Updated

Polish victims of Nazi persecution are urging German civil society to provide humanitarian support, as Germany has yet to decide on a humanitarian gesture or reparations more than 80 years after the Second World War ended. In an appeal published on November 5 on the website of the Foundation for Polish-German Reconciliation, victims' organizations said about 50,000 survivors still live in Poland, many of them over 90, ill and in need of help with daily life. Deutsche Welle reported that the 2027 draft budget gives them little hope of reparations. Germany has recognized its moral responsibility toward the survivors, but the federal government has not decided on possible reparations. Earlier payments included 500 million deutschmarks after 1989, which large parts of Polish society consider insufficient. Former chancellor Olaf Scholz offered €200 million in 2024, an offer Donald Tusk rejected as too small. Foreign Office deputy spokesman Josef Hinterseher said on September 23 that no decision had been made, and Franziska Brantner of the Greens said a budget committee request for funding was rejected. Jakub Deka, chairman of the foundation, said more than €35,000 had been donated by several hundred Germans so far.