Letter: Spoils of war

Sir: In the article "Holocaust survivor sues Polish government in British courts" (4 August) Robert Verkaik says: "Mr Koppenheim's claim is linked to events at the end of the war when the Russians occupied areas of Germany. Breslau became part of Poland, changing its name to Wroclaw."

No mention of Yalta or Potsdam, where in July 1945 Attlee, Truman and Stalin agreed that Poland was to be given a frontier on the Oder-Neisse line, whether Poles wanted it or not. All Germans living east of the new frontiers were to be replaced by Polish people from the eastern part of Poland annexed by the Soviets. The German population of Breslau was largely replaced by the Polish population of Lwow, now the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

If every German citizen brought compensation claims on property in former German territories it might be good for lawyers but for few others.

S W LOWCZOWSKI

Beckenham, Kent