Polish President renews call for reparations over WWII  

As Baerbock  calls for renewed friendship

 

By Doris Heimann, dpa I Sunday, September 01, 2024

 

POLAND – Polish President Andrzej Duda, speaking on Sunday at the 85th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, once again demanded compensation from Germany for the damage suffered during World War II.

“Forgiveness and acknowledgement of guilt are one thing, reparations for the damage is another,” said Duda in the small Polish town of Wieluń, which was at the time near the German-Polish border.

“And this issue has still not been resolved,” he said, adding that it “has been for 80 years if you count the Second World War period.”

Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, is considered the beginning of World War II.

Although the first battle is seen as the shelling of the Westerplatte, Wieluń was bombed by the German Luftwaffe before, with estimates suggesting that up to 1,200 civilians were killed in that attack alone.

Duda comes from the ranks of the national conservative PiS, which led Poland from 2015 to 2023. At the time, the PiS government had severely damaged relations with Berlin with anti-German rhetoric and demands for reparations totalling €1.3 trillion ($1.44 trillion).

However for the current centre-left government of Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which has been in office since December, the issue of WWII reparations is not off the table.

At the German-Polish government consultations at the beginning of July, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said aid for surviving victims of the German occupation in Poland, though he did not provide concrete figures.

Meanwhile, Tusk recalled the events on the Westerplatte near Gdansk in the early hours of September 1, 1939, when the German battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein had arrived in Danzig.

It was supposed to be a friendship visit, but Germany began shelling the peninsula off the port of Gdansk at 4:45 am (0225 GMT). The Polish army had an fortress-like ammunition depot there.

Today, the war is coming from the east, said Tusk, referring to the Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Today we do not say: ‘Never again war’. Today we must say: ‘Never again loneliness’. Never again in history must Poland stand up to the aggression of one or other of its neighbours alone.”

This is why Poland is modernizing its army and relying on the European Union and NATO. It is a member of both organizations.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock emphasized the reconciliation between Germans and Poles over the past decades on X:

“Our German-Polish friendship is supported by all Poles who have retained the strength to be human beings for each other. It is our responsibility and duty to live out our friendship in the heart of Europe out of an awareness of our past.”