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World War II reparations

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After World War II, both the Federal Republic and Democratic Republic of Germany were obliged to pay war reparations to the Allied governments, according to the Potsdam Conference. Other Axis nations were obliged to pay war reparations according to the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947. Austria was not included in any of these treaties.

Payments

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According to the Yalta Conference, no reparations to Allied countries would be paid in money (though that rule was not followed in later agreements). Instead, much of the value transferred consisted of German industrial assets as well as forced labour to the Allies.[1] The Allied demands were further outlined during the Potsdam Conference. Reparations were to be directly paid to the four victor powers (France, United Kingdom, United States, and the Soviet Union); for the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, the Soviet Union would determine its distribution. To coordinate the distribution of the reparations between the victor powers, the Allied Control Council was established.[2][3]

The Allies finally agreed for German reparations to be paid in the following forms:[2]

  • Dismantling of the German industry
  • Transferring all manufacturing equipment, machinery and machine tools to the Allies
  • Transferring all railroad cars, locomotives and ships to the Allies
  • Confiscation of all German investments abroad
  • All gold, silver and platinum in bullion or coin form held by any person/institution in Germany
  • All foreign currency
  • All patents and research data relevant to military application and processes
  • Requisition of current German industrial production and resource extraction
  • Forced labour provided by the German population

To oversee the extraction and distribution of the German reparations in their control zone, the Western Allies established the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA). The distribution of the reparations from Germany was to be allotted by a pre-determined percentage to which the victor powers agreed to. German reparations were to be classified into two categories: A (all forms of German reparations except those included in Category B) and B (industrial and capital equipment, merchant ships, and inland water transports).[3][4][2]

The following nations received reparations as part of the proceedings of the IARA:

Allotment of German reparations by the Western Allies[4][5][6]
Country % of Category A reparations % of Category B reparations
 Albania 0.05 0.35
 Australia 0.70 0.95
 Belgium 2.70 4.50
 Czechoslovakia 3.00 4.30
 Canada 3.50 1.50
 Denmark 0.25 0.35
Kingdom of Egypt Egypt 0.05 0.20
 France 16.00 22.80
 Greece 2.70 3.35
British Raj India 2.00 2.90
 Luxembourg 0.15 0.40
 Norway 1.30 1.90
 New Zealand 0.40 0.60
 Netherlands 3.90 5.60
 Union of South Africa 0.70 0.10
 United Kingdom 28.00 27.80
 United States of America 28.00 11.80
 Yugoslavia 6.60 9.60

 Poland was to be excluded from the proceedings of the IARA by demand from the Soviet Union. The Allies agreed as part of the Potsdam Agreement, that the Soviet Union collects and distributes the Polish share of reparations. Furthermore, the Soviet Union would extract its share of reparations mostly from the territory in its own occupation zone.[2][3] The Provisional Polish Government concluded the Polish-Soviet Reparation Treaty on 16 August 1945. The treaty allocated Poland's share of confiscated German machinery, goods and raw materials. Furthermore Poland received 15% of the German merchant fleet acquired by the Soviet Union. Deliveries were overseen by a joint Polish-Soviet commission and lasted until 1953.[7][8]

Territorial changes

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Further information: Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and Former eastern territories of Germany
During the Tehran Conference in November 1943, the Big Three agreed in principle to use the Curzon Line when determining Poland's eastern border, while in return Poland was entitled to a western border along the Oder.[9]

The Soviet Union annexed the German territories east of the Oder-Neisse, leading to the expulsion of 12 million Germans (from East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia). These territories were incorporated into communist Poland and the Soviet Union respectively and resettled with citizens of these countries, pending a final peace conference with Germany. Since a peace conference never took place, the areas were effectively ceded by Germany.[10] In the case of Poland, the acquired territory was a compensation for the Polish Eastern Borderlands (Kresy), which were annexed by the Soviet Union.[9]

France occupied the Saar protectorate from 1947 to 1956, with the intention of using its coal and steel industrial output to boost the French economy as reparations for the war. France sought to ultimately annex the Saar as well as the entire Ruhr region into France proper, but was denied so by the rest of the Allies. Following the results of a plebiscite, France had to relinquish its control of the Saar region on 1 January 1957.[11]

The Netherlands sought to annex large parts of Western Germany as reparations for WWII. These efforts were mostly thwarted by the Western Allies and ultimately only approximately 69 square kilometres (27 sq mi) of German territory was annexed in 1949. Nearly all of these territories were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. Under the Dutch-German treaty made in The Hague on 8 April 1960, West Germany agreed to pay to The Netherlands the sum of 280 million German marks in compensation for the return.[12][13]

Belgium and Luxembourg also sought to annex German territory as reparations for WWII. However, only small areas were occupied and then returned after German compensation payments.[12][13]

Dismantling of industries

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Further information: Allied plans for German industry after World War II and Morgenthau Plan

At the beginning of the occupation, the Allies dismantled the remnants of German industries. Plants and machinery were dismantled, the railroad system deconstructed and everything was transported to the Allies. The German merchant fleet and all other ships were handed over. Foreign stocks of about 2.5 billion dollars were confiscated. The remaining German industries had to give up a share of their production to the Allies. Large shipments of steel, coal, but also other industrial products were seized and transported out of the country.[14] Later the Western Allies softened their stance in favour of the Marshall Plan, while Eastern Germany continued to deliver industrial goods and raw materials to the Soviet Union until 1953.[15]

Dismantling of rail infrastructure

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In the Soviet Zone of Occupation (later the German Democratic Republic) virtually all double tracked rail lines were reduced to a single track with the material being taken to the Soviet Union.[16][17][18] Similarly the (relatively limited) railway electrification was also dismantled with the notable exception of most of the Berlin S-Bahn which retained its third rail infrastructure for the most part.

Similarly, in the French Occupation Zone, key rail lines were dismantled to single track.[19]

Intellectual property

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Further information: Allied plans for German industry after World War II § Reparations and exploitation

The Allies confiscated large amounts of German patents, copyrights and trademarks worth about 10 billion (1948) dollars.[14][20]

Forced labour

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Main article: Forced labor of Germans after World War II

Millions of Germans were pressed into forced labour for several years to work for the Allies in camps, mining, harvesting or industry.

Occupation costs

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After World War II ended, the main four Allied powers – Great Britain, The United States, France, and the Soviet Union – jointly occupied Germany, with the Allied occupation officially ending in the 1950s. During this time, Germany was held accountable for the Allied occupation's expenses, amounting to over several billion dollars.[21]

Holocaust victims

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Germany concluded a variety of treaties with Western and Eastern countries as well as the Jewish Claims Conference and the World Jewish Congress to compensate the victims of the Holocaust. Until 2005 about 63 billion euros (equivalent to approximately 87.9 billion euros in 2022) have been paid to individuals. Additional payments by German companies which exploited forced workers have been made.[22]

Recipients

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Poland

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On 23 August 1953, the People's Republic of Poland, under pressure from the Soviet Union which wanted to free East Germany from any liabilities,[23] announced it would waive its right to further war reparations from East Germany on 1 January 1954.[24][25] In a United Nations note, dated 24 November 1969, the communist government of Poland demanded action from the organization not only to punish war criminals and those who have committed crimes against humanity but also to establish procedures and divisibility of compensation for war crimes and damages committed by Germany during World War II.[26] In 1970, the 1953 renunciation of reparation rights was confirmed by the Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Winiewicz during the course of the negotiations leading to the normalization treaty of November 1970,[27] in which West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse as the final border between Poland and East Germany.[28][24][27][29][30][31]

On 10 September 2004, the Polish parliament (Sejm) passed a resolution stating that: "The Sejm of the Republic of Poland, aware of the role of historical truth and elementary justice in Polish-German relations states that Poland has not yet received adequate financial compensation and war reparations for the enormous destruction and material losses caused by German aggression, occupation and genocide."[32] A month later, on 19 October 2004 the Polish Council of Ministers put out a statement stating: "The Declaration of 23 August 1953 was adopted in accordance with the constitutional order of the time, in compliance with international law laid down in the UN Charter."[33][25] In August 2017, this position was again confirmed in a statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Marek Magierowski,[33][25] stating that "(...) the 1953 declaration constitutes a binding unilateral legal act of the Polish state – a subject of international law."[34][35] According to law professor at the University of Warsaw, Władysłav Czapliński, the reparation question has been closed with the conclusion of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, negotiated in 1990 between the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and the Four Powers (United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and France), to which Poland voiced no protest.[36] The German government takes the same position.[37]

In the meantime, Poland and Germany concluded several treaties and agreements to compensate Polish persons who were victims of German aggression. In 1972, West Germany paid compensation to Poles that had survived pseudo-medical experiments during their imprisonment in various Nazi camps during the Second World War.[38] In 1975, the Gierek-Schmidt agreement was signed in Warsaw. It stipulated that 1.3 billion DM was to be paid to Poles who, during Nazi occupation, had paid into the German social security system but received no pension.[39] In 1992, the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation was founded by the Polish and German governments, and as a result, Germany paid Polish sufferers approximately zl 4.7 billion (equivalent to zl 37.8 billion or US$7.97 billion in 2022[citation needed]). Between 1992 and 2006, Germany and Austria jointly paid compensation to surviving Polish, non-Jewish victims of slave labour in Nazi Germany and also to Polish orphans and children who had been subject to forced labour.[40] The Swiss Fund for the Victims of the Holocaust (which had obtained settlement money from banks in Switzerland) used some of its funds to pay compensation between 1998 and 2002 to Polish Jews and Romani who were victims of Nazi Germany.[40]

The reparation issue arose again in late 2017 with comments made by Polish government officials from the ruling Law and Justice. Since then, the Polish government has taken the position that Poland's 1953 refusal is non-binding because the country was under the sway of the Soviet Union.[25][41] Przemysław Sobolewski, head of the Bureau of Research of the Sejm, said that the political decision of 1953 was made by the Polish Council of Ministers, even though under the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, which came into force in 1952, it was the Polish Council of State, which had the sole authority to undertake such a decision.[42] According to Józef Menes from the Council of the Polish War Loss Institute, no diplomatic note was presented to the East German government and that "Probably the meeting of the Council of Ministers of August 23, 1953 did not take place at all" - citing relation of Kazimierz Mijal (head of the office of the Council of Ministers from 21 November 1952 to 1 February 1956).[43]

On the 83rd anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, on September 1, 2022, a Polish government report on Poland's war losses and damages between 1939 and 1945 was presented at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.[44] The three volume report also covered the legal issues regarding the 1953 renunciation of reparation rights by Poland, and according to the report findings: "the alleged unilateral statement of the Council of Ministers of 23 August 1953 on the renunciation of war reparations by the People's Republic of Poland violated the constitution of 22 July 1952 in force at that time, because the matters of ratification and termination of international agreements belonged to the competence of the Council of State, not the Council of Ministers". Also, the report noted that according to the minutes of the Council of Ministers of 19 August 1953, the renunciation concerned only the German Democratic Republic not the Federal Republic, and that no diplomatic note was ever sent to the East German government officially informing it of Poland's decision.[45] On September 14, 2022, the Sejm passed (418 for, 4 against, 15 abstentions) a resolution stating that: "The Polish state has never renounced its claims against the German state; the Sejm of the Republic of Poland calls on the German government to assume political, historical, legal, and financial responsibility for all the effects caused by the unleashing of World War II."[46]

On 2 October 2022, the Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau signed a diplomatic note asking the German government to undertake an official negotiation process between Poland and Germany, and on 3 October presented the diplomatic note to the visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.[47][48] According to the German government, there is no legal basis for further compensation payments.[49] On 4 January 2023 the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Poland Arkadiusz Mularczyk stated that "We do not recognize this German position, we reject it in its entirety as absolutely unfounded and erroneous." and "the German state cannot close a case that has never (yet) been opened".[50]

Greece

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Excerpt Akte R 27320, page 114 (political archive of the German Federal Foreign Office)

As a result of the Nazi German occupation, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railways and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%)[51][52][53][better source needed] and loss of civilian life (7.02–11.17% of its citizens).[54][55] Other sources put the total number of deaths resulting from the Axis occupation at 273,000 to 747,000 Greeks, or 3.7-10.2% of the prewar population.[citation needed] The occupying Nazi regime forced Greece to pay the cost of the occupation in the country and requisite raw materials and food for the occupation forces, creating the conditions for the Great Famine. Furthermore, in 1942, the Greek Central Bank was forced by the occupying Nazi regime to lend 476 million Reichsmarks at 0% interest to Nazi Germany.[56]

After the war, Greece received its share of the reparations paid by Germany to the Allies as part of the proceedings of the Paris Reparation Treaty of 1946 which the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency enforced. 7.181 billion dollars were initially slated for Greece. This sum rose significantly due to the growing size of the reparations seized by the Allies and Greece ultimately received compensations in the form of money and industrial goods with a worth of about 25 million dollars.[57]

Greece received an additional share of reparations from other Axis powers as a result of the Paris Peace Treaties from 1947.

Greece was a signatory of the London Agreement on German External Debts in 1953. The signatories agreed to postpone additional German debts until a final peace treaty with Germany would be made.[57] In 1960, Germany concluded a treaty with the Greek government to compensate Greek victims of Nazi German terror which amounted to 115 Million German mark.[58] These payments were explicitly marked as payments to the victims and were not supposed to be a general reparation treaty.[citation needed] Later Greek governments insist that this was only a down payment and further payments need to be made.[57][59]

In 1990, West Germany and East Germany signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany ('Two Plus Four Agreement') with the former Allied countries of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. This treaty was supposed to close all open questions regarding Germany and the aftermath of WWII and paved the way for German reunification. Germany considers this treaty as the final regulation which concludes the question of open reparations which had been made in previous treaties such as the London Debt Agreement.[57] Greece rejects this notion and on 8 February 2015, the then-Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras demanded that Germany pay the "complete" reparations to Greece. In April 2015, Greece evaluated the war reparations to be the equivalent of 278.7 billion euros (equivalent to 389 billion euros in 2022).[60][58] While more German politicians and members of the Bundestag are calling on the federal government to compensate Greece financially for the effects of the Nazi occupation,[61][62] the German government replied that the stipulations of the Two Plus Four treaty still stand and the issue was resolved in 1990.[63]

Israel

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Further information: Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany

West Germany paid reparations to Israel for confiscated Jewish property under Nuremberg laws, forced labour and persecution. Payments to Israel until 1987 amounted to about 14 billion dollars,[64] equivalent to $36.5 billion in 2022.[citation needed]

The Netherlands

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Further information: Dutch annexation of German territory after World War II

Immediately after the end of the war, the Netherlands demanded 25 billion Guilders as compensation for among other things the Dutch winter famine of 1944–1945. But shortly later pursued a policy of radical redrawing of the longstanding Dutch-German border and the transfer of a large part of German territory to the Dutch as reparations. In its most ambitious form, this plan included the annexation of the cities and surroundings of Cologne, Aachen, Münster and Osnabrück. Subsequently, the Dutch government seized and annexed 69 square kilometres (27 sq mi) of border territory from Allied occupied Germany in 1949, almost all of which was returned to West Germany in 1963 in exchange for 280 million Deutschmarks paid by the Federal German government to the Dutch.

Yugoslavia

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Further information: World War II reparations towards Yugoslavia

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia received a value of US$36 billion, in industrial equipment from the dismantled German factories. West Germany also paid 8 million German marks as reparations for forced human experimentation on Yugoslav citizens.

Soviet Union

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Further information: Economy of East Germany § Soviet occupation period, Kaliningrad Oblast, and Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union received compensation under the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947 from four Axis allied powers, in addition to the large reparations paid to the Soviet Union by the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany and the eventual German Democratic Republic in the form of machinery (entire factories were dismantled and shipped to the Soviet Union) as well as food, industrial products, and consumer goods. The USSR was owed $100 million from Italy, $300 million from Finland, $200 million from Hungary, and $300 million from Romania,[65] amounting to approximately $12 billion in total in 2022.

Other Axis nations

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Further information: Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 and Treaty of San Francisco

Italian reparation payments amounted to about 366 million USD and were paid to the Soviet Union, as well as Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Ethiopia. Finland, Romania and Bulgaria had to pay reparations worth about 300 million USD each, mostly paid in natural goods. Bulgaria had to pay reparations worth about 70 million USD. Most of these reparations were not paid in full by the countries which later fell under the umbrella of the Soviet Union, because the Soviet Union officially cancelled them.[66]

Japan paid its reparations similar to Germany through dismantling of industrial equipment, delivery of raw materials and confiscation of industrial output. Only minor payments were made to other Asian countries, specifically to Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand. Overall Japanese reparations amounted to about 1.5 billion US dollars which was about 4% of its GDP.[67]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Pavel Polian-Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR Central European University Press 2003 ISBN 963-9241-68-7 P.244-249
  2. ^ a b c d Cook (2013), pp. 461-462.
  3. ^ a b c Rumpf (1973), p. 346.
  4. ^ a b "Agreement on reparation from Germany, on the establishment of an Inter-Allied Reparation Agency and on the restitution of monetary gold" (PDF). treaties.un.org. United Nations Treaty Series. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  5. ^ "State Department and Foreign Affairs Records - RG 84: U.S. Delegation to the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA)". archives.gov. National Archives and Records Administration. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  6. ^ Cook (2013), p. 462.
  7. ^ Roth (2022), pp. 149-150; 159-160
  8. ^ Hinrichsen (2023), p. 133
  9. ^ a b Roth, Karl Heinz; Rübner, Hartmut (December 2021). Repressed, Remitted, Rejected: German Reparations Debts to Poland and Greece. Berghahn Books. p. 147. ISBN 978-1-80073-257-5. At their first summit, held in Tehran in November 1943, the three powers had agreed in principle to fall back on the Curzon Line when determining Poland's border. [...]In return for using this line, Poland was to be entitled to the Oder as its new Western Border.
  10. ^ Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood (2013). The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 50. ISBN 9781847790323.; Piotr Stefan Wandycz (1980). The United States and Poland. Harvard University Press. p. 303. ISBN 9780674926851.; Phillip A. Bühler (1990). The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law. East European Monographs. p. 33. ISBN 9780880331746.
  11. ^ Dieter-Mueller et al. (2008), pp. 366; 370ff.
  12. ^ a b Hopf, Simon (2003). "Alltag zwischen Mark und Gulden - der Selfkant unter niederländischer Auftragsverwaltung 1949 bis 1963" [Between Mark and Gulden - Selfkant under Dutch administration 1949 - 1963] (PDF). Geschichte Im Westen (in German). 18. Rheinland-Verlag GmbH: 136–154.
  13. ^ a b Woelk, Wolfgang (1995). "Das Grenzland von Nordrhein-Westfalen, die Traktatländereien und die niederländischen Grenzkorrekturen 1949 bis 1963" [The border area of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Tract Lands and Dutch border corrections] (PDF). Jahrbuch / Zentrum für Niederlande-Studien (in German). 5/6. University of Muenster: 85–103.
  14. ^ a b Wehler 1987, p. 947.
  15. ^ Wehler 1987, pp. 948–949.
  16. ^ "Vor 75 Jahren: Aufbau der Bahn nach Kriegsende | MDR.DE".
  17. ^ "Die Stunde Null in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone (SBZ)". 28 January 2015.
  18. ^ "Wirtschaftsentwicklung von 1945 bis 1949 | BPB". 13 July 2005.
  19. ^ "Gäubahn: wechselvolle Historie, ungewisse Zukunft".
  20. ^ Hinrichsen (2023), p. 141
  21. ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs (2008-07-18). "Allied Occupation of Germany, 1945-52". 2001-2009.state.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  22. ^ "Die Entschädigungszahlungen an jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus" [Compensation payments to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust] (PDF). bundestag.de (in German). Wissenschaftliche Dienste des Deutschen Bundestages. 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
  23. ^ Plucinska, Joanna (26 April 2019). "Germany owes Poland over $850 billion in WW2 reparations: senior lawmaker". Reuters. Retrieved 16 February 2023. In 1953 Poland's then-communist rulers relinquished all claims to war reparations under pressure from the Soviet Union, which wanted to free East Germany, also a Soviet satellite, from any liabilities.
  24. ^ a b Hailbronner, Kay. "Legal Aspects of the Unification of the Two German States". European Journal of International Law. 2 (1). Oxford University Press: 32. When the Warsaw Treaty was signed, Poland and the Soviet Union had waived all claims for reparations against Germany as a whole by a declaration of August 23, 1953. This waiver was based upon the agreement at the Potsdam Conference that Polish claims for reparations were to be satisfied by the Soviet share for reparation payments. The declaration by the Polish Government stated that Germany had already paid substantial reparations and that the Polish Government therefore renounced all claims, in order to contribute to a peaceful solution of the German question. The waiver was explicitly confirmed in the negotiations between the two states on the Warsaw Treaty.
  25. ^ a b c d Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (26 October 2017). "Die verspätete Rechnung. Zur polnischen Diskussion über Reparationszahlungen aus Deutschland". Zeitgeschichte online. Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. On 19 October 2004, the Polish Council of Ministers issued a statement clarifying: "The Government of the Republic of Poland recognises as obligatory the declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of Poland on 19 October to abandon Polish reparations payments (...). The Declaration of 23 August 1953 was adopted in accordance with the constitutional order of the time, in compliance with international law laid down in the UN Charter.
  26. ^ "Nieznany dokument ONZ z 1969 r. "Wynika z niego wprost, że Polska nie zrzekła się reparacji"". Wprost. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  27. ^ a b Władysław, Czapliński. (2007). "Polish Legal Positions with Regards to Post-Potsdam Germany in light of International Law: Aggression - Territory - Citizenship". In Góralski, Witold M. (ed.). Poland-Germany 1945-2007: From Confrontation to Cooperation and Partnership in Europe: Studies and Documents. Polish Institute of International Affairs / Ministry of Foreign Affairs. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-83-89607-32-4. It seems that even if the binding force of the 1953 declaration were to be questioned, it would be difficult to support the thesis that Poland has a rightful claim to reparations from Germany. The renunciation of such claims was confirmed by the Polish deputy minister of foreign affairs, J. Winiewicz, during the course of the negotiations leading to the normalization treaty of November 1970.
  28. ^ Feldman, Lily Gardner (2 August 2012). Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-4422-1710-2. The fall 2004 Sejm call for war reparations elicted firm opposition from the two governments. Polish foreign minister Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz labelled the resolution "unreasonable" and Germany's foreign ministry "reject[ed] all demands concerning compensation." The Polish government shared the German government's view that Poland had renounced reparations claims in a 1953 agreement with the GDR that was repeated vis-a-vis West Germany at the time of the 1970 Treaty.
  29. ^ Hofhansel, Claus (2005). Multilateralism, German Foreign Policy and Central Europe. Routledge Advances in European Politics. Routledge. p. 56. ISBN 0-203-79929-1. To achieve clarification on this point, the West German government asked for a confirmation of Poland's 1953 renunciation of reparations claims, which the Polish government granted in 1970 before signing the Warsaw Treaty in December 1970.
  30. ^ Mateusz Piątkowski (9 September 2022). "The legal questions behind Poland's claim for war reparations from Germany". notesfrompoland.com. In 1970, Poland and West Germany normalised their relationship in the Treaty of Warsaw. The Polish government confirmed the renouncement of reparations, while West Germany confirmed the Polish western border.
  31. ^ Sławomir Sierakowski (21 September 2022). "What's Behind Poland's Reparation Debate?". dgap.org. German Council on Foreign Relations. Then, in December 1970, Poland reaffirmed its renunciation of reparations claims under a new agreement with West Germany, which recognized the Polish border on the Oder and Neisse Rivers – in what had been pre-war Germany.
  32. ^ "Uchwała Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 10 września 2004 r. w sprawie praw Polski do niemieckich reparacji wojennych oraz w sprawie bezprawnych roszczeń wobec Polski i obywateli polskich wysuwanych w Niemczech". sejm.gov.pl. 10 September 2004. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  33. ^ a b Garsztecki, Stefan (27 November 2018). "Deutsche Kriegsreparationen an Polen? Hintergründe und Einschätzungen eines nicht nur innerpolnischen Streites". Polen-Analysen. Länder-Analysen (Country Analytical Digests) (in German). 227 (227): 5. doi:10.31205/PA.227.01. S2CID 226886657. The Polish government clarified in a statement on October 19, 2004: "The Declaration of 23 August 1953 was adopted in accordance with the constitutional order of the time, in compliance with international law established in the UN Charter", a position that was confirmed in a written statement in August 2017 by then Deputy Foreign Minister Marek Magierowski in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Sejm.
  34. ^ Krzysztof Ruchniewicz (26 October 2017). "Die verspätete Rechnung. Zur polnischen Diskussion über Reparationszahlungen aus Deutschland". Zeitgeschichte online. Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. (...) the 1953 Declaration constitutes a binding, unilateral legal act of the Polish state - a subject of international law.
  35. ^ "Odpowiedź na zapytanie nr 3812 w sprawie strat poniesionych podczas II wojny światowej". sejm.gov.pl. 8 August 2017. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017.
  36. ^ Czapliński, Władysłav (2007). "Polish Legal Positions with Regards to Post-Potsdam Germany in light of International Law: Aggression - Territory - Citizenship". In Góralski, Witold M. (ed.). Poland-Germany 1945-2007: From Confrontation to Cooperation and Partnership in Europe : Studies and Documents. Polish Institute of International Affairs / Ministry of Foreign Affairs. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-83-89607-32-4. The rights of the four powers with regard to Germany were relinquished - the parties to the agreement recognized the effects of the Second World War as finally closed. Logically speaking, this also presupposes that the powers (including the USSR) have recognized that Germany has met its reparations obligations. Poland voiced no claims nor did it protest the treaty. In keeping with the rule of estoppel, it would seem that such claims can not be raised after the entry into force of this treaty.
  37. ^ Oltermann, Philip (2022-09-02). "Germany rejects Poland's claim it owes €1.3tn in war reparations". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  38. ^ "On Behalf of Victims of Pseudo-Medical Experiments Red Cross Action". International Review of the Red Cross. 13 (142): 3–21. 1973. doi:10.1017/S0020860400015576.
  39. ^ Clay Clemens (27 July 1989). Reluctant Realists: The Christian Democrats and West German Ostpolitik. Duke University Press Books. p. 160. ISBN 9780822309000.
  40. ^ a b "Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie | Stiftung Polnisch-Deutsche Aussöhnung". www.fpnp.pl. Archived from the original on 2008-10-10.
  41. ^ WELT, DIE (2017-08-02). "Zweiter Weltkrieg: Polens Regierung prüft Reparationsforderungen an Deutschland". DIE WELT. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  42. ^ "Szef Biura Analiz Sejmowych: Polska i Niemcy nigdy po II wojnie światowej nie zawarły umowy ws. reparacji". Polska Times. 9 September 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022. The Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland of 1952 reserved issues concerning the conclusion and ratification of international agreements for the Council of State (a collegiate body performing the functions of the head of state), and not for the Council of Ministers.
  43. ^ "Członek Rady ISW: zrzeczenie się reparacji w 1953 r. — wątpliwe prawnie". Polska Agencia Prasowa. 2 September 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022. there is no diplomatic note to the government of the GDR, [and] there is no return note
  44. ^ "Sprawozdanie w przedmiocie strat i szkód wojennych Polski w latach 1939-1945" (PDF). sejm.gov.pl. 1 September 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  45. ^ "Mularczyk: Nie ma dokumentu spełniającego formalne wymogi uchwały rządu z 1953 r. o zrzeczeniu się reparacji". Bankier.pl. 3 September 2022. Retrieved 24 October 2022. "The report states that 'the alleged unilateral statement of the Council of Ministers of 23 August 1953 on the renunciation of war reparations by the People's Republic of Poland violated the constitution of 22 July 1952 in force at that time, because the matters of ratification and termination of international agreements belonged to the competence of the Council of State, not the Council of Ministers.'" and "In addition, the report notes that this statement was forced on the government of the Polish People's Republic by the USSR; moreover, according to the minutes of the Council of Ministers of 19 August 1953, the renunciation concerned only the German Democratic Republic."
  46. ^ "Uchwała Sejmu ws. dochodzenia przez Polskę zadośćuczynienia za szkody spowodowane przez Niemcy w czasie II wojny światowej". sejm.gov.pl. 14 September 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  47. ^ "Poland demands $1.3 trillion in World War II reparations from Germany". PBS NewsHour. 3 October 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  48. ^ "Szef MSZ podpisał notę w sprawie reparacji". Dziennik.pl. 3 September 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022. "The diplomatic note that I have just initialled will be forwarded to the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany," Rau said. - It expresses the conviction of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs that the parties should take immediate action aimed at a permanent, comprehensive and final, legal and material settlement of the issue of the consequences of the Aggression and German Occupation during the years 1939-1945."
  49. ^ "Leaders of Poland, Germany call for 'swift' solution to Warsaw's rule of law row with EU". Politico. 13 December 2021.
  50. ^ "Mularczyk: Odrzucamy stanowisko Niemiec".
  51. ^ Vallianatos, Evaggelos. "The Math of Mass Starvation and Murder: Germany in Greece During World War II". Truthout. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  52. ^ "Τα ερείπια της γερμανικής κατοχής στην Ελλάδα (μέρος 2ο)". Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  53. ^ "Οι μεγάλες καταστροφές και το γερμανικό χρέος στην Ελλάδα μέσα από ντοκουμέντα". Newsbeast.gr (in Greek). 2015-03-05. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  54. ^ "Council for Reparations from Germany, Black Book of the Occupation(In Greek and German) Athens 2006 p. 1018-1019" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-21. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
  55. ^ Gregory, Frumkin. Population Changes in Europe Since 1939, Geneva 1951. pp. 89-91
  56. ^ "Study Sheds New Light on Forced Greek Loans". Spiegel. 21 March 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  57. ^ a b c d "Die "Deutsche Restschuld" gegenüber Griechenland" [The German (remaining) debt towards Greece] (PDF). Deutscher Bundestag (in German). 2015. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  58. ^ a b Ulf Brunnbauer (1 July 2015). "Aufrechnungen von Frustrationen. Griechische Reparationsforderungen an Deutschland vor dem Hintergrund der Schuldenkrise". Zeitgeschichte online (in German). Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung.
  59. ^ Nikos Christodoulakis (2014). Germany's War Debt to Greece: A Burden Unsettled. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 13. ISBN 9781137441959. [A] Special Report published by the Bank of Greece in 1962 ... specified the amount outstanding to be ... more than tenfold the sum dispensed by Germany.
  60. ^ "Spiegel: Τα 278 δισεκ. των αποζημιώσεων που ζητούν οι Έλληνες ίσως τελικά να είναι λίγα" [Spiegel: The 278 billion in compensation that the Greeks are asking for may not be enough after all]. Lifo. 9 April 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  61. ^ "Greece gains allies in Bundestag over WWII reparations dispute". EurActiv. 18 March 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  62. ^ "Greece's claims for war reparations should be resolved by int'l court: Bundestag". Xinhua. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  63. ^ "Greece Nazi occupation: Athens asks Germany for 279bn euros". BBC News. 7 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  64. ^ Wehler 1987, p. 950.
  65. ^ Gibbs, Alexandra (2015-03-18). "Who still owes what for the two World Wars?". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
  66. ^ Hinrichsen (2023), pp. 133-134; 141
  67. ^ Hinrichsen (2023), pp. 140-141

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Roth, Karl-Heinz; Rübner, Hartmut (2022). Repressed, Remitted, Rejected: German Reparations Debts to Poland and Greece. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1800732575.
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