Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Information Minister in Pakistani-administered Kashmir: Five civilians killed and at least 29 others injured in shelling across the border with India
Israeli Army Radio's diplomatic correspondent quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: So he [Trump] decided to cut off contact. That might still change, but that’s the situation right now
Israeli Army Radio's diplomatic correspondent quoted a senior Israeli official as saying: Trump’s circle told him [Dermer] that Netanyahu was manipulating him, and there’s nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as someone being played
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: Meetings between the Israelis, Egyptians, and Qataris are all centered around the Israeli proposal, which does not guarantee an end to the war [on Gaza]
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: “Israel” is threatening to expand the ground offensive if Hamas rejects the proposal
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: Hamas rejects the Israeli proposal, viewing it as failing to guarantee an end to the war
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: “Israel” is sticking to its proposal, and insists there is no alternative offer on the table for negotiation
Senior Palestinian official to Al Mayadeen: The meetings between the Israelis and the Egyptians and Qataris all revolve around the Israeli proposal
The administration was clearly looking for an off-ramp for this campaign against Ansar Allah, NBC News reports, citing US official
Trump's operation against Ansar Allah cost more than $1 billion, NBC News reports, citing US official

Poland demands $1.32 trl reparations from Germany for WWII damages

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 15 Sep 2022 14:16
4 Min Read

Warsaw votes to adopt reparations demand from Berlin for damages made by Nazi Germany, however, the research on which the total cost has been assessed is a PiS research which has been deemed as flawed by history experts.

  • x
  • Poland demands $1.32 trl reparations from Germany for WWII damages
    By a majority vote of 418 to 4, the reparations law was adopted by both the opposition and Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The lower chamber of Poland's parliament voted on Wednesday to demand Germany pay $1.3 trillion in reparations for damages sustained during the Nazi era.

By a majority vote of 418 to 4, the reparations law was adopted by both the opposition and Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

However, researchers claim that some of the atrocities mentioned by Warsaw were really perpetrated by Poles, making the demand contentious.

Since PiS came to office in 2015, the party has demanded reparations from Germany. A 2019 estimate indicated the apparent cost of the Nazi occupation at $850 billion, but research commissioned by the party and released earlier this month increased the figure to 6.2 trillion zlotys ($1.32 trillion).

When the study was released, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynsk said that the estimate was "conservative" and that Germany could pay it. Berlin paying up would promote "true Polish-German reconciliation," he added.

Germany has contended that Poland relinquished its right to reparations in agreements signed with East Germany in 1953 by its communist government and in agreements reached with the USSR, US, UK, and France in 1990 by East and West Germany. Poland responded by claiming that the 1953 pact was made under Soviet pressure and that it was not a party to the 1990 negotiations.

In a direct critique of the reparations research by the PiS, Jan Grabowski, a Polish-born professor and Holocaust researcher at the University of Ottawa, told the Times of Israel last week that “It is a purely political document with no historical value.”

Related News

US relocates troops in Poland, to halve troops in eastern Europe

Poland allocates 5% of GDP for defense spending as Ukraine war resumes

Additionally, Grabowski stated that it is “quite appalling” to blame these pogroms and atrocities solely on the Germans.

The divide between EU and Germany

Former Polish President Lech Walesa considered on June 4th that the European Union should dissolve and reestablish a new equivalent institution without Hungary and Poland, instead of compromising on key initiatives.

"If the European Commission greenlights Poland's post-Covid National Recovery Plan [KPO], that will be its defeat. The EU, instead of compromising with Poland, should dissolve and create a new community the next moment involving Germany and France, but excluding Poland and Hungary," Walesa told the Polish media outlet Interia.

Furthermore, Poland's refusal to supply oil to a refinery site in Schwedt, a town in Germany, has once again shown that Warsaw only pursues its own interests and that "oaths of European solidarity" are forgotten, remarked Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to Radio Sputnik on August 24. 

The Financial Times on August 21 reported that Poland refused to supply oil to the German refinery, intending to compensate for Russian oil imports through the Druzhba pipeline, due to the fact that the plant's owner was Rosneft, a Russian energy company. 

"This is another argument in a piggy bank [of evidences] that Warsaw does not intend to play any game, even according to its own rules that were declared. Warsaw has interests that have nothing to do with mutual respect, mutually beneficial partnership with Ukraine," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The spokeswoman argued that Warsaw is driven by the desire to play the geopolitical card now, while completely forgetting all European promises and oaths of European solidarity."

Poland disregards the needs and interests of its European neighbors and partners in the EU, and would rather take advantage of the situation, notably as Warsaw has been demanding the complete reduction of Russian presence in German oil refineries since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Read more: US Vice President, Polish PM talk Ukraine, NATO Eastern flank: WH

  • Poland
  • Nazi Germany
  • Jan Grabowski
  • Germany
  • Holocaust

Most Read

Pro-Palestinian protesters march toward the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Washington (AP)

US House to vote on bill criminalizing boycott of 'Israel'

  • Politics
  • 3 May 2025
Throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, current and former US military and intelligence officials expressed disquiet at the enormous “cost offset” involved in battling Ansar Allah. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Ansar Allah triumphant: US facing Red Sea defeat again

  • Opinion
  • 3 May 2025
Pakistan downs an Indian jet and hits a military base in Kashmir escalation.

Pakistan downs 3 Indian jets, hits military base in Kashmir escalation

  • Politics
  • 7 May 2025
Trump cut off contact with Netanyahu, senior Israeli official says

Trump cut off contact with Netanyahu: Israeli media

  • US & Canada
  • Today

Coverage

All
Gaza prevails against genocide

Read Next

All
UN experts warn: Stop the genocide or witness Gaza's end
Politics

Stop the genocide or witness end of life in Gaza: UN experts warn

Israeli police attack mourners as they carry the casket of killed Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in occupied al-Quds, Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP)
Politics

Israeli sniper who killed journalist Shireen Abu Akleh identified

The Department of Defense logo is seen on the wall in the Press Briefing room at the Pentagon, Oct. 29, 2024, in Washington. (AP)
Politics

Pentagon’s unused properties drain billions in taxpayer funds

Haaretz
Palestine

Israeli military avoids calling up unwilling reservists: Haaretz

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS