Poland demands £1.1 trillion in WWII reparations from Germany

Poland’s former deputy prime minister said today that the government will seek the equivalent of £1.1 trillion ($1.263 trillion) in reparations from Germany for the Nazis’ World War II invasion and occupation of his country.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the right-wing ruling Law and Justice party, announced the huge claim at the release of a long-awaited report on the cost to the country of years of Nazi German occupation as it marks 83 years since the start of World War II.

“We not only prepared the report, but we have also taken the decision as to the further steps,” Mr. Kaczynski said during the report’s presentation.

“We will turn to Germany to open negotiations on the reparations,” he said, adding it will be a “long and not an easy path” but “one day will bring success.”

Poland’s government argues that the country has not been fully compensated by neighboring Germany, which is now one of its major partners within the European Union.

Germany argues compensation was paid to East Bloc nations in the years after the war while territories that Poland lost in the East as borders were redrawn were compensated with some of Germany’s pre-war lands. Berlin calls the matter closed.

Mr. Kaczynski, who is Poland’s chief policymaker, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and other officials attended the ceremonial release of the report at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, rebuilt from wartime ruins.

Its release was the focus of national observances of the anniversary of the war that began on September 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s bombing and invasion of Poland and was followed by more than five years of brutal occupation.