Between 30,000 and 50,000 elderly people in Poland are living victims of World War II who never received compensation from the German state.

Omissions

• The figure is not an official statistic but an estimate maintained by the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation (FPNP); the number of living victims is declining steadily (about 60,000 in July 2024, around 50,000 in December 2025, and slightly over 40,000 by 2026), so any single range is a moving target.
• The claim conflates 'living victims of WWII' with 'persons who never received compensation from the German state': the FPNP fund itself was co-financed by a German contribution (500 million DM), so some of these victims did receive payments under earlier programmes.
• No primary publication of the FPNP itself was directly accessed; the figures are reported through secondary media outlets.

Sources

• SecondaryZero.pl (reporting on Mularczyk's letter to Merz)Według Fundacji Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie w grudniu 2025 r. żyło około 50 tys. takich osób. Dziś jest ich nieco ponad 40 tys. ('According to the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation, about 50,000 such people were alive in December 2025. Today there are slightly over 40,000.')
• SecondaryTVP WorldPolish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has stirred up controversy after saying that Poland may pay compensation to an estimated 50,000 WWII survivors.
• SecondaryOnet / Deutsche WellePomoc dla około 40 tys. ofiar. Fundacja dysponuje niewielkimi środkami... ('Help for about 40,000 victims. The Foundation has limited funds...')
• SecondaryRadio MaryjaJeszcze w lipcu 2024 roku żyło około sześćdziesięciu tysięcy takich osób. ('As recently as July 2024, about sixty thousand such people were alive.')