Yaroslav kaczyński – the subject of war reparations

JAROSŁAW KACZYŃSKI – THEMATIC OF WAR REPEPARATION

Will Poland request compensation for war losses? The subject of reparations returned due to Jarosław Kaczyński. During the Saturday legislature of the ruling party, the president of the Law and Justice organization said that Poland was the first to argue German Nazism and was later attacked by the USSR. – Have we received for these gigantic damages that we have not actually done to this day... any compensation? Poland has never waived specified compensations. Those who think so are wrong," Kaczyński said. The president addressed this subject in the context of EU subsidies, which “PiS appreciates very much” but at the same time has the right “to measure the historical context of these measures”. “So, historically, do we not have certain moral rights?” the president asked. Not the first time.

The subject of war reparations returned shortly after the PiS won the election. Kaczyński gave an interview that echoed loudly among western neighbors. Kaczyński said at the time: “The account of the wrongs on the Polish side is immense and I repeat, during the 70th years that have passed since the end of the war, these matters have never been settled and in a legal sense they are up to date, due to the fact that as we know, this was late discovered by Mr Kostrzewa-Zorbas (Dr Grzegorz Kostrzewa-Zorbas in September 2014 informed the public that Poland's resignation of the war reparations in 1953 has no legal power – ed.), our resignation of damages was never registered by the applicable UN body, that is in the legal sense that there is no specified thing at all. The road is open and this should besides be remembered in Germany."

These words caused a violent reaction by the German Ministry of abroad Affairs. His boss Frank Walter Steinmeier estimated that Poland had no legal basis to request German reparations for planet War II. According to the head of German diplomacy, this case is already “legally and politically closed”.

Such a strong reaction is not amazing if we consider the gigantic money that Poland could demand. According to various estimates, amounts ranging from nearly a trillion to even a fewer trillion dollars are mentioned. Assuming the first script is more than six times our gross home product, it is besides more than half of the yearly German GDP.

After the war, the Office of War Compensation at the Council of Ministers prepared a balance sheet of Poland's material losses for the purposes of reparation demands. The railway lost 84 percent of its assets, energy – 65 percent, post office and telecommunications – 62 percent, education – 60 percent, mining – 42 percent. Of the 30,000 factories, 10,000 survived, but in these preserved buildings half of them were destroyed. 30% of forests were besides destroyed. From occupied Poland, the Germans exported or utilized more than 200 million tons of hard coal, a million tons of potassium salt, 500 1000 tons of iron ore, 100 1000 tons of phosphorus on site. In the late 1940s Poland's GDP amounted to PLN 8 billion (at pre-war prices), while in 1939 it reached PLN 18 billion.

The biggest harm to property was to urban centres. Among the most serious ones were in Warsaw, where 80 percent of urban buildings and 90 percent of industrial buildings were destroyed, which were located in the Polish capital until the outbreak of the war. In detail, the state of demolition of Warsaw was even more shocking. 100 percent of bridges, 90 percent of industrial buildings, 90 percent of historical buildings, 90 percent of wellness facilities, 70 percent of educational facilities, 50 percent of power plants, 46 percent of gasworks were destroyed. All urban networks in Warsaw were besides badly destroyed. 85 per cent of the tram network, 70 per cent of the telephone network, 65 per cent of the electricity network, 30 per cent of the water supply network, 28.5% of the sewage network were destroyed. We are dealing with equally powerful destructions during planet War II in another Polish cities.

In fact, it was only in the last fewer years that the authorities of Polish cities made efforts to make a fuller balance of their losses during planet War II. This initiative was taken, among others, by Lech Kaczyński erstwhile he was president of Warsaw (2002-2005). According to the 2004 Orc report, losses in the capital itself were estimated at $54 billion (according to the 2004 report).
Date: 12.10.2023, 19:31