Author: Vassilia Orfanou, PhD, Post Doc
Headline Diplomat eMagazine
Poland’s foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau signed an official, diplomatic note requesting around €1.3 trillion in damages from Germany incurred by occupying Nazi Germans during World War II. What’s behind the claim? Check here.

Rau’s announcement came before the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that visited Poland to take part in German Unity Day Celebrations at the Germany Embassy in Warsaw. For Germany, the case is already closed. So whose is in the right?

What does Poland want?

Warsaw says that payment of reparations would strengthen bilateral relations via truth and justice and would help close painful chapters from the past. On the contrary, Germany insists that it settled the issue through the Two-plus-Four Treaty of 1990. Reparations could have been addressed then. But the issue never came up. At the time, Poland wanted to secure united Germany’s confirmation of the post-war border. Such validation from Germany to Poland was indeed necessary, which was equally and most probably the reasoning behind not mentioning reparations at the time.

“{The note} expresses the position of the Polish mi...

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