Polish president renews call for World War II reparations from Germany

Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Tuesday renewed his demand that Germany pay reparations for damage caused during World War II, calling on Berlin and the Polish government to address the issue.

Speaking on the 87th anniversary of Germany's invasion of Poland, Nawrocki said Germany had still not adequately reckoned with the scale of destruction inflicted on the country and appealed directly to the German chancellor and public to settle the issue of reparations and compensation.

“We need actions, not just beautiful words,” Nawrocki said, while also calling on Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government to support efforts to seek compensation from Germany.

Nawrocki, a conservative historian and former head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, has made historical memory and demands for German compensation recurring themes of his presidency.

The president said the history of World War II remained insufficiently understood in Germany, elsewhere in Europe and across the Atlantic, and accused Poland's current government of being reluctant to press the issue.

Nawrocki also linked the wartime dispute to present-day Polish-German relations, arguing that a durable partnership with Berlin required what he described as truth and historical justice.

He referred to Berlin’s economic relationship with Moscow in the decades preceding the Ukraine war, saying German governments had invested heavily in Russia despite warnings from Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries.

Tuesday's remembrance ceremonies were held at Westerplatte in Gdansk, where the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a Polish military depot on Sept. 1, 1939, marking the beginning of Germany's invasion of Poland.

The issue of German reparations has remained politically contentious in Poland.

In 2022, the former Law and Justice-led government presented a report estimating Poland's wartime losses resulting from German occupation at about 6.22 trillion zlotys, then equivalent to roughly $1.5 trillion, and subsequently sent Berlin a diplomatic note seeking compensation and other forms of redress.

Germany has consistently maintained that the legal question of wartime reparations is closed.

Tusk's government has taken a less confrontational approach than its predecessor while continuing to argue that Poland and individual Polish victims have not received adequate material and moral compensation for losses suffered under German occupation.