ポーランド、ドイツに戦争賠償１８０兆円請求　独政府は応じず

【ワルシャワＡＦＰ＝時事】ポーランドは１日、第２次世界大戦に同国が受けた損害は６兆２０００億ズロチ（約１８０兆円）に上ると推定する報告書を発表し、賠償請求をめぐる交渉をドイツに求める方針を示した。（写真はワルシャワ蜂起から７８年を迎えた８月１日、記念行事に参加する人）
　この日は、１９３９年のナチス・ドイツによるポーランド侵攻からちょうど８３年に当たる。ポーランドの事実上の指導者とされる与党「法と正義（ＰｉＳ）」のヤロスワフ・カチンスキ党首は報告書を発表した会議で、賠償金の大部分は「５２０万人以上のポーランド国民の死に対する」ものだと説明。人的損失の額は、各個人が生涯収入として国内総生産（ＧＤＰ）に寄与できたはずだった額に基づき算出された。物的損失は８０００億ズロチ（約２４兆円）と推定されている。
　ＰｉＳは２０１５年の政権獲得以来、戦争賠償の問題を繰り返し訴えてきた。だがドイツは、１９５３年にポーランドが旧東ドイツへの賠償を放棄していることを理由に、賠償支払いを否定。独外務省報道官は１日、ＡＦＰへの電子メールで、「ドイツ政府の立場は変わらず、賠償問題は解決している」として、交渉には応じない姿勢を示した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/09/02-11:18）

Poland on Thursday estimated the financial cost of World War II losses to be 1.3 trillion euros (dollars) and said it would ask Germany to negotiate these reparations.
It is a major sum of 6.2 trillion Polish zloty, said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling Law and Justice party and widely considered to be Poland's de facto leader.
Most of this sum is compensation for the deaths of more than 5.2 million Polish citizens, he stressed.
Kaczynski said that receiving reparations would be a long and difficult process.
It is a decision we will implement, he said, speaking on the anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.
Kaczynski was speaking at a conference dedicated to the presentation of a report on Poland's losses in the 1939-1945 war.
Since coming to power in 2015, Poland's governing Law and Justice (PiS) party has often championed the issue of war reparations.
Work on the reparations report began in 2017, when the conservative government insisted that Germany had a moral duty in the matter.
- German position 'unchanged' -
Germany has often rejected Poland's claims, pointing to a 1953 decision by Poland to renounce claims against East Germany.
The German government on Thursday turned down the Polish call to negotiate on reparations.
The German government's position is unchanged, the reparations issue is closed, a foreign ministry spokesman said in an email to AFP.
He cited the 1953 decision, calling it a significant foundation for Europe's order today.
The liberal Polish opposition believes the report is mainly intended for domestic political purposes, coming as it does a year ahead of parliamentary elections.
The PiS initiative on war reparations has been appearing for several years, whenever PiS needs to build a political narrative, said Donald Tusk, chairman of the main opposition Civic Platform (PO).
This is not about any reparations from Germany, but a political campaign in Poland, he added, with Kaczynski seeking to rebuild the support of the ruling party through this anti-German campaign.
- 'Unbelievably criminal, unbelievably cruel' -
But Kaczynski insisted that the reparations report needs to be acted upon.
We have not only prepared a report... but we have also taken a decision, a decision on further action, Kaczynski said.
That action is to ask Germany to negotiate these reparations. And this is a decision that we will implement, he added.
The Germans invaded Poland and did us enormous damage. The occupation was unbelievably criminal, unbelievably cruel and caused effects that in many cases continue to this day.
Apart from the overall death toll put at 5.3 million, the new report provides other shocking statistics, including that 2.1 million Polish citizens were deported to labour in Nazi Germany.
As a result of being forced to undergo pseudo-medical experiments and detention in concentration camps, 590,000 Poles were disabled.
Over the duration of the six-year World War, Poland lost 50 percent of its lawyers, 40 percent of the doctors and 35 percent of university professors.
Human losses were calculated as the loss of wages that a person would have earned for the rest of his or her life, and thus the loss to the national GDP.
Material losses were also tallied at an estimated 800 billion zlotys (170 billion euros).
The total figure also includes multi-billion losses related to cultural and artistic assets and in the banking sector.