The leader of the Polish nationalist conservative movement Law and Justice (PiS, in power) Jarosław Kaczynski said this Thursday that Poland would demand 1.3 billion euros from Germany in compensation for the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Kaczynski announced the lawsuit when releasing a long-awaited report on what the years of Nazi German occupation cost the country as we look back 83 years since the start of World War II.
“We not only prepared a report, but also decided on the next steps. We will ask Germany to start negotiating compensation,” Kaczynski said during the presentation of the report, acknowledging that it will be “a long and difficult road” but believing in his success.
The Polish government claims that the country was the first casualty of the war and never received full compensation from neighboring Germany, which is now one of its main partners in the European Union.
Berlin dismisses this issue and argues that compensation was paid to the Eastern Bloc countries in the years after the war, while the territories that Poland lost in the east when the borders were changed were compensated by some territories that belonged to Germany before the war. .
Poland’s senior party leaders, including Kaczynski, as well as Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, attended the ceremonial presentation of the report at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, rebuilt from wartime ruins.
The publication of the report was the focus of national celebrations of the anniversary of the war, which began on September 1, 1939 with the bombing and invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed by a five-year occupation that killed six people. million people, including three million Jews.
A team of about 30 economists, historians and other experts have been working on the report since 2017.
The war was “one of the most terrible tragedies in our history,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said during ceremonies outside of Gdansk, one of the first places to be attacked during the Nazi invasion.
In Germany, the government official responsible for German-Polish cooperation, Dietmar Nitan, said in a statement that the outbreak of World War II “remains a day of guilt and shame for Germany”, saying it was “the darkest chapter”. in the history of the country.
The Polish government rejects the 1953 declaration made by the then communist leaders of the country under pressure from the Soviet Union, agreeing to make no further claims against Germany.
However, the government’s position in Poland is not unanimous, with opposition MP Grzegorz Schetyna calling the report a “play in domestic politics”, arguing that his country needs to build good relations with Berlin.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
