A special historical committee appointed by the Polish government published today (Thursday) for the first time the state’s demand for reparations from Germany for World War II. According to the committee’s calculations, the damage caused to Poland in the five years of the war is about 6.2 billion zlotys, which is 1.3 billion euros. The right-wing government headed by Poland appointed the committee that worked on the calculations and published the amount today, the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland.
The demand for reparations from the Polish government is not new, and Polish leaders have repeatedly expressed demands for German payments in recent years. The person who announced today the amount that should be used as a basis for the calculations is Yaroslav Kaczynski, from the ruling “Law and Justice” party, who previously served as prime minister.
Germany strongly denies the need to pay any reparations to Poland and also to other European countries that demand it, such as Greece.
“The Germans invaded Poland and caused us tremendous damage. The occupation was against the law, exceptionally cruel, and it had consequences that affect us to this day,” Kaczynski said. “We cannot return to business as usual, just because it seems to someone that Poland is in an inferior position compared to other countries.”
This may be a hint to the State of Israel, to which Germany promised a payment of approximately 3 billion marks in the 1950s as part of the reparations agreement. Since then, Germany has expanded the payments, including to Holocaust survivors. Kaczynski predicted a “long and complicated road” until receiving compensation.
In Germany, they overwhelmingly denied the legitimacy of such a Polish demand. According to the German government, all obligations and foreign relations of Nazi Germany ended with the agreement of the four powers that occupied Germany regarding the reunification of the country. The agreement between Russia, USA, UK, France, former East Germany and former West Germany was signed in 1990.
The committee for calculating the value of the direct and indirect economic damage to Poland was established already in 2017, at the initiative of the “Law and Justice” party. The publication of the report was delayed for several years. The opposition in Poland, led by Donald Tusk, accused the party and Kaczynski of an “anti-German” campaign designed to stoke public anger. He accused her of concocting a “makeshift plan” designed to energize her constituents, but said it had no chance of working.