Poland is preparing for Warsaw Uprising-2

May demand £34.7bn from Germany for losses suffered in WWII

Warsaw, Aug. 5: As Poland commemorates the anniversary of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, which left 200,000 Poles dead, officials in the Polish Parliament are looking into whether they can demand reparations from Germany for losses suffered during the Second World War.

Jaroslaw Kaczyñski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), recently announced that Poland is preparing for a “historic counteroffensive”. “We are talking about enormous sums and the fact that Germany has refused to take responsibility for the Second World War for many years,” he said.

The Parliament’s findings, he said, will be ready by August 11.

According to reports quoting the Bureau of War Reparation, Poland could be in within its rights to claim a staggering £34.7 billion.

Mr Kaczyñski said that the demand for reparations was not only a moral and historical matter, but a legal one as well.

“Historically speaking… Poland was the first country to take an armed stand against Hitlerism — and 17 days later we were attacked by another, also genocidal totalitarianism, the Soviet Union. This brings up the question, have we received for these considerable losses, ones that we really have not recovered from till today, losses in people, elites, ones that practically cannot be caught up with, it will take five or seven generates to make up for it — any sort of reparations? No.”

Warsaw Uprising by

Poland was the first country to take an armed stand against Hitlerism… Have we received for these considerable losses… any sort of reparations? No. — Jaroslaw Kaczyñski, Law & Justice Party leader

Continued from Page 1 Polish resistance was intended to liberate the city from German occupation, but instead resulted in the deaths of 200,000 Poles and the near destruction of Warsaw. In all, about six million Poles are estimated to have died as a result of the German occupation after the Nazi invasion in 1939.

During a speech to commemorate victims of the uprising on Monday, defense minister Antoni Macierewicz said the Germans should “pay back the terrible debt they owe to the Polish people.”

Germany has already handed out billions of pounds in World War II reparations, mainly to Jewish survivors of the war.

Ulrik Demmer, a spokeswoman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “Germany stands by its responsibility in World War II, politically, morally and financially. Germany has made significant reparations for general war damage, including to Poland, and is still paying significant compensation for Nazi wrongdoing.”