Who wrote the Polish War Report about Poland's WW2 losses and why?

Who wrote the War Report?

The group that was responsible for overseeing the creation of the War Report was The Parliamentary Group for the Estimation of the Amount of Compensation due to Poland from Germany for Damage Caused during the Second World War which was established on 29 September 2017.

The Parliamentary Group, made up of MPs, worked with a team of experts in various scientific disciplines including history, demographics, economics, and property valuation. 

The experts who were responsible for drafting the chapters of the War Report are eminent experts in their fields of study. 

The authors and chapters of the War Report 

The authors and the chapters they drafted in Volume 1 of the War Report are listed below:

• Chapter 1: The German occupation of Poland, 1939-1945 by Włodzimierz Suleja, Pawel Kosiński, Marcin Przegiętka, and Tomasz Sudoł,

• Chapter 2: Poland’s population loss caused by Germany during the Second World War by Konrad Wnęk,

• Chapter 3: An economic valuation of human losses sustained by Poland during the Second World War by Paweł Baranowski and Jan Jacek Sztaudynger,

• Chapter 4: Synthesis report on the material losses sustained by Poland by Mieczysław Prystupa and his team,

• Chapter 5: Poland’s losses in culture and the arts during the Second World War by Mirosław Kłusek and Tomasz Luterek,

• Chapter 6: Poland’s losses in banking and insurance sustained as a result of the Second World War by Mirosław Kłusek,

• Chapter 7: Losses sustained by the Polish State Treasury during the Second World War as a result of German war operations and due to the activities of the financial institution Emissionsbank in Polen established in occupied Poland by the German occupying authorities by Mirosław Kłusek,

• Chapter 8: Estimated losses in Poland’s GDP due to the German occupation of Poland during the Second World War by Paweł Pońsko, and

• Chapter 9: The current value of Poland’s losses caused by Germany during the Second World War by Paweł Pońsko and Mirosław Kłusek.

All experts joined the team having been inspired by a mutual sense of duty to their country to determine the cost Poland has paid for being under German occupation during the Second World War.

Why was the War Report drafted?

The last version of a “full” war report to detail Poland's losses was published by the Bureau of War Compensation in January 1947.

Since that report, a further report was presented in 1951 that was drafted by the Ministry of Finance Commission for the final determination of war damage and losses in the Second World War. However, this project was not given the status of an official document.

Further reports were drafted in 1967 (by the Central Statistical Office) and 1973 (by the German Compensation Commission) but these studies focused on particular aspects or damages. Individual towns and cities also drafted reports that concerned their particular locations.

Therefore, given the length of time since the last "full" war report, there was a need for an up-to-date description and estimate of the human and material losses that Poland sustained because of German military aggression and occupation during the Second World War.

Why did it take so long to draft the War Report?

Work started on the war Report at the end of September 2017 and finished at the beginning of September 2022 - almost 5 years. The reasons for the length of time it took to publish the War Report primarily are:

• the amount of time it took to examine existing resources and collect new resources,

• the time taken to analyse if existing models would be suitable to calculate Poland's losses given the wide context of losses,

• the need to develop a new, fair, conservative model to calculate the amounts of losses and to do this, in some cases, use cutting-edge research,

• the need to peer review the findings and research,

• the interruption caused by the COVID pandemic, and

• the need to translate the War Report into English.

Who paid for the War Report?

The War Report was funded by the Polish National Foundation which created the organisational base to draft the War Report and financed the work of the team of experts and the printing of the report.

The Polish National Foundation does not derive any profits from its publication, and the War Report is the property of the entire Polish nation.