Poland demands Germany to pay them $1.3 trillion in World War II reparations

Poland is seeking €1.3 trillion (AUD $1.9 b or £1.1b) from Germany over World War II damages.

The Polish government has estimated €1.3 trillion in financial damage inflicted by World War II and now is asking Germany ‘to negotiate these reparations’, as per Politico.

Leader of Law and Justice (PiS) Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a news conference dedicated to the report estimating losses accosted by the war: "The sum that was presented was adopted using the most limited, conservative method, it would be possible to increase it.”

Ukraine Presidency/Ukraine Presidency/Alamy Live News

Mr Kaczynski added that obtaining the country’s reparations would be a ‘long and difficult’ process.

The report began in 2017 when the government insisted that Germany had a ‘moral duty’ to come up with a form of compensation.

Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, which triggered the Second World War and led to six million deaths, with an estimated 40 to 50 million deaths worldwide. 

Warsaw ghettos destroyed CBW / Alamy Stock Photo

Despite this, Germany had previously dismissed Poland’s request, as they believed that the issue came to a close in 1953 by Poland when they renounced reparation claims against East Germany.

Germany's foreign ministry announced that their position had remained ‘unchanged’.

“The position of the Federal Government is unchanged, the reparations issue is closed,” a spokesperson from Germany’s foreign ministry said in an email to AFP.

“Poland renounced further reparations a long time ago, in 1953, and has confirmed this renunciation several times. This is an essential basis for today’s European order. Germany stands politically and morally by its responsibility for the Second World War.”

Leader of the main opposition party Donald Tusk also said that he believed that sentiment was more of a ‘political campaign’ in Poland, according to Bloomberg. 

He also accused Mr Kaczynski of trying to win over the masses through this ‘anti-German’ tirade.

However, TRT World reports Mr Kaczynski hit back at denials, claiming that Germany has never been ‘accountable’ for its crimes in the central European country.

He said: "Germany has never really accounted for its crimes against Poland. The Germans invaded Poland and did us enormous damage. The occupation was unbelievably criminal, unbelievably cruel and caused effects that in many cases continue to this day.”