Poland estimated the monetary charge for World War II losses at 1. 3 trillion euros (dollars) and said it would “ask Germany to negotiate reparations. “
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Poland on Thursday estimated the monetary charge for World War II losses at 1. 3 trillion euros ($) and said it would “ask Germany to negotiate those reparations. “
“This is a significant sum of 6. 2 trillion” Polish zlotys, said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice and widely regarded as Poland’s de facto leader.
Most of this sum “is the payment for the death of more than 5. 2 million Polish citizens,” he said.
Kaczynski receiving reparations would be a “long and difficult” process.
“This is a resolution that we will implement,” he said on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939.
Kaczynski speaking at a convention faithful to presenting a report on Poland’s losses in the 1939-1945 war.
Since it came into force in 2015, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has championed the war reparations factor.
Work on the reparations report began in 2017, when the conservative government insisted Germany had a “moral duty” to the matter.
– German ‘unchanged’ –
Germany has rejected Poland’s claims, pointing to a 1953 resolution through Poland to renounce its claims opposed to East Germany.
The German on Thursday rejected Poland’s call to negotiate reparations.
“The position of the German government does not change, the reparations factor is closed,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in an email to AFP.
He cited the 1953 decision, calling it “a basis for today’s European order. “
Poland’s liberal opposition believes the report is primarily intended for domestic political purposes, as it comes a year before parliamentary elections.
“The PiS initiative on war reparations has been popping up for several years, PiS wants to build a political narrative,” said Donald Tusk, president of the opposition platform Civic Platform (PO).
“These are not reparations from Germany, but a political campaign” in Poland, he added, as Kaczynski sought to “rebuild the ruling party through this anti-German campaign. “
– ‘Incredibly criminal, cruel’ –
But Kaczynski insisted that action will have to be taken on the reparations report.
“We didn’t prepare a report. . . but we also made a resolution, a resolution on other actions,” Kaczynski said.
“This action is to ask Germany to negotiate those reparations. And this is a resolution that we will implement,” he added.
“The Germans invaded Poland and did us enormous damage. The profession is incredibly criminal, incredibly ruthless and caused effects that, in many cases, continue to this day.
In addition to the estimated total death toll of 5. 3 million, the new report provides other statistics and adds that 2. 1 million Polish citizens were deported to paintings in Nazi Germany.
As a result of being forced to go through pseudo-medical experiments and being detained in concentration camps, 590,000 Poles became disabled.
During the six years of global war, Poland lost 50% of its lawyers, 40% of its doctors and 35% of its university professors.
The human losses were calculated as the loss of wages he would have earned for the rest of his life and thus the loss of the national GDP.
Material losses were estimated at around PLN 800 billion (EUR 170 billion).
The global figure also includes similar billions in losses in cultural heritage and the banking sector.
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