Poland commemorated the 83rd anniversary of its invasion by Nazi Germany this week. To mark the occasion the leader of the country’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński, announced that Poland was once again seeking reparations for the invasion from Germany. Speaking from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Kaczyński unveiled a report which put the damages inflicted on Poland by the Nazis at over $1.3 trillion.

He did not specify the period over which Germany is expected to pay, only saying the path to obtaining reparations ‘will take a long time and will not be easy.’ The legal procedure is also unclear – a spokesperson said it is hoped Germany will ‘draw the appropriate conclusions’ from reading the report, but if not ‘we will take further action, including formal action on the international stage.’

Kaczyński said reparations were needed to ‘rebuild normality in the functioning of the Polish state‘ as the effects of the Nazi occupation ‘in many cases continue to this day.’ The new report takes into account the destruction of Polish cities, infrastructure and industry during the war, as well as lost economic potential caused by the murder of millions of civilians.

Poland argues that although Germany paid out reparations to other states, its claims were not dealt with fairly while the country was part of the eastern bloc. Germany has compensated individual Polish victims of Nazi atrocities, but Berlin points out that Poland officially waived its right to reparations in 1953 under a territorial agreement with East Germany. Poland says that agreement was made under pressure from the Soviet Union and cannot be considered binding.

The Polish government has now been calling for war reparations from Germany for years. Yet the publication of the report moves the campaign into a new phase – while adding to an already severe deterioration in modern German-Polish relations.

Germany has flatly rejected the possibility of paying out. When the issue was raised during Olaf Scholz’s first visit as German chancellor to Warsaw in December 2021, Scholz reiterated Berlin’s position that the matter is closed and suggested that Germany’s net contributions to the EU budget should be considered sufficient compensation.

But for many Poles, this isn’t good enough. Surveys released to coincide with the publication of the reparations report show that around half of the country believes Poland is right to press its claims. Opinion is split along party lines: those in favour are overwhelmingly eurosceptic, while those against the move mostly consist of supporters of the pro-EU opposition led by former European Council president Donald Tusk.

Tusk has been dismissive of the reparations drive, saying ‘everyone would like Poland to get more money for various reasons’ but that he is ‘concerned about the prospect’ of re-opening historical wounds. Tusk portrays the claims as an ‘unrealistic story’ told by the government to distract people from a mounting economic crisis with Polish general elections approaching next year.

Now is hardly a good time for European nations to be pressing enormous historical financial claims on each other. An energy crisis threatens to plunge the continent into recession – inflation in Poland stands at 16.1 per cent and the country reported negative GDP growth for the second quarter of 2022. The outlook for Germany’s stagnant economy is also grim.

But there is a moral and political dimension here, which have been cast in a new light by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With Poland assuming a position of leadership in opposing Putin’s aggression, there is growing bitterness in the country about Germany’s stance. Poland holds Germany accountable for the EU’s inability to take more substantial punitive steps against the Kremlin – it’s seen as a travesty that after years of Warsaw warning Berlin about energy dependency on Moscow, Putin is now able to put all of Europe on the back foot by strangling gas flows.

This has led to a Polish stream of invective directed at Berlin, including recent warnings from Kaczyński of a ‘German-Russian plan to rule over Europe.’ The PiS leader said ‘an independent, economically, socially and militarily strong Poland is an obstacle for them. From a historical perspective, this is nothing new.’

Coming from arguably Poland’s most influential politician, the implication of this is striking: that the modern German-Russian energy axis is comparable to historical wrongs such as the partitioning of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Kaczyński has also portrayed the European Court of Justice as an ‘instrument‘ of Berlin and said Poles are ‘not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German Fourth Reich being built on the basis of the EU.’

He was referring to arguments with the EU over Polish judicial reforms, which took a back seat after Russia invaded Ukraine but resurfaced in August as Brussels doubled down on its refusal to pay out funds worth €35 billion to Poland. The withholding of EU financial support is seen as particularly egregious given that Poland is the EU’s most generous contributor of military aid to Ukraine as well as the EU nation hosting the largest number of Ukrainian refugees. For the Polish government, it’s further evidence of the EU’s institutional corruption by malign German interests.

The war reparations claim is yet more proof of the historical resentment underpinning Poland’s belief that although Moscow is the enemy, the EU – directed by Germany – also acts like a hostile power.

This report detailing the extent of crimes committed by the Nazis in Poland carries a political potency, even if it is unlikely to have practical consequences. Germany is being lined up as responsible for Poland’s suffering in the past and present.