Poland Rekindles German War Reparation Talk Before EU Elections
Warsaw, Poland, after the German occupation of Oct. 1939.
Source: Central Press/Hulton Archive via Getty Images
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Poland’s ruling party is returning to the controversial topic of World War II reparations from Germany ahead of May’s elections to the European Parliament, calling on its western neighbor to take “responsibility” for the economic costs of its invasion eight decades ago.
A special parliamentary group published a preliminary study on Wednesday showing that Nazi Germany’s 1939 invasion and bloody six-year occupation may have cost the Polish economy more than $850 billion -- or nearly two years of the east European country’s current economic output.