Auf Deutsch: ACHTHUNDERT MILLIARDEN (Hans-Rüdiger Minow, GFP 20.7.2020)
Mehrere hundert Abgeordnete des Deutschen Bundestags haben in Warschau größere
Baumaßnahmen vor. Die überparteiliche Formation reicht von rechts bis links und
diskutiert deutsche Pläne zur Umgestaltung der polnischen Hauptstadt. In den
1940er Jahren - überall tobte Krieg - war sie zerstört worden. Endlich könne
Warschau wieder verschönert werden: mit historischem Fingerspitzengefühl und
deutschem Geld aus einem "Polen-Fonds". Erörtert wird in Berlin die
Wiedererrichtung eines riesigen Barockschlosses, des "Pałac Saski" aus dem
Warschau des 18. Jahrhunderts. Es würde an das Königreich Polen erinnern: als
Polen unter sächsischer Herrschaft stöhnte ("Sachsen-Polen") - eine ernst
gemeinte Idee aus dem Fundus deutscher Polen-Institute. In Warschau haben sich
demnach auch Museen und Bibliotheken auf umfangreiche Baumaßnahmen
einzustellen. Mit Mitteln des "Polen-Fonds" würden sie erweitert werden, um
Platz für Kulturgüter aus der Bundesrepublik zu schaffen. In größeren Mengen
und teilweise schon seit mehreren Jahrhunderten lagern sie in Deutschland, da
leider in Polen abhanden gekommen, als auf "Sachsen-Polen" noch ganz andere
Regime deutscher Herrschaft folgten. Sie überführten das polnische Kulturerbe
bei Nacht und Nebel nach Berlin, quasi um es vor Raub und Zerstörung zu
bewahren. Allerdings würden die polnischen Artefakte deutsches Eigentum bleiben
und den Warschauer Museen nur leihweise zur Verfügung gestellt werden können,
heißt es einfühlsam in der deutschen Hauptstadt ...
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/8339/
https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/detail/8342/
Eight Hundred Billion
A large coalition of German parliamentary parties offers charity to Poland.
Commentary by Hans-Rüdiger Minow
20 July 2020
Several hundred members of the German Bundestag are planning major construction
projects in Warsaw. The non-partisan group of German parliamentarians - ranging
from right to left - is discussing transformation plans for the Polish capital,
which had been destroyed in the 1940s, when war was raging everywhere. Warsaw
could finally be embellished with historical sensitivity and German money from
a "Poland Fund." Berlin is discussing the reconstruction of Warsaw's huge 18th
century Baroque palace, the "Pałac Saski" in reminiscence of the Kingdom of
Poland, when Poland was moaning under the reign of the Saxons ("Saxony Poland")
- a serious proposal from the portfolio of Germany's Poland institutes.
Therefore, Warsaw's museums and libraries must also expect wide-ranging
construction measures. They would be expanded, with means from the "Poland
Fund," to make room for cultural goods from Germany, where they have been
stored in greater quantities - some already for several centuries. They had
unfortunately disappeared from Poland, when "Saxony Poland" had been succeeded
by quite varying regimes under German domination. Poland's cultural heritage
had been transferred to Berlin in a cloak-and-dagger operation, supposedly to
safeguard it from theft and destruction. The Polish artifacts would, however,
remain German property and only loaned out to Warsaw's museums, as was so
caringly suggested in the Germany capital.
"Culture of Commemoration"
German money and measures of a quite different nature would have been
appropriate in a suburb of Warsaw, as long as the people - whose records are
stored there - were still alive. Archives of nearly 500,000 Polish citizens -
documents with photos and life stories are piled up to the ceiling on several
floors in a dusty hall. Of course, that hall is not a suitable venue for the
Germany's "Poland Fund." These archives contain applications of former slave
laborers, who, in their later years, were hoping for supplementary pay for
their years of suffering at the hands of German companies. Only few received
reparations. In 2006, Berlin shut its coffers, whose temporary opening had been
imposed by the US Special Advisor Stuart Eizenstat - against the resistance of
the Schröder-Fischer government and despite the German industry's threats to
object. The Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future," which paid out
financial aid for a limited period of time, turned into an indulgence agency,
into which Siemens, Bosch or Bahlsen paid crumbs, labeled "donations" to avoid
lawsuits by surviving Nazi victims in the USA. The protests of Eastern European
victims' associations were to no avail. A non-partisan group of German
Bundestag parliamentarians, the Foreign and Finance ministries sanctioned a
process they called "legal peace for the German economy." This is the same
interest group that is now planning in 2020 to pursue a baroque "culture of
commemoration" in Warsaw, rather than pay Germany's debts.
"Anti-German Resentments"
Whoever calls these debts by their name, instead of shifting the historical
setting, must be wary of the long arm of Germany's foreign policy. When in
2007, a new edition of the report on the damage caused by the terror of German
occupation was published in Warsaw, an authentic source from the immediate
aftermath of the war; the initiators, in opposition to the government, were
immediately fired. The CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation's subsidiary
in Poland, which had maintained the best relations to the Polish government, at
the time, discovered that the Warsaw publication contained "anti-German
resentments" and "conspiracy theories." A similar maneuver was repeated on a
broader scale in early July 2020. Again, "anti-German resentments" and
"conspiracy theories" were used by the pro-government German media to take
Poland's conservative candidate to task. The media praised his opponent as a
beacon of hope for "Europe" and a "hero" (Süddeutsche Zeitung), because he was
skeptical about the demand for German reparations. The country's foreign
ministry summoned Germany's ambassador and confronted him with these massive
media attempts to influence the elections. Since then, Germany's pro-government
media's outrage has become even more blaring. This is about a lot of money. It
is not merely about Poland.
Seventeen Percent
The 1947 calculation - mentioned in the documentation - of the amount of damage
caused by the terror of German occupation, would amount to US $850 billion in
current buying power. One would rather not ask how the more than 5 million
Polish civilian victims had been calculated into that sum. That was approx. 17
percent of the Polish population at the time. These numbers are outrageous.
Each human life lost rules out a balance being struck. Every single one is
priceless. It cannot be paid for, and revived through payment. However, the
loss, inflicted upon the survivors, is a value that extends beyond their period
of mourning. It is passed on to the descendents. They have the right to
quantify that loss. The situation In Poland stinks to high heavens.
Too Many
In spite of the undeniable German terror, the heirs of the governmental
culprits in Berlin declare they will never pay reparations. This refusal has
persisted throughout Germany's post-war history and is aimed at protecting the
Nazi period's material German heritage, while its ideological is being
preserved. The refusal is being adorned with political, judicial, and even
economic excuses, which are all the more repulsive, because they seek to lay
claim to the losses, the dead, whose amount would be too exorbitant to ever be
compensated for. The heirs of the murderers take advantage of the crime's
magnitude. Had there been fewer victims, reparations could have been discussed.
But there were simply too many. You understand: 850 billion is simply too much.
Who is supposed to pay?
"Commemoration Sites"
Germany's foreign and economic policy's murderous potentials are being
supported by Germans, who consider the murderousness immoral that could be
handled either morally or pragmatically, for example, with a "Poland Fund." Why
argue about reparations, when that money could otherwise be provided, for
example for Warsaw's Baroque palace or for a "commemoration site" in Berlin?
Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and Manuel Sarrazin (The Greens) are in agreement with
Katja Kipping (The Left) on the "commemoration site" for Poland. A memorial in
Berlin would also suffice. For years, historians have been working on such a
"commemoration site," such as for the Italian victims of German terror, who
have never received reparations. A bilateral commission was established and the
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs was allowed to accept the commission's
report - while Germany was bringing a lawsuit against those among the Italian
victims, who were not to be fobbed off with merely "commemoration sites" and
insist on payment of Germany's debts. Germany's victims who insist on
reparations are being dragged into international courts, because Berlin - in
spite of its mass crimes - considers itself to be "immune." "Commemoration
sites," as a substitute, are intended to give the impression that guilt and
debts have been redeemed.
Undermined
The significance these "commemoration sites" have for Germany's political
self-image is demonstrated in the current example of the "commemoration site"
for the Romani people located in Berlin. Because it stands in the way of the
Deutsche Bahn's planned S-Bahn (commuter train) route, it will be barricaded
off with planks and hollowed out underground, of course, for its own
protection. The function of cheap German commemorations sites cannot be more
vividly demonstrated. The commemoration is being undermined and surrendered to
economic interests of the heirs of the culprits, rather than being the
inviolable property of the victims.
The Right to Demand
Poland will not escape this devaluation, if it accepts the Berlin memorial and
a "Poland Fund," as surrogates for reparations. Poland needs no charity from
Berlin, neither does Italy nor Greece. They all have the right to mourn their
losses, to quantify these and to demand restitution of what has been taken from
them in values - in values that are tangible for the culprits' heirs.
As far as Poland is concerned, in monetary terms, the debt that must be paid is
€800 billion.
