He said the group's principal aim was get the Polish government to make an apology for the expulsions.
"We want to set an example, to show that a state which breaches international law cannot pretend nothing happened," he said.
A split between moderate expellees, who accept that Nazi war crimes were the root cause of all the wrongs, and the hardliners, who want to pursue property claims, has become manifest in recent days.
Erika Steinbach, perceived in Eastern Europe as a hostile figure, has appealed in recent days for compromise.
Steinbach has variously suggested that expellees would abandon their claims if Poland and the Czech Republic were to offer token compensation or if the German government offered a lump sum. But Pawelka, who favours migration back to eastern Europe, disagreed.
Compensation by Berlin would require expellees to abandon their "right to the homeland". The right to their native soil was indivisible from their property claims, added Pawelka, who also heads a national club that fosters Silesian German folk traditions.
Steinbach's proposal had implied the expellees were merely grasping for money, he said.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in Warsaw that his government rejected the property claims and would "make this clear to any international court" that heard such a claim.
Oh! Mr Pavelka, - I do apologize for you and your compatriots being expelled after having slaughtered 6 millions of Polish people (including 3 millions of Polish Jews),
- I do also apologize for an agreement set by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin considering the problem of expulsions. The Poles had no influence on that, but I do apologize anyway,
- I do also apologize for Polish continous recalling of what you did in my coutry during WW2. I fully understand, that it's so untactful in today's Europe and I do promise I'll get better about it.
"We want to set an example, to show that a state which breaches international law cannot pretend nothing happened," he said".
Oh! M. Pavelka! Reffering to your words I understand of course, that we, the evil Poles came to Silesia nad Pommerania in 1945 and expelled the poor, peace loving Germans (who had never breached international law, especially during previous 6 years in Poland and all over Europe) - without any reason, just for fun.
And - at the end - one more thing Mr. Pavelka, I've almost forgotten. F***k you very much!
Ping!
That is the funniest damn *real* headline I have ever seen.
Talk about chutzpah! Next they'll want the Jews to pay for the gas!
I would have to add (Poland tells Germany to go Kerry itself.)
Like you took it from my mind. I just wanted to write something about paying for bullets used during Warsaw uprising.
And then Belarus and Ukraine will consider Polish claims? Poland came out behind on hectares before and after the war.
I don't think so.
And I haven't heard of any German claims to Russia in spite of the fact, that Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg) used to be German too.
Why not?
Most of the world seems to think Palestinians who fled and/or were expelled only a few years after this have a "right to return."
On what logical basis do Palestinians have this right, yet Germans (who did not themselves commit war crimes) do not?
And while I don't agree with what's going on at ALL I can't let this pass.
What about all the Germans that were helping people all over that lost everything? My Grandfather was executed for it in 45 and through "politics" the family lost everything. My mom grew up as an orphan since they were expelled and her mother couldn't aford the medicine she needed to survive.
Yeah, they deserved so since they were German right?
SO F**K YOU!!!
Ping
Maybe word "reperations" could be considered as "logical basis".
"SO F**K YOU!!!"
Did You relate it to me? If so, I think our further conversation is over.
I didn't know we had any...
Was just giving my opinion on your post. That's all....
We could've started one.
But we won't.
Gruss Gott.
Do zobaczenia
Raczej dobranoc (z mojej perspektywy).
You just knew one day this would come back
First this has nothing to do with the Poles… it has to do with Stalin and the Russians
In 39 when Germany invaded Poland from the west people sometimes forget that the Russian invaded Poland from the east…. Hitler and Stalin had a pre war pact to split Poland up 50/50…. This in not new as throughout Poland history Germany & Russia had “absorbent” the respective East and West half of Poland several times
At the end of WW2 Stalin and the Russians decided to again keep “there half” of Polish land and make it permanent part of Russians(now part of Ukraine)… but to “make up” to Poland a part of historically German land was permanent made part of Poland by the Russians
The Russian in effect.. “moved” Poland west … Russia gained new territory area… Germany lost historical territory area…. And Poland stayed roughly the same in total area but moved west
The Russians also decided to keep a good part of Prussia, also historically German land, as part of Russia proper
I thought ethnic cleansing was always wrong.
If it was right and proper when committed against Germans, then it is not always wrong and we must argue each case individually to see whether it is proper in that particular context.
I find it absolutely fascinating that Americans are supposed to feel great guilt over ethnic cleansing committed 100+ years ago against Mexicans and Native Americans, yet Europeans are perfectly happy with that committed less than half that long ago against Germans.
Although, to be perfectly frank, the Germans probably asked for it more than just about any other group in history.
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