WARSAW, Poland – Poland is looking into demanding reparations from Germany for the massive losses inflicted on Poland during World War II, an official said Wednesday.
The Polish parliament's research office is preparing an analysis of whether Poland can legally make the claim and will have it ready by Aug. 11, said Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a lawmaker with the ruling Law and Justice party who requested the report.
The step comes after Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's most powerful politician, said the "Polish government is preparing itself for a historical counteroffensive."
File-this file photo from 1945 shows two German soldiers make their way through the gutted city of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, in September 1945. A Polish ruling party official said Wednesday that Poland is considering demanding reparations from Germany for the massive losses inflicted on Poland during World War II. Ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski recently said Poland planned a "counter-offensive" against Germany, accusing the neighbor of avoiding responsibility for its war-era crimes. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin)Expand / Collapse
Two German soldiers make their way through the gutted city of Warsaw, Poland's capital, in September 1945. (AP)
"We are talking here about huge sums, and also about the fact that Germany for many years refused to take responsibility for World War II," Kaczynski, the leader of the conservative ruling party, told Radio Maryja last week.
The massive suffering inflicted on Poland has been a topic of public discussion as Poland marked the anniversary Tuesday of the start of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The doomed revolt against the Nazi German occupying forces resulted in the killing of 200,000 Poles and the near-total destruction of Warsaw, the Polish capital.
People stand on the city's main intersection holding burning flares to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. Thousands of residents opened an uneven struggle on Aug. 1, 1944 in an effort to liberate the city from the Nazis and take control ahead of the advancing Soviet Red Army. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)Expand / Collapse
People stand on the city's main intersection holding flares to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw, Poland. (AP)
Amid the observances, Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said Germans need to "pay back the terrible debt they owe to the Polish people."
World War II, which began with the German invasion of Poland in 1939, killed nearly 6 million Polish citizens and inflicted huge material loss on the country, including the destruction of churches and other cultural treasures and entire cities.
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Kaczynski also called for reparations from Germany when he was prime minister more than a decade ago, creating tensions between Poland and Germany, which are important trade partners and allies in NATO and the European Union.
Germany has paid billions of euros over the years in compensation for Nazi crimes, primarily to Jewish survivors, and acknowledges the country's responsibility for keeping alive the memory of Nazi atrocities and atoning for them.
A man wears period costume as people stand on the city's main intersection holding burning flares to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw, Poland, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. Thousands of residents opened an uneven struggle on Aug. 1, 1944 in an effort to liberate the city from the Nazis and take control ahead of the advancing Soviet Red Army. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)Expand / Collapse
A man wears a period costume as people stand on the city's main intersection to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. (AP)
Poland's former communist government, under pressure from the Soviet Union, agreed in the 1950s not to make any claims on Germany.
Macierewicz said Tuesday that communist-era Poland was a "Soviet puppet state" whose decision is not legally valid today.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
OK. First and foremost - a history lesson is in order. After WWI, the treaty ending that war required massive reparations from Germany, so much so that it made the German mark absolutely worthless and plunged Germany into such abject poverty that it gave rise to Hitler. The German people were so desperate and downtrodden that they turned to a madman to pull them out of it and he succeeded which allowed him to take over as a dictator and create the 3rd Reich. After WWII and the complete dismantling of the 3rd Reich, that mistake was not made again for a couple of reasons - wisdom, and the government of the 3rd Reich was gone.
I do not think today's German government is in any way, shape or form the same country that caused WWII or its atrocities. We are 72 years past the end of WWII. Besides the fact, Poland was a defeated country; they only exist because of the actions of others. And they, too, are a new government.
I think this is absolutely ridiculous. You have two completely different regimes in place than those that existed then. Move on, people.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
I can understand the Polish government wanting to sue the German people for WWII. Poland was not allowed to receive reparations after the war and their country probably suffered the greatest losses per capita at that time.
Poland's hands were tied by Russia for decades. I can understand them trying to get reparation payments. Is it going to work? I doubt it. But they can tell their people they tried. And the grudge against Germany goes on..
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I drink coffee so I don't kill you.
I quilt so I don't kill you.
Do you see a theme?
Faith isn't something that keeps bad things from happening. Faith is what helps us get through bad things when they do happen.
And the grudge goes on is exactly the problem. It is not the same country it was. A lot has happened in 72 years. Holding a grudge over something no one currently in Germany had anything to do with is crazy.
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LawyerLady
I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.
