Earlier this week, Poland’s PM Donald Tusk met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to discuss further help to Ukraine, the reactivation of the Weimar Triangle forum, and other topics of bilateral relationships. 

During a press conference following his meeting with Scholz, Tusk stated that “the legal path to [war] reparations [from Germany] had already been closed many years ago”. He added that „the issue of moral, financial, and material compensation has never been realised.” Tusk explained that „Germany has something to do here […] This is a good topic for a good conversation”.

Tusk’s words were widely commented on in Poland, as they align with Berlin’s viewpoint on the matter. The PM’s nemesis, Jarosław Kaczyński, reacted by stating that these claims “violate the fundamental interest of Poland […] Germany has not changed in its relationship with Poles. Donald Tusk fits into this. However, this is extremely harmful and shameful”.

Overall, Donald Tusk and his government believe that it is in Poland’s best interest to cultivate good relations with Germany. To do so, the politician from Gdańsk avoids the confrontational way of communication of his predecessors in power. 

As we recently reported, the Tusk government acknowledges the need for a form of compensation for the harms perpetrated by Nazi Germany on Poland during WWII, but did not yet find a precise plan to materialise them. 

Between 1939 and 1945, 6 million people were killed in Poland alone, most of whom were civilians. 200,000 Polish children were deported to the Reich to be Germanised by force. Nearly a quarter of the country’s priests were assassinated, as well as all the rabbis. Hundreds of cities and thousands of villages were destroyed and looted, as well as countless monuments (churches, palaces, libraries, etc.) were burned. 

Berlin considers that the reparations issue was settled 70 years ago, in August 1953, when the government of the People’s Republic of Poland declared its willingness to resign from war reparations from Germany. Yet many on the Polish side emphasise that in the 1950s Poland wasn’t sovereign and that such a decision had been taken by Moscow without the consultation of Poles. 

A poll conducted in Septembre 2023 revealed that 6 in 10 Poles (58%) are in favour of further efforts aimed at obtaining war reparations from Germany. Polish experts estimate that Germany owes Poland EUR 1.3 trillion. 

Image: X (@donaldtusk)

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen