Hacker News Reader

Comment by jleyank | Hacker News Reader

Geopolitics is strange. I assume Poland is also asking Russia for a similar amount as both Germany and the USSR invaded Poland in 1939? I also assume Poland is willing to pony up a fair slug of money to reimburse Germany for the territory seized when Poland was shoved bodily westward during/after WW II? And will the USSR reimburse Poland or return the lands it took during this "shove"?

Sounds to me than Germany and Poland can call it even with the $$ for reparations going to pay for the stolen land. This leaves Poland and Russia to settle matters. Perhaps the Warsaw Pact had something to add to that equation?

Map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_changes_of_Poland_...

View on HN

During war the land is not "stolen". That's absurd idea on it's own.

Also Poland did not even have any say in how it borders looked like after WW2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference

Well, fine.

I'm curious though. Is Poland asking for reparations from both of the countries that invaded it together, or from one? And what's it asking on behalf of the areas/population in the easternmost parts of Poland (which were invaded and are not part of Poland now) and the westermost (which weren't invaded but are part of Poland now)?

Oh, wait, there's another corner.

German and the Soviet Union allied to attack Poland (and start WW2). They invaded together, then Germany occupied roughly the western half and the Soviet Union the eastern half. Later, German attacked the Soviet Union on Polish soil and eventually on Russian soil.

What reparations are Poland asking for that that part? Is is asking Germany for reparations for the civilians who died and the cities that burned when Germany attacked on the Red Army in Poland?

Poland has historical problems with this claim...

The Historians Under Attack for Exploring Poland’s Role in the Holocaust

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-historians...

That's all propaganda spread and sponsored by groups that were hoping to make money on it (as often is the case with stuff like this).

Obviously there were cases of injustice and violence against Jews from the hands of Poles - tensions between different religious and national groups back then were nothing uncommon and we're talking about uneducated peasants in a pre-industrial environment, under horrendous situation of 5 year long war, and pressure from German occupants. There were case of violence between all sort of groups eg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacres_of_Poles_in_Volhynia...

The idea that Poles as a nation are guilty of some general crime against Jews, where they were the ones dying in the same concentration camps, built and run by the Germans, and trying to help Jews on organized institutional level is simply absurd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%BBegota

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising#Polish

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler

Reply on news.ycombinator.com