Poland must demand reparations from Germany for World War II, worth at least $ 900 billion, Janusz Szewczak, a member of the parliamentary group dealing with the issue, told the Polish magazine WPolityce.
“As long as Germany does not pay off Poland’s debt for World War II — and we are talking about an amount of not less than $900 billion – Berlin must remain extremely restrained when it comes to [its] attacks on the Polish government”, Szewczak said.
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He described Polish authorities' ignoring the question of WWII reparations over the past 30 years as a “disgrace”.
“Germans should allocate worthy financial means for the payment of reparations,” Szewczak pointed out.
His remarks came after Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in October 2018 that in his opinion, “the theme of reparation payments is not closed”, something that he added was being discussed by a group of experts in the Polish parliament.
In 2017, German Ambassador to Poland Rolf Nikel reiterated Berlin's position on German WWII reparations to Poland, saying that “the issue is legally and politically closed” but that Berlin does take "moral" responsibility for “what happened” during the war.
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Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, in response to a false flag attack on the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz the day beforehand, marking the beginning of the war. It took Germany just over a month to occupy Poland, which was liberated by Soviet troops only in 1945.