Polish President Karol Nawrocki renewed calls for Germany to pay war reparations during commemorations at Westerplatte marking the 87th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War.

Speaking at the site where Polish troops resisted the German attack in September 1939, Nawrocki said Westerplatte had become an enduring symbol of Poland’s wartime struggle. He also referred to Wieluń, bombed by German aircraft in the opening hours of the invasion, as a symbol of the suffering inflicted on Polish civilians.

The president argued that hostility towards Poland in Germany had existed long before Adolf Hitler came to power. He pointed to anti-Polish attitudes in 19th-century Prussia and claimed that prejudice against Poles continued during the democratic Weimar Republic.

According to Nawrocki, anti-Polish sentiment had historically crossed political divisions, appearing among sections of the German left, right and liberal political establishment. He also criticised what he described as an insufficient understanding of this history in Germany, elsewhere in Europe and across the Atlantic.

The president accused Poland’s current government of having difficulty acknowledging this interpretation of the country’s wartime experience. He stressed that, in his view, the Nazi invasion was preceded by a much longer history of German hostility towards Poland and Polish national identity.

Nawrocki also referred to relations between Germany and Russia, arguing that their political and economic cooperation had repeatedly created dangers for Central and Eastern Europe. He linked this historical pattern to Germany’s extensive economic ties with Russia before Moscow launched its war against Ukraine.

A central part of the president’s speech concerned Poland’s demand for compensation from Germany for the destruction and human losses suffered during the Second World War.

“I appeal from Westerplatte to the German chancellor and the German nation: let us resolve the issue of reparations and compensation,” Nawrocki said.

He argued that symbolic gestures and declarations of reconciliation were no longer enough and called for concrete action. The president also appealed to the Polish government to cooperate with him in pursuing the reparations claim.

“Let us stand together in this effort,” he said, urging the government to support attempts to secure compensation from Berlin.

Concluding his address, Nawrocki said the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 opened the way to an unprecedented national catastrophe. He stressed that Poland later became a victim of both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, whose forces invaded the country from the east on 17 September 1939.

The president presented Westerplatte and Wieluń as two complementary symbols of Poland’s wartime experience: armed resistance and civilian suffering. He argued that preserving the historical truth about both was essential not only for national remembrance, but also for contemporary European politics.