The Germany-Poland dispute over World War Two reparations could soon be over, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz humiliating Poland, a prominent publicist says.

„The World War Two reparations issue between Germany and Poland is illustrative of the relationship between the current Polish government, led by left-wing politician Donald Tusk, and Berlin. Far from being a partnership of equals, it is more like a subordinate relationship,” said Polish publicist Jacek Karnowski.

The dispute has been going on between the two countries for years. Two years ago, Poland’s previous right-wing government published a report detailing the 1.3 billion euros in reparations Germany owes for damage caused by the German occupation during World War Two. Poland has also issued an official diplomatic note addressed to the EU, NATO and the Council of Europe to draw attention to the reparations claim.

„Since Donald Tusk and his leftist-liberal government took over power in Poland, all that has been achieved is that Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to build a Polish-German house. Initially, the project aimed to erect a memorial, but that will not be the case. Instead, an unclearly defined centre will be built, probably as a place for blurring German responsibility and perhaps sharing the blame with Poland and the Poles,” says Jacek Karnowski.

The second German proposal concerns providing assistance to the surviving victims of World War Two. It is a belated, vague and unhurried effort, and in fact does not change anything. This generation is mostly gone, with only a handful of victims still alive.Today, only serious proposals addressing today’s Poland and its citizens can truly close the issue of reparations.

„While the German chancellor is safeguarding German interests, what is the Polish prime minister doing? He states that he is not the least bit disappointed with the German government’s proposal and good gesture, because there is no gesture that will satisfy the Poles and no amount of money that will make up for what happened in World War Two. This sounds like a bad joke: if no amount of money can compensate for the grievances, then why demand anything at all? This is absurd and embarrassing. If we followed this logic, then no compensation would be paid for traffic accidents or related offences,”

the publicist pointed out, noting that Chancellor Scholz is well aware that he has the upper hand because he won the battle for Poland against the Law and Justice (PiS) government striving for independence. Poland has not been so deeply humiliated in a long time as it was at the meeting between Tusk and Scholz, he added.