The Reparations Chatter

 Poland has decided to hand a reparations 'bill' over to Germany....as of today.  The amount that they feel that Germans owe them?  1.3-trillion Euro.

Naturally, the German response has been mostly 'nein, danke'. 

So, lets reflect back to what happened after WW II.

First, Germany had to agree to hand over around 40,000 square miles of German soil....to Poland.  What'd this amount to?  Looking at a map, it's about one-third of what Poland has for land today.

In this brief period....around 10-million German civilians were given the exit-card....they were not to stay in Poland at that point.

Some private groups have done numbers and even in the past decade....there's been estimates for property damage from the war....totaling around 1.5-billion Euro, which the Poles say should have been paid.

Why didn't Poland ever get paid for damages?  Well...an odd thing in 1953 occurred where the national leadership of Poland....with a 'push' by Soviet leaders....said they didn't want West German or East German 'blood' money.  

Will this turn into a EU matter?  I would imagine they are sitting in Brussels and just grinning ear to ear presently over the trillion-Euro matter.  

The problem here....about every three to five years....German politicians find someone that they feel that they hurt (Namibia, the Munich Olympics participants from Israel, the gypsy folks, gays from old East Germany, etc)....then hustle up another reparations fund.  The Poles probably have a fairly decent case here....but 1.3-trillion Euro?  It'll never happen.

My humble view?  The Germans basically have to shut up and not criticize the Poles on anything....otherwise the reparations chatter will start up.  Even if you suggested something could be on the table.....it's nowhere near that 1.3-trillion number.  I'd be guessing that some ten-year pay-out might occur eventually (say by 2030), and it'd amount to 20 billion each year.  But Germans will go ballistic about how WW II seeps still into their lives and gets more blame dumped up them.

All of this....to hang a 'nazi-tag' on German leadership?  More or less.

Poland population today, compared to Germany?  Germany has 83-million, and Poland around 37.5-million..

On size?  Germany is only about 14-percent bigger in terms of land mass.....so Poland is fairly rural in nature and less populated.

Some people will say....since WW II action, the Communist years....that rural Poland hasn't changed much in 75 years.  So 1.3-trillion might go and resolve that image (at least in their mind).