Germany was a favorite target of the PiS government, with the party’s leaders demanding Berlin pay more than €1 trillion in war reparations. Germany rejected those demands, with a spokesperson saying the “matter is closed” due to a series of postwar agreements.
The current Polish government has dropped the reparation demands, but Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has called on Germany to find a “creative solution” to compensate the Polish people for their suffering.
The German announcement is expected to consist of a package of measures with costs in the “three-digit million range,” German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported. This is expected to include financial compensation for Polish victims of Nazi Germany who are still alive, support for the defense of Poland’s eastern flank, and the creation of a memorial in Berlin focused on Nazi crimes in occupied Poland.
Scholz is expected to announce the initiatives during a press conference alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday. The trip also marks the first German-Polish government consultations since 2018. More than 10 ministers in Scholz’s cabinet are scheduled to join the consultations.
It’s unlikely, however, that Germany’s expected announcement on Tuesday will quell reparations demands. Polls suggest a majority of people in Poland believe Germany should pay compensation.
Security cooperation to deepen Germany’s support along the country’s eastern flank will be a key part of the consultations, according to a senior German official. Those discussions are happening in a context in which both sides wish to bolster their own cross-border initiatives on air defense.
