Polish President Karol Nawrocki renewed demands for Germany to compensate Poland for losses suffered during World War II on Tuesday, arguing that a lasting partnership between the two countries required greater recognition of historical responsibility.
Speaking during commemorations marking the 87th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, Nawrocki appealed directly to the German government and public to address the longstanding dispute over reparations.
“We need actions, not just beautiful words,” Nawrocki said, while urging the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to support efforts to secure compensation.
Nawrocki, a conservative historian who previously headed Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, said the scale of Poland’s wartime destruction and suffering remained insufficiently understood in Germany and elsewhere.
He argued that resolving the issue was important not only for historical justice but also for the future of Polish-German relations.
The president also criticised Germany’s economic relationship with Russia in the decades before the Ukraine war, saying successive governments in Berlin had deepened ties with Moscow despite repeated warnings from Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries.
Tuesday’s commemorations were held at Westerplatte in Gdansk, where the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a Polish military depot on September 1, 1939, as Germany launched its invasion of Poland.
Reparations have remained a contentious issue between Warsaw and Berlin for decades. In 2022, Poland’s then Law and Justice-led government published an extensive assessment putting the country’s losses from German occupation at 6.22 trillion zlotys, equivalent at the time to approximately $1.5 trillion.
Warsaw subsequently sent a diplomatic note to Berlin seeking compensation and other forms of redress.
Germany has consistently maintained that the legal question of World War II reparations has been settled and that it has no further financial obligations to Poland.
Tusk’s government has adopted a less confrontational approach towards Berlin than its predecessor. However, it has continued to maintain that Poland and individual victims of the German occupation have not received adequate material and moral compensation.
Nawrocki called for a more assertive approach, arguing that reconciliation and close relations with Germany should be built on what he described as historical truth and justice.