Mar 18 2015 Who still owes what for the two World Wars? Out of all the countries that were required to pay reparations from World War II, Finland is the only one known to have paid its bill in full when it sent $300 million to the Soviet Union in 1952. ( a bit old information but quite an achievement for Finland, I think )
Have to point out that the bill was not "paid in full", because the Soviets forgave 75 million in 1948, and lengthened the term from 6 years to 8 years. Didn't Hungary & Romania also pay their debt to the Soviets too? Most nations have paid their WW2 debts, so this see me more like a Finnish PR move. Germany had paid off their debt, but some of the nations that have fallen into cash strapped times, are now coming back asking for more.
Well the USSR was happy with the payment. It was not only money but Finnish ships, trains, country area ( Carelian isthmus, Petsamo nickel area) islands etc. Considering what the sum would be today we would be closer to the truth? Also the war since jan 1942 to june 44 was more of ww1 so Finland did not do conquer war. One thing to this was that WC and FDR told Mannerheim if we continued aggressive warfare after the war Finland would be in big trouble for its part in the war. Most interesting I found that during later times the US paid compensation to the Japanese-American people. Being in jail for some 4 years is 20 000 dollars good enough if you were an innocent person? I don't know. I would think the lawyers today would suck at least 200 000 dollars and their expenses and payments. If that is even enough. Ask the lawyers.
Why "nobody" remembers this? Am I the only one? 29 December 2006 BBC NEWS | UK | UK settles WWII debts to allies Britain will settle its World War II debts to the US and Canada when it pays two final instalments before the close of 2006, the Treasury has said. The payments of $83.25m (£42.5m) to the US and US$22.7m (£11.6m) to Canada are the last of 50 instalments since 1950. The amount paid back is nearly double that loaned in 1945 and 1946. "This week we finally honour in full our commitments to the US and Canada for the support they gave us 60 years ago," said Treasury Minister Ed Balls. The US loaned $4.33bn (£2.2bn) to Britain in 1945, while Canada loaned US$1.19 bn (£607m) in 1946, at a rate of 2% annual interest. Upon the final payments, the UK will have paid back a total of $7.5bn (£3.8bn) to the US and US$2 bn (£1bn) to Canada. Despite the favourable rates there were six years in which Britain deferred payment because of economic or political crises. ------------------ The USA Made a Lot of Money From WW2: Britain Only Settled Debts from WWII in 2006 The USA Made a Lot of Money From WW2: Britain Only Settled Debts from WWII in 2006
Germany´s debts Germany's World War I Debt Was So Crushing It Took 92 Years to Pay Off The Treaty of Versailles didn’t just blame Germany for the war—it demanded financial restitution for the whole thing, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks, or about $269 billion today. The Young Plan involved a reduction of Germany’s war debt to just 121 billion gold marks. But the dawn of the Great Depression ensured its failure and Germany’s economy began disintegrating again. In an attempt to thwart disaster, President Herbert Hoover put a year-long moratorium on reparation payments in 1931. The next year, Allied delegates attempted to write off all Germany’s reparations debt at the Lausanne Conference, but the U.S. Congress refused to sign on to the resolution. Germany was still on the hook for its war debt. Soon after, Adolf Hitler was elected. He canceled all payments in 1933. “Hitler was committed to not just not paying, but to overturning the whole treaty,” historian Felix Schulz told the BBC’s Olivia Lang. The Allies exacted reparations for World War II, too. They weren’t paid in actual money, but through industrial dismantling, the removal of intellectual property and forced labor for millions of German POWs. West Germany owed 30 billion Deutschmarks to 70 different countries, according to Deutsche Welle’s Andreas Becker, and was in desperate need of cash. But an unexpected ray of hope broke through when West Germany’s president, Konrad Adenauer, struck a deal with a variety of western nations in 1953. The London Debt Conference canceled half of Germany’s debt and extended payment deadlines. And because West Germany was required to pay only when it had a trade surplus, the agreement gave breathing room for economic expansion. Still, it took decades for Germany to pay off the rest of its reparations debt. At the London Conference, West Germany argued it shouldn’t be responsible for all of the debt the old Germany had incurred during World War I, and the parties agreed that part of its back interest wouldn’t become due until Germany reunified. Once that happened, Germany slowly chipped away at the last bit of debt. It made its last debt payment on October 3, 2010—the 20th anniversary of German reunification.
Of course, Congress was unwilling to sign on....the plan to write off Germany's war debt was contingent on the US writing off Allied war debts. US private bankers were all for this, because it only wrote off what was owed to the Federal Government, the Allies were still on the hook for their massive private loans - which would now be easier to collect. Other than the private bankers, there was little support for the plan.
This is a little off-topic, but post-war how did the payback of lend-lease work? Did Allies give unused equipment back, and if they just gave it away, who paid the businesses to produce all the materiel to supply 3 or 4 countries? Were they required to pay back Lend-Lease products?
