Victims of Nazi crimes in Poland have turned to German society for help

An appeal to German civil society

On November 5, the website of the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation published an open letter from Polish victims' organizations addressed to German civil society. 'We can no longer wait,' its signatories declared. According to them, around 50,000 survivors of Nazi persecution during the German occupation live in Poland today: former prisoners of concentration camps and prisons, people deported to forced labor in Germany, and victims of other forms of repression. Many are over 90 years old, suffer from illnesses and rising expenses, and need help in everyday life. 'For many, any further delay in deciding to provide aid means that the help will come too late,' the letter, issued in German, Polish and English, states. The signatories emphasized that although Germany recognizes its moral responsibility toward the survivors, the federal government has still not made a corresponding decision on possible payments. The appeal describes Deutsche Welle.

Context: the scale of the crimes and previous payments

The question of reparations has complicated Polish-German relations for decades. After the democratic transition of 1989 and German reunification, the federal government allocated 500 million marks for Holocaust victims in Poland; more than a million people received support, and former forced laborers received payments from the EVZ foundation. However, in the view of a significant part of Polish society, these payments are insufficient given the scale of the crimes: by rough estimates, 6 million Polish citizens died during the war, including about 3 million Polish Jews. Under the 'General Plan East,' a large part of the population was to be expelled, enslaved or exterminated; from 1939, the 'Intelligenzaktion' deliberately exterminated Polish elites — teachers, clergy, officials and intellectuals. Around 2.5 million Poles were deported to forced labor in the German Reich.

Political deadlock

The right-wing conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), which came to power in 2015, made reparations a central point of Warsaw's policy toward Berlin, and in October 2022 officially demanded 6.2 trillion zlotys (about 1.3 trillion euros). The centrist-left government of Donald Tusk, after its victory in December 2023, distanced itself from these demands, but, according to Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, Poland expects a 'creative solution' from its German partner. Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, ahead of his visit to Poland in the summer of 2024, proposed 200 million euros — Tusk rejected the sum as insufficient, and subsequent negotiations produced no resolution. In the final declaration of the Polish-German government consultations in December 2025, the German government promised to 'analyze possibilities of additional support for Polish victims of Nazi aggression and the German occupation of Poland.' However, as deputy spokesperson of the German Foreign Ministry Josef Hinterzer reported on September 23, 'at present there is no decision regarding the humanitarian gesture, and the draft budget reflects this status.' The opposition Greens have not given up hope: party co-leader Franziska Brantner told DW in Warsaw that the parliamentary group had asked the budget committee to earmark funds for the 'humanitarian gesture,' but the request was rejected; she sees a last chance in the committee's final meeting this week.

Private donations and running out of time

Jakub Deka, head of the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation, believes that the appeal by the victims could mobilize German civil society. After the first appeal in May, addressed to the federal government, several hundred Germans responded with donations ranging from 50 to several hundred euros; in total, more than 35,000 euros were received into the foundation's account, and several people in need have already received one-time assistance. 'It is a drop in the ocean, but every little bit helps,' Deka said. He recalled the words of Jerzy Tarasiewicz, who for many years headed the victims' organization in Gdansk: 'They are waiting for us to die' — that is what he said in January in an interview with Gazeta Wyborcza. Tarasiewicz, born in 1942 on a German farm where his parents were forced to work, died at the end of September at the age of 84, without living to see the 'humanitarian gesture.' 'It is a painful reminder that the victims can no longer wait,' Deka noted. Society's attitude is also telling: in the latest Polish-German barometer — a representative survey conducted for 25 years — 53% of respondents said that the suffering of the Polish people is not sufficiently recognized in Germany, and only 18% believed that the Germans had done enough.