Poland and Greece have recently renewed calls for WWII reparations from Germany, as part of testing European unity.
"Reparations are not a closed subject," the Polish leader Andrzej Duda stated in an interview with Germany's Bild am Sonntag, out on October 28th, 2018.
"A group of experts is dealing with this in the Polish parliament. MPs will debate it and decide on the next steps," he added.
This German newspaper also quoted on other occasions Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party saying the Polish claim could total €690 billion.
The Polish reparations demands follow comparable developments in Greece. According to a report by cross-party MPs, Germany owed Athens, the Greek capital, €299 billion for damages caused by its Nazi occupation of the country.
Greece and Poland demand Germany pay up €1trillion in World War II reparations (GETTY)
As Karl Heinz Roth, a German historian who has also published a book on the German WWII debt to Greece, said: “Germany has an obligation to pay,” adding that Greece and Poland should join forces also with other countries too and demand together WWII reparations from Germany from damages they suffered during the Nazi occupation.
"This is an issue that psychologically still rankles, and as a government, we are absolutely determined to raise it," an MP from Greece's ruling party, Costas Douzinas, told British newspaper The Guardian.
The Polish comments came in spite of a show of friendship between Berlin and Warsaw.
Polish president Andrzej Duda argued that his country was never compensated sufficiently after German forces razed Warsaw to rubble during World War II.
The reparation claims would test European unity further at a time when Poland is already being considered to be a difficult member state over its government meddling in the judiciary and its opposition to migrant-sharing.
The country never surrendered to Nazi Germany and endured the loss of around three million of its non-Jewish citizens during the war, including several of its intellectuals and elite.
Duda: "Reparations are not a closed subject" (Photo: Kancelaria Prezydenta/flickr)
Warsaw, Poland's capital, was virtually reduced to rubble by Nazis in 1944 after a failing uprising in which 200,000 citizens died.
Athens faced a similar fate since tens of thousands of heroic Greeks were involved during a guerrilla campaign fighting against the German occupiers.
At least 300,000 more died of starvation amongst for which it is estimated that 40,000 of them died in the first year of Nazi occupation. Greece’s Jewish community was practically totally annihilated.
The Polish reparations demands follow comparable developments in Greece. According to a report by cross-party MPs, Germany owed Athens, the Greek capital, €299 billion for damages caused by its Nazi occupation of the country.
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