Poland’s Foreign Minister Demands Germany Pay $1.3 Trillion for WW2 Reparations

Poland’s resentment towards Germany is growing. Not only did Polish Defence Minister Radek Sirkorski thank the US for purportedly blowing up Germany’s energy lifeline ie., the Nord Stream Pipeline, Warsaw is planning to hit Berlin where it really hurts, and demand reparations for the Second World War, 83 years later.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on Monday signed a formal demand to Germany requesting $1.3 trillion in reparations for the deaths of six million Poles, and the destruction of Warsaw following a 1944 uprising. “[The note] expresses the position of the Polish minister of foreign affairs that the parties should take immediate steps to permanently and effectively… settle the issue of the consequences of aggression and German occupation,” explained Rau during a news conference. He is expected to hand the official note to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday when she visits Warsaw.

Germany, for its part, argues that all financial compensation linked to the Second World War to other countries including Poland had been settled. Shortly after the war in 1953, Poland’s communist party at the time abandoned all compensation claims to the war following pressure from the Soviet Union, which was simultaneously pushing for East Germany to forego all liabilities. However, Poland’s ruling nationalist party Law and Justice (PiS) recently argued that the agreement is nullified because Warsaw wasn’t able to negotiate a fair reparation.

Since taking power in 2015, PiS has made Poland’s victimhood during the World War an integral part of its shift towards nationalism. This, in turn, has strained diplomatic relations with Germany.

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