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THE AUTHORITIES OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF POLAND AND THE REPARATIONS AND COMPENSATIONS PAID BY THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY IN 1953-1989

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Jarzabek W.

Dzieje Najnowsze

2005

issue 2

85-103

According to the so-called Potsdam Convention, Poland was to receive reparations from a total granted to the Soviet Union; in return for a transference of the reparation payments, Moscow imposed upon Warsaw supplies of lower priced coal, and then, by suspending the reparations paid by the German Democratic Republic, it de facto left the Poles with no choice. Consequently, Poland was forced to follow the Soviet example, and in August 1953 issued a declaration in which, referring to the East German-Soviet protocol regulating the question of payments, she resigned from the remaining part of the reparations. The Polish authorities never treated the declaration of August 1953 as tantamount to a resignation from all payments, and counted on the fact that the whole reparation question would be ultimately regulated in a peace treaty to be signed with Germany. For this purpose, they collected material documenting assorted losses, and closely observed the individual reparations for citizens of other states. After the Polish authorities signed a Convention on the Foundations for the Normalisation of Relations (December 1970) they presented the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with reparation postulates, treated as a humanitarian issue and combined with a campaign intent on rejoining families. Reparations also became one of the prime topics discussed in bilateral talks. The RFG presented its legal stand, in accordance with which Poland had resigned from all reparations already in 1953, and in 1969, in accordance with domestic legislation, it ceased examining individual claims. In accordance with West German legislation, such claims could have been formulated only by citizens of the Federal Republic and those states with which Bonn maintained diplomatic relations. In other words, they excluded Polish citizens, since Poland and West Germany did not establish diplomatic relations until 1972. Aware of the fact that a suitable convention with Poland would have set into motion a veritable avalanche of claims, West Germany refused all reparations, the only exception being the victims of pseudo-medical experiments. Certain reparations for assorted victims of the Third Reich policy were obtained after 1989.

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1 Dzieje Najnowsze

1 Jarzabek W.

1 2005

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THE AUTHORITIES OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF POLAND AND THE REPARATIONS AND COMPENSATIONS PAID BY THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY IN 1953-1989