AP – Poland is set to release a long-awaited report on the cost to the country of years of Nazi German occupation as it marks 83 years since the start of World War II.
Poland’s right-wing government argues that the country which was the war’s first victim has not been fully compensated by neighbouring Germany, which is now one of its major partners within the European Union.
Top leaders including ruling party head Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is Poland’s chief policy maker, and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki are to attend the ceremonial release of the report at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. It is to be the main point of national observances of the anniversary of the war that began September 1, 1939, with Nazi Germany’s bombing and invading Poland, for more than five years of brutal occupation.
A team of some 30 economists, historians and other experts have worked on the report since 2017.
The issue has created bilateral tensions.
The war was “one of the most terrible tragedies in our history”, President Andrzej Duda said during early morning observances at the Westerplatte peninsula near Gdansk, one of the first places to be attacked in the Nazi invasion. “Not only because it took our freedom, not only because it took our state from us, but also because this war meant millions of victims among Poland’s citizens and irreparable losses to our homeland and our nation,” Duda said.
In Germany, the government’s official for German-Polish cooperation, Dietmar Nietan, said in a statement that September 1 “remains a day of guilt and shame for Germany that reminds us time and again not to forget the crimes carried out by Germany” that are the “darkest chapter in our history” and still affect bilateral relations.
