Just when you thought that (with the exception of the Hungarian nationalists) the Eu was just one happy family …
Poland estimates its World War II losses caused by Germany at 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.32 trillion), the leader of the country’s ruling nationalists said on Thursday, and he said Warsaw would officially demand reparations.
Poland’s biggest trade partner and a fellow member of the European Union and NATO, Germany has previously said all financial claims linked to World War II have been settled.
Poland’s new estimate tops the $850 billion estimate by a ruling party lawmaker from 2019. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has repeated calls for compensation several times since it took power in 2015, but Poland hasn’t officially demanded reparations.
The world’s nations all have a history of attacking and sometimes ruling each other, mistreating indigenous populations as well as importing slaves from other places (going back to pre-biblical days). In each case there were not only winners, but losers who sometimes paid with their freedom, their property and/or their lives. Some of these grievances are new and some go back millennium and some conflict with each other. At one point, there was a Poland. Then it was split between Russia, Prussia (Germany)and Austria. Then there was a Poland. Then it was taken by Germany with a great deal of destruction. Then it became “independent”, but under the rule of thee USSR (Russia), then it regained its independence. Sometime between when it was taken by Germany in 1939 and today, I suspect significant reparations were made by Germany (possibly “borrowed” by the USSR).
At what point in the process and through how many generations should a claim be maintained or satisfied - and should future generations have the right to abrogate the agreement?
This issue is not unique to Poland, but all of us could rattle off a long list of current grievances - many of which are due to European colonial actions, the slave trade with the Americas and most of the others to the re-writing of borders and movement of populations at the end of the first and second world wars. For better or worse, their solutions are frequently based on foreign politics than legal determination.
At what point in the process and through how many generations should a claim be maintained or satisfied - and should future generations have the right to abrogate the agreement?
In Venezuela an antique is 80 years old or older (for tax purposes), that’s about four generations. I think that’s a good number of years for a Universal Statute of Limitations (USoL). Very few people have experienced what happened 80 years ago.
In Venezuela an antique is 80 years old or older (for tax purposes), that’s about four generations…Very few people have experienced what happened 80 years ago.
That is also right about the age of one of my favorite posters here, too.
Poland wanting “settlement” with Germany regarding WWII is especially leveraged now by prospective talk of what a “settlement” ought to consist of in a peace of Russia with Ukraine if and when Ukraine has anything resembling a final victory.
How about Native American claims for expropriation by Europeans of their lands, sometimes after treaties with the same Europeans?
I read that an Egyptian minister wants to sue Israel for the gold taken out of Egypt during the Exodus. (Described in the Torah but with little or no hard evidence in Egypt itself, which recorded just about everything.) If the Egyptian government tries that absurdity, Israel could counter-sue for 400 years of slave labor.
A lot of this is demagoguery. Actually demagoguery on both sides including those grouped against it.
The talk can be very harmful to younger generations who assume at times not to squarely make their own way. Not that it is easy to face prejudice and do that. It is harder not to deal with this more squarely.
The money is not the issue. It is with most other people. The moral of young people to me must be met by responsible talk.
The intellectual African American class has actually often said we only want education and healthcare. There is a reason my dad used to teach me for only those two requests, “the slave is stronger than the master”. I said that once to a friend in Starbucks. The next group over were to Indian men who picked up on it. When the Indians to a greater extent gave up some aspects of the Caste system the lower caste rose up mightily based on its actual strength of being when given a reasonable chance. The Indian’s comment to his friend, “we know how that changed the plight of the _____ caste in India”.
Sometime between when it was taken by Germany in 1939 and today, I suspect significant reparations were made by Germany (possibly “borrowed” by the USSR).
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Britain and France stood by their guarantee of Poland’s border and declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. However, Poland found itself fighting a two front war when the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17. The Polish government fled the country that same day.
