Demanding reparations from Germany
Our nation suffered “unimaginable losses and destruction” at Germany’s hands during World War II, said Janusz Szewczak in Poland’s Wpolityce.pl, and we were never properly compensated. Germany claims that because Poland waived its right to reparations in 1953, the issue is settled. But back then, Poland was a vassal of the Soviet Union, which forced us to give up our rights. Other countries have demanded payment from Berlin—including Namibia, a former German colony, and Greece, which was brutally occupied by the Nazis—so why shouldn’t Poland? Germany, “in its pride and arrogance,” has been haranguing Poland for months about the rule of law, claiming our government’s reforms of the media and judiciary fall short of European Union standards. Well, we’ve had enough. As the nation commemorated the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising last week— a doomed 1944 revolt against the occupying Nazis—Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling Law and Justice party, said conversations were being held about how much Germany might owe. The bill could reach as high as $1 trillion. Parliament is even now drawing up documents to lodge a legal claim. “It is time for historical justice; time for the Germans to pay their debts.”
Poland has a case, said Dominic Sandbrook in the Daily Mail (U.K.). From the invasion of 1939 until Germany’s defeat in 1945, the Poles endured “a reign of terror unparalleled in European history.” The Nazis saw Poles as subhuman and did “their best to eradicate an entire nation.” They all but obliterated Warsaw, Krakow, and Lublin; executed the entire artistic and educated class; and used millions more Poles as slave labor or sex slaves. They slaughtered nearly 6 million Poles—including 3 million Polish Jews, 90 percent of the country’s Jewish population, in the Holocaust. “No amount of money could possibly compensate for such human horror.” And then Poland was left to stagnate under Soviet domination for the next four decades while West Germany grew rich. It’s no wonder that even today Poles are “bitter about their country’s fate.”
This demand is nothing but a political stunt, said Bernhard Schulz in Der Tagesspiegel (Germany). The issue of reparations was settled long ago. Poland and Germany signed a border treaty in 1990 that recognized Polish sovereignty over what had been nearly 40,000 square miles of Reichsland—with no compensation assigned for the millions of ethnic Germans who were expelled. Kaczynski has resurrected this dead issue merely “to score points in domestic politics.” Germany has criticized his anti-democratic actions, so he smears Germany by bringing up the war. In so doing, he jeopardizes “the enduring, peaceful order” that took Europe so long to achieve. That’s why Poland must tread carefully, said Jerzy Haszczynski in Rzeczpospolita (Poland). Warsaw “must not end its partnership” with Berlin, but it does have the right to calculate the damage inflicted by Germany and to discuss possible amends. Poles just need to press their case “calmly, without all this anti-German rhetoric.”