Posted on 09/10/2004 11:40:15 AM PDT by Lukasz
Polish lawmakers urged the Polish government Friday to seek compensation from Germany for World War II-era damages, a response to claims by some Germans for restitution of former property in Poland.
The resolution, passed unanimously by the lower house, also asserted that Poland has "no financial obligations whatsoever toward German citizens" for the property they lost when Polish borders shifted westward after the war.
The vote was 328-0 with one abstention.
Claims by former German property owners and their descendants have resurfaced as a powerful irritant in relations since the fall of the Iron Curtain - and more immediately since Poland's entry into the European Union on May 1.
A group calling itself the Prussian Claims Society has said it intends to file its first restitution claims in Polish and probably also in European courts this year.
Though Friday's measure is not legally binding, it puts pressure on the government of Prime Minister Marek Belka to raise the issue with Germany, Poland's largest trading partner.
"Poland has not received its due financial compensation or war damages for the enormous damage and material and nonmaterial losses caused by the German aggression, occupation, genocide and loss of independence," the resolution said. It urged the government to "take due steps on the issue against the German government" and asked the government to present an estimate of damage that Poland suffered in the war.
The claim campaign has reopened old wounds in Poland, where the fate of Germans who fled or were expelled at the war's end is viewed with little sympathy given the death and destruction wrought by the Nazis in Poland.
In reply, Polish cities are tallying up damages - led by Warsaw, which was largely destroyed by German troops after the Nazis put down a 1944 uprising by Polish fighters in the capital.
Seeking to dampen Polish concerns, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder indicated in Warsaw last month that his government will advise courts to reject any German citizens' claims against Poland.
In Berlin, the Foreign Ministry would not comment on Friday's parliamentary resolution, but pointed to Schroeder's speech in Warsaw, in which he spoke out against "restitution claims that stand history on its head."
Postwar estimates put wartime material losses at about 40 percent of Poland's national wealth. On that basis, claims now are believed to be worth about US$640 billion, though there is no current overall estimate.
An estimated 12.5 million ethnic Germans were expelled or fled from Poland, then Czechoslovakia and other East European countries when the Third Reich collapsed and the Allies moved the region's borders toward the west.
Poland lost 6 million citizens under the Nazi occupation. For many Poles, the claim campaign suggests Germans are trying to blur the role of victim and perpetrator in World War II.
The daughter of a survivor of the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp recently became the first Pole to sue the German government for suffering inflicted by the Nazis during World War II.
Izabela Brodacka, 60, is demanding a symbolic US$7,300 in a Berlin court. She said it was a symbolic gesture for those who "suffered and who are dying in silence, seeing that history is being rewritten."
Why does Russia get a pass?
The Poles should be free to sue any Nazis for compensation. However, the German government of today is a government installed by the victorious allies at the end of WWII when they occupied Germany. The Nazi government ended in 1945 and has no linage to the German government of today.
Germans, if they were not Nazis, should be able to claim land that was seized from them at the end of WWII. There was no justification for seizing this land and will become a huge political issue if no settlement is found.
To the victors go the spoils.
Same reason no Soviet atrocities were prosecuted at Nuremberg.
Because this is Russia :-) With Russia it would be only wasted of time. As for Germany I think that it is only to stop their strange organizations of expelled people.
The French would surrender just from looking at the map. At the same time, Germany would double the problems it's having just in integrating the former East Germany. They wouldn't be strong again for a while, especially when they let socialism slow them down.
Of course, you are right. And of course, a nationalistic leader may just come along and use this issue to flame the passions of Germans into something not seen for 60 years.
Wrong. The Germans lost the war and the land. They are lawful spoils of war.
Yep - until they figure out the only way to get their land back is by force. See the aftermath of WWI to see what that leads to...
Impossible in present times, Germans nowadays were educated enough to know that they don’t have any chance in similar war. Now look like they are pacifist, Iraq is great example.
And of course, the loss of human life is not calculable.
This could create quite an interesting situation with the comfortable Germans if pressed and pressed.
Poland border is almost the same like 1000 years ago, why Poland should give Germany NATIVE polish land?
????? There was no Germany or Poland 1000 years ago...
"Bring back the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation,"
Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic:
The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy, Roman, nor an Empire.
Discuss.
Hmmm. We're still around. Relatively speaking, we're even stronger than we were at the end of WWII. That would be a real bright move on the BRD's part...
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