History / Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]

I think it is just a misreading of Zamoyski. Poland paid reparations not to Austria and Germany, but to third countries for the land they had taken over from Austria and Germany. Since the reparations were considered to be a collective punishment for the Austrian and German population, it was only logical that part of the population should not escape punishment just because their land had been re-allocated to a new country. Such an arrangement would normally see reparation payments more than counter-balanced by reparation receipts.

History / Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]

I was just reading Zamoyski with some background knowledge on reparations. I didn't find any confirmation, but didn't search very hard. The Polish references I looked at were more concerned with the difficulty of raising revenue rather than international payment obligations. Maybe they considered the creation and saving of Poland was too worthwhile to complain about the resulting burden of payments. I just felt that Zamoyski's 'unbelievable obligation' needed answering: it is too obviously an element of narrow, biased thinking or (perhaps more fair) simply sensationalism to make his book more interesting.

I have his 2009 revised version, now entitled 'Poland - A History', where the claim is maintained. I haven't read the book yet though, as my immediate interest is in the earliest known archaeological history of Poland. His first page of Chapter 1 is wrong and misleading. Between his period of "unwarlike and agricultural people" and "settled by Sarmatians" (if either of those are true) came the mighty warrior tribes popularly known as the Vandals, who, after devastating much of Europe, eventually destroyed Rome. Some of their forebears lived a couple of hundred metres away from my house, making weapons for huge armies. People with magic names like 'Goths' and 'Huns' passed through here as well.

History / Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]

As far as my reference to the Vandals is concerned, I think very little has been available in English. I have produced a translation of work by Stefan Wojda, the Polish archaeologist who pointed out the nature of the Iron Age inhabitants, which is, I think, the first time it has been produced in anything other than Polish. Although I was somewhat sceptical, his claims do make sense and I checked on the internet that at least some other experts on the period accepted the principle of his conclusions. The link to the Vandals is a widely accepted association, although Wojda did not specify this himself.)

See: englishwarsaw.blogspot.com/2009/05/mochow-ancient-history.html

This has a link to a PDF document with the translation.

History / Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]

Re Varsovian's comment, 'was littered' might be more appropriate. My local site is now covered by a huge distribution centre.