Bialystok councillors have prepared a draft resolution in which they request Germany to compensate for the demolition of war throughout the country, especially in Białystok. They are based on papers – calculations of war losses that the communist authorities ordered to carry out to offices across the country. These calculations were made in 1944 – 50 and are stored in state archives.
During planet War II, Poland suffered the biggest individual and material losses. Most of the losses occurred during the German occupation. For political reasons, however, it was not estimated that the Polish state suffered material losses as a consequence of the Red Army's activity in 1939-1945 and the actual business of territories located within the borders of the Second Poland by the russian Union.
As early as 1945, the alleged War School Inspectorate was organized at each provincial office, in addition to lectures on the old townships, comparatively the boards of separate towns and municipal boards. The harm suffered by the State, local authorities, was estimated. Individual requests from citizens were besides taken into account. The registration was subject to harm caused by direct warfare by German troops and alleged "all another troops". These accounts were to be utilized for war reparations, which were never paid.
The first results of these estimates were presented already in 1946 at the global Reparation Conference in Paris. According to the materials presented there, the in-kind losses in Poland amounted to nearly $17 billion (according to the then very advanced dollar value). Only the material losses of Białystok were calculated at a billion dollars. The communist authorities were of course silent at this conference that as a consequence of the arrangements between the Western Allies (mainly the United Kingdom and the United States) and the russian Union, Poland had to surrender its territory to the USSR about 48%, losing about 178,000 km2 in the east.
Total failure balance of Poland included in "Report on Poland's war losses and damages from 1939 to 1945" developed by the Office of War Compensation at the Bureau of the Council of Ministers, it was not until around 1950. It contains, among others, the demolition of war property in all post-war provinces, in addition to communication and military ones, and most of the demolition of industrial buildings. The biggest harm suffered by the voivodship: Wroclaw – more than 50 1000 properties, Gdańsk – more than 28 thousand, Poznań – more than 30 thousand, Warsaw – more than 20 thousand, and the city of Warsaw alone – 20,5 1000 objects, white stock – 20,63 1000 properties.
Documents from the State Archives resource in Białystok/photo. A. Whiteous
All these destructions are estimated in the study in gold, assuming their value from 1939. For example, in the Białystok Voivodeship, losses were calculated in individual districts. It was estimated that the biggest destructions were in the Białystok district, where more than 2,000 buildings were leveled or damaged, totalling PLN 17,326. Damages in cities were assessed separately. The construction of Białystok during the war was destroyed as much as 80 percent.
From the Bialystok questionnaires on individual losses that were submitted to household offices, 1 can learn not only about the damaged property, but besides about the tragedy of those people. There are described, among others, situations in which the Germans received mixed marriages, Polish-Jewish, their children and shot them in the place of the biggest crime, in the forest close Grabówka, close Białystok. During the war, Germans shot about 16,000 people there. During the war about 60 percent of the inhabitants of Białystok were killed. They were murdered by Germany, but besides by Russians, during russian occupations of the first and second – shootings and exports to the East.
In modern times, only 3 cities – Warsaw, Poznań and Łódź – estimated their material losses in Poland. According to Marek Kietliński, manager of the State Archives in Białystok, collected after the war (in 1945-50) estimates of losses could be utilized for the current valuation of war damages, both material and human in all Poland. – In our archive we have estimates of material losses of Białystok and Białystok Voivodeship, made in 1945 and later by alleged estimates commissions. The work would be very laborious, but on the basis of these papers it would be possible to calculate the war losses needed to request a reparation from the Germans present – says Marek Kietliński, author of the book "War losses of Białystok Voivodeship 1939-1945".
Interestingly, in the resources of the State Archives in Białystok there are questionnaires which were completed after the war, for the estimated commissions, citizens of Białystok, but besides the full Białystok province. Among these questionnaires is the 1 filled by Fr Romuald Jałbrzykowski, a Vilnius metropolitan, who was exiled by russian authorities from Vilnius in 1945. With the full curia and professors of the Vilnius Seminary, they went to Białystok. Archbishop Jabrzykowski in a questionnaire filled out by him recorded all the material goods, the property of the curia left in Vilnius.
Adam Białous
Reparations from Germany are not all. A study of losses resulting from the actions of the USSR is created
