Live data from Hacker News

Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

axios.com

41–50 of 107 posts

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#41

I would not read into it much more than international policy for internal propaganda. They know it's not gonna succeed. Why do they come up with this right now? Their poll ratings are slipping, following Odra river ecological disaster and huge inflation - and these are only their latest screwups. Many social groups traditionally in favor of PiS are becoming mad at the government. They have their "iron electorate" tha…

They didn't come up with this now. The report has been in the works for years.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#44
post #41

I would not read into it much more than international policy for internal propaganda. They know it's not gonna succeed. Why do they come up with this right now? Their poll ratings are slipping, following Odra river ecological disaster and huge inflation - and these are only their latest screwups. Many social groups traditionally in favor of PiS are becoming mad at the government. They have their "iron electorate" tha…

They didn't come up with this now. The report has been in the works for years.

The same group presented a report asking for $1tn in 2019. They come up with this whenever they need a distraction or same angry voters.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember when France paid even more in 1815 and 1871 and didn't went on a genocidal rampage on their neighbors? I don't know that I'd say that, like I who to blame for WWI is a very contentious subject and ultimately I'd say that the blame does rest on the German leaders, including the Kasier and German General Staff, but to pretend France has no culpability is a little disingenuous. I'd say that WWI was pretty muc…

the germans are absolutely not responsible for ww1 at all, it was a war between austria-hungary and serbia that russia entered into. it was a chain reaction of treaties. the only one germany 100% caused unneeded trouble for was belgium. As for both world wars, france has a habit of pushing germany to fight because they get to arrogant. Furthermore france actually did go on a genocidal bent right after ww2 in algeria,…

Germany caused both world wars. Germany explicitly gave AH a blank cheque to invade Serbia, knowing that this would draw Russia and France into the war. They wanted a war with Russia then because they knew Russia was rearming.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#46
post #5

How does one decide which countries owe reparations? Poland could equally demand reparations from Russia [1], as could most of Eastern Europe, while South-Eastern Europe could demand reparations from Turkey. Yet one never sees headlines about those. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_Poland_annexed_...

Poland is in a row with the EU, that's why they are asking money IMHO. They have other kind of problems with Russia. Furthermore I think that they have little expectations about Russia paying reparations. They'll get laughs instead, at best.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#47
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember when France paid even more in 1815 and 1871 and didn't went on a genocidal rampage on their neighbors?

> The last payment of the indemnity was paid in early September 1873 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity Not sure you're comparing apples with apples here.

The French indemnity was $342B in 2011 dollars, according to Wikipedia. The Versailles reparations were formally $389B in 2011 dollars, but apparently the way the treaty was structured, only $147B were actually expected to be paid.

The difference was that the French paid promptly, and the Germans did not.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#48

The Polish government is being pulled in a few interesting directions. For instance, as of 20 Sep, 2021: Poland must pay a daily penalty of €500,000 ($585,550) for ignoring a previous order from the European Union’s top court to cease operations at the Turow lignite mine, with its CEO slamming the fine as “bizarre”. On Monday, the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) confirmed it was enforcing the financial penalty against W…

> Poland is widely hated by its neighbors I'd say, "the current right-wing government is widely hated by most of its citizens." The mine case was just one of the many cases when they showed their glaring incompetence. I mean, they could have solved the problem a long time ago but by their arrogance decided to ignore it, then the case went to court and they had to do it anyway and pay a nice sum of money. Everybody is…

Regardless of your position on the government the coal mine must stay open to preserve energy independence for Poland

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#49

The Polish government is being pulled in a few interesting directions. For instance, as of 20 Sep, 2021: Poland must pay a daily penalty of €500,000 ($585,550) for ignoring a previous order from the European Union’s top court to cease operations at the Turow lignite mine, with its CEO slamming the fine as “bizarre”. On Monday, the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) confirmed it was enforcing the financial penalty against W…

So it looks like this mine produces coal which I am assuming is used for power generation. Don't know if I can blame them for not shutting it down while the message coming from the rest of Europe is that everyone's going to be doing an IRL game of Frostpunk this winter.

This was before the Russian energy crisis. Poland refused to give up energy independence.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Poland is widely hated by its neighbors I'd say, "the current right-wing government is widely hated by most of its citizens." The mine case was just one of the many cases when they showed their glaring incompetence. I mean, they could have solved the problem a long time ago but by their arrogance decided to ignore it, then the case went to court and they had to do it anyway and pay a nice sum of money. Everybody is…

Regardless of your position on the government the coal mine must stay open to preserve energy independence for Poland

I have no problems with the mine but with how the case was handled. I
Post reply on HN