The Polish government has ordered Germany to pay $1.3 billion in damages for the losses it inflicted on the country during the Second World War. .“The German aggression against Poland was the first such violent campaign during the Second World War,” said the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland in a Thursday tweet. .“It is exceptionally difficult to find another example of such a methodological and gigantic crime left unpunished in the history of modern Europe.” .Millions of Polish families lost their possessions because of the Second World War. Hundreds of towns were burned down, and factories, schools, and monuments were destroyed. .The Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland said the crimes “... have not been settled.” It said reparations are necessary because people remain unpunished. .Another tweet said losses suffered by Poland because of Germany during the war would be about US $1.5 trillion in today’s value. .The chancellery went on to say 5.2 million Poles were murdered because of the German government. It added about 11.4 million people left Poland because of the war. .Poland needed 33 years to rebuild the human potential to the level it was at before the war. .The chancellery said the country lost close to 70% of its dentists. Other professions that lost large percentages of their workforce were lawyers (50%), doctors (40%), and teachers (35%). .A subsequent tweet said the war set Poland’s development back 20 years. The tweet said the negative effects in demography, economy, and infrastructure are "felt by Poland and its citizens to this day.” .“For generations, Polish citizens lost the ability to accumulate capital, and the savings, works of art, cultural goods, and valuable property of their ancestors were stolen by the Germans,” it said. .“Today’s Poland would be in a very different place in terms of civilizational development compared to other countries of the world or Europe if it were not for the consequences of the Second World War.” .Germany paid the Allied Forces US $23 billion in machinery and manufacturing plants after World War II. Germany gave Poland a few eastern territories to compensate for damages it caused, despite the majority of the people living in these areas being German. .This request comes after the Alberta government removed a reference in a textbook praising some of the work the Nazis did in Germany in November..READ MORE: Alberta government to remove Nazis did good things reference from education curriculum.The change came after it was pointed out by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. .“If a video details war atrocities committed by the Nazis, does it also point out that before World War II, German government policies substantially strengthened the country’s economy?” said the curriculum document.
