President Wilson was against Germany having to pay for WW1. Didn't Germany just finish paying on that about ten years ago ? The Versailles treaty was too harsh on Germany IMO. Bad conditions are the breeding grounds for shitheads like Hitler.
The Germans had a generation of men slaughtered for it, the Russians starved and endured ethnic cleansings from multiple regimes, and neither country is led or commanded by the same groups behind the attempts at genocide.
I believe that the the highest crimes and most horrible atrocities can only be repaid through crucibles of blood and hardship. If a people can endure generations of both and still be held liable for crimes committed by men killed long ago, then will they every be allowed to move on? If you never allow your enemies to die, then it is inevitable that they will always be enemies.
Imposing harsh economic penalties is one of the most idiotic things you can do after conquering a country. This is repetitive throughout history and we are currently living in it right now. If the US spent $10 billion in the 1980's to build schools, roads, water systems and electrical grids throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan after our covert war, we'd have spared ourselves $2 trillion dollars as of now.
Yeah, every other year or so, a new guy from Poland surfaces claiming fantastic amounts from Germany. Just remember their president who wanted to reorganise the voting system of the EU towards the country with the most victims in WW2 should have the strongest vote? Poland for some reason can't get over it.
1945 it was agreed that the winners of WW2 were obliged to get their reparations from the sectors they had control over, which resulted in disassembly of entire industry parks which then were reassembled all over Russia and Poland. 1953, there was another chance to claim reparations, no hand was raised on their side. Now the war is almost 100 years passed, all Europe is in peace with each other for a period of time that wasn't imaginable all through history and Poland still is whining for German money. It's mostly fishing for votes, as in Poland it is very poular to be "anti-German", even though the two countries have very fruitful economy-connections& both countries are prospering
1945 it was agreed that the winners of WW2 were obliged to get their reparations from the sectors they had control over, which resulted in disassembly of entire industry parks which then were reassembled all over Russia and Poland. 1953, there was another chance to claim reparations, no hand was raised on their side. Now the war is almost 100 years passed, all Europe is in peace with each other for a period of time that wasn't imaginable all through history and Poland still is whining for German money. It's mostly fishing for votes, as in Poland it is very poular to be "anti-German", even though the two countries have very fruitful economy-connections& both countries are prospering