Coalition of Polish Americans

Position Paper

 Reparations from Germany to Poland for crimes committed during World War II

The Coalition of Polish Americans calls upon the government of Germany to immediately commit to signing the peace treaty with Poland, including issues of borders between the two countries and reparations for the damages inflicted by Germany during World War II.

We want to remind Germany and world powers that became victorious in this worldwide conflict that Poland was the first and the greatest victim of German military aggression during World War II, sustaining the highest losses of its population and the greatest material losses in proportion to all the other countries affected by the German occupation.

Furthermore, the mass extermination of the civilian population of Poland was planned by Germany long before World War II. It started in the first days following the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and lasted until the end of the war in 1945. This extermination goal served to fulfill the German doctrine of Lebensraum, the purpose of which was the expansion of German living space at the expense of Slavic nations, including the deliberate destruction of the Polish people.

In this context, we must recall that on August 22, 1939, chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, ordered his commanders to murder “without pity or mercy, all men, women, and children of Polish descent or language.”  On March 15, 1940, the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, stated that “all Poles will disappear from this world. It is imperative that the great German volk consider the elimination of all Polish people as its chief task.”

The German state has not undertaken a comprehensive settlement of reparations and compensation for the deliberate destruction of the Polish state, the immense loss of life, and suffering endured by millions of Polish citizens. Poland is estimated to have lost at least 5.2 million of its citizens murdered by the Germans during World War II. By the end of the war, about 2.8 million Polish citizens had been deported to Germany for forced labor, about 2 million had been forcibly evicted from their homes, and about 1 million had been imprisoned in concentration camps and other detention facilities; and

It is also important to remember that during the first days of the heroic Polish Warsaw Uprising, the German army carried out a systemic, genocidal, and most brutal operation in the Wola district of Warsaw, which led to the murder of an estimated 50,000 civilians—men, women, and children. This murderous carnage, known as the Wola Massacre, was never punished through any judicial action. These atrocities carried out in Wola serve as a stark symbol of the heinous and brutal acts committed by German occupying forces, yet represent only one example of the widespread and systemic violence inflicted across occupied Polish territory between 1939 and 1945; and

We must be aware that Germany has provided compensation to nearly 70 countries, including an estimated $250 billion to Holocaust victims of World War II and, more recently, a $1.2 billion settlement with Namibia for colonial-era atrocities, but has effectively ignored Poland.

Regarding the aforementioned facts, the Coalition of Polish Americans would like to urge the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to immediately commit to a comprehensive program of reparations and compensation to Poland for the devastation and losses brought by the German occupation during World War II, including compensation for the families and heirs of the victims.

Germany should commit funds towards the creation of a memorial in Berlin honoring the Polish victims of the German occupation during World War II, and a memorial in Warsaw dedicated to the victims of the Wola Massacre that would serve as an international acknowledgment of the murder of approximately 50,000 civilians in Wola. These memorial projects shall receive the approval of the Presidents of both the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany.

We call for the creation of a Joint Commission for the Return of Lost Art and Artifacts to assist Poland in recovering artworks and historical documentation looted during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945. The Commission should be funded by the German state and staffed by qualified experts designated by the Presidents of both countries.  The Commission must affirm the principle that looted art can never lawfully become the property of the thief, nor be transferred through inheritance, and ensure that individuals or entities dealing in art looted during World War II should be prosecuted and face criminal penalties.

And finally, and most importantly, the Coalition of Polish Americans calls on Germany to sign a peace treaty with Poland, officially recognizing Poland’s western borders. The territories transferred to Poland after World War II were part of the finalized war settlement intended to compensate Poland for the loss of its eastern territories to the Soviet Union, a loss made possible by the Ribbentrop–Molotov pact that allied Germany with the Soviet Union and led to their joint invasion of Poland in September 1939. Therefore, these territory transfers cannot be construed as compensation for the destruction, atrocities, and material losses inflicted upon Poland and its people during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945.

The post Call for German Reparations to Poland for WWII crimes! appeared first on Polonia Institute.

by  Zbigniew WOJCIK, Polonia Institute

The call to freeze German assets to pay WWII reparations to Poland.

The Meaning of German Leadership in Europe. Russia’s assets were frozen recently by Western countries because of the atrocities Russians committed during the war in Ukraine, 2022-2024. During WWII, Germans committed much more terrible atrocities on Polish citizens and in much greater numbers. Western societies should consider freezing German assets invested in their countries to pay delinquent German reparations because Germany officially refuses the responsibility. Poland demands $1.3T WWII reparations from Germany.

Instead of freezing Germany’s assets to enforce payments of WWII reparations to Poland, the UE blocked paying Poland funds due to COVID-19 pandemic damages, and EU cohesion funds to raise the standard of living in poorer regions. Poland‘s development was slowed by tremendous destruction by Germany during WWII.

German imperialism.

Nazi was a political National Socialist German Workers’ Party [20] created before WWII.  Nazi was de facto a political platform of German imperialism, as the assaultiveness of this country has been observed for over eight centuries, evidenced by “Drang Nach Osten” (19th-century German nationalist intent to expand Germany into Slavic territories of Central and Eastern Europe) and earlier “Northern Crusades” [2] (medieval 12th to 13th-century military expeditions). Germans created NAZI and made it prevalent in the nation, enriching antisemitism and anti-Polonism. Nazi’s principles, goals, and positions on domestic and foreign affairs were in line with German imperialism.

Germans show their caution against repeating history in a peculiar way.

Protests are organized in Germany against the intent to deport millions of immigrants. [7] “People traveled from across Germany to attend Saturday’s [Feb. 2024] protest, saying they felt it was important to be there in order to show their opposition to racism and caution against repeating history.” [7] If  Germans are indeed against repeating history, they should rather pay overdue reparations to Poland. Neo-Nazi politicians are considered far-right in Germany. The leftists support immigrants instead of discouraging the repetition of Germany’s history.  Slogans appeared during pro-democratic demonstrations in Germany such as “Never Again is Now,” “Against Hate” and “Defend Democracy.”[8]

Support of costly illegal immigration in Germany may be missing the target of “caution against repeating history’ and “Never Again” as German politicians reject paying Poland the reparations for WWII. Leftist German leadership created the above slogans to spread leftist propaganda and direct efforts of protesting Germans toward misleading causes. Millions of victims of German atrocities in Poland would definitely prefer financial payments to the Polish country as some form of compensation for all the unimaginable crimes committed by Germans during WWII instead of listening to fake leftist propaganda. Preparations for leftist demonstrations are very costly and time-consuming, and do nothing positive for the “Never Again”  movement, as far as repeating the imperialistic history of  Germany’s failures to win through their atrocities against humanity.

Germany supports leftist/post-communist politicians in the EU, e.g. Donald Tusk in Poland.

Germans installed oppressive Donald Tusk’s regime in Poland.

‘The Polish President Andrzej Duda [on January 2024] criticized the European Commission (EC) for blocking EU funds in what he said had been “an attempt to force Poland to change” its government’ [11]. President Duda did not want to accept EU law as superior to the Constitution of Poland.  The new pro-EU government in Poland, led by Donald Tusk since Dec 13, 2023, has pledged to regain access to the funds the EU did not want to release to the conservative government of Poland.

Fig.1. Hostile gesture of the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, towards the friend of Poland, the U.S. President, Donald Trump. Angela Merkel watches the situation (on the left in a green jacket). Picture of the author’s TV taken when playing a Polish TV Republika channel

Because of his false promises, Tusk gained a lot of supporters.  This is a perfect example of German imperialism, as the European Commission with German President, Ursula von der Layen, extended its power by gaining political and economic control [12] of Poland and loudly expressed her support for Tusk. Tusk expressed his hostility towards America by shooting his fingers into the back of President Donald Trump and clearly wanted the German top politician Angela Merkel to notice his act, see Fig.1.

The control of Poland by hostile Germany is historically brutal, especially during WWII. These competition essays remind the atrocities of German imperialism during WWII, which, unfortunately, started to resume nowadays, and German politicians still do not feel responsible for actively practicing their imperialism on Poland and Poles.

 An example is the brutality committed by the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, derided by the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Poland as a “servant of Berlin” [9] and by Tusk’s top hitman, Adam Bodnar, the Minister of Justice in Poland. The Polish Priest Michal Olszewski was accused of receiving money from the “Justice Fund” dedicated to helping victims of crimes and domestic abuse in Poland. The “funds were allocated following the procedures in Poland governing the use of the fund” to help the victims of crimes [4], so they were used according to rules. The Priest “was constantly urged to testify „something” [3] after arrest. He has been subjected to the “practices of denying water and toilet access’, which “have been classified as torture under the 1984 UN Convention against Torture [4]. The treatment of Priest Olszewski is “reminiscent of the communist era of repression in the 1950s’ in Poland under Soviet occupation”. The torture of the priest was ordered to be kept secret.[5]

Torturing Priest Olszewski by Tusk’s regime also reminds the torturing of Father Popieluszko by communist Jaruzelski’s regime under the Soviet occupation of Poland in 1984 [19].  There were “more than 3,000 priests martyred in Poland under the Nazi and Communist regimes which dominated the country from 1939-1989.” [3] Tusk’s regime continues torturing Polish priests as a way to suppress Polish patriotism.  For his commitment to “European [read: German] understanding”, Tusk was awarded a special German prize in September 2024. [3]  Adam Bodnar, the top Tusk minister, was sent to Germany to accept the prize on behalf of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Tusk selected tricky people for his regime government.

Adam Bodnar, today Prosecutor General of the  Ministry of Justice in the Tusk government of Poland, was the Ombudsman in Poland and a member of the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation in the past [18]. Polish Bishop Antoni Długosz asked Bodnar: “You publicly defended the murderer of a 10-year-old girl, deploring the handcuffs and night-time interrogation… Why did the handcuffs on a child murderer bother you but not the handcuffs on an arrested priest?” [6]  “The Częstochowa bishop also spoke about the torture to which the priest [Olszewski] was subjected while in custody and about the rejection of requests to visit his family or religious superior.”

Propaganda supporting “German leadership in the EU.”

Propaganda supporting the need for terrifying activities of the Tusk regime in Poland was carefully prepared, as Tusk was also the Prime Minister of Poland several years earlier. In 2022, it was clear that Donald Tusk would likely win the executive power in Poland in the next elections, and he was trusted in Germany to do the job. So, the necessity of using an oppressive regime like Tusk’s regime in Poland had to be supported earlier by German-directed propaganda so that Tusk would win the election.

For example, research papers in high-level research journals prepared Poles, Europeans, and the world to see Tusk as a rescuer no matter what atrocities he commits, e.g., paper [10]. It is very far-going propaganda, and perhaps naive researchers publishing scientific papers are not a match to ruthless and cynical politicians.  See the propaganda [10] excerpt: “On 25 July 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) communicated a new round of 37 cases filed against Poland based on complaints that the right to a fair trial envisaged in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been violated because Polish courts no longer met the standards of independent tribunals established under the law…”

As presented above and specifically in [10], German leadership in Europe brings impressive propaganda to positively characterize planned atrocities to be committed by “servants of Berlin.”  Propaganda becomes visible before the atrocities appear to be seen as very positive and even patriotic to average citizens, and not ugly.

German imperialistic spirit

German imperialistic spirit is best represented by the genocide of Poles during the Warsaw Uprising of Aug. 1, 1945. Because of the overwhelming retreat on the eastern front, Germans could attempt to stop the Russians by immediately withdrawing from Warsaw and leaving arms and ammunition inside the city. The Polish Home Army would get the power to withstand the Soviets, which would enormously complicate the relationships inside the Allies block because of the Polish army fighting with the Allies in the West of  Europe. Polish Home Army fighting against the Soviets in Warsaw would stop the Red Army going toward Berlin. Many more German civilians would survive WWII because the Western Front would get more time to reach even Berlin, and maybe the German capital would not be destroyed so entirely by the Soviets.

Instead of focusing on their own survival, Germans preferred murdering hundreds of thousands more Poles in Warsaw and leaving mounds upon mounds of human corpses. If Germany does not pay Poland the reparations for WWII, they will continue their genocides as German people today do not know what their predecessors were doing in the past.

My uncles told me an unfortunate story about Germans pushed west by Russian forces at the end of WWII. Poles were forced to dig defensive tranches for the German troops occupying territory near Sochaczew. After the Soviets came in, these tranches were filled with naked human corpses. Most of them were likely Germans because nobody knew these dead people. The explanation is that these dead Germans did not manage to evacuate ahead of time, trusting German propaganda. The corpses were robbed of everything because of a complete shortage of everything in the territories occupied by Germany. If not for German imperialism, there would not be tranches full of German corpses in Poland. What is a better way to tell Germans they are repeating their history? Paying reparations for mistakes is better than being terrible victims again of the errors of imperialistic politicians.

The unification of Germany was likely a mistake.

During my interviews with U.S. intelligence in 1986/86 I recommended the unification of East and West Germany into one country. [17] Poles worked with foreign intelligence when Poland was not a sovereign country or independent at the time of WWI; see, e.g., the activities of Dmowski and Piłsudski when they fought for the independence of Poland. WWII reparations were on the table during the Cold War when I was talking to the CIA officers and Germany started to pay them to Israel. At that time, in the 1980s, the collapse of the Soviet Block would not have recreated the monster “Leader of Europe” if Germany had been occupied with paying WWII reparations, also to Poland.  We hoped that unified Germany would continue the well-played mission of West Germany to oppose considerable Russian power in the future.

Unfortunately, under today’s “German leadership” in the EU, the Constitution of the Republic of Poland is no longer superior to UE laws [1] as seen by Germany, and Poland is no longer treated as a sovereign country of Europe. The real problem is with Western politicians who made Germany militarily weak.  Together with other West-European countries [13], Germany does not protect Europe [15], and the top German politicians used to collaborate with Russia, e.g. chancellors of Germany Gerhard Schröder [14] and Angela Merkel [16]. Close cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 led to WWII. Therefore, our essays describing the atrocities committed by Germans during WWII are crucial to prevent history from repeating. What more can we do?

Conclusion

Given the tricky murderous activities of the Tusk regime taking place in Poland under the “German leadership,” a reminder in the form of historical essays about German crimes during WWII is essential. Germany’s unification after the collapse of the Soviet Bloc did not bring the expected mission of big Germany opposing much greater Russian power. Instead, close collaboration between Germany and Russia appeared, which in the past led to the burst of WWII, followed by the extermination of people on an industrial scale, see the essays.

Bringing a neighboring country, Poland, under German control, similar to the annexation of neighbors by Hitler before WWII, is a fact: the Tusk regime was installed in Poland.  The long-lasting torture of the Polish priest Olszewski by the Tusk regime is a fact. Tortures make an enormous impression: people will be afraid to oppose Germans. Sophisticated propaganda in support of the Tusk regime is a fact; see papers like [10]. German propaganda was also very impressive before WWII erupted. The predecessors of the Tusk regime in Poland possibly made mistakes, but torturing a priest is a too-far-going escalation.

Also, millions of Germans were killed during  WWI and WWI as a result of German imperialistic politics, and despite this experience, Germany turned imperialistic again. Our essays should be recommended in Germany for reading in all schools. “German leadership” in Europe is a wrong political platform.

It is still time to fight German imperialism by: i. letting people know about German NAZI as a platform, having a new platform as “German leadership in Europe” today, and first of all, ii. forcing Germany to pay WWII reparations to Poland, the country suffering the most because of German atrocities. Our 2023 essays describing German atrocities are timely and valid given the resumption of German imperialism through the support for the Tusk regime.  Stabilization of the center of Europe through the friendship and presence of the U.S. in Poland is necessary [17], and not by depriving Poland of sovereignty through the aggressive “German leadership” in the E.U. Reparations paid to Poland would build more substantial territory between two imperia: Russia and Germany and prevent WWIII, as the two countries fought WWI and WWII.

References:

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/08/world/poland-court-eu-treaties-ruling-intl/index.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drang_nach_Osten

[3] https://wpolityce.pl/facts-from-poland/697607-60-hours-of-hell-or-fr-olszewskis-letter-from-jail

[4] https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/07/allegations-of-priests-torture-in-custody-outrage-poland/

[5] https://www.radiomaryja.pl/informacje/ks-bp-a-dlugosz-w-obronie-ks-m-olszewskiego-panie-ministrze-bodnar-dlaczego-pan-milczy/

[6] https://niezalezna.pl/polska/kosciol/glos-kosciola-ws-ks-olszewskiego-biskup-pyta-bezposrednio-bodnara-dlaczego-teraz-pan-milczy/526489

[7] https://apnews.com/article/germany-afd-far-right-protests-bundestag-berlin-90d8497434a424ded198ce3d6d5fabb9

[8] https://apnews.com/article/germany-far-right-protests-extremism-afd-747b80d0865a22679aea02ac3aa7ef75

[9] https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/tusk-cancels-trip-to-germany-amid-deteriorating-relations/

[10] ANNA ADAMSKA – GALLANT, “Backsliding of the Rule of Law in Poland – a Systemic Problem With the Independence of Courts, International Journal For Court Administration”,  Dec 2022. https://iacajournal.org/articles/474/files/638de114b92e9.pdf

[11] https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/polish-president-criticizes-eus-executive-for-blocking-funds/article67762769.ece

[12]  https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism

[13] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/alarm-grows-over-weakened-militaries-and-empty-arsenals-in-europe/ar-AA1liSDK

[14] https://www.dw.com/en/putin-and-schr%C3%B6der-a-special-german-russian-friendship/a-55219973

[15] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60155002

[16] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/08/world/europe/angela-merkel-russia-putin.html

[17] Zbigniew Wojcik, “Slaying the Soviet Beast. … WHAT NEXT”, Liberty Hills, 2019.

***
See also Introduction to the Winning Essays by the Jury Member Zbigniew Wójcik here:

https://poloniainstitute.net/competition-on-the-history-of-poland/2023-competition/the-meaning-of-german-leadership-in-europe/

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