Polish official: Germany owes Poland $850 billion for WWII

WaPo ^

[NorseViking]

WARSAW, Poland — A Polish official said Friday that Germany could owe his country $850 billion (690 billion euros) for the damage it inflicted during World War II.

Arkadiusz Mularczyk is leading a team in the parliament that is assessing potential reparations to Poland. Germany killed 6 million Polish citizens and caused great material losses during its nearly six-year occupation of Poland.

“We are talking about very large, but justified amounts of compensation for war crimes, for destroyed cities, villages and the lost demographic potential of our country,” Mularczyk said on Polsat News, a private broadcaster.

Last year, Poland’s ruling conservative nationalist Law and Justice party said the nation deserves compensation for its losses and set up a team of lawmakers under Mularczyk’s leadership to estimate how much is due.

[Secret Agent Man]

What I dont get is why they are getting a hard time with it when Austria seems to have an easier time rejecting mulim hoardes.

[neverevergiveup]

“A bit late for this, isn’t it? I think things like this, especially since all of Europe has now rebuilt, prospered, etc., is simply ridiculous.”

This probably a response to Merkel trying to dictate to EU members.

[Tuketu]

Sounds like the French after WWI; their greed caused a humiliated Germany to back a mad man to even the score.

[plain talk]

Reparations. Where does something like that stop? Wars have gone on forever. Poland got the shaft but I doubt they will get reparations.

[snoringbear]

“Wait til Europe gets the bill from America for liberating all of them”.

Nice thought but will never happen. Actually, the U.S. after the Greek civil war, paid Germany’s reparation obligation to Greece. Germany was destitute at the time and we ((U.S.) needed both to remain in the western block.

[snoringbear]

“It’s not about the money. Poland is sending a message to Germany to lay off on the Muslim immigration.”

Germany has its own problems with Muslims. It’s currently trying to figure out what to do about the several no-go zones infested by Muslims. Germans have a disaster of their own making on their hands.

[sphinx]

Why begin and end with WWII? Germany can always recover its liabilities for WWII damages by suing France, which has invaded Germany far more times (ore-unification) than Germany has invaded France. And aren’t the French still owed reparations for Caesar’s conquest?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You may have it backwards.
We financed Europe’s recovery via the Marshall Plan.

[bravo whiskey]

As for Russia the Poles invaded Russia as soon as they became a country in 1919-1920.

[hanamizu]

Yeah, why no similar bill for Russia, they both sucked up roughly half of Poland each.

---

You have to look at ‘before and after maps’ to see that Russia (USSR) got to keep the half they sucked up. I think Belarus has it now.

[BroJoeK]

Tuketu: "Sounds like the French after WWI; their greed caused a humiliated Germany to back a mad man to even the score."

It wasn't French "greed", it was weakness.
In fact, the Allies treated Germans much better than Germans treated their own victims, i.e., Belgium & Russia.
But unlike post-Second World War, after the First World War Allies did nothing to enforce peace terms.
So aspiring politicians among National Socialists blamed "the Jews" and a "stab in the back", insisting they were never really defeated.

Between the sins of "greed" and weakness, weakness is by far the greater and less forgivable.

[BroJoeK]

sphinx: "Germany can always recover its liabilities for WWII damages by suing France, which has invaded Germany far more times (ore-unification) than Germany has invaded France."

What, are we going back to the 30-Years War, or Napoleon?

Since 1870, Germany launched three invasions of France, France invaded Germany zero times.
(Question: was Saarbrucken part of Germany in 1870?
Are you sure?)

sphinx: "And aren’t the French still owed reparations for Caesar’s conquest?"

Oh, Well...
Then Gauls owe reparations to Romans for their invasion in 390 BC.

;-)

[sphinx]

Actually, in 1914 Germany was the last of the great powers to declare war. But the German mobilization was more efficient, and Germany, facing the necessity of a two-front war, was looking for a quick knockout, so the Germans marched first. France, however, was fully intent on invading Germany and threw its armies into Alsace-Lorraine. The initial French offensive, however, was thrown back, which is the only reason that the war on the Western Front was fought mostly on French rather than German soil.

France also declared war first in 1870. The fact that the Germans settled things quickly doesn't mean France was innocent.

[BroJoeK]

sphinx: "Actually, in 1914 Germany was the last of the great powers to declare war."

Actually, more recent German scholarship shows that the driving force behind events in the Summer of 1914 was the German High Command, supported by its vacillating Kaiser, who pushed the Austrians into issuing an ultimatum to Serbia, then used Russia's partial mobilization as their excuse to invade... France!

Euorpe's Last Summer, Who Started the Great War in 1914?

I should mention, if you're familiar with Barbara Tuchman's Guns of August, you'll notice that Fromkin picks up exactly where Tuchman leaves the historical record blank.

[Tuketu]

The $ rang heavy in the hearts of the French. So the Germans devalued the Mark and used wheelbarrows to pay their debt. True the Allies behaved like Chamberlain. The US went into isolationism, its traditional stance. ALL the former allies were weak! and the French wanted $ too. Weakness was IMHO personified in FDR who allegedly knew of the atrocities against Jews, Gypsies, Catholic Priests etc etc;but did nothing to assist in defeating the Axis until attacked, an event he was allegedly warned of...etc. etc Would he/we have fought Germany had they not declared war on US??? The war was fought, now we’re down to semantics and speculation.

[BroJoeK]

Tuketu: "The $ rang heavy in the hearts of the French."

Of course the French wanted reparations, after all they had paid reparations to Germany after the war of 1870.
And Germans had also extracted reparations, along with territory from Belgium and Russia, so everybody understood: if you lose, you pay.

Tuketu: "So the Germans devalued the Mark and used wheelbarrows to pay their debt."

History records the Germans made one legitimate reparations payment after WWI, their first one.
After that it was all smoke & mirrors, super-inflation, which finally ended when Americans agreed to loan Germany the money to pay their reparations to France & Britain, which the French & Brits then used to pay down their war-debts to Americans!

It all ended in 1929 when Americans finally figured out we were being had (we were stupid long before Trump said it) and cut off the loans to Germany.
So Germany cut off its reparations to France & Britain, who stopped making war-debt payments and the date was...
oh, yeh, October, 1929.

Tuketu: "True the Allies behaved like Chamberlain.
The US went into isolationism, its traditional stance.
ALL the former allies were weak!"

All had excellent reasons to be, beginning with the millions killed in the greatest war ever imagined, much less waged.
All wanted to lick their wounds and stay-the-h*ll-out of any such future calamities.
In that the victors felt just as defeated as the vanquished though with no motivation to seek Round Two.
But for German leaders especially, Round Two was the reason for their request for peace in November 1918.

Tuketu: "Weakness was IMHO personified in FDR who allegedly knew of the atrocities against Jews, Gypsies, Catholic Priests etc etc;but did nothing to assist in defeating the Axis until attacked, an event he was allegedly warned of...etc. etc "

You know, I'm sure, that FDR & Holocaust were the Second World War, not the First, but you may not realize that the Holocaust itself, with gas chambers & crematoria, never really got started until after Hitler declared war on the United States.
But regardless, well into the Fall of 1941 80%+ of Americans did not want to be sucked into another war like the First World War.
Americans felt duped & betrayed and were dead set not to let it happen again.

Of course, FDR knew better, a lot better and more important, he cared about the future of our French and British friends.
FDR also knew Germans from personal experience, he spoke German traveling in Germany as a boy, and he hated Germans for their arrogance & belligerence.

Did FDR know about Pearl Harbor in advance?
No evidence says he did, but it doesn't matter because he and the US government in Washington certainly did expect a Japanese attack somewhere and soon.
That's why they sent out war warnings to all the Pacific Commanders, from Panama and San Diego to Hawaii and even MacArthur in the Philippines.
All were told to expect Japanese attacks very soon, but none were really prepared when those attacks soon arrived.

And long before December 7, 1941 US war planners agreed that Europe would be America's first priority, then Japan.
The overall allocation of resources was to be two-to-one Europe over Japan, though with specific services (i.e., Navy) that was reversed.

Tuketu: "Would he/we have fought Germany had they not declared war on US??? "

Sure, but the more interesting question is whether it was even psychologically possible for Hitler, given the circumstances, not to declare war on the US?
I doubt it.

[Tuketu]

Posting the obvious is ridiculous

[Tuketu]

I think Finland paid their debt to America, but you are right

[Tuketu]

Do you write History books for a small comment?

[BroJoeK]

Tuketu: "Posting the obvious is ridiculous"

So you prefer what, insults or cryptic comments?

Tuketu: "Do you write History books for a small comment?"

I never wrote a book but do enjoy responding to posters like yourself who seem a little... well... confused.