An ardent supporter of the idea of setting up a new reparation account for Germany is the Minister of Defense of Poland, Antoni Maciesevich. Matserevich denies that in due time Poland, having accepted a certain compensation amount, itself deliberately refused new compensation.
So the essence stories issue.
After the Yalta conference, where, in essence, the fate of the post-war world was decided, the leadership of the USSR proposed to determine the total amount of reparations from Germany in the amount of 20 billion dollars. At the same time, at the suggestion of the USSR, the Country of the Soviets was supposed to receive exactly half of this amount.
The initiative of Moscow was not supported. As a result, already in Potsdam, a specially created commission decided to collect compensation from Germany for a “natural product”. Each of the countries that were considered the victors of Nazism in Germany received, as you know, zones of territorial influence (in fact, occupation zones), from which they could take out wealth, including assets in the form of factories, equipment, finished goods, etc. For the USSR, which suffered the most from Hitler’s aggression, it was decided from each zone (British, French and American) to provide another quarter of the available equipment. At the same time, no one discussed the total amount of property that could be exported from Germany. Moreover, none of the Soviet representatives of de facto could control what amount of German equipment and other material assets were in the occupation zones occupied by the allies, and what percentage was actually transferred to the Union.
But it is known that the USSR should have paid compensation from its compensation arrays received from Germany. Compensation volumes for Poland were 15%. Economists estimate that Poland received over 2 billion dollars. Moreover, the USSR has already spent an amount equivalent to several such German reparations for the restoration of Poland by the USSR from its own budget.
For comparison, Germany and Britain alone of patents for inventions and technical documentation were taken out of Germany for the sum over 5 billion dollars. Plus, about 280 tons of German gold, as well as Germany’s foreign assets worth almost 4 billion were exported.
In Poland in 2005, however, a report was submitted, stating that the amount of reparations to its address amounted to no more than 300 million dollars (at the rate of 1938 of the year). And since then began the epic that Poland, as one of the countries most affected by the Nazis, turned out to be deprived in terms of financial compensation. It adds fuel to the fire and the fact that in the 1953 year, the Polish government refused additional compensation from Germany (GDR).
The current Minister of Defense of Poland declares that the refusal must be considered "invalid." The arguments are exactly the same as among the representatives of the Polish Sejm: “At the beginning of the 50s, Poland was not an independent state.” You would think that Poland is an independent state today ...
Matserevich, insisting on new reparations:
There is no truth that Poland abandoned the German reparations due to it. Refused from reparations not Poland, but the Polish People's Republic, which was then a Soviet colony. Moreover, she refused reparations not from all of Germany, but from reparations from another Soviet colony, the GDR.
After that, in Warsaw, the "experts" once again began to consider how much money you need to request from Germany today. The account of representatives of the Polish opposition was the most impressive. Counters of opposition stated that from Berlin it is necessary to demand no less than one and a half trillion zlotys. At the current exchange rate, this is about 350 billion US dollars. And this is about two thirds of Poland’s GDP.
The Lech Kaczynski Commission in 2004-2005, by the way, counted that Germany owed Poland 45 billion dollars. 45 is not 350 at all. As they say, who is more? ..
From an interview with a representative of the opposition movement in Poland, Marek Jakubek:
Poland is a poor state, but we are not idiots. The Germans burned our country. We lost 50 years. I do not intend to bring Poland to war with Germany, I do not want a deterioration in relations with the Germans, but Germany must learn: you have to pay for ruin. And only then we will talk on equal terms.
It is interesting, and why Mr. Yakubek decided that Germany is generally going to talk on equal terms with Poland, given that all the relative economic successes of recent times in Poland are associated exclusively with tens of billions of euros of German loans. Moreover, loans under a very gentle interest on which the Poles pay, by the way, have not yet begun to carry out on a large-scale basis. The first significant payoffs will begin in 2019. And, apparently, the closer this year is, the more actively the Polish elites will try to put Germany as a debtor.
From Germany to Poland, the words are heard that Warsaw, in setting demands, forgets about one important fact. After the end of the Second World War, Poland received from Germany (through the USSR) not only material resources, but also territories. What Poland today calls the term “returned lands”, it received as a result of the partition of Germany. And if we take it by territorial increase, then we can say that Poland won the territorial way the most in terms of the war. Parts of Prussia, Silesia, Eastern Pomerania, East Brandenburg, the so-called Free City of Danzig, went to Poland. Already in 1956, with active assistance from the USSR, Poland received another territorial gift in the form of German Stettin, which turned into Szczecin.
And now the lands of ethnic Germans deported from the lands of ethnic Germans transferred to Poland in 40-50-s appear. Firstly, Poland, joining the EU, signed documents for which Germany has the right to demand compensation now from Poland itself, secondly, Poland, stating that she fought against Germany and the USSR, in fact, she herself disputes her participation in the war on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Interestingly, Matserevich, who is going to demand compensation from the Germans, reported on this?