The German government has still not decided on financial support for around 50,000 victims of the Third Reich still living in Poland, Süddeutsche Zeitung has warned. According to the daily, Warsaw has presented Berlin with a concrete proposal, but the matter has become stuck between ministries, while time is working against those waiting for assistance.
German government does not want to pay compensation to Poles
The article, titled “The agonising wait for a good gesture”, devoted to the issue of financial support for around 50,000 Polish victims of Nazism who are still alive, appeared in Monday’s edition of Süddeutsche Zeitung.
At the outset, the German newspaper recalled a statement made by Friedrich Merz in December 2025, in which the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany assured Poland that his government was “aware of its historical responsibility”.
Polish victims of Nazism may have hoped that the long-discussed “humanitarian gesture” in the form of a financial benefit would finally become a reality. “However, those affected are still waiting in vain,” the authors write.
According to information obtained by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Polish side has meanwhile presented the German government with a “very concrete plan”, which is now being discussed across several German ministries. In the authors’ view, the plan is being “discussed endlessly”. Critics are raising legal objections, pointing to concerns about possible demands from other countries, and citing the difficult budgetary situation.
A “humanitarian gesture”?
According to the newspaper, a meeting took place around two months ago with the participation of Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Head of the Chancellery Thorsten Frei, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil. Dobrindt and Frei once again stressed that, for the Federal Republic of Germany, the issue of reparations is “closed” and that only a “humanitarian gesture” is possible.
“Donald Tusk’s government is keen to ensure that the gesture is not perceived by Polish public opinion as alms, which would be grist to the mill of right-wing populists and nationalists,” Süddeutsche Zeitung writes.
A major problem, however, is the “inevitable gap” between Law and Justice’s demand of EUR 1.3 trillion and the scale of a humanitarian gesture. For this reason, Tusk rejected an offer of EUR 200 million made in 2024 by then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
As Süddeutsche Zeitung writes, the Polish side has signalled to the government in Berlin that it would consider an amount of PLN 10,000 per year for each victim, paid through the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation, to be acceptable.
According to the newspaper, the total cost of such support, “based on very cautious estimates,” would amount to around EUR 300 million. From the point of view of the German budget, it would be advantageous that Germany did not have to transfer the entire sum immediately, but only EUR 100 million in the first year, 2027, with the amount then gradually decreasing in subsequent years. Süddeutsche Zeitung notes that “so far, no agreement has been reached within the German government”.
“Time is running out,” the authors write, adding that during consultations in December 2025, Chancellor Merz promised that remembrance of, and reckoning with, the Nazi dictatorship “will never be a closed matter for us”.
“Disgrace”
In a separate commentary, Daniel Brössler calls the delaying tactics toward Polish victims of Nazism a disgrace. By postponing a decision on a “humanitarian gesture” for Polish victims of Nazism, the German government is exposing itself to the accusation that it wants to save money on the payments, the Süddeutsche Zeitung commentator writes.
“The longer Germany strings along Polish victims of Nazism, the greater the disgrace becomes,” Brössler writes. “While the German government searches for money for the gesture, a thousand people die every month,” the columnist adds, stressing that “there is no justification for the delay”.
Possible criticism from right-wing populists over the amount of the payment “cannot be a reason to leave victims of Nazism out in the cold”, Brössler argues. Otherwise, in his view, the German government “exposes itself to the grave suspicion that the longer Germany delays, the more money it will save”.