Polish War Reparations Bureau

Biuro Odszkodowań Wojennych BOW (ang. Polish War Reparations Bureau) - institution established in 1945 by the Presidium of the Council of Ministers in Warsaw to assess the war losses suffered by Poland during the Second World War in 1939-1945. The office dealt with determining and estimating the war losses suffered by the Polish state, as well as private individuals in the field of material and cultural goods, coordinating work related to the compensation and recovery.[1][2]

A completely destroyed Polish village - Sucha.
Wehrmacht blowing up Church of Saint Michał from the 13th century in Wieluń.
Ruins of the Royal Castle in 1945.
The railway line near Warsaw was destroyed by the retreating German troops - 1945

History

The Military Compensation Center was first established institution at September 27, 1944 before the end of World War II, by decree Polish Committee of National Liberation.[3] In 1947 Biuro Odszkodowań Wojennych prepared a report "Report on the losses and damages of war in Poland in 1939-1945" describing the number of material and biological Polish losses during the war.[4][5]

During the war, Poland lost 6,028,000 persons of its community, of these 616,000 on account of immediate military action.[6][7]

The losses sustained by the railways are put at 84%, those of the postal system and telecommunications — at 62%, those of the education system — at 60%, the material cultural assets were lost in 43%, the damage to forests — so hard to ameliorate — is calculated at 28%. But that is not the point of gravity. Poland has over a million citizens infected with tuberculosis, half a million invalids incapable of working, 22% of all Polish citizens have perished.[8]

Biological losses of the Polish society General compilation
"Report on the losses and damages of war in Poland in 1939-1945"[9][10]
Specification Number of persons in thousands  %
1. Loss of life — total

a) due to direct military action
b) due to the occupiers’ terror

 6.028

644
5.384

 100.0

10.7
89.3

2. War invalidity (war invalids and civilian invalids — total)

a) physical handicap
b) mental handicap

 590

530
60

 100.0

89.8
10.2

3. Excess of tuberculosis instances (exceeding the average theoretical number of instances) 1.140 100.0

References
  1. Group (1947)
  2. Madajczyk (1970)
  3. Group (1947)
  4. Group (1947)
  5. Madajczyk (1970)
  6. Group (1947)
  7. Madajczyk (1970)
  8. Group (1947)
  9. Group (1947)
  10. Madajczyk (1970)

Bibliography
  • Work, Group (1947). "Sprawozdanie w przedmiocie strat i szkód wojennych Polski w latach 1939-1945” (eng. "Report on the losses and damages of war in Poland in 1939-1945") DJVU file (in Polish). Warszawa: Biuro Odszkodowań Wojennych.
  • Góralski, Witold (2004). "Problem reparacji, odszkodowań i świadczeń w stosunkach polsko-niemieckich 1944-2004" (eng. The problem of reparations, compensation and benefits in Polish-German relations 1944-2004) (in Polish). Warszawa: Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych. ISBN 9788389607300.
  • Madajczyk, Czesław (1970). "Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce" (eng. The policy of the Third Reich in occupied Poland) (in Polish). Warszawa: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
  • Jezierski, Andrzej (2010). "Historia gospodarcza Polski" (eng. Polish economic history) (in Polish). Warszawa: Key Text Wydawnictwo. ISBN 9788387251710.
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