"Warsaw renounced in 1953": Berlin rejects Polish demands for reparations

After a long announcement, Poland's ruling party PiS has quantified the damage caused by the German attack 83 years ago.

"Warsaw renounced in 1953": Berlin rejects Polish demands for reparations

After a long announcement, Poland's ruling party PiS has quantified the damage caused by the German attack 83 years ago. She now wants to negotiate with Berlin about the sum of 1.3 trillion euros. The federal government considers the issue to be closed.

In an initial reaction, the Federal Foreign Office has rejected demands from Poland for reparation payments for the damage caused by the Second World War. "The position of the federal government is unchanged, the reparations issue is closed," said a spokesman for the ministry in Berlin. "Poland waived further reparations a long time ago, in 1953, and has repeatedly confirmed this waiver." This is "an essential basis for the current order in Europe," he continued, but at the same time emphasized: "Germany is politically and morally responsible for the Second World War."

The background is a report presented today in Warsaw, as a result of which Poland officially wants to make reparation claims to Germany for the 1939 attack. The losses are estimated at 6.2 trillion zlotys (1.32 trillion euros), according to the head of the national-conservative governing party PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Warsaw wants to negotiate with Berlin about compensation in this estimated volume.

During his first visit to Warsaw in December, Chancellor Olaf Scholz also rejected the demands with reference to earlier contracts. In December, the SPD politician countered the demands for reparations with a reference to the high German EU financial payments. A large part of this goes to EU countries in the south and east of the Union.

In 1953, the then communist government of Poland, under pressure from the Soviet Union, waived all demands for reparations. The government in Moscow wanted to prevent similar demands on the former GDR. The PiS considers this agreement to be invalid.

The head of the largest opposition party, Civic Platform, Donald Tusk, accused Kaczynski of not really wanting compensation for the destruction of World War II. "It's about a domestic political campaign to strengthen support for his party," said the former EU Council President. Although PiS leads the Civic Platform in polls, the lead has shrunk in the face of rising inflation and an economic downturn.