“The Germans invaded Poland and caused us tremendous damage. The occupation was incredibly criminal, incredibly cruel and had repercussions that in many cases continue to this day,” said Kaczynski, who is considered a strongman in Polish politics. Warsaw will therefore demand reparations from Berlin. “We cannot go back to business as usual just because it seems to someone that Poland is in a special, radically lower position than other countries.” He was aware that the reparations would be a “long and difficult road”.
The national conservative PiS government, which has led the neighboring country since 2015, has repeatedly raised the issue of compensation payments. In 2017, the PiS set up a parliamentary commission for the report. Poland also founded a research institute for war damage. The report that has been announced several times has now been presented on a symbolic day: On September 1, 1939, the German invasion of Poland began.
This was also the beginning of the Second World War with at least 55 million dead – other estimates even go up to 80 million. There are no exact figures. It is estimated that up to six million people lost their lives in Poland alone. According to Arkadiusz Mularczyk, head of the parliamentary commission, 30 experts, including historians, economists and real estate appraisers, were involved in the report.
The first volume is more than 500 pages and is divided into nine chapters – calculations of Polish war losses in the areas of demography, economic assessment of human losses and material losses. It is also about the loss of cultural and artistic assets as well as various types of funds, bank accounts and securities.
The federal government rejects any claims for reparations. For them, the question is closed with the 2+4 treaty on the foreign policy aspects of German unity.