Poland

Poland to officially demand WW2 reparations from Germany

cde.news desk 1 September 2022, 14:20 · 1 min read

The leader of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) ruling party Jaroslaw Kaczynski delivers a speech during the ruling Law and Justice party's regional convention in Kielce, Poland, 09 October 2019. An average of eleven candidates are running for each Sejm (lower house) seat in the national elections planned for 13 October 2019. In total, 5,114 people are running for 460 seats. Two hundred and seventy-eight people are running for the Senate (upper house), three candidatures for each seat. Five electoral committees were registered in all 41 constituencies. EPA-EFE/Piotr Polak

WARSAW, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Poland estimates its World War Two losses caused by Germany at 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.32 trillion), the leader of the country’s ruling nationalists said on Thursday, and he said Warsaw would officially demand reparations.

The new estimate tops the $850 billion estimate by a ruling party lawmaker from 2019. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) has repeated calls for compensation several times since it took power in 2015, but Poland hasn’t officially demanded reparations.

“The sum that was presented was adopted using the most limited, conservative method, it would be possible to increase it,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice (PiS), told a news conference.

The combative stance towards Germany, often used by PiS to mobilize its constituency, has strained relations with Berlin. It intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine amid criticism of Berlin’s dependence on Russian gas and its slowness in helping Kyiv.

Some six million Poles, including three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war and Warsaw was razed to the ground following a 1944 uprising in which about 200,000 civilians died.

Photo – The leader of the Polish Law and Justice (PiS) ruling party Jaroslaw Kaczynski . EPA-EFE/Piotr Polak