1w ago

New Polish president demands Germany pay war reparations on invasion anniversary

notesfrompoland.com

World News @lemmy.world

Davriellelouna @lemmy.world

1w ago

New Polish president demands Germany pay war reparations on invasion anniversary

notesfrompoland.com /2025/09/01/new-polish-president-demands-germany-pay-war-reparations-on-invasion-anniversary/

21 comments

Sounds very like playing to a particular audience and diverting attention to cultural issues rather dealing with issues of substance.
This man was endorsed by Donald Trump and Kristi Noem.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/28/g-s1-69278/noem-cpac-poland
That many Poles didn't see it and elected him saddens me : /
- An endorsement from Trump and anyone like him should be an automatic disqualifier.
  
  But in reality a huge part of the human population is insanely stupid and wants Trump and every likewise morons endorsed by him.
Wait, the new president? Isn't demanding reparations from Germany an election campaign thing?
- Polish right wing leaders do this at least once a year. Just like they love to blame everything on the EU while being it‘s strongest recipient.
Did they already bill Russia? The Soviets were as happy as the Nazis to invade Poland, it was the Red Army that destroyed most of the infrastructure later during the war, and the Soviets stole Galicia. Should be a solid claim.
And from Germany they already got Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia for compensation - including one of the two main industrial areas in Germany back then. Do they account for that?
- He is already on Russian payroll so he is satisfied :)
- What has Galicia, the Spaniard coastal autonomous community have anything to do with this?
  
  There is another.
  Edit: After WWII, Russia took polish lands east of the Curzon Line for itself, effectively keeping what it was promised through the Ribbenthrop-Molotov pact. Part of those lands was East Galicia.
- Galicia was majority Ukrainian. It's the Polish who stole it in the first place during the Soviet-Polish war.
  
  Yes, but no. Galicia was and is settled by Ukrainians, that's true. Politically, it never has been Moscovian until they conquered it in 1945. In the Middle Ages, it was disputed between the local Princes, the Kyivan Great Princes, the Polish kings, the Hungarian kings and the Mongol khans, changing hands every couple of decades. From 1387 until 1772 it was Polish, from 1772 till 1918 it was Austrian, 1918-1921 it was disputed between Poland, Ukraine and the Soviets, and from 1918\21-1945 again Polish.
  Following our modern theory of nation states, Galicia has to be Ukrainian, no doubt.
  If you start the stupid game of historical claims as these right wingers love to do, Poland has the strongest claim to Galicia. The point I tried to illustrate is the internal inconsistency of demanding reparations from Germany but not from Moscow.
  Poland has every right to demand reparations from both Germany and Moscow, and they already got them - sort of - from Germany.
Ah, this again.
Aaaaaand here we go again.
Germany already does, but in yearly installments.
- That's reparations for capitalism
Poland has elections again?
- Had

21 comments