Report on Polish war losses. The total amount exceeds PLN 6 trillion

“Today we are obliged to count all the losses and give a proper bill for these losses. To those who are guilty of this,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said during the presentation of the “Report on the losses suffered by Poland as a result of German aggression and occupation during World War II 1939-1945” at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. A comprehensive report detailing not only Nazi German war crimes during World War II but also damage caused has been prepared for five years and today had its official presentation.

The presentation of the “Report on the losses suffered by Poland as a result of German aggression and occupation during World War II 1939-1945” was held at the Royal Castle in Warsaw on Thursday (Sep 1). The event was attended, among others, by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the President of the ruling party – the Law and Justice party Jarosław Kaczyński, the Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek and Arkadiusz Mularczyk MP of the Law and Justice party, who led the team preparing the report on reparations. Work on the report took five years.

During the presentation, it was announced that Germany should pay Poland PLN 6.2 trillion (EUR 1.32 trillion) in compensation for the destruction caused by the Second World War. 

“WW II was perhaps the bloodiest conflict in the history. It was characterised by a different approach, which was expressed by Hitler just before the war: a line is not the goal of war, rather the entire annihilation of the enemy. That was the aim of the Third German Reich,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister also mentioned the events of 1 September 1939, which took place in Wieluń at dawn. “Next to Westerplatte, there was also Wieluń. Tons of bombs fell on this sleeping city.”

As the head of the Polish government pointed out: 

“Today we are obliged to count all the losses and give a proper bill for these losses. To those who are guilty of this. Evil does not end. Crimes will be repeated, and they are repeating.”

“If there are no reparations or punishment, it encourages further crimes. World War II hasn’t been properly judged and presented in terms of losses and compensation,” he announced.

Jarosław Kaczyński, who was also present there, said that although the reparations process would be “lengthy and difficult,” the issue was to “gain damages for everything that Germany, that the German state, that the German nation, did in Poland in the years 1939-1945.”

He added that “dozens of countries around the world have received damages from Germany while Poland has not,” which he attributed to a lack of initiative.

Kaczynski said a general principle applied in international relations whereby if one state does another great harm, it must make good for that harm.

“And there is no reason why Poland has been excluded from the action of that principle,” he said.

A comprehensive report detailing not only Nazi German war crimes during World War II but also the damage caused has been prepared for five years and today had its official presentation.