Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated Warsaw will instead prioritize building a “safe future” in collaboration with Berlin.
Following discussions with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Warsaw on Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Poland will no longer seek reparations from Germany for Nazi-era crimes committed during World War II.
The previous Polish government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party from 2015 to 2023, had revived demands for compensation from Germany. In 2022, Warsaw estimated the damages caused by the Nazi occupation at 6.2 trillion Polish zloty (approximately $1.5 trillion).
During a joint press conference with Merz, Tusk addressed the issue, stating: “Has Germany ever compensated for the losses, the tragedy of the Second World War in Poland? No, of course not.”
“I am a historian… I could talk for hours about what this bill looks like. It was never repaid, but we will not be asking for it,” he emphasized.
Merz asserted that “the legal issues related to possible reparations have been resolved.” He added, however, that “this does not mean that we cannot talk about joint projects and common ideas about how we see a future together.”
Relations between the two EU countries had been strained under former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz due to disagreements over reparations, migration, and other matters.
Despite acknowledging responsibility for Nazi crimes, Germany has refused to provide reparations to Poland, maintaining that the issue was settled in 1953 when Warsaw relinquished its right to restitution under an agreement with East Germany. Berlin argues that the 1990 treaty on German reunification definitively resolved the compensation matter.
The 1939 German invasion of Poland marked the start of World War II. Poland was under Nazi occupation throughout the war, before being liberated in 1945 by the Soviet Army and Polish forces.
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