Poland has reopened the heavy file of reparations from the Second World War. Warsaw estimates at 6.2 trillion zlotys, or 1,300 billion euros, the financial cost caused by the conflict in the country. The valuation was revealed on Thursday 1is September, on the occasion of the presentation of a report on the losses suffered by Poland in the war. Work started in 2017.
Among the sum mentioned, “a very important part is the compensation for the death of more than 5.2 million Polish citizens”said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has been on this subject since he came to power in 2015.
In detail, the material losses were estimated at 170 billion euros; those related to cultural and artistic assets to 4 billion. Humanely, 2.1 million citizens were deported for work in Nazi Germany; 590,000 emerged disabled from pseudo-medical experiments and detention in concentration camps.
For Germany, the question is “closed”
“We have not only prepared a report, which is an open document and will certainly be completed, but we have also taken a decision, a decision on further actionwarned former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and this action consists of asking Germany to negotiate these reparations. And it is a decision that we will implement. »
As of Thursday, Germany rejected any request for reparations, considering the question « close ». “Poland waived further reparations a long time ago, in 1953, and has confirmed this waiver on several occasions”said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
For the Polish liberal opposition, the report is mainly intended for domestic political purposes, one year before the general elections. “The PiS initiative on war reparations has appeared for several years whenever the PiS needs to build a political narrative”said Donald Tusk, president of the Civic Platform (PO), the main opposition party.
Greek requests in 2019
In 2019, requests for reparations of the same nature came from Greece. The Prime Minister at the time, Alexis Tsipras, promised to comply with a parliamentary resolution demanding compensation for the damage caused by the occupation of the country from 1941 to 1944, estimated at 270 billion euros. Berlin had already opposed an end of inadmissibility, judging the subject “legally and politically regulated”.
According to Germany, the treaty of September 12, 1990, paving the way for the reunification of the country, settled the debt of the Second World War. The signatories of the “2 + 4” text (West and East Germany and the four winners of 1945: United States, USSR, Great Britain and France) waived repayments of debts remaining due by the Germany under the London Treaty of 1953, which fixed the amount of the foreign debts contracted by Germany between 1919 and 1945. The Federal Republic also considers that it has discharged its debt to Greece after the payment of 115 million marks (60 million euros) in 1960.