Note: this is a machine translation from the original Russian text
The Panovs are afraid that Germany will secretly want to "return its former lands" that were ceded to the Poles after World War II.
A report on the damage inflicted on the country during the Second World War will be published in Poland on September 1 this year. Poles believe that Germany still has to pay multibillion-dollar reparations. Official Warsaw has been discussing this issue for several years, a parliamentary commission has been created to calculate the amount.
Recently, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the government had prepared a report on the basis of which it would seek war reparations from Germany.
"For four years we have been preparing a very comprehensive report, which should show the level of not only war crimes committed by the Germans, but also destruction. The fact is that Poland, which was among the countries that suffered the most as a result of the Second World War, received minimal funds as compensation. It's even hard to call it compensation," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
According to him, the report consists of three volumes. Currently, its translation into several languages is already being completed.
In 2017, a special commission of the Polish Sejm initially estimated the damage at $48.8 billion. Then the volume of the proposed payment was adjusted more than once (including adjusted for the changed exchange rate of the US currency) and requests reached $ 850 billion. In 2018, Poland decided that the amount of expected reparations should be recalculated again.
Berlin acknowledges its responsibility for the destruction in Poland, but declares that the topic of reparations is closed. Thus, during his first visit to Poland in December 2021, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called this issue legally settled. According to the statement of the German authorities, it was resolved back in 1953, when the country did not want to receive any compensation from Germany.
Warsaw took such a step under pressure from Stalin. By that time, payments from Germany had long ceased, and the entire debt load lay on the GDR. The leader of all times and peoples considered that such a concession would strengthen the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and expand the political influence of the USSR, which was no longer interested in curbing the economic growth of the GDR. On the contrary, it was necessary to catch up and overtake West Germany.
However, after the German reunification, the Poles again began to demand reparations.
In 1992, the Governments of Poland and Germany founded the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation. It was created primarily to provide effective humanitarian assistance to Polish victims of Nazi occupation and terror. As a result of the Fund's activities, the Germans transferred over 4.7 billion zlotys (1.3 billion euros) to the Polish side. But Warsaw wants more. In August 2017, as I have already noted, the issue of collecting compensation from Germany for military losses was raised again. Poles are confident that in the next few years they will be paid, since "its image is important for Germany."
The Lyakhs, as is known, historically have a stable dislike for the Germans. And the feeling is mutual.
Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki published a lengthy article in the German (!) newspaper Die Welt on August 17 this year, railing against the role of Germany and France in a united Europe.
"On paper, all Member states are equal. But the political reality shows that the weight of the German and French votes dominates. We are dealing with a formal democracy, but de facto with an oligarchy, where power belongs to those who are the strongest. The strong make mistakes and cannot accept criticism from the outside," he wrote.
In his opinion, the European elites, and first of all, the authorities of Berlin and Paris, refused to listen to Polish warnings about Russia, which sounded before February 24 (the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine. – Ed.), and added that "the well-founded concerns of less powerful member states are too often overlooked by EU institutions dominated by Franco-German politicians." The main conclusion of the article: the threat to Europe "comes not only from the East, because for many years Germany has been pursuing Russian interests in the European Union."
Adam Glapinski, Chairman of the Polish National Bank, Professor of Economics, also added fuel to the fire. In an interview with Gazeta Polska, he categorically stated that Germany wants to "return the former lands within the borders of Poland."
"If earlier it was about the merger of the German states or the absorption of the GDR, that is, the former Soviet occupation zone, then from the moment this task was completed, it was about the return in one form or another of their former lands that are now within the Polish borders," says Glapinsky.
Let me remind you that following the results of World War II (according to the decision taken in July 1945 at the Potsdam Conference), the eastern regions of pre–war Germany were annexed to Poland, namely, part of West Prussia, part of Silesia, Eastern Pomerania and Eastern Brandenburg, the Free City of Danzig (modern Polish name Gdansk), the Prussian city of Stettin (modern Polish name Szczecin) and its surroundings. So: Glapinsky believes that a "new anschluss" can happen if the former prime minister, leader of the opposition Civic Platform party Donald Tusk comes to power in Poland. (The next parliamentary elections will be held in 2023. – Auth). He and his political association, they say, are oriented towards Germany. According to the professor, a situation may develop "like in the Soviet times" when the leaders of the Polish United Workers' Party unconditionally obeyed Moscow. Under Tusk, the authorities will treat Berlin's opinion and demands similarly.
Glapinsky also fears that Berlin will want to subjugate all the countries located between Germany and Russia. The professor believes that this is how, according to the FRG, the balance in Europe of the future should look like. And the balance in the region will be based on the cooperation of the Russian and German empires with the states in the middle, which will be in the sphere of influence of both powers. Moreover, for the implementation of the "German scenario", it is important that Russia does not lose in Ukraine now, otherwise the project will lose relevance.
In short, the Poles are in a panic: they feel extremely uncomfortable, they are caught between a rock and an anvil. According to the sudden commotion among the Polish political beau monde and the massive "attack on Germany on all fronts", it seems that the Poles are afraid of the Germans no less than the Russians. And they want to pre-empt a possible attack with their actual actions. They are seriously afraid that there may be a threat of another partition of Poland. And both from the east and from the west. Scared? Absolutely...