It will cost a pretty penny: Poland expects annual payments from Germany to victims of Nazism
29 June 02:18
The Polish government has informed the German authorities that it considers annual payments of 10,000 zlotys (about 2,300 euros) to be “acceptable compensation” for today’s Polish victims of Nazism. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian", citing DW.
Polish politicians have repeatedly emphasized in recent years that Germany must pay reparations to their country for crimes committed during World War II. According to media reports, in the spring of 2026, Warsaw specified the exact amount of compensation that surviving victims of Nazism are to receive annually from Germany.
Polish authorities estimate that there are 50,000 such individuals. On average, about 1,000 of them die each month.
The German government does not want to set a legal precedent
Two months ago, the German government held a meeting on the topic of reparations to Poland, attended by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadeful, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, and Finance Minister Lars Kling.
According to sources, the meeting participants fear that this would set a new legal precedent, after which similar demands would come from other countries that suffered under National Socialism. In addition, the difficult situation with Germany’s national budget was discussed.
Reparations to Poland could cost Germany 300 million euros
As the publication calculated, if the German government agrees to the Polish authorities’ demand, reparations costs in the first year would amount to about 100 million euros, and the entire compensation program would cost the German budget approximately 300 million.
Officially, Germany maintains that the demand for reparations, put forward by Poland’s previous center-right government, has no legal basis.
However, in 2024, then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his willingness to make such a humanitarian gesture. Berlin proposed allocating 200 million euros, but Poland’s new Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called this amount insufficient.
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