Britain is entitled to TRILLIONS in World War 2 compensation from Germany, Tory MP claims
BRITAIN should follow Poland’s lead and pursue Germany for trillions of pounds in reparations for the destruction caused during World War Two, a Tory MP has claimed.
Daniel Kawczynski is a long-term campaigner for the Germans to make a sizeable contribution towards the cost of rebuilding Poland following the devastating conflict, which experts estimate would amount to £850billion in modern terms.
But even this would be dwarfed by the damage caused to Britain at the end of the war – £120billion in 1945, amounting to nearly £3.4 trillion today, almost four times this figure.
Mr Kawczynski, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury, is Britain’s only Polish-born member of Parliament, asked: “How has Germany compensated Britain for the destruction it caused this country during the World War II?
“We always seem to be on our knees with the Germans. Britain has never received a penny of compensation from Germany.
“And yet Germany demands and expects Britain to fulfil its obligations to the European Union.”
Mr Kawczynski, 46, said the issue was particularly relevant as the Brexit debate rages on, and given than Britain only finished repaying US loans to rebuild the country as part of the Marshall Plan initiative four years ago.
He is also passionate about the need for the Germans to compensate the country of his birth, especially given that Britain is now home to more than one million Poles.
Mr Kawczynski said: “We believe we have a duty and responsibility to help Poland get war reparations from Germany.
“At the end of the war Warsaw was completely destroyed and six million people died.”
Among them were relatives of Mr Kawczynski, who were executed by the Nazis after they were found to be hiding a family of Jews.
He said: “Almost every person in Poland was affected by the brutality of the Nazis.
“The Marshall plan helped many countries but Poland was banned from receiving any money by Stalin.
“My generation is the last that can do anything about this as we talked to our grandparents about the war – it’s now or never.”
Mr Kawczynski hopes to arrange a Parliamentary debate on the issue in a few weeks’ time.
Meanwhile Polish foreign minister Jacek Czaputowicz said today that his country was looking at ways of getting compensation from Germany,
During a section of a speech to the Polish Parliament focusing on Polish/German relations, he said: “We will talk about the need to compensate Poles for the losses suffered during World War Two.
“We will seek legal, political and financial ways of (obtaining) due compensation.”