William Nattrass William Nattrass

Why Poland wants Germany to pay war reparations

German soldiers in Gdynia, 1939 (photo: Getty)

Poland commemorated the 83rd anniversary of its invasion by Nazi Germany this week. To mark the occasion the leader of the country’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, announced that Poland was once again seeking reparations for the invasion from Germany. Speaking from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Kaczyński unveiled a report which put the damages inflicted on Poland by the Nazis at over $1.3 trillion.

He did not specify the period over which Germany is expected to pay, only saying the path to obtaining reparations ‘will take a long time and will not be easy.’ The legal procedure is also unclear – a spokesperson said it is hoped Germany will ‘draw the appropriate conclusions’ from reading the report, but if not ‘we will take further action, including formal action on the international stage.’

Kaczyński said reparations were needed to ‘rebuild normality in the functioning of the Polish state‘ as the effects of the Nazi occupation ‘in many cases continue to this day.’ The new report takes into account the destruction of Polish cities, infrastructure and industry during the war, as well as lost economic potential caused by the murder of millions of civilians.

Poland argues that although Germany paid out reparations to other states, its claims were not dealt with fairly while the country was part of the eastern bloc. Germany has compensated individual Polish victims of Nazi atrocities, but Berlin points out that Poland officially waived its right to reparations in 1953 under a territorial agreement with East Germany. Poland says that agreement was made under pressure from the Soviet Union and cannot be considered binding.

The Polish government has now been calling for war reparations from Germany for years. Yet the publication of the report moves the campaign into a new phase – while adding to an already severe deterioration in modern German-Polish relations.

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