Transcribtion/Translation of Gestapo documents Würzburg Part 2 of 5

[Dudas]

I first started contacting the Nowy Targ archive branch to find info about my great grandpa´s forced labour, but they told me to contact the Arlson Archives, there were only 2 documents on their website, so I asked them to do research on it and they eventually found these 25 pages after like 6 months of waiting. I don´t know where to find more information from other institutions.

The IPN has some documentation regarding the testimony of a forced laborer in Germany.

https://inwentarz.ipn.gov.pl/node/5156695

As last I only know that Ignacy got a bit of money as compensation after the war from the polish government which was literally just enough to buy 1 pack of coffee at that time according to my grandma. They never had the ability to ask for a formal compensation from the german government.

The case files are in the AAN collection.

https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/zespol/-/zespol/51737

[jebaer]

...swastikas, which are a variation of the Christian cross.

Though a bit off topic, I'd like to correct that: swastikas neither are genuine Nazi-symbols nor derived from the Christian cross.

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

LG Jens

[Dudas]

Though a bit off topic, I'd like to correct that: swastikas neither are genuine Nazi-symbols nor derived from the Christian cross.

Cutting my words out of context, you twist their meaning

I was saying that this particular swastika (on the Polish coin), which is a variation of the Slavic swarga, refers to the Christian symbol - the cross ✝

[jebaer]

So I missunderstood your message.
I really didn't want to twist it, and beg your pardon!


LG Jens

[GTostasz]

The IPN has some documentation regarding the testimony of a forced laborer in Germany.

https://inwentarz.ipn.gov.pl/node/5156695

The case files are in the AAN collection.
https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/...-/zespol/51737

You truly have no idea how happy you made us with this,

I'll make sure to ask my grandparents or uncles to order this testimony and pick it up, I've also read on the website of the foundation (of the second link) that this was never even a compensation but a humanitarian gift.

I think this means we can still go to german court and demand a fair compensation from the government.

Thank you very much!

[Dudas]

So I missunderstood your message.
I really didn't want to twist it, and beg your pardon!

No problem – I could have expressed myself better, actually

And since we’re a bit off-topic now, I realized something while reading German official correspondence about the deployment of Gorals for the Waffen-SS.

It turns out that the Germans lost the war because of the Goralenvolk, who preferred going for vodka over going to war

Wodka.png

Krieg.jpg



Sorry, Mods, fürs, aber ich konnte einfach nicht anders

[Gastonian]

I think this means we can still go to german court and demand a fair compensation from the government.

Hi Giovanni:

If I understand these German Wikipedia articles https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwangs...tung_nach_1945 and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_%E2%80%9EErinnerung,_Verantwortung_und_Zu kunft%E2%80%9C correctly, the payments made in the early 2000s (and which for Polish forced laborers were made through the Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie) were apparently intended by the German government as a final financial settlement for forced laborers, so that any future claims for compensation would now be barred not just in German, but also in U.S. courts

Regards

--Carl-Henry

[GTostasz]

Hi Giovanni:

If I understand these German Wikipedia articles https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwangs...tung_nach_1945 and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_%E2%80%9EErinnerung,_Verantwortung_und_Zu kunft%E2%80%9C correctly, the payments made in the early 2000s (and which for Polish forced laborers were made through the Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie) were apparently intended by the German government as a final financial settlement for forced laborers, so that any future claims for compensation would now be barred not just in German, but also in U.S. courts

Regards

--Carl-Henry

This is what it says on the polish version:

Wypłaty świadczeń

Łącznie w latach 1992-2004 Fundacja "Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie" wypłaciła ofiarom nazizmu mieszkającym w Polsce świadczenia o charakterze pomocy humanitarnej w ramach tzw. wypłat podstawowych i dodatkowych na ogólną sumę przeszło 732 mln PLN.
Świadczenia wypłacane przez Fundację nie były odszkodowaniem, lecz symboliczną pomocą humanitarną z Niemiec dla ofiar prześladowań hitlerowskich w Polsce.

In total, in the years 1992-2004, the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation paid humanitarian aid benefits to victims of Nazism living in Poland as part of the so-called basic and additional payments for a total amount of over PLN 732 million.
The benefits paid by the Foundation were not compensation, but symbolic humanitarian aid from Germany for the victims of Nazi persecution in Poland.

Also it doesn't say that you can be barred from german courts in future compensation claims:

§ 2 EVZStiftG - Einzelnorm

§ 9 EVZStiftG - Einzelnorm

Is there something I'm not seeing perhaps?

I only see this for people from the USA: Lawsuits by former forced laborers in the USA against German companies that had employed them led to the establishment of the German foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" in 2000. The federal government and the economy each contributed half of 10 billion Deutschmarks (about 5.1 billion euros). In return, such lawsuits against individual companies were excluded in the USA.

[Anna Sara Weingart]

... Is there something I'm not seeing perhaps? ...

In Your case, compensation is only possible for living persons.

I mean, You, Your father or Your grandfather haven't been forced to work.
You, Your father or Your grandfather are not victims.

[GTostasz]

Hi Giovanni:

If I understand these German Wikipedia articles https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwangs...tung_nach_1945 and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiftung_%E2%80%9EErinnerung,_Verantwortung_und_Zu kunft%E2%80%9C correctly, the payments made in the early 2000s (and which for Polish forced laborers were made through the Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie) were apparently intended by the German government as a final financial settlement for forced laborers, so that any future claims for compensation would now be barred not just in German, but also in U.S. courts

Regards

--Carl-Henry

I got an answer from the Polish-German Fund when my mom called, Ignacy only got around 1500 zloty compensation, apparently people have tried doing lawsuits on their own but these cases are dismissed every single time because of a german compensation law in 1953, so its truly impossible.