On Thursday, the 83rd anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland during World War Two (WWII), Polish Deputy Prime Minister (PM) and ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński demanded $1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany.
“Many countries received compensation from Germany, but not Poland… The Germans have never accounted for their crimes against Poland,” he asserted at a ceremony in Warsaw’s Royal Castle on Thursday, adding that “the [German] occupation was unbelievably cruel and caused effects that in many cases last to this day.”
The victims of German aggression demand justice. That is why we present the #WarLossesReport. It is not only a settling of the past, but above all compensation for crippling Poland’s future.
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) September 1, 2022
➡️ https://t.co/w5gx0UGLOf
Along the same lines, the speaker of Poland’s Sejm (lower house of parliament), Elżbieta Witek, stated, “Forgiveness cannot be equal to forgetting the obligation to compensate for damages and losses that the Germans caused to Poles.” She also claimed that many German lawmakers are “not fully aware of what WWII was like and what the Germans did in Poland.”
Poland also released a parliamentary report detailing the losses incurred during the six-year occupation, including the two million Poles deported to Germany for forced labour, 200,000 children deported to Germany, and compensation for the nearly six million deaths, of which 21% were children under 10. The document also claimed that it took 33 years for Poland to rebuild its pre-war population.
“The incredible damage caused by the loss of great development opportunities is still felt today,” Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki remarked, adding, “We lost the elite, outstanding engineers and scientists. And the entire Polish economy could not develop normally.” In this respect, he cited a report published by economist Angus Maddison which said that the “per capita income in 1951 war-ravaged Poland was on average 113% higher than that of Spain. Forty years later it was 38%.”
Over 5 million Polish citizens lost their lives. Poland lost huge opportunities for development. Experts estimate the losses at over PLN 6.2 trillion. These losses have never been compensated. #unREDEEMed #bezprzedawNIEnia
— Piotr Müller (@PiotrMuller) September 1, 2022
➡️ Report 👉 https://t.co/zAUbLifjDE pic.twitter.com/9LgW46BjoJ
Moraweicki also noted that the six million lives lost could not be compensated, stressing, “No one will ever be able to bring those lives back. […] And the incredible impudence of many commentators allowed Poles to be blamed for the crimes of the Germans. This report puts these lies to the end.” According to him, the “aim of the Germans [during the war] was not only destruction but annihilation” and the report “serves genuine Polish-German reconciliation” as “without the truth, reparations, there can be no normal relations” between the two countries.
Deputy PM Kaczyński acknowledged that “a significant proportion of those murdered by the Germans are Poles of Jewish origin” and that “if the state of Israel wants to join our action we are ready for it.” He also said that the publication of the report was “a decision to take this matter to the international forum,” as it cannot be “business as usual.”
The current $1.3 trillion estimate is higher than the previous $850 billion in 2019. “The sum that was presented was adopted using the most limited, conservative method, it would be possible to increase it,” Kaczyński remarked, adding, “Such compensation will be paid for decades, but it is bearable for the German economy.”
The PiS leader also disclosed that a German politician had already told him that “no German government would agree to this.” Kaczyński admitted that “we are entering a difficult and long path…[but] we are sure that we will be successful.” “Giving up these legitimate claims would be a manifestation of a morbid inferiority complex, which by its very nature cannot be a good basis for national policy. It can only be the basis of a path toward new enslavement, new losses,” he declared.
Musimy dbać o prawdę oraz zadośćuczynienie za rachunek krzywd i bestialstwa Niemiec w czasie II Wojny Światowej. #bezprzedawNIEnia
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) September 1, 2022
▶️ Pełna treść #RaportStratWojennych: https://t.co/tdYeQGAbha pic.twitter.com/o7CgD05VJg
In response to Poland’s declaration, a German Foreign Office spokesperson told Reuters that Germany’s “position is unchanged: the reparations question is closed.” “Poland renounced further reparations a long time ago, in 1953, and has since repeatedly confirmed this,” they affirmed.
In 1953, the Soviet Union convinced Poland to not seek damages from Germany in order to protect its communist satellite East Germany. However, PiS lawmaker Arkadiusz Mularczyk claimed that no official document regarding this has been found to date, while others in Poland consider it to be an invalid argument since Warsaw was under a pro-Soviet regime at the time.
In a statement, German official for German-Polish cooperation Dietmar Nietan said that September 1 “remains a day of guilt and shame for Germany that reminds us time and again not to forget the crimes carried out by Germany” that were the “darkest chapter in our history” and continue to affect bilateral relations.
"Poland will seek reparations from Germany for everything they've done to our country between 1939-1945,
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 1, 2022
says the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party Jarosław Kaczyński, on the 83rd anniversary of the German invasion of Poland and of the outbreak of World War II. pic.twitter.com/krD9pYMAIL
During a ceremony at the Westerplatte peninsula near Gdansk earlier on Thursday, President Andrzej Duda called WWII “one of the most terrible tragedies in our history.” “Not only because it took our freedom, not only because it took our state from us, but also because this war meant millions of victims among Poland’s citizens and irreparable losses to our homeland and our nation,” Duda stated.
Meanwhile, Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk, from the Civic Platform party, noted that Kaczyński’s statement was “not about reparations.” “PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński makes no secret of the fact that he wants to build up support for the ruling party with this anti-German campaign,” he claimed. Another opposition lawmaker, Grzegorz Schetyna, said the report was just a “game in the internal politics” and maintained that Poland should build good relations with Germany instead.