“In an atmosphere of trust,” Germany has promised to take steps to support victims of Nazi occupation. The country will not compensate Poland for war crimes it committed during World War II, however. Polish opposition conservatives are critical, blaming the leftist government for serving German interests and failing to resolve the issue of war reparations.
Leaders of the two countries praised a new era in bilateral relations and vowed to reinforce their defence cooperation. At a meeting between Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Warsaw on Tuesday, July 2nd, the duo announced they wanted to put their countries’ cooperation on a new footing. This follows a strained relationship between Berlin and Warsaw’s previous, conservative government.
The leftist-liberal coalition led byTusk—in power since December 2023—has improved its relationship with Germany by seeking to conform to ‘European values’ and align itself with EU decisions. The revival of the so-called Weimar Triangle, a regional alliance of France, Germany, and Poland has been an important step in rekindling the love affair but, writes German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “the uncertainties surrounding the parliamentary elections in France, not to mention the threat of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in Washington, clearly show how important a close German-Polish relationship is right now.”
The first round of the French legislative elections on Sunday was won by Marine Le Pen’s national-conservative National Rally, and her party may get the chance of forming a new government after the second round on July 7th. Though the French president determines the country’s foreign, European and defence policy, Berlin and Warsaw are worried that a right-wing government would urge a scaling back of European defence cooperation and military aid to Ukraine.
Addressing the issue Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday:
It is very important for us that we, as these three states, think together about the future of Europe. We are certain that, regardless of the outcome of the second round of the French elections, the cooperation between the French President [Emmanuel Macron] and Donald and myself will continue to be very good and that will also be the basis for our countries’ relations.
Tighter defence cooperation is high on the agenda in Warsaw, and, according to German media, Berlin will contribute to the defence of Poland’s eastern flank. Tensions are running high on the border with Belarus, and Russian missile strikes on Ukraine regularly lead to NATO aircraft being scrambled in Poland. A German-Polish action plan aims to reinforce the alliance along the eastern flank as well as provide additional assistance to Ukraine, including on repairing and maintaining Leopard 2 tanks.
Minister Donald Tusk said that Germany will be a “leader” for Europe’s security—a comment criticised by the conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. As Piotr Muller, a former conservative government spokesman said:
We thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for the moment of honesty. Although Poles had thus far not doubted that the leadership of Germany is the most important thing for you.
PiS has regularly accused Tusk of serving German and European Union interests. “The current government behaves as though it were just an instrument, a tool of the European Commission, a sort of extended arm of the activities of the EU. I believe the government represents the interests of Brussels more than that of the Polish state,” Paweł Lisicki, editor-in-chief of conservative Polish weekly, Do Rzeczy recently told The European Conservative.
Law and Justice also criticised the prime minister for not concluding a concrete financial agreement on World War II reparations, a thorny issue in bilateral relations.
The demand for Germany to pay reparations had been raised many times by the previous conservative Polish government, which had a strained relationship with Germany due to ideological differences on issues like migration and the future of Europe. According to their calculations, Germany owes Poland €1.3 trillion, which represents payment for the forced labour of around 2.1 million Poles, the loss of eastern territories to the Soviet Union, and the stolen lives of some 196,000 Polish children who were forcibly Germanized.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided and annexed Poland in 1939, and Germany occupied the whole of the country in 1941. The occupation lasted until the end of the war in 1945. Poland lost some six million of its citizens, half of them Jewish. It also suffered enormous damage to its industry and infrastructure.
Poland was never properly compensated. In 1953, the communist regime in Warsaw relinquished seeking reparations. Poland stresses it was under the domination of the Soviet Union at that time, so the declaration was made under Moscow’s pressure and was not legally binding. However, Germany has made it clear it sees no legal basis for compensating Poland. Berlin refused a similar request from the Greek authorities a few years ago.
“Poland never, during the time of communism or democracy, closed the issue of reparations … Poland has never renounced its claim to reparations from Germany for the material and human loss caused during the Second World War and occupation,” tweeted Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a former State Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the previous conservative Polish government, urging his successors to settle the issue quickly.
Even Tusk’s government “can’t ignore the strong sensation in Poland that the Germans did not properly face up to the crimes committed during the occupation in Poland,” writes German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, According to a survey published two years ago, 64% of Polish people say Germany should pay reparations.
On a visit to Berlin in February, Tusk said reparations were concluded “in a formal sense but material and moral reparations were never realised.”
However, on his visit to Warsaw, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany was ready to compensate living Polish victims of the Nazi occupation but not pay reparations to the Polish state. He said:
We, the Germans, caused Poland immense suffering during World War II. Germany is aware of its guilt and the tasks resulting from this. Germany will try to provide support to survivors of the occupation.
The German government will also fund the construction of a German-Polish House in Berlin, dedicated to the history of the fate of Poles during the Nazi occupation. Donald Tusk said he was not disappointed by the lack of reparations and called the two proposals a “good gesture” on the part of the German government. According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), around 40,000 Polish remaining survivors of the war could benefit from any potential German support.
PiS criticised Scholz’s offer of support as “scraps” compared to the $1.3 trillion that was demanded. Its MP Adam Andruszkiewicz tweeted that despite Tusk’s insistence on demanding war reparations, Poland “won’t get a single zloty.”
