More than half of Poland’s adult population is in favour of Germany footing the bill for the devastation of the conflict, a Centre for Public Opinion Research (CBOS) poll has found.
A clear 54 percent majority agreed that it was morally just for Germany to step up and pay and be reminded about its responsibility for the war.
The striking poll comes months after Warsaw ramped up its offensive to demand hundreds of billions of pounds in compensation from Berlin.
A Parliamentary research bureau published a 40-page document last September, which outlined the scale of destruction witnessed by Poland when Nazi Germany invaded on September 1, 1939, and triggered World War Two.
The document stipulated that Poland suffered staggering material loss of £35.9billion ($48.8billion) in 1939 prices, equivalent today to a sum of around £633billion ($860billion).
Now 31 percent of the country gave a “definite yes” to seeking payments and 23 percent said “mostly yes” when questioned about the reparations bid.
Only 13 percent of those questioned decidedly said no and 10 percent found it was hard to tell whether the bid is right or not.
Poland’s capital Warsaw was all but wiped off the face of the planet in 1945, and more than six million Poles were killed during the war. Three million of those victims had Jewish origins.
CBOS said: “Generally speaking, Poles consider the reasons behind the reparations to be just, while simultaneously sharing doubts and reservations to a lesser or greater degree about the legitimacy of applying for compensation.
“Most of the respondents think that paying reparations to our country is morally just (70 percent), and moreover believe that Germans needs to be reminded of their responsibility for the Second World War and the resulting obligations (69 percent).”
But the national sentiment took a hit in the number of Poles who believe in the success of seeking compensation.
Nearly three-quarters agreed that it is now unlikely that Germany will ever pay out.
Similarly some 56 percent found that it is too late to seek out any financial claims, with only 38 percent thinking that the time was right.
Some 48 percent did however agree that Germany was already carrying out its obligations towards Poland through the European Union, by making Poland the top beneficiary of EU funding.
CBOS said: “Nearly three-quarters of those polled (71 percent) fear that demanding reparations could damage Polish-German relations.
“The majority (60 percent) as well agree with the concern that demanding reparations for losses made in WW2 could trigger claims from Germans displaced from the Western Lands.”
Arkadiusz Mularczyk, an MP from the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party said that “it was clear” that Poland had not received due reparations.
The politician who commissioned the Parliamentary report in September, said: “This is the first such complex analysis of the reparations issue, which has only been taken up in a very piecemeal way so far.
“It’s clear that Poland did not receive due reparations. What it did receive was not even one percent of what Germany paid to other countries.”
Poland officially relinquished its bid for compensation in 1953, but that the deal was secured between Soviet occupied Poland and Communist East Germany.