The European Atrocity You Never Heard About

[GMantis]

German left-winger: It's somewhat inappropriate to talk about it, the Holocaust was much worse.

German right-winger (not necessarily just NPD, also the right edge of CDU and CSU): What the Poles did to the Germans after the war was practically as bad what Germans did to Poles during the war. Is there a way to get those territories back?

Is that really a common position?

[GMantis]

Not so common post-1990. It was back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

West Germany didn't recognize Poland's new borders until 1990.

What about the 1970 treaty of Warsaw?

[GMantis]

The Germans are guilty to these problems as consequence of colonizing large chunks of Slavic lands in middle ages and onwards. That is the standard Polish point of view I think.

Yes, but if one goes that distantly in the past, it shouldn't be forgotten that most of these lands were inhabited by Germanic tribes before the Slavs arrived. Of course, then it should be remembered that those lands were inhabited by other Indo-Europeans (Celts, Balts and/or Slavs, depending on which theory you accept) before the Germanic tribes arrived. And before the Indo-Europeans arrived, there were other inhabitants whose name we don't even know.
So perhaps it's better not to rely on historical rights in these kinds of arguments. Or some of the non Indo-Europeans in Europe might someday claim Poland with the same arguments

[GMantis]

Well that and many of the Germans were asked to move to Russia by various Czars through the centuries.

Yes, but that applies mainly to the Germans settled on the Volga. Those in today's western Poland are much earlier settlers.